Los Angeles Public Library Wins Big with Voters, Measure L Passes
By Michael Kelley Mar 9, 2011The voters in Los Angeles overwhelmingly approved Tuesday a charter amendment that will secure Los Angeles Public Library's funding for years to come. It was a huge win for one of the country's largest public library systems.
Measure L passed with 63 percent of the vote, and the 72-branch library system, which has had to curtail its operations in recent years to an unprecedented degree, will now have enough money to restore service to 2008/2009 levels.
"I hope this will be the beginning of turning the tide for libraries across the county," Martín Gómez, the city librarian, told LJ. "With this victory, L.A. voters also reaffirmed the Los Angeles Public Library as a core---and essential---city service."
"The important point is stability," Gómez said. "We have stopped the bleeding and now know what we will have to work with over the next four years."
Making the library 'self-sufficient'
The charter mandates that the library receive .0175 percent of the assessed value of all property in the city. Measure L will, over the next four years, increase that percentage to .03 percent. The library projects that this will translate to $130 million four years from now, compared to the $75.9 million it generated for FY11.
However, that is not all a gain. The measure also will require the library to assume the costs of other services (such as custodial services, security services, employee benefits), which are usually paid for from the city's general fund. In FY11, this amounted to $48.2 million; however, this year the city required the library to reimburse the general fund with $22 million from its operating budget. Now, the library will have the resources to pay all of these costs and make its operating budget whole once again.
The library, then, becomes, in a sense, "self-sufficient," untethered from the general fund (and its political vicissitudes) and responsible for all its costs, but with the charter carving out a guaranteed revenue stream that cannot be diverted to any other purpose except library operations. And if property values recover, revenues will grow.
Even with the assumption of new costs, Gómez said, the revenue will be sufficient to allow the library to begin reversing the damage that has been done.
"We're going to have to demonstrate to the community that their vote will be realized in new hours of services," he said. "Starting in July, we will add back a sixth day of service, probably a Monday, and in the second year we will add back two more evenings, and in the third year we will provide seven days of service at nine locations," he said.
As part of the recent cutbacks, all the system's libraries have been closed on Sundays and Mondays, the first time in the system's 139-year history no library was open seven days a week. The library's staff has also been reduced from 1,156 in FY10 to 828 in FY11. Gomez said Measure L's passage will also allow the library to hire once again.
"Voters ... sent a message to our city leaders that even in these difficult fiscal times, citizens value support for librarians and our neighborhood libraries," Jeff Brown, the chair of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, told LJ.
The foundation donated $200,000 to Yes on Measure L, a coalition of library advocates, teachers, and librarians that campaigned for the measure's passage. Gomez also credited the Friends groups, the Librarians Guild, and other unions, who may not always have the same view on some issues but came together to advocate for passage of this measure.
"We were all so damn scared about what the alternatives would have been," Gómez said.
Lucy McCoy, the chair of Yes on Measure L, told LJ that "Angelenos have sent a clear message that our libraries are a critical part of the fabric of our community and we need to keep them open."
Other departments may grouse
However, not everyone was so thrilled.
Los Angeles has struggled to close ongoing budget deficits (projected to hit $349.8 million in FY12), and representatives of other city departments worry that they will be called upon to make deeper cuts since their funding is not protected by the charter.
"There is no carve-out for us (fire department), no set-aside for public safety, and the same is true for the police department," Pat McOsker, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, told the City Council before the vote according to myFoxla.com. "I would hope that public safety be the top priority. What you do with this (measure) is you make libraries the top priority."
