PASSAIC PUBLIC LIBRARY
PASSAIC PUBLIC LIBRARY IN THE NEWS
The purpose of this page is to provide the public with a fair appraisal of the facts based on the information available. In cases where the newspaper article runs juxtaposed to the opinion of the Library Director and Board of Trustees you will see a highlighted box.
How the library board failed Reid and the people
Sunday, April 29, 2007 HEARLD NEWS EDITORIAL |
Last week Passaic's Library Board of Trustees cancelled its regular meeting. Nothing unusual there. Municipal boards cancel their meetings all the time ... for legitimate reasons.
Except in the case of the Passaic library board, the cancellation is the latest in a disturbing trend of absenteeism, and part of a pattern of public disservice that has gone on for too long.
This board has grown so dysfunctional and so derelict in its basic duties over the past year that it should be disbanded, its membership dissolved and its president replaced by someone who actually cares about the health of the city's public libraries.
Under the watch of this board and its current president, Craig Miller, library services in Passaic have been woefully neglected. Far from being any sort of advocate for the library system, the current board has, in many cases, been its worst enemy. Further, it appears to have been compromised politically, nothing more than a rubber stamp for a City Council that seems to have no use for the library or the critical services it offers to the general population.
The board's ineptitude and deceptive manner of operation is seen most easily in its still unexplained move to close historic Reid Memorial Library on Third Street. The plan is to close the Reid and move its children's collection to a second-floor billiard room at the Boys and Girls Club.
Where, one might ask, is the civic responsibility in that?
The library, it is worth reminding, was a gift to the city by a Scottish immigrant. It has been a haven to immigrant populations and to all the people of Passaic who wishing to read, learn and better themselves now for more than a hundred years.
It was pegged for closing because of what the board claims are renovations the city cannot afford to undertake.
According to the board, the library has a leaky roof and a crumbling foundation, among other problems, and is in need of $155,000 in repairs. This stands in contrast to the architect who was hired to assess the soundness of the building in October 2005. He told the Herald News that he did not find structural damage, and that his report was only a "preliminary observation."
There may well be damage to the structure, one of the city's architectural gems, but so far neither the library board nor Director Alan Bobowski have made a compelling case for how major any damage is, and have failed to show how the $155,000 figure was arrived at. At the very least, the board has been less than forthcoming on this issue.
Further, this board has failed to act with any urgency on pursuing federal grant monies that might help restore the library, has failed to act on recommendations made by a State Library evaluation three years ago to help improve the system and has never pushed the City Council to increase its budget.
In fact, an outside observer might well conclude that the board, the mayor, the council and the director are in league, and have chosen to let the Reid Library die a slow death.
Of course, the board's lack of transparency and the arrogance in the way it operates goes far beyond the move to close the Reid. In 2006, the library board mustered a quorum only twice out of 12 scheduled meetings. Instead, the board routinely carried out library business via e-mail and phone calls and met publicly, according to Miller, "when major decisions needed to be made."
The people of Passaic deserve better than that.
It's time they were represented by a library board interested in the city's two fine libraries. It is time city residents are served by a library board that does not merely mimic the City Council, but seeks to advocate, independently, for library staff and patrons and services. It is time the city is served by a library board that will take its charter seriously, and that will conduct its business openly and honestly.
It is time, finally, that Passaic is served by a library board that understands the critical importance of a public library to the life of a city, whose members understand that a library is that rare space where anyone, regardless of age, gender, race or social standing can go to learn and escape, and to explore for themselves the greats realms of knowledge to be found there.