Morro Bay Residents Win Library Fight
by Jack McCurdy
Public libraries rarely kick up a storm in local communities. They are quiet inside and noncontroversial outside - usually.
But when the City of Morro Bay had refused for almost 10 years to allow the Morro Bay Library to expand into a readily available large room within its building, mainly to enable children to have more space for their library materials, and, instead, insisted that the 1,500-square-foot Program Room be reserved for meetings of outside organizations, a large number of residents rose up in arms. The city owns the library, thanks to a gift of the building in 1985 by the Friends of the Library, a citizens group which raised $125,000 in the community to build it on city-owned property across from City Hall.
And those supporters of the library apparently won, with a united outpouring of emails and phone calls - estimated in the hundreds - to City Council members just over the past several weeks, as well as passionate pleas in person to the Council at its public meeting on February 8. Some Council members remarked that it was the biggest expression of community sentiment on an issue in their experience.
As a result, on Monday night, February 22, the Morro Bay City Council, in closed session, changed course and decided to allow the Program Room to be used as part of the library and no longer for outside meetings. City attorney Rob Schultz, at the start of the open meeting that night, read this statement from his Closed Session Report:
"Council did direct staff to negotiate a transition plan for the use of the Program Room to Library use."
That is, not for outside meetings. The only question left was whether the Council had attached some conditions in closed session that would require the transition period to be over some months - perhaps many months - and thereby significantly delaying the conversion of the room for library use. Such a delay would come in the face of a clear rising demand, as evidenced by a a 22% increase in patronage just last year and a Friends survey showing residents want more library space.
But in the closed session, the Council reportedly expressed a clear consensus for the transition to happen as soon as possible without any inordinate delays. That means the city staff will be meeting shortly with the County, which runs the library and provides books and other materials for it, and the transition should be underway soon.
The question many people are asking is: why has the city continued to refuse to allow the library to expand into the Program so that 40% can be added to the space for library materials and activities when there seems to be no question that it has no legal right to do so?
Under leases between the city and county and the Friends of the Library, the building is to be used for library purposes exclusively. But because at the time of its opening in 1985, the new permanent library - the community's first - was so much larger than the previous store front, it was decided that a large room, later to be known as the Program Room, could be used for meetings of outside groups as needed, even though that use was to be subordinate to needs of the library for the room. This was long before the present Community Center, with its extensive space for meetings and other functions was built, and before other meeting facilities had become available. But as the community's library needs would grow over the years, it was assumed the library would grow into the existing Community Room, an integral part of the library itself.
As Morro Bay's population increased and visitors to the library rose, its usage almost doubled between 1984 and 2001 - to nearly 190,000 persons a year. That was the same year that Grace Melton, one of the new library's founders, hand-carried a letter from the Friends to the city stating, "The Morro Bay Library is fully utilizing our existing area and we find ourselves in need of more space for full-time library use and activities." The letter requested conversion of the Program Room to library uses "as permitted in the sublease agreement."
And the same year, the county notified the city that it wanted and needed to expand library services into the Program Room and utilize the entire building for library purposes because of a steadily-growing number of visits by residents, loans of books, and requests for materials and other services.
The reason given in a 2001 city letter from current City Manager Andrea Leuker, then city recreation and parks director, who was in charge of renting city facilities, was that the room "is currently available for use by the general public and public agencies" and "a substantial number of other community groups use this room on a regular basis." In other words, the letter claimed there was a need to use the room for outside meetings.
At the same time, residents have made it increasingly clear they want more room for children, according to a 2007 survey by the Morro Bay Friends of the Library. Those surveyed emphasized they favor "more materials and programs for 6-12-year-olds" as "more young families become part of the community." Overall, the number one desire among residents was for the library to expand its space for books, materials, and other services, and as part of that expansion, the Friends' Vision Report adopted in 2008 stated the library should make "enlarging to provide a separate area for children" a top priority.
But the city wouldn't budge. Then last year, the Friends of the Library began to feel that the stalemate had dragged on too long, particularly because the city-county 25-year lease is scheduled to expire next July 8. There was no predicting what would happen to the library if the lease ran out with the dispute unresolved.
Procedurally, the lease likely would continue month-to-month in temporary status until the issue is resolved. But with the county facing financial hardship and given its needs to fund a variety of county services, plus the city refusing to meet the library's space needs, the concern among some was that a reduction in operations of the Morro Bay Library or even closure could not be ruled out in these unstable times. If the needs of the library was not a high priority of the city, then the county might conclude that other communities that strongly support their libraries might deserve the money going to Morro Bay.
As it turned out, the difference over use of the Program Room is not about money, Joe Woods, the current recreation and parks director, was quoted as saying. And based on the city's own figures, he is right. The city derived only $6,979.89 from rental of the Program Room to outside groups last year.
Mayor Janice Peters was virtually alone among Council members in publicly pushing for continued use of the Program Room for outside group meetings and against its use for an expanded children's area and other library activities. In numerous emails to residents, she argued that there are no good alternatives as meeting places for community groups.
But a telephone survey by some Friends of the Library found that an abundance of possible space is highly likely to exist at churches, hotels, motels, banks, public facilities, and other sites around Morro Bay, including the Community Center. It was also found that the Banquet Room at the Morro Bay Golf Course is available for 150 persons at sit-down meetings or up to 200 for walk-around events. The Rotary Club of Morro Bay already meets there regularly.
On top of that, the two groups that have used the Program Room most often over the years, the Morro Bay Charity Bridge Club and the Morro Coast Audobon Society for once-a-year Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival activities, have indicated they would be willing to use other locations for their meetings so that the library could use the much-needed space.
All of which still leaves the unanswered question: why has the city been so adamant about not allowing the Program Room to be used for library needs when those needs have been abundantly demonstrated and residents have left no doubt what they want--and the city has no legal grounds to stand on? Some close to the controversy believe that the city staff has been most responsible in not wanting to give up control over a city facility and power in the community. No one may ever know, but in the end, the Council as representatives of residents heard the community loud and clear and acted accordingly.
Jack McCurdy is a former member of the Morro Bay Friends of the Library board.
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