(August 27, 2008) -- City management and Mayor Bob Foster are trying to close the Main Library not because the building is broken, but because city management, the Mayor and a Council majority broke the budget with three costly city employee contracts (two in May 08 as revenue was failling and the economy was tanking).

Those contracts' impacts account for nearly the entire FY 09 deficit (spending exceeding revenue).

Image source: City of LB website

In May 2008, Mayor Foster and management advised, and a Council majority agreed, to bestow generous pay raises on the same non-public safety employee union that received the infamous 2002 pension spike (May 08, 7-2, Gabelich/DeLong dissenting) and firefighters (May 08, 8-1, Gabelich dissenting)...with no publicly announced way to pay for them.

Now, three months later, big surprise: closing the Main Library is part of how Mayor Foster and City Manager West propose to pay for them.

Of course the Mayor's robots want to change the subject now by discussing "alternative Library sites." We shouldn't be discussing alternative sites. We should be discussing keeping the Main Library right where it is...which means dealing with that deficit (spending exceeding revenue).

We're glad that Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal opposes closing the Main Library with no plan in place, but she needs to take responsibility for her role with others in actions that contributed to creating the problem. (Acknowledgement is a necessary step to redemption). It is a painful truth that Bonnie Lowenthal is the sole remaining Council incumbent who voted twice for the costly 2002 pension spike (it required two Council votes, deceptively scheduled for last day of an outgoing Council, first day of an incoming one). She didn't do this alone. They were 9-0 votes.

In 2006, then-candidate Foster lambasted Council incumbent Frank Colonna for those votes, accusing him of helping create "pension potholes." But once in office, Mayor Foster unwisely recommended the costly city employee contracts that boost base pay, spike already spiked pensions and have created most of the FY 09 $16.9 deficit that's now threatening the Main Library.

Management says keeping the Main Library open will require $1.8 million in the coming fiscal year. Our solution: get the $3 million LB Museum of Art debt bond out of the budget. Taxpayers were never supposed to pay that sum and it shouldn't be a budgeted expense now. [The city owned, privately run LB Museum of Art on Ocean Blvd. is separate from the privately owned/operated Museum of Latin American Art on Alamitos Ave.]

Kudos to Councilman Patrick O'Donnell for continuing to pursue this issue...and for bringing it up at yesterday's (Aug. 26) Council budget study session.

That $3 million payment is now a looming taxpayer obligation and can't be erased without a financing alternative. Unfortunately, city management and Museum Foundation management have failed to put a plan in place to deal with this. Their plan is to make taxpayers pay for it in budget cuts, which include closing the Main Library, with a promise to deal with the Art Museum debt "later."

If City Hall hasn't dealt with a multi-million dollar debt it knew was coming for years, it certainly can't be trusted to find a new Library site while operating a so-called "temporary" library.

Councilmembers should direct City Management to present the Council with a plan next week to refinance that museum debt and get the $3 million off the books to keep the Main Library open.

It's very nice that the Museum is under smiling new management now, but this doesn't pay the debt. City Hall should notify Museum management that if a plan isn't in place to pay the sum owed, the Museum faces possible closure, take over, leasing, encumbrance or possible liquidation of Museum assets to pay the sum.

A publicly owned, privately operated Museum that owes taxpayers $3 million is what should be closed before closing the publicly owned and operated Main Library.

We further support removing from the budget about $500,000+ in taxpayer support for Museum operations in FY 09. Paying a half million dollars to an entity that owes you $3 million is an insult to taxpayers. We suggest Councilmembers ask the City Attorney to present in closed session a discussion of whether the Museum Foundation may have breached whatever contract City Hall has with it, perhaps for the kinds of things documented by the City Auditor in two reports.

Finally, we urge the Council to stop pretending that neutered "study sessions" are appropriate when they're not. What's happening now requires Council action, not more study. The Council can and should convene a Special Meeting (five votes required) to take action on 24 hours notice.

Getting that $3 million off the books, and using $1.8 million to keep the Main Library, would leave about $1.2 million that the Council could allocate to other things...or put aside (what a concept).

We regret that 2nd dist. Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal accepted a horribly misnamed "free night" at the Museum for her constituents -- when that Museum Foundation owes LB taxpayers $3 million. We hope Councilman Dee Andrews will cancel his plans for a similar spectacle at the Museum in September unless there's a plan in place that has removed that $3 million debt from taxpayers' backs.

Removing that $3 million Art Museum debt from the budget could keep the Main Library open. The Council should direct management to present options for doing so forthwith...with nothing off the table.

No more study sessions that let management make endless excuses. It's time for Councilmembers to lead and take action.