A Huntington Beach City Council majority rejected a proposal to ask voters if they wish to outsource city library operations, which the city began exploring earlier this year.
In a split vote, the City Council in March directed city staff to solicit bids from contractors to run the Huntington Beach Public Library system. That action drew public outcry from residents and librarians. Proposals from Councilmembers Rhonda Bolton, Dan Kalmick and Natalie Moser this week would have city staff end those efforts until voters weighed in.
Councilmember Casey McKeon, who was against the proposal, said nothing is set in stone yet with changing who runs the library and called it an appropriate exercise to take bids.
“We fully understand the sensitivity, but the process hasn’t even gotten off the ground yet,” McKeon said. “The (request for proposal) hasn’t even gone out yet.”
Outsourcing city library operations would likely have a private company employing library workers and selecting which books to buy rather than city employees, opponents have said.
The defeated proposal would have asked that city staff to create a charter amendment for the November election that would have required a majority vote of the City Council and voters to approve any proposal that would change the library’s management. The item also asked that the city manager cease further work on obtaining bids.
A city staffer at the meeting told the council that bids haven’t been solicited yet. Interim City Manager Eric Parra pushed for taking bids, along with the council’s conservative majority, as a way to save money on library operations.
Kalmick said the city is already spending money meeting with affected unions if the library were to be privatized.
He also said the library issue has drawn the most amount of residents he’s seen engaged on an issue and that they want a say in what’s happening.
Library Systems & Services approached the city earlier this year, saying it could save Huntington Beach $1 million a year running city libraries. The Maryland-based company runs other public library systems throughout Southern California, including in Riverside.
“This is about transferring public money to a private entity,” Kalmick said, calling the library one of the most popular institutions in the city. “This council has done this over and over and over again.”
Teamsters Local 911 President Carlos Rubio in a letter to the council supported putting the proposal before voters. The union represents city library workers.
Several residents during public comment had spoken in favor of putting the question before voters.
“Privatizing the library will never be an achievement, it will always be seen as the failure of local government that it is,” said Dina Chavez, a volunteer with the Friends of the Huntington Beach Public Library.
