Madison Public Library Looks to Become Condo Owner

Yesterday afternoon I attended my first ever Library Board meeting. Although it was the board's normal monthly meeting, the agenda had a big ticket item on it: "Consider authorization to develop an RFP for redevelopment of the Central Library site to include a new Central Library". As 4:30 rolled around, the public seating began to fill up and another row of chairs was added. I think I ended up sitting next to Terrence Wall himself. Meaning no offense to Mr. Wall, I must say that I was surprised to see someone even more sartorially challenged than myself. With that lime green jacket and orange pants, he would have looked at home in Willy Wonka's accounting department.

The meeting started fairly promptly and it didn’t take long for me to be amazed with the board. I'm a board member of Madison's Polish Heritage Club and our monthly meetings last 2-3 hours. The minutes from last month's Library Board gathering showed that it lasted one hour and it was easy to see why. They whizzed through 2 or 3 agenda items lickety-split. Public comments were the first order of new business.

First to be recognized was Robert Halloway. He didn't speak but wanted it known that he wanted to keep the Central Library. The problem was that I wasn't sure what he meant. Keep the existing building? Keep it in its own building? Next was Tom McKenna (methinks) of the Meadowridge Community Association. He spoke about the plans to expand the Meadowridge branch. McKenna began by noting that there were many people in his neighborhood who believed that the library was going to be shut down. Next he explained the neighborhood residents wanted a multi-purpose room to be a part of any expansion as opposed to one dedicated to a specific activity such as youth programs. The last member of the public to speak was Dennis de Nure. de Nure spoke in favor of including a Madison Historical Museum in the proposed development.

The next item on the agenda concerned $8,000 that needed to be redirected from the New Far West Branch Library project to the Sequoya Branch Expansion project. The Common Council had apparently questioned this item so the board put their heads together to come up with a plan to present to the CC in order to justify this money. It would go towards a green copy center in Sequoya. The CC can expect to hear the following justification: the planned automated green copy center will free up library staff and save at least $3,000/year.

The marquee item followed. Would the board pursue Wall's proposal? A gentleman from Madison's Engineering Department began the discussion of this issue by explaining how city property is disposed of. First it needs to be declared surplus and the city's Economic Development Director notified. Next, other city agencies are notified and they get to chime in as to whether they want it. For the sale at hand, this step would essentially be skipped. The alderperson and Director of Planning would then determine if the property would be sold directly or via bidding. A direct sale triggers the RFP (Request for Proposal) process. Mayor Dave would convene a seven-person Criteria and Selection Committee consisting of the alderperson in whose district the property lies, a resident of the neighborhood, a mayoral representative, two additional alders, and someone else whom I think is a member of the public. (My notes fail me.) The committee would establish point criteria for proposals and make recommendations to the Common Council who would ultimately have to approve the sale.

This process caused the board some consternation because the aforementioned committee could take control of the sale process out of their hands. The board president, Tripp Widder, asked if the board could approach the mayor to see if he was amenable to giving them 4 or 5 of the seats on the committee. Board member Dave Wallner suggested that the board ask for an exemption to the above process and this turned the discussion to the feasibility of getting such an exemption. The city engineer noted that the Parks Division once tried to do an end run around the process and failed. Larry Palm, also an alderman, noted that the library works under different state statutes than other city groups. For instance, he noted that the library operates under different debt restructuring rules than the parks folks. (I believe it was debt restructuring, anyway.) As Palm was saying this, I noticed movement to my left. Turning my head, I saw Mr. Wall nodding his head with his eyes wide open – he had just learned something new. The debate went on for a while before mayoral assistant Ray Harmon spoke. He said that Mayor Dave was amenable to giving the board a majority of seats on the commission. With this out of the way, discussion on financing proceeded.

One board member asked about an ideal budget for the new library. $20+ million was the answer. Widder asked a representative from the Madison Public Library Foundation about new fundraising goals. He was told that at least $5 million in donations would be needed before they could move forward with the proposals. Palm noted that the library would make $3-5 million if the property were to be sold and that this was the chief difference between the RFP route and building a new facility but keeping the property. Barb Karlen noted that Wall's proposal was more glamorous and sexy and that this boded well for the selling of naming rights.

But Widder urged caution. Sadly, he noted that the fundraising campaign for the Sequoya branch took a very long time to raise a paltry-by-comparison $1 million and that $4-5 million would take too long. He emphasized that a generous donor was needed and should be found with some haste as Wall has an anchor tenant who cannot wait forever.

Wallner then motioned that the board declare the property surplus and to begin the RFP process. The motion carried unanimously with one abstention – Allen Arnsten, a lawyer, who counted Wall as a client.

At this point, most of the seats for the public were vacated. All the gentlemen in suits & ties left as did Mr. Wall with his lime green jacket after having shook hands with the city engineer and chatted a bit.

I've already voiced my discontent with Wall's proposal so I won't reiterate here. But I do think the main lesson is that Madison doesn't show very much love for its public library system. In the Library Facilities Report that followed the RFP discussion, we got to hear how the resources at the Lakeview branch are stretched to the max while computer classes at Hawthorne art booked weeks in advance; Sequoya is the busiest branch with 90% of items in certain collections being checked out at any given time; the Alicia Ashman branch draws 20% of its patrons from Middleton; and the Monroe Street branch sees its circulation and visits increasing every year. Area residents love the Madison libraries, to be sure, but they apparently don't open up their pocketbooks for them very readily. The Sequoya branch fundraising took a long period of time and previous efforts to fund a new Central Library while retaining ownership of the land never found an über-bibliopatron. It was noted that people tend to give money directed to their local branch.

While the RFP process goes forward, nothing is a done deal yet. The anchor tenant could pull out, the library might not be able to raise the $5 million – nothing is set in stone. Yet it looks likely that the Central Library will become a condo tenant.