Subject:  East Baton Rouge Parish Library System Mismanagement

Following is a guest blog entry by John Berry, Chairman of the Citizens for Main Library Independence (CMLI), of which I am a member.  CMLI is a grassroots-based oversight group, which maintains vigilance over the East Baton Rouge Parish Library Board of Control.

What’s going on in the East Baton Parish Library System?  A lot -- more, in fact, than you might wish were happening.  Two current breaches of the public trust are well underway.

First Breach of Trust:  River Center Branch Rebuild

The first breach of trust deals with the downtown library branch, officially known as the River Center Branch (RCB).  It’s located right next to the Old State Capitol (part of the Governmental Complex), and was opened in 1980.  It’s currently the 4th largest library branch in the system, but its circulation is almost the lowest, and its gate count (number of patrons) is only 4% of the parish totals.   Furthermore, when the new Judicial Court building opens across the street from it this summer, and the library no longer hosts the daily jury pool from the Court, the gate count will drop even lower, and the homeless that use it as a daytime shelter will likely become its primary patrons.

Should this library be rebuilt?  One would think not, given its low utilization.  Other reasons for leaving it alone include the scant parking available downtown; the closeness of the relatively new (2006) Carver Library Branch (one mile and five minutes away, with good parking); and the fact that two of the functions of the RCB (the Baton Rouge Room and the Career Center) are soon to be transferred to the new main library being built in Independence Park

Nevertheless, the Library staff took it upon themselves to give a NO-BID CONTRACT to Trey Trahan Architects in the spring of last year for an “evaluation” of the RCB.  Note that this contract was let for $17,000 – just under the amount that would have required it to be brought before the Library Board of Control.  Note also that no other architects were invited to bid on this contract.  Some Board members were incensed by this; they were in the minority, and the contract wasn’t retracted.

Fast forward to August of last year.  At a special Library Board meeting held in the Old State Capitol, Trahan was allowed to hold a grand presentation of his “findings.”  Instead of giving a factual review of what exactly was needed to bring the facility up-to-date, he pushed for a complete rebuild of the branch.  The audience was stacked with downtown advocates, who oohed and ahhed over the glitzy Powerpoint images; for them, it was less a library than a new building to try to prop up the long-stagnant image of downtown Baton Rouge.

At the last Library Board meeting in June, the Board voted 5-2 to include $19 million in their 2011 budget for working on the RCB.  This is in spite of the fact that no decision has been made about what exactly to do with the building!

In the meantime, positions becoming vacant on the Library Board are being filled with downtown advocate appointees by the Metro Council.  At this point there are five hard-core downtown advocates out of seven board members.  Check out the vote count above (5-2) … ALL the downtown advocates were the ones voting IN FAVOR OF including the $19 million.

This suddenly begins to ring a bell – or sound an alarm.  Remember Mayor Holden’s $9 billion, 30-year tax for downtown enhancements, that he tried to make us swallow twice?  This River Center Branch rebuild has the same smell of boondoggle about it as that.  The public wasn’t fooled then about squandering their hard-earned money on an expensive entertainment attraction, and we hope the public won’t be fooled now into squandering millions of THEIR LIBRARY TAX MONEY on a completely unnecessary rebuild of an already oversized yet underutilized building.

When we voted for the library tax in 2005, we voted on the wise and responsible use of our money for library pursuits, not for the political aims of governmental officials or the financial gain of any particular architects, developers, builders, etc.

What is truly needed at the River Center branch is only minor renovation, such as cleaning up the bathrooms that the Library System has allowed to become filthy, and making them ADA compliant.  With WiFi, no computer enhancements are necessary.

Within the last week the Library Board announced that there will be a “charette” on the RCB on Monday, August 18.  Note that the name has changed from the original “public forum.”  This is obviously intentional, in that “public forum” implies debating whether the project should exist at all and with which restrictions; “charette” implies that designs are already completed, and all that remains is to choose one of the designs.  A subtle distinction, but very important to understand.

The Library Board will meet this week on Thursday at 4:00 pm at the Goodwood Main Library (in Independence Park).  It is VERY IMPORTANT that we the taxpaying public attend both this Board meeting, as well as the charette on August 18.  We must let the Board know that they may NOT use taxpayer funds, which are dedicated to Library functions, on projects which are unnecessary and which do not further the responsible growth and operation of the Library System in this parish.

Second Breach of Trust:  The Disallowance of Public Comment

The second breach of trust is signified by the last agenda item for this Thursday’s Library Board meeting:  “DISCUSSION OF PUBLIC COMMENT POLICY AT LIBRARY BOARD MEETINGS.”  Some Board members have made attempts in the recent past to restrict questions and comments from those attending the Board meetings.  We feel this is ABSOLUTELY WRONG.  These are PUBLIC MEETINGS by a PUBLIC ENTITY funded by PUBLIC TAXES, and the public has every right to speak.  We feel that any attempt to restrict our input is firstly UNCONSTITUTIONAL and secondly a slap in the face to the very citizens who make the Library System possible.

If you are as offended as we are by this brazen attempt, we urge you to counter it with your own comments at the Library Board meeting this Thursday.  The minute we hand over unfettered authority to this group is the minute citizens lose any means of control over the manipulations of the Board, and especially how it spends our money.