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Library bond could be in trouble

by Geoff S. Fein

Rumors of resignations from the library bond advocacy group Libraries Plus and a potential campaign against the bond measure are threatening to unravel support for the proposal.

A key group member, Karen Kang, announced her resignation this week, saying it was for personal reasons. Kang is the co-founder of Libraries Now!, a precursor group formed to lobby city officials to put library renovation high on the city's list of priorities.

Kang is going to Oregon to help take care of her mother, who is recovering from an injury.

Libraries Now! members support a libraries-only bond measure. Libraries Plus is a group co-chaired by former Palo Alto mayors Lanie Wheeler and Gary Fazzino. The group was formed to help raise awareness for a bond measure to pay for library renovations.

The proposed bond could ask for upward of $91 million to pay for renovation and construction of Children's, Main and Mitchell Park libraries. In addition, the Mitchell Park Community Center would be added to the mix.

At the April 22 City Council meeting, council members agreed to include the Art Center on the bond measure. The Art Center is seeking at least $5 million to help toward the expansion of the facility. The council increased the contribution to the Art Center by another $4 million to $9 million. However just how much the Art Center will get is dependent on the survey's outcome.

Advocates of a libraries-only bond are concerned that inclusion of the Art Center will lead to the bond's failure.

Kang stressed that her resignation from Libraries Plus has nothing to do with inclusion of the Art Center on the fall bond measure.

The rumors began circulating a few weeks before the city planned a second round of surveys to determine what residents will support for the November bond.

Wheeler said it is crucial the proposal get the full backing of the community.

The survey will give the council an indication of where the community is with the issue, Wheeler said. "I'm prepared to support whatever comes out of that data."

"We've got to go into it with a fairly high level of confidence," she said. "If we are 10 points below the (necessary) two-thirds, we are spinning our wheels."

Councilwoman Hillary Freeman, who is a member of Libraries Now!, agrees the survey is critical.

"For me, the crucial thing is to create a valid factual survey that will answer these questions," she said. "I really want to know from the survey if the dollar amount being requested is palatable."

As Kang's resignation hit the streets, rumors began to circulate that Libraries Now! co-founder Karen White, who is also on the steering committee for Libraries Plus, resigned.

White did not return calls to the Weekly.

Wheeler added that she had spoken with White on Tuesday and White didn't mention resigning.

"I heard the rumor," Wheeler said. "Karen White hasn't resigned."

Even if the rumors don't detract support for the bond measure, resident Richard Alexander, who has been an outspoken critic of City Hall, said he would consider a campaign against the bond if the Art Center is included.

Alexander's opinions are not to be taken lightly. He has a history of being on the winning side of opposition measures. He led the charge against a Historic Preservation Ordinance and a storm drain measure. Both ballot measures were soundly defeated.

"With any reference to art or an art center, this bond proposal is dead on arrival, no matter how effective the campaign," Alexander said in an e-mail response to questions.

Last year, Alexander took out a series of advertisements denouncing Mayor Sandy Eakins, Vice Mayor Vic Ojakian and Councilman Jim Burch, who were all running for re-election. The ads, paid by a new group called Palo Altans for Fiscal Integrity, focused on ousting the three incumbents.

While the ads angered some residents as well as Eakins, Ojakian and Burch, many well-known Palo Altans contributed up to $1,000 each to Palo Altans for Fiscal Integrity. The group raised more than $18,000.

In the end , only Eakins was defeated at the polls.

E-mail Geoff S. Fein at gfein@paweekly.com