So, What's Up with the Schaberg Library Branch?

The Schaberg branch of the Redwood City Library System, once a fully-functional library with normal reliable hours, is now operating with a curtailed schedule and is under threat of eventual closure.

Schaberg is the only city library branch west of downtown, serving patrons well beyond the Roosevelt neighborhood. There has already been an attempt to cut children's services, with the suspension of its homework group. Outcry from the patrons brought that group back, and prevented its being changed to a for-pay service. But other cuts, even complete closure, are still possible.

This has been presented to the public (in the few words the City has acknowledged the situation with at all) as a funding issue. But at the same time, $225,000 bequeathed to the city by a long-time patron has been earmarked to pay a storyteller: a retired librarian, billing $45 per hour with a two-hour ($90) minimum, to sing and tell stories to children, spend 20 minutes at a tea event, or pass out brochures at a preschool event.

The threats to Schaberg's future became public when trustee Sharon Levin resigned her post on the library's board, so that she could discuss the issue openly. Levin questioned the disposition of the bequest while still on the board; she was told only, "that boat has sailed". No discussion of the decision appears in the public notes of the meetings; no discussion was held at the November 2010 meeting of the City Council, when the decision was approved.

While Schaberg faces potential closure, the storytelling ex-librarian is guaranteed his $90-per-event pay for a full five year. Librarians have offered to do the same work in the same hours they're working now. Volunteers have offered to do the same for no pay. No explanation is forthcoming from the Library Foundation or the City Council as to why these offers are turned down.

Levin also questioned why materials at the Redwood Shores branch are restricted to that branch only, not shared as materials are between all other branches.  Likewise, the Shores branch has benefited from extensive fundraising; the same is underway now for the Fair Oaks branch. No fundraising is planned for the Schaberg branch - again, without explanation.

Receiving no satisfactory answers, Levin left her position and formed the Committee to Save Schaberg with other concerned citizens. The Committee's goal is to convince the city to re-examine its allocation of nearly a quarter of a million dollars to a former library employee, while a branch of the library itself is on life support.

Redwood City Mayor Jeff Ira told redwoodcitypatch.com that the city's policy is to not direct one-time funds to ongoing expenses. There's no record that such a policy has ever existed formally; the mayor and other officials cited it when the issue began attracting attention.

Moreover, despite increasing public outcry, no member of the city council, the Library Board, nor the Library Foundation has been willing to discuss these issues in an open dialogue. Efforts to place the issue on the City Council agenda were reviewed and rejected by the mayor, the vice-mayor, and the city manager.

The goals of the Committee to Save Schaberg are four-fold:

1. to engage the City Council and Library Board in public, open discussion of these issues;
2. to see the bequest funds redirected from their current earmarked use - an exorbitant salary over five years for a single individual, for services qualified volunteers have offered to perform - to restoring full services and hours to the Schaberg branch; 
3. to establish equitable funding and services for all branches, without favoritism; and
4. to organize ongoing fund development for Schaberg, insuring its continued service to the west side of Redwood City and all its neighbors.

Please join us! We'd love to have you with us as we attend city council meetings or library board meetings; get the word out to neighborhood associations and other interested groups; or get petitions signed at local gatherings. It's all in one good cause: to keep an excellent library open and thriving.

We welcome all your questions and comments below, screened only for civility, not for content or sentiment.