Saturday night fervor Saturday night fervor (January 14, 2005)

Neighbors again fighting city management over libraries

by Bill D'Agostino

Palo Alto's library advocates are once again fighting city administrators over a plan concerning a small branch library.

A unanimous decision by the city's Library Advisory Commission to allocate $35,000 to reopen the Downtown Library on Saturdays will come before the City Council on Tuesday. However, the city manager and library director, mindful of a citywide $5.2 million deficit for 2005-2006 that will likely require service cuts and layoffs, are instead advising the council to save the money.

"It doesn't make sense to add hours and then cut them right back again," said Diane Jennings, the manager of the Main Library.

Recently city administrators floated a plan to close the branch library altogether, but the City Council voted against that controversial idea. One group that actively lobbied against it was the Friends of the Palo Alto Library, which have also pushed for months to reopen the library on Saturdays.

Friends' President Jeff Levinsky argued the funds for doing so make up only a small fraction of the city's budget shortfall and that $35,000 is more than what is actually needed to run the library for one day.

The city has already saved some money by waiting until January to spend the funds, Levinsky added. "City officials sometimes want to somewhat oversell the crisis."

Neighbors of the library are eager to have the library reopened on weekends. The Downtown Library is only open Tuesdays through Fridays, seven hours a day.

"It's an obvious inconvenience," said Kat Kohlsaat, who lives in the Downtown North Neighborhood. "The gradual eating away of the hours at all of the libraries is disturbing."

The Downtown Library has been closed on Saturdays since July 2003, when it lost those hours due to budget cuts. But during 2004's budget hearings last summer, the council awarded its Library Department an extra $35,000. The council asked library commissioners to study the best use for the funds, hoping they request reopening downtown on Saturdays.

After a few months of debate, the commission concurred.

But the final step in the process was delayed as the city wrestled with a larger library-debate: Library Director Paula Simpson's controversial recommendation to close two branches -- the Downtown and College Terrace libraries -- to improve service at the other, larger branches. The council turned that idea down, but was more receptive to Simpson's advice to consider constructing a larger "full-service" library.

Also during next week's meeting, the council will interview five residents interested in serving on the library commission. All four commissions who are up for reappointment have reapplied, but one newcomer has also asked to serve. The commission will be especially important this year, as the council wants a plan to build the full-service library and keeping all branches open.

The council meeting will be held on Tuesday since Monday is a holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The interviews will begin at 6 p.m. The regular meeting then starts at 7 p.m.

Staff Writer Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com.

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