Library Cuts

Monday night the city of Pleasant Hill lost a little bit of its heart. In a 5-0 unanimous vote the city council of Pleasant Hill voted to not cover the funding cuts made by the Contra Costa County. The result of this vote leaves the library with less hours open to the public (with the possibility of being closed on Mondays as well as Sundays) and the loss of jobs.

The library resolution was item 6.1 on the meeting agenda and was the one item which most of the 30 or so citizens in attendance were waiting for. In the dimly lit hall speaker after speaker came to the podium to share passionately about what the Pleasant Hill library has meant to them and to our community. Speakers referred to the Pleasant Hill library as “the heart of the community” and how even though there are libraries in other near by cities this wasn’t the “Pleasant Hill Library” but simply “The Library.”

The city council seemed to wrestle with the decision but ultimately knew they only had one choice to make. In order to keep the library at its current staffing and hours the city would have to pay upwards of $286,000. This is quite a hefty price tag considering the city is already facing a budget short fall accelerating past a half million dollars.

Other arguments made by the city council were that the library is a county enterprise, not a city enterprise. And that only 35% of the circulation of the Pleasant Hill library actually were residents of Pleasant Hill. No one seemed to bring up, however, the fact the 11% were from Concord which is about a half mile away and 25% came from Walnut Creek which is literally across the street. Though that still raises the point of why should the city of Pleasant Hill put up all of this money when the county is getting the majority of its use.

In the most grotesque and obscene gesture of the night (not including the laughter and joking around during the discussion portion of the vote) was when our Mayor, Michael Harris, asked our Honorary Mayor For the Day Kevin Vasgerdsian, a soon to be 3rd grader at Sequoia Elementary School, to call for the vote on this measure to cut the library. How sad.

After the vote I was left with a deep sense of council’s duplicity. From the left sides of their mouths they spoke of their love and appreciation of the library and then from the right voted for the cuts. Councilwoman and Vice-Mayor Karen Mitchoff (2008-present)spoke about how often she uses the library now, yet spoke to the affect of how when she was a teen the library was un-cool and thus unimportant. Councilman David Durant (1999-presnt) painted a grim picture of the future for the Pleasant Hill library and for Pleasant Hill itself. Councilman John Hanecak (2004-present) mentioned that after this cut there would only be 8 of the 25 county libraries with more open hours than Pleasant Hill. Are we supposed to feel good about that? We’re number 9! We’re number 9! Give me a break. He also mention that a great way to donate is to pay our fees. Lets hope there are $286,000 in unpaid fees out there!

Today, I continue to feel angry and frustrated and wondering with whom should this anger be with? The city council? The county? The state? It saddens me that when times are tough the first thing people go looking to cut are funds to education. The idiocy of this maneuver is astounding. The socioeconomic discrimination is astounding. Who will these cuts hurt? Initially some, eventually all.

To watch the city council meeting you can tune into your CCTV channel Wednesday July 15th at 7:30pm or watch it on streaming video at http://www.ci.pleasant-hill.ca.us/media/ when it becomes available.

To help support the Pleasant Hill library please visit http://ccclib.org/friends/phl.html.

You can contact the Pleasant Hill city council at http://www.ci.pleasant-hill.ca.us/forms.aspx?FID=74.

*The publisher of this article and representatives from the library were unable to coordinate a time for an interview by the time of publication.

**Members of the city council were unresponsive for interview requests.