The People of Boston Branches reports tonight that the Boston City Council today passed the mayor’s budget for FY11, with library closings solidly postponed for nine months, reduced staff layoffs from the more than 100 envisioned earlier, and revised rules for governance of the BPL by an expanded board of trustees that will include five new members. FOSEL was unable to stay at the City Council budget meeting for the vote, which proceeded slowly due to last-minute negotiations between the mayor’s office and the council. The council chamber was filled with library supporters, many from organized labor, who loudly and passionately applauded and yelped each time someone uttered the words “Boston Public Library.”

Brandon Apps, the post-doctoral psychology fellow who forged the citywide library friends group out of the firestorm that erupted late this winter when the BPL proposed to close up to a third of its branches and lay off more than 100 library staff, sent the news brief (in italics below) this evening. I am posting it in a (very slightly) edited version. Heeere’s Brandon…..

Well, the budget passed with a lot of running around City Hall today.  It was a hard vote for all the councillors, and some of the councillors we worked with closely had to vote YES on this budget even though they wanted to do more for the library.  They had to vote this way to save jobs and keep the mayor open to working with the community.  No one believed that this was the best outcome possible and everyone working with us wanted desperately to do more.

To the very end, Councillor Felix Arroyo fought hard for more jobs for our library staff and got them.  The final numbers are not actually known, but the central branch may ultimately be looking at fewer than 30 layoffs.  Arroyo was joined by Councillor Maureen Feeney in his attempts; both were fierce defenders of the Central Library.

On the BPL trustee front, a home rule petition to improve the governance of the BPL passed unanimously, meaning it moves on to the state legislature without a hearing, where it is expected to pass and come back to the mayor.  The petition gives the trustees the power to fundraise and increases their number to 13.  There are currently eight trustees on the nine-member board, so we are looking at five new members.  It is a major transformation of the board; we will be around to watch the mayor’s appointments to the board and object to unqualified appointees, if necessary.

The mayor and BPL chairman Jeffrey Rudman are both in favor of the petition, so all of this should go through before the end of the month. City Council President Michael Ross and Councillor Ayanna Pressley joined Councillor Arroyo on this measure and should be commended for their leadership and for transforming the board as we know it.  Again, this petition gives us a chance to transform the way that the BPL board of trustees does business, as well as get some new people involved in overseeing the library.

On the citizen’s side, Councillor Pressley is very concerned that we continue to have a voice in this process and we will work with her to make sure that we do.

The branches still have a guaranteed nine months more thanks to District Councillor Mark Ciommo.  With fundraising and community support, we can extend this process beyond nine months, so we’ll be getting to work immediately on that.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not point out that our staunch supporters Councillors Chuck Turner and Charles Yancey stuck with us to the end and voted NO on a budget that they did not believe in.

I want to quickly point out that the state budget also passed with the amendments to restrict $2.4 million in library funding if the branches slated for closing (Faneuil, Washington Village, Lower Mills and Orient Heights) do not remain open through FY11.  Here is how this is going to go down:  The state appropriates the money quarterly and, as long as the city is complying with the law when the appropriation occurs, the money will likely be appropriated.  No branch closure will be scheduled before the last quarterly appropriation at the beginning of the fourth fiscal quarter (April 2011).  Thus, the BPL will still receive the full $2.4 million.  In theory, the state could withhold the money, knowing that the city intends to break the law in the fourth quarter, but that is unlikely to happen.

Your advocacy and support brought this issue to the attention of so many councillors and state legislators.  I know that we all were looking to plug the full $3.6 million gap and be on our way, but we also know now that the library leadership wanted to close libraries to impose its vision of a library transformation, not necessarily because of a shortage of money. The battle we fought was much bigger than we ever expected, and these results are big wins for us.  We earned the attention of a lot of councillors and legislators, and will save branches and jobs in FY12 because the BPL likely would rather not pick a fight with us again.

Thanks to everyone for their support.  Over the next few months this campaign will also be re-organizing and changing shape.  I’ll keep in touch and let people know how to stay updated and stay active as we figure that out.

Boston city councillors, state representatives and library advocates engaged in what at times seemed to be hand-to-hand combat with BPL trustees and president Amy Ryan to avoid library closings and staff layoffs. A Brighton resident at the Monday hearing told the BPL, “Thanks you for your time, but we’re at war. It’s the little people against the BPL. The mayor is not our friend. State and city representatives are our only recourse.”

Repeated questioning by elected officials of the trustees finally led to an understanding that if city and state budgets could allow for a few million extra dollars, libraries might remain open but layoffs would continue. City Council president Mike Ross said he would take this up with his colleagues at the State House. Previously, BPL leadership had declined to agree to keep libraries open if funds were to be found, leading some to conclude that the proposed closings were part of a long-term strategy rather than borne of financial necessity.

But continuing tension between the BPL and elected officials was evident from the fingerpointing as to who caused the library funding crisis, as well as a growing frustration by library advocates over the BPL’s lack of fundraising and advocacy for branches. “I find your relationship with the Massachusetts Legislature outrageous,” said an emotional Byron Rushing, state representative for the South End. “You’ve done a bad job, and I am saying this in public because since I have told you this in private, nothing has changed. You have sent us awful lobbyists. You have to figure out how to have a regular relationship with this legislature.”

Even though reports had circulated prior to the hearing that  library closings might not take place, it became evident during Monday’s discussion at Rabb Hall that only a postponement was in the works, ostensibly because the mayor had become concerned about the impact of vacant buildings on communities. BPL president Amy Ryan said various efforts were underway, funded by library trusts, to “repurpose” the library buildings to mitigate the impact in the four affected neighborhoods (Brighton’s Oak Square, East Boston’s Orient heights, South Boston’s Washington Village and Dorchester’s Lower Mills).

Trust funds for libraries are usually intended to enrich libraries, not help close them, which is generally considered an operational expense.

Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry said she was “taken aback” by the trustees’ direction. “Now it’s a discussion about how to get an extension for nine months to see what else we can do with the empty buildings,” Dorcena-Forry said, exasperated. “I want you to postpone the closings so we can discuss how to keep them open.”

Rep. Martha Walz, who introduced herself as the daughter and sister of a librarian, said “we want to plan for the success of keeping the libraries open, not the failure of closing them.” Referring to the  state budget amendment that would cut $2.4 million from the BPL’s funds if it closed any branches, Walz reiterated, “Once you close them, there’s no going back. The state legislature wants you to keep them open, or you’ll lose state funding.”

Public questioning of the lack of fundraising by the BPL  took a new turn at the Monday hearing when the trustees’ vice-chair, West Roxbury resident Evelyn Arana-Ortiz, declared that despite her “love for libraries” she was “amazed” by the idea that she would “have to rub the backs” of politicians to fund the library. “It should be the politicians number one priority to do so”  without having to be asked, Arana-Ortiz asserted, which was met by calls from the audience for her to resign and “tell it to the mayor.”

The mayor of Boston appoints all BPL trustees.

At-large councillor Felix Arroyo told Arana-Ortiz that asking state legislators to fund the library was not nearly as hard as “telling 50 staff members that they have lost their jobs” for lack of funding. “I’ll go with you” to the State House, he offered.

Another member of the audience said Arana-Ortiz’s statement “broke my heart.” “If library advocacy is so distasteful to you, use us. Help us fund raise,” adding the trustee’s lack of advocacy felt like a “betrayal.”

David Vieira, president of a citywide library friends group, told Arana-Ortiz there was “nothing wrong with lobbying for a good cause. It is not a matter of patting people on the back.”

Until 2008, when two trustees well-connected at the state and federal levels resigned from the BPL in protest over the firing of the BPL president preceding Amy Ryan, trustees raised tens of millions of dollars for the BPL. They were not replaced with library advocates who had similar connections or financial resources themselves. Currently, one position on the 9-member board of trustees is vacant. Another is occupied by a trustee who is too frail to attend most meetings.