It’s just another band-aid. And it’s not even a good one at that. Rather more like those cheap, generic brand band-aids you buy 
at the dollar store.
But Miami-Dade Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez, who didn’t listen to the people when they voted to increase their own taxes for improved animal services, has turned his other deaf ear to a community that has repeatedly told him “We value our libraries.”
A Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce poll to be released later today will indicate that voters across the county — in every single commission district — support a tax increase in their library millage or tax rate, Ladra was told by a couple of sources. At least 400 calls were made in each district and support is across ethnic, racial and economic level lines.
Oh, Gimenez is not shutting any of them down completely. Or at least that’s what he says, because I keep hearing the Country Club of Miami branch is slated to be closed. He’s not cutting hours, as he had cried wolf ab0ut before. The mayor is simply firing 95 librarians or so and turning some full-timers to part-timers… but somehow spreading them out across the same facilities for the same number of hours?
Really? And he says he’s not a magician!
Read related story: Voila! Libaries are magically saved… but what else could be?
The Friends of the Miami-Dade Public Library and the mayor’s own library tax force have recommended that 
libraries be funded at the full $64 million they need to operate at current levels and continue to provide programs and current materials and new books. What a concept! And what about the new libraries in areas that need them, like Hialeah Gardens. They operated with a $53 million budget this year and that was shoestring. Advocates say we need room for growth. Bricks and mortar are already funded under the Building Better Communities general obligation bond but the operating budget and any reserves that can start to accumulate would pay for staff and materials for new branches in communities already identified with a large and growing need, like Hialeah Gardens.
Yet, earlier today, when the mayor went to the Miami Herald editorial board to discuss budget matters, he actually said he “wouldn’t know what to do with” a $64 million budget for libraries, according to a tweet from Doug Hanks, who was there. He’s either dumber than he looks or he thinks we are.
“Shocking” said Lynn Summers, a volunteer and advocate who has been leading the charge to inform the public, and the administration, about the library system’s funding needs and the services it provides.
“It has been explained to him ad nauseum, over and over again and in detail. We put it up on a website,” Summers said about the Coalition to Save Miami-Dade Public Libaries. “Maybe the air is thin on the 29th floor.”
Or maybe Gimenez could have spent a little more time in libraries growing up.
On Tuesday, Gimenez unveiled a budget that allocates only $45 million. And it would have been $42 mil if not for the fire department taxes he’s dipping into this year to make ends meet. Something Ladra has to look into and do “more on that later,” since some people live in the county library district but not the fire district (Coral Gables, Miami Beach, Miami) and some people live in the fire district but not the library district.
No matter. Because that $3 million is a drop in the bucket anyway that library advocates say makes no real difference — it just makes the mayor look good. Or less bad.
Summers said that hiring part timers requires the currently and now spread thin library staff to train and supervise entry level book clerks, let’s call them. My words, not hers. “You are disabling the system with that idea,” she said.
“It makes no sense,” said Terry Murphy, a board member of Friends of the Miami-Dade Public Library. “You’re going to have regional branches were you have one person who opens the door and closes the doors, but are you going to get any services? No.”
Most big metropolitan libraries, for example, order 40 or 50 copies of the latest best seller. In Miami-Dade, the purchases are in single digits and you’ll be on a waiting list for weeks to read it.
“People in Miami-Dade deserve to go to their library and get a current best-seller, not something from 2002,” Murphy said.
Well, actually, Gimenez — who won’t raise taxes to save someone’s life, literally — thinks libraries are moot. Their time has come and gone, in his view. He’s
practically said so on several occasions since they first came under his knife last year. They apparently were more useful to him in the years before that — as he quietly siphoned funds from library reserves and transferred library millage or tax dollars to the general fund. And they only survived the last budget process because — after dozens of people went up to the mic at the county budget hearing and said they would pay more taxes for libraries — Gimenez, in those eight hours, found money in the reserves to keep them all open.
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To further disenfranchise those already economically disenfranchised is callous. Many of the residents who utilize the libraries don’t even pay property taxes because they can’t afford homes. The paradigm of folks not willing to pay a nominal increase of 20$ to fund library services is fallacious. It really boils down to a moral question as to what kind of community Miami-Dade is going to be. To pull the rug out from beneath people who rely on their libraries to utilize egovernment resources, job search resources, resume building, training on how to use technology, early literacy initiatives for harried parents who often work two jobs to make ends meet, and to offer safe places for our youth isn’t a question of “bean counting;” it’s a question of kindness and a question of offering assistance to those who need it most. Libraries have been a beacon of hope for the less fortunate and for the newly arrived to our great nation since the 19th century. To remove that beacon for those without a voice seems irresponsible at best. Where will these people turn? What government service will offer them in-kind services? What will the cost be to our civic health?
As I sat amongst thousands awaiting the July 4th fireworks display, I realized that those around me had exerted so much effort: facing potential downpours, traffic, mosquitos, plus high humidity in order to participate in this patriotic bonding experience. So many hold this annual ritual dear. While it would have been much easier to fire up the home barbeque and watch the spectacle on television, the authenticity and the sense of community, is what we seek. That’s why the public library means so much, to so many. At the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Panel discussing libraries, I watched Mayor Gimenez hold up his IPad and equate it to an entire library. That makes as much sense as watching virtual fireworks from a computer screen saver.
copy of email sent to Commissioners:
Mayor Gimenez has created a horrible and unpardonable situation for the children and citizens of Miami-Dade. He, and he alone, is responsible for the destruction of OUR Library system.
A system that was a Nationally recognized Award Winner. And it received this title BEFORE Gimenez was mayor. He came in and, like a thief, he took out HALF of the Library’s budget (slashing the millage to .17)
WHY? WHY would ANYONE tamper with what was working so well and for so long?
Do not be taken along for the death ride by Gimenez. Anyone that cannot see the beauty and benefits of Libraries to a people, does not deserve to lead and rule over those people in any way.
Set the Library’s millage at .49 –that is the least that can be done to enable the Library system to recover from the knockout blow that Gimenez cruelly gave it when he came into office. Our Libraries are the most noble, sacred, and USEFUL services of our county. For over half a century, the citizens have NEVER complained about the Library’s millage, in fact, we WANT to pay for OUR Libraries!!!
ONE HALF of 1% is such a tiny, tiny part of the 4 BILLION dollar budget. Leave it alone!!!
You were elected to be on the County Commission to do what is best for the people of the county. I cannot imagine that you are in any way ignorant in not knowing that Libraries are most needed when the economy, and the community, is struggling. We NEED Our Libraries!!
LET US PAY FOR OUR LIBRARIES!!!!! (In fact, we need MORE Libraries, as our county grows in number.)
Most importantly, we need Our Libraries to be OPEN ALL DAY, EVERY DAY!!! And staffed with highly trained and qualified personnel. When you seek answers and information, don’t you want it to be from the highest trained, most knowledgeable person? Or do you seek professional advice from just anyone? Librarians are the gurus, and tech experts of our society.
Do what you KNOW is the right thing: Set the Library’s millage to .49
Leave well enough alone!
Ladra should also correct error about the funding sources for most of the expansions and renovations, 2000-2013. Most were funded from the library taxing district, not from GO Bonds.
Can the librarians of MDPLS spend $64 million effectively and prudently? Gimenez says he has doubts. But the librarians have already (and recently) demonstrated that they can. When they had the proper support, MDPLS raised “items circulated” from 6 million to 9 million. They know how to do it.
See below for actual and projected items circulated and patron contacts. Projected were estimated when the library had a real budget, but Gimenez, by cutting budgeted expenses, cut services.
2006-2013
Materials Borrowed/Items Check Out:
(Includes materials circulated – print, audio, video, e-books – plus In-House Usage, and PC Usage.
Actual Projection
(From 2011-16StrategicPlan)
Year ending Sept 2006 6,760,531
Year ending Sept 2007 7,582,519
Year ending Sept 2008 7,834,828
Year ending Sept 2009 8,900,065
Year ending Sept 2010 9,224,050
Year ending Sept 2011 8,132,818 9,685,253
Year ending Sept 2012 6,718,933 10,169,516
Year ending Sept 2013 6,143,818 10, 677,992
Patron Contacts/Total Number of Customer Contacts
(Sum of Door Count, Virtual Door Count, Attendance at Programs, and Informational Questions Answered)
Actual Projection (From SP 2011-2016)
Year ending Sept 2006 14,280,995
Year ending Sept 2007 18,503,964
Year ending Sept 2008 17,766,708
Year ending Sept2009 20,838,488
Year ending Sept2010 23,026,231
Year Ending Sept 2011 22,155,529 24,177,543
Year Ending Sept 2012 18,903,907 25,386,420
Year Ending Sept 2013 17,487,653 26,655,741