Piedmont, Oakland Reach Apparent Library Agreement

The Piedmont City Council on Monday night authorized the city administrator to re-commence negotiations with Oakland to pay a library services fee for 2009-2010, and to reach common ground on a fee for 2010-11 and a formula for the future.

The common ground was apparently already there for the 2009-10 fee. A special assistant to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said Tuesday that on April 15 Oakland had accepted a Piedmont offer of $350,941 for fiscal 2009-10.

“We are engaged in a productive process with the City of Piedmont on how to provide quality library services,” said Sue Piper. “As the former chair of the League of Cities and Urban School Boards Association, Mayor Quan is a strong proponent of collaborative efforts.”

At Monday night’s meeting, Piedmont City Administrator Geoff Grote said he had received an invoice for $350,941 April 15 but was still unsure because of ambiguities in other messages from Oakland officials.

Piedmont Mayor Dean Barbieri told the council and audience— including seven speakers who urged Piedmont to pay its fair share—that he had talked with Quan at an Alameda County Mayors Conference meeting last month and said, “If you want the $350,000 we have budgeted for 2009-10, you may have it tomorrow.”

Quan turned the offer down, Barbieri said, saying that it was not enough.

“We are trying to pay our fair share,” Barbieri said.

Piper said the conversation Barbieri was alluding to has been superseded by the new agreement.

As for future negotiations, Piper said, “Any new contract—for future years—would require Oakland City Council approval. The discussions on that are occurring between the library director and the City of Piedmont administrative staff.”

The Piedmont council voted 4-0 Monday to reopen of negotiations, with Councilwoman Margaret Fujioka recusing herself because she is an employee of the City of Oakland.

At the meeting, a representative of Oakland library workers, taking note of the accounts of Piedmont leaders, pointed out to the council there was apparent agreement. Dwight McElroy, president of the City of Oakland Chapter of the Service Employees International Union (representing library staff), said the disagreement was over an increase of $45,000, and potentially more, sought by Oakland.

Saying that three or four people’s jobs hung in the balance, McElroy suggested Piedmont and Oakland reach agreement over the $350,000 and let city lawyers “deal with the disputed funds.”

“The $350,000 is not in dispute,” McElroy said. “There’s a legal way to deal with it.”

Piedmont has no municipal library. In 2008, a 10-year run of agreements between the two cities expired. According to Grote’s report for the council, on March 3, 2009, Piedmont indicated it was prepared to enter into a five-year agreement for library services with a 5 percent fee increase per year starting with the 2007-08 fee of $350,471 as a base.

There was no formal response from Oakland until a meeting in April 2010, Grote said. That’s when Oakland officials rejected the Piedmont offer because they wanted Piedmont to pay more, meeting the per-capita contributions of Oakland residents with money coming from both the general fund and Oakland’s library tax, according to Grote’s report.

Carmen Martinez, director of the Oakland Public Library, , said that Oakland officials felt Piedmont last year had reneged on an agreement to pay $395,000 as an interim level with talks to continue about a higher fee based on per-capita numbers and increased library costs.

A number of Piedmont residents, Oakland residents and Oakland library staff attended Monday night’s council meeting to urge the council to resolve the pay dispute and pay Piedmont’s share.

Tam Hege, president of the League of Women Voters of Piedmont, said she had served on a couple of library committees over the years. “We believe that as a responsible member of the Bay Area community, Piedmont should pay its fair share for quality library services.”

“There’s a new mayor in Oakland who has some issues,” Hege said. “And one of them is parity.”

Hege noted that in the past, part of the fees paid covered the cost of an Oakland libraries bookmobile that regularly visited Piedmont. That bookmobile has been felled by the budget ax.

“We value education in the form of public schools,” said Tom Walters of Piedmont. “We should also value public libraries. We need to pay for the services that we use.”

“My fellow workers are here to support a fair resolution to the fee issue,” said Alison Bowman, an employee of the Oakland libraries. Noting the budgetary cuts that have meant reduced hours and services, she said, “Please support the libraries and literacy in our time of need.”

“If you ride the bus, you pay the fare,” said Paul Worthman of Berkeley, who advised the council not to adopt the attitude: “Just because the bus is going from one end of town to the other end, and it’s going there anyway, why should I pay?”

In the discussion before the council vote, Councilman Jeff Wieler said, “It’s clear that we’re prepared to provide that ($350,000) at any moment … I support library services and I believe the money we pay for library services in the future should be dedicated to library services.”

Councilman Garrett Keating asked that when the issue comes up again, staff provide analysis about Piedmonters’ use of the Oakland libraries.