City officials deny Salem library will be closed, but that was an option from them

I find it amusing when officials at the City of Salem are shocked that the public thinks they're going to do something bad, when that's exactly what was being suggested prior to the public getting outraged about the bad thing happening.

Which causes the city officials to go, "No, oh my gosh, how could you ever have thought we'd do that?"

Well, in this case the bad thing was completely closing the Salem Public Library. A few days ago the Salem Reporter had a story about the public reaction to this possibility.

Salem’s city councilors overwhelmingly said this week they would not vote for a city budget that closed the Salem Public Library.

They clarified their viewpoints after receiving a flurry of comments from members of the public opposed to deeper cuts.

But most said eliminating some library employees or services remain on the table as city leaders discuss a budget over the coming months. Those cuts would likely mean further hours reductions to the Main branch of the library, which closed on Sundays earlier this year.

Their testimony came after claims that the city planned to close the library circulated widely online over the weekend. Though the city is not planning to close the main branch of the Salem Public Library, deep staffing cuts are among the budget proposals councilors are considering. 

Well, it isn't true that city officials didn't have any plans to close the main branch of the Salem Public Library. Which means the public was justified in raising the alarm that this could happen. On October 24, 2023, the Salem Reporter had a story with the title, "Salem City Council to discuss alternative cuts."

This was one of the four alternatives.

Scenario three: No cuts to police or fire, close the library

The third option would maintain 43 police and fire positions by closing the library and Center 50+ entirely, as well as cutting more administrative, court, and parks positions. This option also includes the reductions and fee increases from the second option.

The library closure would cut $3.9 million and would mean Salem residents wouldn’t have access to its 350,000 collection items or library facilities starting in the next fiscal year. The library’s services include access to the Internet, study rooms, Loucks Auditorium and programs for teens, literacy education and homebound community members.

The library has 35 full-time employees, 3 part-time, 15 on-call, six high school and college interns and 155 volunteers.

So city officials certainly did have a plan to completely close the library. It's option #3 in an October 25, 2023 memo to the City Council from John Eggleston, Chief Financial Officer. 

That date is significant because it was about two weeks before the November 7 election where Salem voters overwhelmingly rejected an employee payroll tax proposal from the City of Salem to raise revenue for city services. 

Not surprisingly, city officials were busily engaged before the election in coming up with scary budget cuts intended to spur voters to vote Yes on the payroll tax. Didn't work, obviously. 

But you can't try to scare voters in late October of 2023, then be surprised in late March of 2024 when the public remembers that only a few months before, there was talk of the drastic budget cuts, including closing the library, if the payroll tax proposal wasn't approved.

Of course, the above-mentioned memo from Eggleston includes an obligatory statement about how city employees can't lobby for passage of the payroll tax. However, they sure could try to scare people with descriptions of budget cuts if the payroll tax wasn't enacted. Which, it wasn't.

* ORS 260.432 prohibits public employees, during work time, from promoting or opposing a ballot measure. The City’s employee payroll tax will be on the November 7, 2023 ballot, and City staff may not advocate for or against the measure. In order to avoid violating state law, the City Attorney, in relation to this discussion of the City’s budget, has advised staff to assume that the payroll tax will not take effect.

Comments

[Jim Scheppke]

No one should be relieved that Option 3 is now off the table, because Option 1, which the City Manager is likely to recommend to the Budget Committee on April 17th, is nearly as bad. It would close the West Salem Branch and reduce operations at the main library to 25-30 hours, down from 38 now. It would cut 8 more FTE from the library staff probably eliminating all library services except checking out books during the 3 or 4 days a week the library would be open. That's not a real public library. No other city department has already suffered nearly as much as the library. Enough is enough. The City Manager needs to be told: NO MORE CUTS. You can write to him at .