LIBRARY LEVY ORDINANCE must increase Library operating hours, NOT displace current funding, and MUST have a public oversight COMMITTEE

LIBRARY LEVY ORDINANCE must increase Library operating hours, NOT displace current funding, and MUST have a public oversight COMMITTEE

The Seattle Public Library is in trouble and needs your help!  In the next few weeks, the City Council will vote to put on the August 7 ballot a $17 million/year, 7-year property tax levy for operations, but Council Bill 117425 would leave the library unaccountable to voters in how it spends the levy and vulnerable to cuts in the funds it now receives.  The Council needs to hear about needed improvements by message (contact info below) in the public comment periods that are at the beginning of any City Council committee or full Council meeting when Council Bill or later proposals are discussed.

Background.  Libraries for All, the 1998 bond issue, was in danger of failing at the polls until the addition of ironclad numerical allocations of the revenues and a strong, independent, geographically based oversight committee.  Unfortunately, C.B. 117425 lacks numerical allocations or an oversight committee.  Letters from the City Neighborhood Council and the Seattle Community Council Federation recommend both, suggesting as a model resolutions 29846, 29952, and 29997 which created the public oversight committee for Libraries for All.  As currently proposed, the Library levy has less accountability than any property tax bond or levy proposed to voters in the last twenty years.  Please urge the City Council to make the following improvements:

1.     Amend C.B. 117425 to commit that the City Council will not cut the existing level of library support from the General Fund, and that the Library Board will increase the hours and days of the week in which libraries are open.  As written, the proposed levy ordinance would allow the Council to completely displace with levy funds the current level of General Fund support now provided to the Library, and allow the Board not to increase the hours and days of being open. 

Without a City Council commitment to maintain General Fund support and a Library Board commitment to increase the hours and days of the week when the libraries are open, passage of the levy could leave the Library with no more funds or operating hours than it has today, plus the possibility that funds and hours will decline when the levy runs out at the end of seven years.  Consider that although part of the 1999 parks levy provided operating support, when the levy ran out that funding was not fully restored from the General Fund, leaving parks funding in worse shape than before the levy was passed.  

2.   Add to C.B. 117425 a strong, independent, geographically based oversight committee like that for the 1998 Libraries for All bond measure as created by Resolutions 29846, 29952, and 29997.  Oversight committees were in the ordinances putting before the voters the Bridging the Gap transportation levy, the Fire Facilities and Emergency Response Levy, the two parks levies, the series of housing levies, and the three Families and Education levies.  The proposed Library levy includes capital spending that needs oversight by a committee.  And contrary to claims that the levy’s primary purpose of operations spending does not require a public oversight committee, oversight committees cover the Families and Education levy (entirely an operations levy) and covered the 1999 parks levy (partially an operations levy). 

Voter-approved funding for the Library is in particular need of a public oversight committee because the City Council and Mayor and hence the voters have so little power over how the Library Board would spend the levy.  A geographic system of representation for the oversight committee is particularly needed because of concerns that the Central Library’s building and programs will take funds away from operations and hours of the branch libraries.  And the committee needs to be independent -- not with voting positions for high-ranking City officials (as with the Bridging the Gap oversight committee) or with just one member required to be a Seattle resident (as with the Fire Facilities and Emergency Response Levy).

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW

This is urgent, and you can make a difference!  NOW, please contact all nine Councilmembers. The message:  Amend C.B. 11745 committing to increase hours and days of operation while holding the Library harmless from cuts in its current General Fund allocation; and creating a strong, independent, and geographically based oversight committee like the one that Resolutions 29846, 29952, and 29997 created for the 1998 Libraries for All bond issue.  Below are voice mails and e-mail addresses (and/or find the Councilmembers on Twitter and Facebook).  It’s best to write to each separately, not address all in one message.  The fax number is (206) 684-8587.

sally.clark@seattle.gov 684-8802

tim.burgess@seattle.gov 684-8806

tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov 684-8808

jean.godden@seattle.gov 684-8807

richard.conlin@seattle.gov 684-8805

sally.bagshaw@seattle.gov 684-8801

bruce.harrell@seattle.gov 684-8804

nick.licata@seattle.gov 684-8803

mike.obrien@seattle.gov 684-8800

SEATTLE COMMUNITY COUNCIL FEDERATION

March 28, 2012

Seattle City Council
601 Fifth Avenue, Second floor
P. O. Box 34025
Seattle, WA 98124-4025

Re:  Proposed levy ordinance should hold harmless the existing funding of the Library, commit to increased hours and days of opening, and create a strong, independent, and geographically balanced oversight committee to ensure accountability

Dear City Councilmember:

Throughout our 66 year history, the Seattle Community Council Federation has strongly supported funding for the Seattle Public Library.  As you know, Council Bill 117425 is a proposed ordinance that would place before the voters a 7-year property tax levy of about $17 million/year. 

SCCF has not yet taken a position on the proposed levy, but believes that improvements in the levy ordinance are needed to make it most deserving of assent from the voters.  First, we suggest that C.B. 117425 be amended to commit the City Council not to cut the existing level of library support from the General Fund, and to increase the hours and days of the week in which the downtown library and the branch libraries are open.  As currently written, the proposed levy ordinance would allow the City Council to completely displace with levy funds the current level of General Fund support now provided to the Library, and not to make any increase in the hours or days of the week of being open. 

Without a City Council commitment to maintain General Fund support and to increase the hours and days of the week when the libraries are open, passage of the levy could leave the Library with no more funds than it has today, plus no assurance of continued funding when the levy runs out at the end of seven years.  Consider that although the 1999 parks levy provided operating support, when the levy ran out that funding was not fully restored from the General Fund, leaving Department of Parks and Recreation funding in worse shape than before the levy was passed.  

Our other concern is that C.B. 117425 does not include an oversight committee to ensure public accountability for spending of the levy proceeds.  We urge that the levy ordinance include a strong, independent, and geographically balanced oversight committee by use of the same language from Resolutions 29846, 29952, and 29997 that created the oversight committee for the Libraries for All bond measure.

Accountability for voter-approved levy and bond revenues via oversight committees has been central to voter approval of the bond and levy measures of recent decades.  Such committees have overseen not only the Libraries for All bond measure, but the Bridging the Gap transportation levy, Families and Education levy, Housing levy, and both Parks levies.  In almost all cases, the oversight committees were created by the ordinance that put the measure on the ballot.  Some of the committees have been more effective than others, but none have greater power, independence, or geographic balance than did the oversight committee for the Libraries for All bond measure. 

Taxpayers are more likely to approve a bond or levy measure if they know that spending of the revenues will be overseen by an oversight committee.  A strong, independent, and geographically balanced oversight committee is especially needed for the Library levy as it was for the Libraries for All bond measure because the Library Board has so much power but is not elected, and because of concerns that branch libraries will be sacrificed to the funding needs of the downtown library.  

The City Council created a public oversight committee for the Libraries for All bond issue shortly before the November 1998 election because the bond issue was being criticized for a lack of accountability in how the funds were to be spent.  SCCF urges the Council to be more proactive in this case by establishing the oversight committee in the bond issue ordinance (C.B. 117425), using the same language as was in Resolutions 29846, 29952, and 29997.  This letter was discussed, revised, and approved at the Seattle Community Council Federation’s March 27 board meeting. 

Sincerely,

Jeannie Hale, President
3425 West Laurelhurst Drive NE
Seattle, Washington  98105
206-525-5135 / fax 206-525-9631
jeannieh@serv.net