"And We Thought We Had It Bad" or "A Peek Into the Future"

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Jean Quan's tax plan riles Oakland library backers

Matthai Kuruvila, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan has proposed cutting 14 of the city's 18 libraries, including a venerated African American museum and library, unless unions slash their pay or voters pass an $11.2 million parcel tax.

The proposal has riled library supporters, who have come to council chambers en masse to demand that the council place the tax on the ballot.

"I feel that the parcel tax is a small price to pay for adequate city services," said Nina Lindsay, 40, a homeowner who has lived in Oakland since she was 4 and is a children's librarian.

But the proposal from Quan has some wondering whether it's just political theater.

Prominent Quan supporters, including her husband, Floyd Huen, have been regularly lining up at council meetings to speak in favor of the tax, which has been blocked from reaching a ballot by council members Libby Schaaf, Ignacio De La Fuente and Desley Brooks.

"I urge the council to please put the measure on the ballot," Huen said Thursday after criticizing council members for not supporting the tax proposal.
Other ideas suggested

Brooks has suggested that Quan, a huge library supporter, was manipulating voters about the libraries by saying a parcel tax was the only way to keep them open. Brooks added that pension or City Charter reform might also free up money for libraries.

Without looking at all options, Brooks said, Quan's parcel tax push is "disingenuous."

The mayor replied that if others wanted to put reforms on the ballot, they were welcome to. Quan said she just didn't have the time to do so herself because of the demands of the budget.

But the mayor's budget numbers themselves have raised eyebrows.

The four libraries that would remain open in this scenario include the 81st Avenue, Dimond and Rockridge branches. In addition, Quan's budget says, "the main library will remain open with full programming."
Tiny staff budgeted

But Quan has budgeted the equivalent of 4.6 employees to run the main library even though it currently has 46. Her spokeswoman, Sue Piper, said it was library leaders who came up with the figures. But even library leaders question the plausibility of five people running the three-story, 87,500-square-foot main library, which has separate rooms for children, meetings, a teen zone, magazines, history and a computer lab.

"That's not possible," said Gerry Garzon, the library's associate director. "It's just not."

Part of the reason that the library cuts would be so severe is that Quan's proposal assumes that the city would not receive parcel tax revenue from Measure Q. The 2004 ballot measure provides libraries with $14 million from a parcel tax as long as the city contributes roughly $9.1 million. Quan trumpeted Measure Q as a mayoral candidate, saying she led the effort, which prevented branch libraries from being closed.

But the current budget is so tight, Quan says, that the city would not be able to afford the $9.1 million contribution. Instead, she proposes contributing $3.6 million - which means losing the parcel tax revenue and an overall decrease of $19.5 million in library funding. Residents would stop paying an $86 parcel tax.

Quan is drawing on sentiment, not fiscal reality, in her most dire budget proposal, said Joe Tuman, a former mayoral candidate and current board member of Make Oakland Better Now, a good-government group.

For example, he points to the fact that Quan also proposed shuttering four fire stations, even though the city's interim fire chief said it would only save $300,000 annually.

"These, to me, suggest a pattern of exaggeration in the purpose of scaring people to support a parcel tax," he said.

Piper said skeptics don't understand the reality of the budget. Every department gets cut when police and fire account for 75 percent of the budget, she said. Libraries are not alone.

"One hopes that's not the case, but it's reality," she said. "It's not a scare tactic."
Transferring museum

On another budget matter, the city wants to transfer operation of the Oakland Museum entirely over to the Oakland Museum of California Foundation, a nonprofit. Both say it would save money, including $1 million a year for the city alone.

But the union representing some of the city workers, IFPTE Local 21, says the move violates the City Charter, which prohibits contracting out work that leads to employees losing their jobs.

The city says the equivalent of 7.6 people would be laid off. The union says the number is 45.

E-mail Matthai Kuruvila at mkuruvila@sfchronicle.com.

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This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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