Update:  10/21/2011

Aldermen rip mayor’s proposed library cuts

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com October 21, 2011 12:06PM

Updated: October 21, 2011 2:50PM

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to reduce library hours and impose “draconian” job cuts that would impact library services at all hours is in danger of being shelved.

Aldermen from across the city made that clear during City Council budget hearings Friday to the applause of library employees who stand to lose their jobs.

They decried the mayor’s decision to reduce corporate fund support for libraries by $10 million—even as the city continues to build new libraries on top of the 59 constructed under former Mayor Richard M. Daley.

They argued that libraries that serve as “safe-havens,” computer and homework centers in many crime-ridden, inner-city communities would be unable to function with 363 fewer “full-time equivalent” employees.

“Three percent of the budget. Fifty percent of the cuts. It makes no sense. It’s ridiculous,” said Budget Committee Chairman Carrie Austin (34th).

Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) said students from schools with “closet libraries” they get to access once a week descend on branch libraries to use computers, get help with their homework and stay off sometimes dangerous city streets.

“Why do we have to hit the little people who help the little people? This is not spread evenly. It’s a travesty that your department has so many people laid off. It’s wrong. It’s unacceptable. We have to do something else to spread the pain. You’re getting killed over there,” he said.

Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30th) said he didn’t know if he could “stomach” the cuts, which would heavily impact minorities and women.

Ald. John Pope (10th) said he was even willing to consider a small property tax increase if that’s what it takes to avoid cuts that make no sense, after the building spree during the Daley years.

“Fifty-nine libraries in the last 20 years. It just seems a waste. We’ve invested hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars and now we’re—not walking away—but not utilizing these state-of-the-art facilities… I don’t want this budget to turn its back on 20 years of investment,” Pope said.

Rules Committee Chairman Richard Mell (33rd) suggested recruiting senior citizen volunteers to staff libraries and going hat-in-hand to the billionaire Pritzker family and other “big hitters” to ask them to ante up the $10 million for libraries the mayor cut.

“We’re all in this boat together. We all have to figure out a way to save libraries. Everybody is looking out[side]of the box,” he said.

Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey acknowledged that the mayor’s plan would trigger 284 layoffs and the elimination of 268 vacancies.

That includes: 24 librarians, four of them branch managers, 11 of them children’s librarians; 112 clerks and all 146 of the remaining “pages” charged with shelving books.

“We will have to assess the staff we have and do the best we can,” Dempsey said. That won’t be easy at a time when “everybody is re-shelving books,” including the commissioner.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday that the mayor’s plan to lay off 517 city employees and eliminate 776 vacancies would have an inordinate and devastating impact on all library operations—not just on Mondays and Fridays when branch libraries would open at noon instead of 8 a.m.

With the aldermen doing the dirty work for her, Dempsey played the good soldier on Friday.

But she gave a strong hint of the bitter negotiations that preceded the mayor’s budget address.

“I don’t envy the budget director….We made some suggestions. They made some suggestions. Their final recommendations are what you see in the [budget] book,” she said.

Emanuel has said he is well aware of the “important role that libraries play in the educational and cultural life” of Chicago. But the mayor has said he also knows “what other cities are doing, which is closing” libraries.

After Friday’s hearing, the tough and normally talkative commissioner left the City Council chambers tight-lipped.

“Don’t do this to me,” Dempsey told reporters who chased her down the hall.

She added, “I think I was pretty clear in what I said in the chambers.

 

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Emanuel to cut Chicago libraries’ hours

By FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter October 11, 2011 12:44PM

Updated: October 11, 2011 12:58PM

Chicago’s public libraries will reduce their hours in 2012, even as the city continues to build new libraries, Mayor Rahm Emanuel acknowledged Tuesday.

Emanuel defended the library cuts built into his 2012 budget, saying they’re a small price to pay at a time when other major cities are closing libraries.

The reduced hours will be concentrated on Mondays and other days and times when library usage is the lowest, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Over the last three years, library usage in Chicago has declined.

“If you think you’re gonna balance a budget with a $637 million deficit that’s about 20 percent out of whack and you’re….gonna do it without controversy, call me. I’m really interested in the idea,” Emanuel said facetiously.

“Do I expect controversy? Sure. But I also know that [New York] Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg, who I have a lot of respect for — they closed libraries. You have to look at the context….The budget I will present will make the tough choices, and it will be honest with the people of Chicago about those tough choices to put our fiscal house in order.”

Emanuel said he understands the “important role that libraries play in the educational and cultural life” of Chicago but also knows “what other cities are doing, which is closing” libraries.

Even with reduced operating hours, the mayor said, “I’m gonna stay committed to the goal of libraries in our communities so our kids have an opportunity to go and to learn not just at school, but at home and in their libraries.”

Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey did not return calls seeking comment on the cuts.

Sources said she has been calling her aldermanic allies in hopes of reversing the impending library cuts.

New York City has cut library spending by 25 percent, a move that’s expected to force the closing of 14 branch libraries next year. Similar cuts are being made in Newark, N.J. (18 percent) and Houston (14.5 percent). Seattle has cut library spending by 7.4 percent and shut down its entire library system for one week at the end of August.

Chicago has 77 branch libraries, along with the Sulzer and Woodson regional libraries and the Harold Washington central library in the South Loop.

With the opening of the new West Town and Altgeld branches last year and the West Humboldt Park, Greater Grand Crossing, Dunning and Little Village branches either completed or planned for this year, the city will have replaced or built 59 libraries since 1989, when former Mayor Richard M. Daley took office.

At last week’s City Council meeting, Emanuel proposed building two more libraries — one of them at 5150 N. Kimball.

Early in his administration, Daley proposed reducing library hours — and closing the Harold Washington Library on Sundays — only to reverse that decision after a barrage of protests.

From that moment on, libraries appeared to enjoy a special protected status with Daley and benefited from a property tax levy specifically for public libraries.