Politics & Government

Annexation Vote: Two Outside Perspectives for Enumclaw's Consideration

Patch spoke with KCLS spokesperson Julie Brand as well as Renton City Councilperson Marcie Palmer for insights into what Enumclaw voters might want to know ahead of the April 17 election.

What kind of library do you envision for the city of Enumclaw?

If voters approve annexation, King County Library System (KCLS) would keep hours of operation at the Enumclaw library somewhere between the 59-hour to 63-hour per week range.

That's per the library transfer agreement drafted and approved between the city of Enumclaw and KCLS, said KCLS spokesperson Julie Brand. The range allows for some flexibility, she said, but either way, it's an improvement from the 36 hours a week that the city library is currently able to remain in operation.

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Different Concept of 'Library Services'

It is also true that KCLS databases and online resources would be available at each library, including Enumclaw, she said. There's no favoring one library over another in this respect and that access to the system's extensive collection of books, multimedia and more is a large reason why KCLS was named Library of the Year in 2011 by Library Journal (read the article).

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"We were also the highest circulating library in the nation," Brand said, "with the highest circulation of e-books. We invest a lot in our collection."

Renton City Councilperson Marcie Palmer, who was the lone vote against annexation in Renton two years ago, doesn't discount that KCLS is indeed worthy of the library recognition, but from the perspective of a typical library user, her local library has considerably less books than before annexation.

Within a month of Renton's annexation vote passing, photos began circulating by local bloggers of entire dumpsters filled with discarded books from Renton libraries as KCLS staff began to take over (see The Picaroon).

"They don't keep certain things," Palmer said. "That was shocking they were just throwing things away."

The Renton Reporter later followed up with KCLS director Bill Ptacek, who said the photos were taken after library staff went through a large collection of surplus books but that the library "has been tearing and tossing books forever." (Read that story). As a public entity, KCLS could not give the books away and a process needed to be followed to remove the books from the system, he said.

This was a fate that members of the Enumclaw Library Board had feared for the city collection, and according to former Board member Charles Sansone, neither KCLS nor the city have been able to provide details for him about what will happen to the current collection.

Those details likely won't be determined unless voters do approve annexation and KCLS staff can begin to assess what is currently in the city collection, Brand said.

Meanwhile, in Renton, whole stacks and rows of shelves were removed from the library because they were empty, Palmer said. "We used to be able to go there to look for books. Now, there's very little to browse. You go to the computer, put in what you want, find out if it's around, pick it up and leave. ... It's a very different concept of library services."

Books and Computers

Palmer's observations were supported by a recent Email to the Editor submitted by Sansone after he'd studied the children's collection at a selection of KCLS libraries and concluded several left something to be desired ().

Brand disagrees that KCLS no longer values the 'browsing' experience though "we know the majority of people will place a hold on a book," she said. "But that's all part of the library experience were you go in and you discover something that you may not have thought about checking out. ... Granted, technology has changed the way people access the collection but it hasn't really minimized or diminished the desire or need people have to browse and come across something that might pique their interest or curiosity. We've invested a lot in our library in terms of our wayfinding so when people walk into a library, they can clear see the different areas."

Brand explained that KCLS has a collections policy it follows when determining what will reside within each library and it factors in details like the local community's demographics and population size. A community with a smaller population of children would see a smaller children's collection, she said.

With computers, however, communities in which it was determined that fewer people have computers at home received more computer terminals, such as in Kent, Brand said.

"Obviously, with different libraries, there are space limitations but we certainly look at each library to understand what the computer needs are in each community," she said.

According to the city's , the library currently has 14 Internet-enabled public computers. "I'd wager to guess we would typically have more [computers] than currently exists in the library," Brand said.

A Look at Taxes

In Renton, residents were paying between 19 cents and 20 cents per $1,000 assessed value for library services prior to annexation, Palmer said. When annexation was approved, Renton residents also began to pay into the 50 cents per $1,000 AV levied by KCLS. "We paid double," Palmer said. The problem was the city never said ahead of time whether it would stop collecting the city taxes if annexation were approved.

"After the election, Council voted to keep collecting it," Palmer said. "It would go to pay bonds for two new libraries we were required to build with KCLS." (Read Renton Patch's coverage of the ongoing downtown Renton Library debate.)

The Enumclaw City Council pre-empted any questions about the city tax during its March 12 meeting in which it passed Resolution 1449 stating it would not roll back city taxes if annexation were approved and city voters would begin to pay the KCLS 50 cents per $1,000 AV levy. A vote for annexation in Enumclaw, then, means a tax increase.

Concerns that KCLS might later exceed its statutory maximum of 50 cents per $1,000 AV, however, are not necessary, said Brand. "There's nothing we can do to exceed 50 cents," she said.

KCLS has historically gone to voters every seven to eight years seeking a levy lid left after market forces combined with existing state law help bring the levy rate below 50 cents. The last vote occurred in 2010 (same year as the Renton annexation) to bump the rate back up to the 50 cents per $1,000 AV max, she said.

'The Issue that Never Ends'

Palmer said she read Renton's transfer agreement with KCLS 'cover to cover' multiple times and it was why she was against annexation from the start.

In Renton, she said, annexation came out of nowhere. "The city never went to citizens and said we were in a budget crisis and services will go," she said. "'Are you willing to pay more to keep the library?' They never asked that question. They just put it on a ballot: 'Do you want to annex?' And the information that came out was that if you don't, you won't have libraries in the future. A lot of people voted that way because they believed that was the way they kept the libraries."

As a patron of the Renton library system, she said she didn't like the idea of not having local control. Per their annexation transfer document, Palmer also had an issue with asking city taxpayers to fund two new libraries and then "handing the keys over to KCLS."

Two years later, that agreement has again divided the city over those who want to proceed with constructing a new downtown library and those, like Palmer, who see no reason for the library to move.

"It's the issue that never ends," she said.

The Renton Council's latest action was to state it was again open to exploring new options to determine if it can bring the location of the downtown library to a vote of the people, after it initially rejected a petition Monday with more than 9,000 signatures (6,383 of which were validated by King County Elections) from the Citizens for the Preservation of Renton's Cedar River Library (Read Renton Patch's coverage of the ongoing downtown Renton Library debate.)

The prospect of a lawsuit hung in the air prior to the Council's reversal, and for Palmer, it was a sad indication of what happens when things are not clear when irreversible decisions are made. "The city has deeper pockets, but if we went to litigation, it's taxpayer money that would be used to fight the citizens. How sad is that?"

Takeaways for Enumclaw

Citing KCLS' recognition as a cutting-edge and leading library system in the nation, Brand said, "I think it would certainly be appropriate to say that in terms of a library system, we have a really comprehensive collection that people will want to use to check out physical books, digital books, downloadable music, movies and more. I'd say they [Enumclaw voters] would be confident that if they chose to annex, that they'd be a part of a system that understands how important these collections are to people."

At the Renton Highlands library, KCLS has seen circulation up "some astronomical amount," she said, hovering at around a 38 percent increase. "It's actually pretty large and we've seen that play out."

Palmer advises more caution. In hindsight, she said, it appeared that many people in Renton didn't realize, prior to annexation, that they could use KCLS services through a reciprocal agreement -- Enumclaw has one too. "If you have questions, vote no. KCLS will be there when you're ready, if you're ready in the future. If you haven't investigated options like if people are willing to pay more -- if those things haven't been explored to the satisfaction of the majority of people, take the time to vote no. Once it's done, that's it."

At Renton's Council meeting this past Monday, people were standing up and saying "we were deceived," Palmer said. Fifty three votes put annexation into the 'yes' column for Renton, and there remains much contention over the motivation and honesty behind the campaign. (See this Seattle Times story) Politics aside, "We used to have a children's librarian who would know the kids and parents when they came in," Palmer said. "I couldn't tell you who goes to Story Time any more."

Read More:

On Enumclaw Patch:

On Renton Patch: Downtown Renton Library Debate


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