On Friday, as noted by Ben, Anna Verna once and for all has tried to eliminate any chance that City Council could show leadership:

Last week, Philadelphia City Council overwhelming approved a non-binding resolution that called for “more discussion, more deliberation” of Mayor Nutter's proposal to close 11 city libraries. Some Council members want to hold additional public hearings on the closures, but City Council President Anna Verna has made clear that no such hearing will take place.

“We in Council are completely powerless at this time,” said Verna. “It's strictly up the Mayor. If we were to have public hearings from now until the first of January, it wouldn't do anything. Let me reiterate: We on Council are powerless at this point in time. The Mayor will do what he has to do.”

Verna went on to say that City Council and the public will have their say during the budget hearings that will begin in February. She believes that additional hearings will only give the public “false hope” that library closures can be reversed and the town hall meetings provide ample opportunity for public input.

Remember that legislation introduced by Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez that 12 people voted for? Forget it. Verna delayed the hearings until after the New Year so that they will not matter. Showing leadership is hard. Ducking is surprisingly easy.

Just two Councilpeople thus far- Quinones-Sanchez and Green- have shown leadership, and the willingness to actually ask what was going on. Two. Councilman Green, almost a month ago, submitted questions for the Administration to answer. Out of the 39 he asked, how many have been answered? Two.

Among the highly unreasonable questions that Green wanted answered were:

• What is the operating cost of each library?
• How much would it cost, broken down by library, to keep the 11 targeted branches open with reduced services (for example, maintaining internet access, after-school programs, and LEAP)?
• The Free Library has stated that it only had two choices to meet the 20% budget reduction it was given by the Administration: (1) reduce service to 3-days-a-week across the entire system; or (2) close 11 neighborhood libraries. Why wasn’t a hybrid approach considered?
• How did the Free Library account for the barriers – both physical and social – that exist between branches, such as major roads, unsafe areas, and so on?
• How many Philadelphia public schools currently have libraries?
• Of the public school-based libraries, how many are located in the neighborhoods where the Administration has proposed branch closures?

How unreasonable of him!

We are down to the final days here. Will anyone else from Council step up to the plate?

The rest of Green's questions are below the fold.

Questions posed to Nutter administration re library closures

[N.B. Strike-through indicates questions answered as of 12/12/08.]

•A description of the process used for deciding what branches to close.

•A description of the criteria the Administration used to make the closure decisions,
including the analysis of the criteria with respect to each of the 11 branches to be closed.

•A description of how Ms. Reardon would allocate the $8 million in reduced funding if it
was restored to the Free Library's budget.

•Data about the operating costs of each library, including how much it would cost to keep
open the 11 branches, broken down by library, but with reduced services (for example,
maintaining internet access, after-school programs, and LEAP).

•A copy of the proposal made by the Free Library to the Street Administration in 2005 for
a hub-and-spoke model that kept branch libraries open but implemented various service
reductions in order to reduce overall spending.

•What are the potential savings from eliminating overtime expenses at the libraries, for
instance by staffing branches from 12-8 p.m., rather than from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.?

•The re-balancing plan indicates that an $8 million reduction in the Free Library’s budget.

•Is this amount for just the balance of FY09 or is it annualized savings?

•If it is annualized, how much will the proposed cuts save in the remainder of FY09?

•Publicly and in the materials provided to Council, the Free Library has stated that it
only had two choices to meet the 20% budget reduction it was given by the
Administration: (1) reduce service to 3-days-a-week across the entire system; or (2)
close 11 neighborhood libraries.

•Why wasn’t a hybrid approach considered?

•For instance, if a particular library has very low usage on Mondays, Wednesdays, and
Fridays, couldn’t it be closed on those days? Or if another branch sees very few visitors
in the morning, couldn’t it be open only in the afternoon or evening?

•Has the Administration analyzed what form of transit citizens use to get to their
neighborhood branch libraries?

•If so, what is the typical mode of transit to the 11 branches proposed for closure?

•In a PhillyStat session on November 18, 2008, at which Ms. Reardon was present, an
Administration representative indicated that the City had measured the distance between
library branches by using GoogleEarth. Is that the case?

•Did library staff attempt to walk the distance from the branches scheduled to be closed to
the next closest branch or branches?

•How did the Free Library account for the barriers – both physical and social – that exist
between branches, such as major roads, unsafe areas, and so on?

•Did the Free Library talk with key stakeholders in these neighborhoods to gather
information about potential hazards when traveling from one branch to another?

•Seven of the 11 libraries proposed for closure are in the 9 high-crime police districts
targeted in Commissioner Ramsey’s crime plan. What plans are being put in place to
protect children, seniors, and other vulnerable library users in these high-crime districts,
who are being asked to travel additional distances to get to the nearest library?

•An argument has emerged that the Philadelphia public schools can provide library
resources to make up for the proposed branch closures.

•Over the past 10 years, has the School District been increasing or decreasing its support
for school-based libraries?

•How many Philadelphia public schools currently have libraries?

•How many librarians, broken down by full- or part-time, are currently employed by the
School District?

•Please describe Philadelphia’s public school-based libraries, including collections size,
hours, computers, availability to the general public, etc.

•Of the public school-based libraries, how many are located in the neighborhoods where
the Administration has proposed branch closures?

•Has the Free Library talked with the School District about its capacity to pick up
overflow from the proposed branch closures?

•The Administration has suggested that when considering the proposed library closures we
should look at the number of libraries in cities with similar population size to
Philadelphia.

•Has the Administration collected data on school-based library resources in the cities
being used as comparators? For instance, what are the school-based library resources in
San Antonio, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego, and Dallas?

•How does this compare with the school-based library resources in Philadelphia?

•With respect to number of libraries per square mile, has the Administration considered
different travel patterns and vehicle usage in Philadelphia versus the comparator cities
and how these factors impact the number of branches needed?

•For example, according to 2000 Census data, the average Philadelphia household had
1.51 vehicles, whereas in two of the comparator cities, San Diego and Dallas, the average
was 1.75 and 1.74, respectively.

•One reasonable conclusion from this data is that people in these comparator cities have
the ability to ravel farther to get to libraries and, as a result, that the cities need fewer
library branches per square mile. Has the Administration considered this?

•How do these cities compare to Philadelphia on key demographic points, such as poverty
rate, literacy rate, high-school drop-out rate, unemployment rate, etc.?

•Does the Administration disagree that the above-discussed factors are relevant when
considering cuts to our library system?

•Of the 11 branch libraries proposed to be closed, 8 have been renovated in the past 11
years: Durham (1999), Cohen (1997), Eastwick (1998), Fishtown (1997), Haddington
(2001), Holmesburg (1009), Kingsessing (1999), and Wasdworth (1999).

•Please describe, by library, what work the renovations entailed?

•How much was spent on these renovations in total and by library?

•How did the Administration take into account these recent infrastructure investments in
making its closing decisions?

•What is a Carnegie library?

•Of the 11 branch libraries proposed to be closed, four are Carnegie libraries –
Haddington, Holmesburg, Kingsessing, and Logan.

•What deed restrictions or other limitations are placed on the use of these Carnegie-funded
library buildings? [Deeds for Haddington and Holmesburg libraries contain use restriction clauses providing that the property reverts to the grantor if it is no longer used for a library.]

•How has the Administration taken these restrictions into account in its decision to target
these libraries for closure?

•During a PhillyStat session on November 18, 2008, regarding the budget cuts, Ms.
Reardon indicated that the Free Library had talked to the Friends of the Free Library
regarding the cuts before going public with them.

•Who did the Administration speak with at the Friends of the Free Library?

•When did this conversation take place?

•What topics were covered?

•Did this conversation include a discussion of the proposed branch closures?

•What other stakeholders did the Administration consult prior to announcing the proposed
cuts?