21st century community library need, and the trash talk against it

Pacifica Tribune/Letters to the Editor, 12/2/16. "Library misinformation" by Caroline Barba, Co-president PFOL

Managed retreat and 2 old libraries
trumps a sea wall and 1 new library... right.

"Dear Editor, I am writing to take issue with the letter of the Nov. 16 Tribune that called the library project a scam. This is a project that has been 15 years in the making through several city managers and city staff with cooperation from the San Mateo County Library, the Pacifica Library Foundation and the Pacifica Friends of the Library. It is not a scam and is fact-based. This type of misinformation is what helped block the project from moving forward.

Let’s look at the facts. The San Mateo County Joint Powers of Authority for Library Services recommended that Pacifica move to one library when Pacifica joined the JPA in 1999. The JPA provides over a million dollars of service per library per year to our city. We would have no library services if the city had to provide them as the budget can’t cover that expense. We are allocated 60 hours of library service a week. Because we have two libraries, we have to split the hours at 30 hours each library. Both buildings are too small for our population and are old and need replacing.

There have been studies made as a needs assessment documenting the need, preliminary plans based on input from the community at meetings sponsored by the Pacific Library Foundation and the city, and a current assessment of the condition of both buildings. All this information can be found on the city website.

The goal is to provide a library that would meet current standards for library services and serve all the people. This is not a scam. It has been a long process involving many people. Change is not easy, even when the goal is for the common good. The issue is not going away and will have to be addressed in the near future. Fear mongering and paranoia about city government are not helpful when trying to come to a consensus about how to move forward."
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Related, Letter claiming the Library is a "scam". Pacifica Tribune Letters to the Editor/Ernest Strasser, 11/17/16, "Right direction". "Thank you to the citizens who saw through this library scam for what it was and voted it down. I guess our city manager will have to work at being a manager now after three years on the job, doing nothing but spending money on a library. It failed and now the city is out quite a bit of money. Do we know how much? The city manager keeps touting this priority-based budgeting. Is that political jargon for diverting funds? In the old days, that was called robbing Peter to pay Paul. We are heading in the right direction but we need to do more to ensure our leaders are doing the right things for all of our citizens. One thing I would suggest is to start a petition to have an independent audit of our town’s funds and see exactly how our leaders have squandered our money. I would love to be the first one to sign such a petition." 

Related, library planning, also reference above.  Clarification from the City, "For The Record", scan down for 12/2/16 library comments.  City of Pacifica/New library.  Pacifica Library Foundation, new library FAQs. Facebook. 

Note "underwater" photograph by Jason deCaires Taylor from Pacifica Riptide/Pacifica.Stegink, 4/12/16,"Pacifica's vision for new underwater library".

Posted by Kathy Meeh