San Diego Nixes Library Closure Plan for Short-Term

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 12/09/2008

• Branches open until at least June 30, 2009
• City will study closure effects
• Next year's budget, however, includes 15% cut

For public officials faced with budget pressures, the closure of buildings is often seen as the most cost-effective way to manage a shrinking library budget. It’s also the move that generates the most public outrage, partly because the effects are so obvious and partly because, once buildings are closed, it’s not easy to reopen them.

In San Diego, Mayor Jerry Sanders’s plan to close seven of 35 libraries—a plan seen as the “best option” to preserve core library service by San Diego Public Library (SDPL) Director Deborah Barrow—has been stymied in the short term by the San Diego City Council, which voted two weeks ago to adopt recommendations by the Independent Budget Analyst Andrea Tevlin and keep the libraries open until at least June 30, the end of the current fiscal year. 

Tevlin advised that the city first study how it would maintain the buildings and manage growth plans, and library advocates joined in calling for the buildings. The Council allocated $1.7 million from a Library Improvement Fund to fund operating costs.

More cuts coming
Still, as the San Diego Union-Tribune reported, Council members acknowledged that the reprieve was temporary, and that major cuts in the city budget are coming. Indeed, according to the newspaper, each department must propose 15 percent cuts for next year’s budget.

Councilman Tony Young, said, “I believe the public expects its policymakers to really have informed, inclusive discussions in regards to very important institutions like libraries and parks.” Young, who proposed the pause, is one of four Council members whose term continues through 2009; four new members will take office in January.

In an interview with the Union-Tribune, Barrow repeated the argument that closing smaller, less-used branches is a better tactic than cutting hours or materials—especially given the complications regarding staffing.

Building challenges
The library’s much-ballyhooed effort to build a new $185 million central library is likely to die, according to the Union-Tribune, given that a $20 million state grant will expire at the end of the year, and that $50 million in private donations have not been raised. Meanwhile, SDPL's headquarters is a 54-year-old building that drastically needs an upgrade or a replacement.

In fact, SDPL still has major plans. Next year, it will open a 26,230-square-foot branch library in Logan Heights, according to the Union-Tribune, and still planned are ten library expansions and seven new libraries—all part of an ambitious library building plan passed in 2002 during more optimistic days.

“We don't need to be talking about expanding right now,” warned Sanders, the mayor. “We need to be talking about contracting, and we need to also understand that we don't have the money.”

An expansion project at the Skyline Hills library depends on $3.5 million from the Hervey Family Fund, but the funding commitment expires at the end of 2008, and the city has not funded its share.

On the other hand, the city spent $2.1 million in 2003 on a site for a new Mission Hills library and gained $10 million from the Hervey Family Fund toward construction—and family member Matthew Hervey said he remained optimistic about the project.