Huntington Beach has taken steps toward privatizing its public library system after a contentious city council meeting where more than 100 people spoke out on the proposal.
The city council on Tuesday voted 4-3 to direct officials to request proposals for outsourcing its public library system to a private company, other county governments, or another third party.
That came after a more than four-hour public meeting, during which some library staff and supporters expressed concerns that the change will lead to a decline in quality, services, and community connection.
Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark, however, pushed back, saying it would be irresponsible to not explore other options to save taxpayer money, a message echoed by some of her conservative colleagues on the council majority.
The move comes amid fierce debates over content and control in the city’s library system in recent months.
The city was approached by a company, Library Systems & Services (LS&S), in late January with a proposal that it could cut costs of running the city's four-branch library system by $1 million a year.
It’s the only full-service, outsourcing company of its kind for libraries across the country, according to Michael Posey, a former Huntington Beach mayor and city councilmember who currently works for LS&S.
California is their biggest market, he told LAist, including Riverside County, Moreno Valley, Escondido, Simi Valley, and Palmdale.
“I said, 'Do you guys want to save some money, and have a better library?'” Posey said about the proposal to Huntington Beach. “We can do it, and that sparked some interest.”
Specifically, he said LS&S could cut costs on back office functions, including the city’s integrated library system license, collection management, marketing, community outreach, and website.
Dozens of Huntington Beach Public Library employees spoke out against the outsourcing proposal at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Melissa Ronning, a resident and principal librarian, told the council that staff will leave Huntington Beach for other libraries, taking their decades of institutional knowledge with them.
“These are the people who will not have comparable salaries that enable them to pay their mortgages each month when working for a company like LS&S,” she said. “These are the same people who will no longer have health insurance to take care of their families by working for a company like LS&S.”
Ronning told LAist the library has a lot of young employees that are the sole providers for their households, paying off student loans, and relying on the city insurance. She worries that those benefits will disappear if the library is managed by a private company.
She said she’s also concerned about the quality of the collection if the library system is outsourced.
For example, Ronning said they’ve been curating Vietnamese titles for the city’s large Vietnamese community, but LS&S is more focused on popular titles.
Posey confirmed that the company weeds out “slow movers” and replaces them with “fast movers” as a way to increase visits and circulation.
Carol Daus, a Huntington Beach resident and volunteer with the Friends of the Huntington Beach Public Library, told LAist that many of their nearly 1,000 volunteers will stop donating their time — and money.
“They won't stay in the library,” she said. “Some have gone as far as telling me that they won't even step foot into the library.”
She said the nonprofit organization also donates about $250,000 a year to the library, much of it to purchase books, but she expects that money to stop if it's going to a private company instead.
Daus added that she’s puzzled as to why the city is considering outsourcing when the library is such a small percentage of the budget.
“So if they make minor cuts in our library, that won't even go back to the library,” she said. “We will be left with a hollowed out library that just resembles some corporate hub of a for-profit, private company without any transparency.”
Councilmember Dan Kalmick said the city has a major transparency issue, and he’s not sure how the request for proposals even ended up on the agenda.
He said neither he nor other residents have seen LS&S’ unsolicited proposal, and the council needs to show how they got here.
Kalmick said that the promised savings doesn’t account for an anticipated drop in donations from Friends of the Huntington Beach Public Library and Friends of the Children's Library of Huntington Beach if the library is outsourced.
He also said LS&S will likely have to make up the $300,000 those organizations provide each year, which would cut into the city’s savings.
“Libraries are one of the last places in this country, in the world, in society where you're not expected to spend money to be there,” Kalmick said. “To take something that literally gives things away for free, and try to make a profit doing that. Like, where does that come from?”
Councilmember Pat Burns said it’s just a request for options, and he doesn’t see any harm in seeing what outsourcing can offer. He also criticized some community groups for using “fear tactics” and not giving the process a fair chance.
“We can always negotiate into the contract quality control metrics and other deal points to address any concerns we may have,” he said.
Burns said the city will always have ultimate control of the library, and it’s premature to pass judgment on the idea until all the facts are known.
Councilmember Natalie Moser said it sounds like the city will get to keep the buildings and the books, but give away the gift inside.
She said the public library system is the heart of the city, pulsing with shared aspirations and dreams.
“This is not merely a financial transaction,” Moser said. “It is a measure of our commitment to the very soul of our city. “
