Piedmont Ponders the Value of Library Services

What's the value of a library card? 

That's the question Piedmont might find itself asking next month when the City Council again debates the future of its contract with Oakland for library services.   

Piedmont, a 1.8-square-mile city, has no library of its own. For decades, the city has contracted with Oakland, most recently paying $350,000 a year for unfettered access to the Oakland Public Library's holdings, including the services of the local branches in Montclair, Rockridge, and on Piedmont Avenue.

But that contract, which expired in 2008, might not be renewed because Oakland is now asking for more money than it seems Piedmont is willing to pay. Under the terms of that contract, signed in 1999, Piedmont had been paying for library services with general fund monies at the same rate Oakland puts in per capita from its general fund. But Oaklanders pay additionally for library services through a dedicated parcel tax of $75 to $85 per household.

"They want us to pay on the same basis as an Oakland resident," said Mark Bichsel, Piedmont's director of Finance.  "And we've run into a situation that with the politics we haven't yet reached an agreement." 

"There might be a better way of measuring what it costs to service a couple of thousand Piedmonters," said City Administrator Geoff Grote, who's been acting as Piedmont's negotiator.

Last year, 2,668 Piedmont residents used their Oakland Library card to collectively check out 87,687 items, according to Library Director Carmen Martinez. That compares to Oakland, where about 185,000 residents checked out a little more 2 million items. In other words, active cardholders from Piedmont are checking out three times as many items as their Oakland counterparts.

In the old days, those materials might be just books, but thanks to the eclectic collection of the state's second oldest library, they now also include things like sheet music, out-of-print collector's books or a splitting maul from the tool lending library on Telegraph Avenue. 

Martinez declined to discuss the contract negotiations, except to say that Piedmont's contribution is "a lot cheaper than maintaining a library." 

Piedmont is not the only city that contracts with Oakland for library services. Emeryville pays $80,000 a year for access. Active card users in Emeryville last year checked out almost 27,000 items, or about 23 items on average each, compared to Piedmont's 32 items on average for each active cardholder. 

Faced with the possibility of an increase in its contract, Emeryville shopped around and found that "Berkeley wanted to charge them way more than we do," Martinez said, so the city of almost 7,000 is back at the table with Oakland. 

The contracts are just a small portion of the Oakland Public Library's $23 million budget. 

When Piedmont's 10-year contract with Oakland expired in 2008, Oakland sent a bill for $350,000 to cover the next year, the same as the last year of the contract, according to Geoff Grote, Piedmont's administrator. Early in 2009, Grote said he asked for a new five-year contract with a 5 percent increase on the $350,000 base. 

"They did not respond to that offer until a meeting in April 2010," Grote said. "At that point they said no. That what we would need to pay was full parity." 

Grote budgeted $395,000 for the 2009-10 fiscal year, but in the absence of a contract, Piedmont's City Council cut that amount to $350,000, he said, noting that Oakland has now billed Piedmont for the higher number. 

"Since everybody can get a library card, whether the city pays it or not, why is the city paying so much money?"  Grote asked. 

Having library cards in various counties throughout the state, Piedmont Patch contributor Jackie Ginley decided to see whether she could get one in Oakland using a Nevada County I.D. Check in with Piedmont Patch tomorrow to see what happened. 

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Piedmont Patch Editor Amy Jeffries contributed to this report.