Should we renew the library tax this time around?
Measure W needs a two-thirds majority vote to extend a one-eighth-cent sales tax to support the Sonoma County Library system
When Measure Y passed with 72 percent of the vote in November 2016, it authorized a one-eighth of a cent countywide sales tax to help fund the Sonoma County Library system until March of 2027. Since then, that measure has brought between $12-16 million of extra funding to the county’s library system a year.
The sales tax now funds approximately 40 percent of the library’s expenditures, while the countywide property tax makes up the other 60 percent. With Measure Y funding set to expire in a couple of years, the library system and its supporters hope that at least two-thirds of Sonoma County voters will extend said funding by voting for Measure W.
Measure Y required an oversight committee, which has reported on spending for the past several years. Those reports have shown that, thanks to Measure Y, the library has extended hours, stabilized internet connections, added furniture and diversified offerings such as literacy and Spanish language programs.
The library has also increased its circulation to 4.4 million items a year and has expanded its digital offerings which include free access to films, newspapers and magazines, along with a panoply of online education resources.
“Library spending on physical and digital resources that we make available to the public for free has more than doubled since before the passage of Measure Y and is now at more than $4 million a year, the highest ever,” the library’s Community Relations Manager Ray Holley said. “We are improving the physical experience at every library, from new carpets, to seismic-safe shelving, to upgraded public computers, to energy-efficient LED lighting, to multi-million dollar modernization projects, like the two in progress now in Petaluma and Healdsburg.”
The county library system has increased its total staff by 70 percent since 2017 and has moved its headquarters from the basement of the Santa Rosa Central Library to a 28,000+ square feet space in Rohnert Park, which is rented out for close to $45,000 a month, according to Holley.
Unlike Measure Y, this year’s Measure W has no sunset clause. The voters would have to introduce another measure to overturn it.
Holley says that the library proposed this arrangement after a poll they conducted showed that the public would rather set the tax in stone than have to vote again in ten years.
Holley also said that the library decided to put the measure on the ballot this year—rather than in 2026 when the Measure Y funds would be on the verge of expiring—so that the library could begin budgeting for future projects.
“We’ve seen that the people want to help us keep our financial stability,” Holley said.
Why some Sebastopol Library supporters oppose Measure W
The opposition to Measure W is coming mostly from Sebastopol and West County, where many feel that the Sebastopol Library, the third-most popular library in the county, hasn’t gotten its fair share of Measure Y money.
“A lot of money has gone into building this enormous corporate entity,” said Walt Frazer, a former member of the Measure Y Oversight Committee, who co-signed the ballot argument against Measure W. “Some of it has to go down to the branches, to the real libraries.”
“It’s not about centralized control, and it’s not about uniformity,” Frazer continued. “What the community of Guerneville wants, what the community of Rohnert Park wants, what the community of Cloverdale wants—they're all different from what Sebastopol wants.”
Some members of the Friends of the Sebastopol Library, the Sebastopol Library Advisory Board, and the Sebastopol City Council share Frazer’s dissatisfaction with the current library administration and their control of everything from the temperature to the security cameras at the Sebastopol branch. These are things that former Branch Manager Mathew Rose passionately—if at times recklessly—brought to the attention of the library administration and the Sebastopol City Council before he was fired.
Chair of the Sebastopol Library Advisory Board Dena Bliss wrote one of the ballot arguments against Measure W:
“We are ready to help draft a better Measure W that would take effect after Measure Y’s sunset,” she wrote, “one that would assure these improvements: (1) a sunset clause that places a time limit on sales tax funding; (2) empowerment of a truly functioning, independent Oversight Committee that could constrain imprudent financial decisions by management; (3) a participatory, transparent process for arriving at budget decisions, to let the public know, in laypersons’ language, where money is being spent; (4) specific apportionment of sales tax revenue to assure adequate branch library staffing, operations, and public services, with concomitant limits on the creation of unnecessary administrative positions; and (5) periodic staffing studies that would develop a personnel master plan to insure fair distribution of resources to staff each branch’s public services.”
Sebastopol Mayor Diana Rich, Sebastopol City Councilmember Stephen Zollman, who is the council’s liaison to the Sebastopol Library, former Sebastopol Councilmember Sarah Gurney, who is currently on the Measure Y Oversight Committee, and Sebastopol Library Commissioner Fred Engbarth are all voting against Measure W.
“I am generally a big supporter of libraries, and so that makes me really want to support the extension of the library tax,” Rich said. “It saddens me to say that I can’t bring myself to do it. It’s just too much money ($18 million annually!), with too few accountability protections. Especially as a member of the Sebastopol community, I keep asking myself what reassurances we have that our community members are getting their fair share of this tax.”
“Folks who have researched this and/or have experienced the stranglehold Admin has on the [Library] Commission will vote no,” Gurney wrote to the Sebastopol Times. “Folks in our big service area love our library branch and want to see it thrive with more staff, more funding, and an adequate public space as the social service hub of the West County.”
The question for Sebastopol voters this November will be whether they are willing to overcome their feelings about the firing of Rose and other issues to ensure continued funding for the Sonoma County Library system by voting yes on Measure W, or whether they’d like to encourage the administration to go back to the drawing board by voting no.
I can't believe I am going to vote "no" on Measure W. The daughter of librarians and teachers, I've never opposed a school or library tax. But with the firing of Matthew Rose, I cannot support the current administration. It's a relief to see how many people I respect feel the same way.
I agree with Jude. Plus I’m less and less a fan of taxes like this that don’t sunset.