Meeting TONIGHT about mayor's plan to close Davis Square library (update: the library is safe!)

[jack-somerville.livejournal.com]

I got an email last night from Rebekah Gewirtz, Davis Square's Alderman. Mayor Curtatone has presented a funding plan to the Board of Aldermen that includes cutting library funding and closing the West Branch Public Library in Davis Square.

Now I'm not saying it's the best library in the world, but cutting funding isn't the answer. Somerville spends 0.96% of our budget on libraries. We could close them all down and it wouldn't be a drop in the bucket. Instead we need more, better libraries -- especially when times are tight and people are out looking for new skills and new jobs. Boston founded one of the first free public libraries in the world nearly 400 years ago. They're key to who we are as a people. Somerville will not lead the charge to end them.

If you agree, here's what you can do:

• Show up TONIGHT at City Hall at 6PM. Here's directions from Davis Square -- it's a 10 minute bus ride. Bring a sign or wear something red so we can find each other. Don't use your library voice. (And put the January 30th public hearing in your calendar now -- same time, same place, same color.)
• Call Mayor Curtatone's office: 617-625-6600. Tell him to get to work now on a plan that increases library funding, not cuts it. It won't take many calls to make a difference, and it's the best two minutes you'll spend all week. (When you call, you have to say "mayor's office," and then you have to insist on speaking with a real person. They'll tell you to email mayor@somervillema.gov, which is a good second option but not good enough.)
• Email, Facebook, Twitter. Not everyone reads Livejournal, but if we all tell ten friends we'll have an army.

Book people are quiet people. But libraries matter. Let's be heard.

UPDATE: Response from Mayor Curtatone's office pasted below.

UPDATE 2: Results of last night's meeting below.

UPDATE 3: The West Branch is safe under a new deal struck between the mayor and the firefighters!

Action Needed to Save the West Branch Library

January 17, 2012

Hello Friends, I wanted to bring your attention to a situation going on at city hall right now that could deeply impact our neighborhood.  Last month, the city and the firefighters union entered into arbitration at the Joint Labor Management Committee (JLMC) since they couldn't agree on a contract for the past five years.  The JLMC ruled in favor of a compromise salary increase for the firefighters.  The mayor presented a plan, as he is required to do by the JLMC, to fund the award at the Board of Aldermen (BOA) meeting on 1/12.  The mayor's plan calls for large scale layoffs and the closing of the West Branch Public Library.  Closing the library is not an option, and I am fighting to prevent this. The Board of Aldermen can't change the plan, we can only vote it up or down.  But there is a solution. At the BOA meeting on the 12th, the president of the firefighter union offered to make a concession, and have the award paid out over two years. This could potentially prevent the city from having to make these sorts of layoffs or the closing of the library.  I sponsored a resolution asking the mayor to come back to the BOA with a plan to fund the award over two years instead of one.  The resolution passed unanimously on a roll call vote.  There will be a series of meetings to discuss the contract award and its funding starting this coming Wednesday night, 1/18 at city hall at 6pm and a PUBLIC HEARING on January 30th at City Hall at 6pm.  All are welcome to attend all meetings.  Please make your voice heard on this important issue and do not hesitate to be in touch with me. Best wishes, Rebekah Rebekah Gewirtz Ward 6 Alderman, Somerville 617-718-0792 rebekah.gewirtz@gmail.com

UPDATE:

I've just received a form-letter response from the mayor, pasted below.

---------------------------------------------------

Re: West Branch Library

Dear Jack:

Thank you for expressing support for the West Branch Library.

I, too, am a big fan of our library system and I take no pleasure in proposing reductions in library services, facilities or personnel.

However, under the terms of Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 589, [edit: this was a typo, should be Chapter 589 of the Acts of 1987] I am required to submit and support an appropriation in the current fiscal year (7/1/11 – 6/30/12) to pay retroactive and current compensation costs to Somerville firefighters resulting from an award issued last month by the Massachusetts Joint Labor Management Committee (JLMC).

These additional costs amount to $4.3 million in the current fiscal year – and one of my responsibilities in supporting the award is to figure out how to pay for it without damaging the City’s long-term creditworthiness and overall financial position.

The City currently has $2.4 million available in a contingency fund that was designed to provide salary adjustments based on collective bargaining agreements reached in FY2012.  Transferring all of that money to pay for the JLMC award still requires the City to come up with an additional $1.9 million.

To do that, I consulted with my financial team and with city department heads to determine the best way to provide the additional cash in the current fiscal year.  The plan we developed and submitted last week to the Board of Aldermen calls for the use of $255, 648 in cash reserves, because using any more of our reserve funds will drop us below the minimum levels considered prudent under state Dept of Revenue guidelines.  I have proposed to the Board that the remainder of the award be funded through transfers from a variety of departments across city government. 

These transfers will result in layoffs and unfilled vacancies not only at the Library, but also at DPW, 311, my office, SomerStat, the Fire Dept, the Police Dept. (non-officer positions), Recreation, Finance, Veteran’s Services and the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development.

In identifying the funding sources to pay for this award, all of us in city government have been guided by the same principles that we apply in dealing with every fiscal challenge.  These principles are:

·         To preserve core services as much as possible;

·         To allocate costs and cutbacks in a spirit of shared sacrifice, so that no group of constituents or area of government is made to bear the entire burden of a difficult spending decision; and

·         To govern today with an eye on the needs and opportunities of tomorrow, so that we don’t pass up future opportunities by using our reserves to pay for current operating expenditures.

You may have seen or heard reports that, at last Thursday’s meeting of the Board of Aldermen, Firefighter Union President Jay Colbert said that his membership would accept a plan to defer the $1.9 million portion of the appropriation until Fiscal Year 2013, which begins on July 1.  In his view, this would forestall the need for any layoffs or closures in the current fiscal year.

My answer to that suggestion is in two parts:

·         Either the City will have to come with $1.9 million now or six months from now.  The effect will be the same.   There is no point in kicking the can down the road.

·         State law and the terms of the JLMC Award require me to recommend an appropriation in the current fiscal year.

The Board of Aldermen will now review the proposed appropriation.  They may approve or reject it – and if they reject it, then the City and the firefighters must return to the bargaining table under JLMC jurisdiction.

But my responsibility under the law is clear – I am required to submit and support this appropriation, along with a responsible, realistic plan to pay for it in the current fiscal year.

Finance Committee Chair and Ward 2 Alderman Maryann Heuston has scheduled a series of  hearings on this matter, including a January 30th meeting at Somerville High School  to take public testimony and input on the proposed appropriation.

I appreciate your willingness to take the time to share your views with me, and I know that Alderman Heuston will welcome your comments as well.

Sincerely,

Joseph A. Curtatone

-----------------------------------------------------

 The big thing I notice is that out of this entire letter, there is a total of one sentence about our libraries. The mayor says he's a big fan of the library he's shutting down. Good to know. 

There is absolutely no discussion of (1) how much we save by shutting down the West Branch library, or (2) how we're going to get it open again. The only thing he says is that delaying the closure would just be "kicking the can down the road." In other words, the excuse might be a union arbitration, but he's planning to make the lower budget permanent.

That's unacceptable. Libraries are a core city service and we have to step up to protect them. Let's demand to know how the mayor plans to strengthen them, not weaken them.

---

UPDATE 2: January 18 Finance Committee meeting.

Progress last night

OK, the big news is that we showed up last night to be counted. On a cold Wednesday night with less than eight hours' notice, ten to twenty people came to be seen in support of our libraries. That might not sound like much, but for a Finance Committee meeting that no one, but no one, was supposed to pay attention to, it's a big deal, and it's going to make an impact. Thanks to everyone who came out (especially the kids!).

The practical thing we learned at the meeting is that the mayor and the union have gone back to the negotiating table to try to find a deal that won't lead to such drastic cuts. This is good news, but we won't know how good until we hear the new deal. We need to keep the pressure up, and definitely be ready to flood the meeting on January 30th.

Nitty-gritty details

If you're interested in the procedure (and maybe this is just me), here's what's going on: the state's Joint Labor Management Committee is what it sounds like, an arbitration committee with representatives of labor and management that resolves disputes between police and fire unions and cities. This is because police and fire can't exactly go on strike, so they need some other way to make cities negotiate for fair pay. In this case the JLMC unanimously decided that the City owes firefighters 2-3% yearly raises going all the way back to 2007. That's barely more than a cost-of-living raise, and in a perfect world we'd all get raises like that, but it adds up to a fair chunk of money.

When the mayor gets a JLMC decision, under St. 1987, ch. 589, s. 4A(3)(a), he has to submit it to the Aldermen within 30 days and recommend that they pay it. (It's up to him how to pay it, of course, and there's politics about whose ward it comes out of. Make a note never to fight City Hall if you can help it.) We get fined if he makes any kind of suggestion to anyone that it shouldn't be paid, so he's understandably not saying much. But the Aldermen are free to simply reject the proposal, and as far as I can tell all that happens is the mayor and union have to go back to the drawing board. (There might be other consequences, but they're not in that act.)

The good news is (as we can see) the mayor doesn't just have to support this plan. At the same time he supports it, he can also go back to the firefighters and say, hey, this plan sucks, let's cut a new deal. That's what seems to be happening behind the scenes now. If they come to a new deal, than the current proposal will be killed, we'll enter a new contract and move on. (I'm not clear what the exact steps are in killing the current proposal, but it seems like maybe the Aldermen would just never bring it up for a vote and no one would complain.)

If you're really, really interested in the details, you can see the mayor's proposal and video of the Finance Committee meeting here. (This is actually amazing service. Sometimes Somerville is pretty awesome.)

What comes next

Maybe they'll come up with a new plan that doesn't involve library cuts, and maybe they won't. We need to assume they won't, and plan to show up in force on January 30. Just a few phone calls between now and then could save us from even getting that far. Please take the 2 minutes.

But in the long term, as "intuition_ist" said below, we need to start paying attention to libraries before it becomes a crisis. Our city government simply doesn't take libraries seriously right now. I don't have numbers yet, but the West Branch cut would be at least a 20% slash to the library budget. When the mayor says he's planning cuts "not only at the Library, but also at DPW, 311, my office, SomerStat, the Fire Dept, the Police Dept. (non-officer positions), Recreation, Finance, Veteran’s Services and the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development," do you think he's talking about a 20% cut to all those departments? I doubt it. (I'll happily let you know if they tell me I'm wrong.)

Our libraries are considered expendable, and we need to make it clear that they are not. Strong libraries are core to strong cities. If the mayor wants a tax base to pay for fire and police five years from now, he needs to support libraries today. It's the cheapest win in the budget.

I'm not an expert on this stuff; I found out it was such a problem literally yesterday. I'm hoping there are people doing great work on it we can support. If you want to stay updated, you can drop me a line at somervilleneedslibraries@gmail.com, or follow Support Somerville Libraries on Facebook, and I'll pass along what I find out.

---

Update 3: West Branch will stay open!

As of 5PM today (1/19), the mayor and the firefighters have cut a deal that avoids layoffs and closures for now. Here's the press release. If I'm reading this right, it seems to involve the union deferring about $400,000 until next year, and giving up another $600,000 in exchange for raises locked in for the next three years. Since the City needed to make $1.9 million in cuts before, this should be a lot easier (until next year anyway).

So we can call off the alarm for now. But we'll have to keep reminding the City this isn't the place to cut corners. Let's pay attention when the next budget comes around, and see what we can do to take care of the West Branch in the meantime. Let me know if you want to get together to brainstorm.

Also, since this all started with Rebekah Gewirtz's email, here's her wrapup. Sounds like she's looking for volunteers:

West Branch Library Preserved

Thank you for taking action!

January 19, 2012 

Hello Friends,

Thank you so much for your quick and speedy action to preserve the West Branch Library and for making your voice heard on this important issue.

At our Board of Alderman finance committee meeting tonight 1/19 at 7pm, we learned that the mayor and firefighters have reached a compromise and there will be no layoffs and no library closings.  

You had a very important role in this and I want to THANK YOU for taking action.  You called, emailed, and made your voice heard at city hall.  Over the past 6 years I have been sending out e-newsletters and alerts to my constituents and friends.  The response I received from this alert was the most resounding and swift of all the responses I have received to date.  I am heartened by how much solidarity there is in our community for the institutions and systems like the library that connect us. 

However, our work isn't done!  The next steps are to utilize the $15,000 the West Branch received from a generous donor to upgrade the children's room, sand and paint the interior, and make the branch as accessible as possible to all.  For more information on how you can get involved in improving our library, please feel free to be in touch with me at rebekah.gewirtz@gmail.com.

Very best wishes,

Rebekah

Rebekah Gewirtz

Ward 6 Alderman, Somerville

617-718-0792

rebekah.gewirtz@gmail.com

Comments

[teresaelsey.livejournal.com]

I love this library (it's tiny, but they get me everything I want through ILL) and would be incredibly sad to lose it.

And a community that doesn't value its libraries is not one that I want to live in, much less stay in long-term to raise a family.

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

i don't think this is about value of libraries. Court is mandating that somerville has to give firefighters a 13% raise. The money has to come from somewhere and the options are not great - it will most likely result in layoffs in fire dept and police as well as budget cuts, including those to libraries. The problem is institutionalized in that public workers must get a raise despite the fact that the rest of the country is in recession.

[ron_newman]

I would like to see the arbitration award delayed until the Green Line stations are finished and open, which will bring in more development and therefore more tax revenue to pay for the award.

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

Sounds great but this is just a "wish". Arbitration already happened and unless unions agree to this, this could not happen even if everyone is agreement. As ward5online.com is reporting, Ward 2 alderman is already scheduling meetings to prevent this by shuffling money from various accounts. The problem is that this shuffling will drain somerville of all resources. I'd rather see the city bite the bullet so that everyone can see what kind of demands and burden the firefighters union are placing on the city.

[ron_newman]

The Aldermen have the power to accept or reject this proposal. They should reject it, and continue rejecting it until the city has sufficient money from development to pay for it.

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

Ron, frankly I'm not quite sure how this process works. Maybe you can shed a light. The arbitration result states that firefighters must get a raise. Mayor comes up with proposal. The alderman vote on it. If they keep rejecting it, wouldn't Somerville be in breach of contract/court order, whatever? I guess they could be rejecting it, but then the firefighters could sue somerville for non payment, right?

[dougo.livejournal.com]

When will that be?

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

Maybe if Gewirtz wasn't constantly putting up roadblocks to revenue generating development, giving raises to city employees when the rest of us have seen our pay go down over the last 5 years, etc etc, the mayor wouldn't be in a position of cutting costs.

I hope the library stays open, but I'd like alderwoman Gewirtz to take on the accountability of identifying what else should be cut instead.

[masswich.livejournal.com]

Not saying I agree or don't agree with her approach but I believe she does outline a way to keep the library open, at least for now. She is proposing taking up the union on an apparent offer to defer some of the raises for a year in order to avoid sudden cuts and give the city time to think more strategically about how to deal with this.

I am not sure that the city staff (perhaps other than fire and police) are getting any pay increases- I think they actually are taking furlough cuts right now.

[jack-somerville.livejournal.com]

I mean, you're not wrong. We need to hear how Rebekah, and the other Aldermen, and most of all the mayor, are going to make sure our libraries get the funding they need.

But look. The only thing we need in order to keep our libraries open is for *anyone* to do *anything* right. They're not expensive. The Western Branch costs a small fraction of 1% of the City's budget. You could cut the entire library system budget in half and it wouldn't pay even 20% of the firefighters' *raises* for this year.

Libraries are absolutely, positively, guaranteed not to be the dealbreaker in any City budget. They just don't cost that much. The only reason they're coming up now is that the mayor is playing some kind of poker game with Rebekah Gewirtz and our libraries are the chip. That's unacceptable.

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

Thank you for calling attention to the typo in the Mayor's legal citation. The statute in question is Chapter 589 of the Acts of 1987 (http://archives.lib.state.ma.us/actsResolves/1987/1987acts0589.pdf).

[jack-somerville.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks. This is helpful. I've edited the post.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I can't go today, home with two active toddler/preschool types. but if anyone goes, please reiterate that many people love and use this library. the kids section is awesome, and as others mentioned, I use ILL to get books sent there, because it is the easiest library to get to. Their hours aren't great, but can be worked around. I can't tell you how much time I spend at the library on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the winter. I will go email/call now to protest.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

the West Branch library has been the victim of neglect for years -- no A/C, basement that floods, peeling plaster and water damage in the upstairs portion. as a city building it needs a whole lot of help. lots of people use it, but the city has been ignoring it for a long, long time. if we have all this outrage, why not implement it right along, instead of waiting for the crisis point?

[jack-somerville.livejournal.com]

I totally agree! I've been meaning for months to find out what was going on with the West Branch, and I just always had something that seemed more important to do, you know?

A crisis reminds you what's important. The trick is to keep it in mind once the crisis passes ...

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, wikipedia will be back up soon.

[jack-somerville.livejournal.com]

[citation needed]

In all seriousness, Wikipedia works because there are people out there checking what it says against published books. And for people who can't afford computers and internet at home, Wikipedia is up today because they can access it at the library.

Wikipedia and libraries both support the idea that *how much money you have* shouldn't control *what you're able to learn.* They do it in different ways. We can afford both.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

Does anyone have any stats on how much 'business' this library branch does? I've only ever used the main Somerville branch, and didn't even know there was a branch in David Square.

[jack-somerville.livejournal.com]

This is a great question. I'll try to find out. A quick google didn't find any recent annual reports, but did find this amazing annual report from 1909 (http://books.google.com/books?id=PZ4QAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA4-PA20#v=onepage&q&f=false) (via Google Books, naturally), when the West Branch was first built. Turns out it was built by Andrew Carnegie with a commitment by the city to contribute $2,000 a year for maintenance. I wonder if that's still in effect. :)

If you still live in Teele, you should check out the West Branch -- it's crazy convenient. It doesn't have the largest selection, but it's great for ILL. I like to use this bookmarklet (http://xisbn.worldcat.org/liblook2/findlibrary.htm?q=somerville), which lets you ILL a book from its Amazon page to your local library in about 3 clicks.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

I don't have official stats, but I was in there a couple of times during finals to study, and there was a good number of people all the time, and this was the middle of the week. It's a very small branch, and needs a LOT of work- as intuition_ist says. In addition to what's already been listed, it could stand to have new furniture and more outlets, which might mean rewiring.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I know that they run two kids groups, on Tuesday and Wednesday, that are very well attended.

and I also agree with the above, the building is dilapidated, and i would love to see it get fixed up (and maybe made handicap accessible). but right now i'd settle for it to remain open at all

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Two unrelated questions come to my mind:

Why are you posting anonymously?

Can the library put on some sort of fundraiser?

[jack-somerville.livejournal.com]

I'm not exactly anonymous -- you can easily find my name as the admin of the Facebook page. But I tend to use pseudonyms on random blogs until there's some reason not to, just because it's hard to put writing out there knowing it will be attached to my name forever on Google. I end up obsessing over the wording instead of just hitting "post" and moving on. I have no connection to city politics, firefighters, librarians, or anything else that would matter, if that's what you're wondering.

I think the library could put on some sort of fundraiser, and I've thought about doing that in the past (when I was idly thinking I should really support the West Branch some day). Maybe connect up with local businesses that benefit from supporting Davis Square, and let more people know that the library exists along the way. It could be a cool thing. I'll help.

But on the other hand, maybe the mayor could put on some sort of fundraiser to pay the firefighters, right? I bet he'd have an easier time organizing one than we would.

... Or maybe we could use tax dollars to support the services our city needs, including the libraries. It's what we're paying for. Fundraisers would be a great idea to get the West Branch fixed up, but they're never going to pay a reliable salary, even the kind librarians make.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

"It's what we're paying for."

Apparently we aren't paying enough! :)

[jack-somerville.livejournal.com]

Heh. Right.

But seriously (and I know I've beat this into the ground), libraries might be expensive by the standards of, say, my bank account, but they're cheap by the standards of a city the size of Somerville. When they try to cut 20% or 30% out of the library budget, it's not because we can't afford it. That money is peanuts. We spend more just on the five people in the mayor's personal office than we do on the entire West Branch library, attic to basement. The real reason for the cut is that the mayor thinks either (1) it's a threat he can use to get something he wants, or (2) we just don't care. Neither of those is OK, and we have to tell him so.

(Don't get me wrong, those five people more than earn their keep. I'm just saying that paying for the library isn't the problem.)