Donation Assures Brentwood of Library--and Controversy

Shortly after her husband, Donald, was killed when his private plane crashed five years ago, Glorya Kaufman began searching for a way to honor the wealthy Westside developer who had founded one of the nation’s largest home-building companies.

“It just came to me one day to do something about that library,” recalled Kaufman, referring to the Brentwood branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, a 28-year-old building that library officials say is woefully inadequate for the affluent community. “It seemed like an up thing to do.”

Today, Brentwood is virtually assured of getting a new $1.7-million library that will be paid for largely through private donations. But the proposed Donald Kaufman Branch Library, a proud accomplishment for Kaufman and her neighbors, has become a symbol of favoritism to others--an example, they say, of how money wields influence in Los Angeles.

Twenty-one of the 62 branch libraries throughout the city--including four closed because of earthquake damage and an additional seven still open but deemed seismically unsafe--are on the Library Department’s priority list of 25 capital improvement projects for fiscal year 1988-89.

About half of those projects have not received any funding. Yet the proposed Brentwood branch, which is not on the list, was recently allocated $350,500 by the City Council. The council voted to give the money after Kaufman--who has pledged $600,500 to the project--threatened to withdraw her support if the city failed to make a contribution.

“What it has come down to is if you have the money, you can buy a library for your community,” said Karen Jaeger, a leader in an effort to replace the Echo Park branch library, which has been housed in temporary quarters since the 1971 Sylmar earthquake. “But if yours is a low-income community, you are up a tree.”

Unfair to the Poor

Eastside Councilwoman Gloria Molina, probably the most vocal opponent of the city’s allocation, called it a slap in the face for poor communities unable to raise massive amounts of private funds.

“We’re letting our priorities be run by somebody else saying: ‘Let me give you some money. Switch your priorities and come fix this first,’ ” an angry Molina said during council debate on the issue.

But other officials say the city is getting a great deal in Brentwood: a bigger library worth five times what the city is paying. The priority list, they argue, is not written in stone, particularly when private donors make an offer too good to refuse.

“Brentwood has had a substandard library for many years,” said Councilman Marvin Braude, who represents the community. “When Mrs. Kaufman made the offer, I think I, or any other council person, would have seized upon it as an act of great generosity and use it as leverage to get the library built.”

Library Need Cited

Said Kaufman, whose husband started Kaufman & Broad Inc.: “I am not a little rich woman on a hill that wants to put her husband’s name on something because it is a neat thing to do. . . . We need a new library, and it is fair for us to have a new library.”

In a letter to the Board of Library Commissioners in October, Kaufman issued an ultimatum, saying that she was “no longer willing to hear any more excuses” from the city about its contribution to the project. “I feel we have been kept dangling for the past four years,” she wrote, threatening to topple the entire project if the city did not act.

Within a month, two City Council committees and the full council had approved the expenditure.

“I don’t think we could have gotten any more money from the community if the city hadn’t given some money,” Kaufman said later in an interview. “People were saying, ‘It is a city library. The city should make some effort.’ I agree with that.”

Not on the List

Yet before Kaufman expressed an interest in it, the red brick and glass Brentwood library was not on any city list for funding. The city administrative officer estimated in a recent report to Mayor Tom Bradley that because the library system has “numerous higher priority needs,” it is “unlikely that the city will be able to replace the currently undersized Brentwood Branch Library for several decades.”

For the year, the Library Department has received $1.9 million from the city for capital improvement projects, and an additional $2.2 million from the federal government. But that money has been designated for the 11 libraries--and one bookbinding facility--with seismic problems, which still need an additional $7 million to be corrected.

Only one of the 13 non-seismic projects on the city’s list has received city funding--$310,000 for a proposed branch in an area of the west San Fernando Valley that has no library. The non-seismic projects will need an additional $40.3 million in local and federal funding, according to city statistics.

‘No City Money’

Mickey Bodek, a former member of the city’s Board of Library Commissioners, said that when she agreed to help lead the fund-raising drive for the Brentwood library in 1983, “the city said there was no city money available for us--under any circumstances.” And at that time, a mere $500,000 addition to the library was envisioned.

But the city had a change of heart, due in part to the size of Kaufman’s contribution and the extent to which the community was willing to reach even deeper into its pockets to pay for the new library, officials said. Under the current plan, Kaufman will pay $600,500, the city $350,500 and the community $750,000.

Councilman Braude said the city reconsidered its role after architectural studies showed that it made more sense to build a new library because of problems associated with enlarging the existing building.

“It was not reasonable to ask the private sector to be 100% responsible for an entirely new library,” Braude said.

Matter of Fairness

He and other city officials grappled with the issue of fairness, Braude said, and decided it would be irresponsible to turn down a private contribution the size of Kaufman’s.

“The question is, where is the threshold?” Braude said. “It is clear that with a 100% (donation) you build the project. If it is below 50%, you think about it. If it is above 50%, you consider it seriously. In this case, with private contributions covering 80%, it seems that it is close enough to 100% to fully justify it.”

Library Department officials have strongly endorsed the project, noting that a 1985 master plan for the city’s libraries described the Brentwood branch as “much too small for the amount of its usage” and recommended that it be nearly quadrupled in size.

Library officials said the 3,500-square-foot San Vicente Boulevard facility is heavily used by Brentwood residents, both young and old. The new one, designed by an architect selected by Kaufman, will be an 8,500-square-foot structure on the same site, housing 5,000 additional volumes.

Funds Denied

In 1985, the Library Department applied for special federal library construction funds to help rebuild the library, but the application was rejected. Because of Brentwood’s affluence--the estimated median household income last year was $44,000--the branch does not qualify for federal community block grant funds, which the city has used elsewhere to help rebuild libraries.

Ronald S. Lushing, president of the city’s Board of Library Commissioners, which oversees the department, said the city needs to encourage private financing of public facilities. Without such donations, he said, the Brentwood library would be sentenced to decades of mediocrity.

“It is true that many areas don’t have a wealthy individual to make a commitment for a half-million dollars, but I don’t think we should turn away individuals who wish to do something for their city and their particular community,” he said in an interview. “The entire city benefits. We are all part of Los Angeles.”

Kaufman said the city’s contribution is not unreasonable when viewed in the context of Brentwood’s support of other city services.

“We are a wealthy community and we give a lot of taxes--taxes that go to projects in areas of the city that cannot afford them,” she said. “I love it. That is what democracy is all about. But there is a time when we should be considered too.”

Rich Getting Richer?

To some activists outside Brentwood, however, the library is an example of the rich in Los Angeles getting richer, not of the rich getting a much-needed facility.

One longtime Library Department employee, who frequently works in the poorest areas of the city, said resentment runs high there about the way city resources--including library resources--are distributed.

“In Brentwood, you have an affluent, demanding community with an ability to raise funds,” said the employee, who asked not to be identified. “In the minority areas, where they can’t raise a dime, there is a general feeling that they have been forgotten.”

Councilwoman Molina, who said it took her nearly a year to get the city to repair a leaky roof at the library in low-income Cypress Park, complained that “we are taking $350,000 out of the general fund to make a commitment to a group of people who have an adequate and safe library compared to libraries in other communities.”

A Brick Wall

When two City Council committees considered the Brentwood library issue last fall, Molina attempted to kill the appropriation by rousing colleagues who represent relatively poor areas. She said she ran into a brick wall, gaining only downtown Councilman Gilbert Lindsay as an ally.

“The bottom line, I am learning, is you don’t mess with other peoples’ districts,” said Molina, who was elected to the council last February after serving in the Legislature.

Opponents of the new Brentwood library, including Molina, said they do not object to private financing of public projects, and they praised Kaufman’s generosity. Brentwood, however, should wait its turn for city money, they said.

Paul Moore, a community activist in Echo Park, suggested that Kaufman’s donations be placed in an interest-bearing account that could be tapped after the projects on the Library Department’s capital improvements list are funded.

“The Brentwood library should have been on the capital improvements list in order to get the money,” Moore said.

Could Be Years

Library officials, however, predict that the city’s allocation for the Brentwood library will not affect funding for other branches. It could be years before the city actually pays the $350,500, they said, because Friends of the Brentwood Library still needs to raise $500,000 of the $750,000 it is contributing toward the project. Moreover, because it was a special expenditure, the money would come from the city’s general fund--not from the Library Department’s capital improvements budget.

“My feeling is that we are not taking any money away from other projects,” said Marilyn Tamura Johnson, director of branch libraries. “The money for Brentwood is not coming from the same pot.”

But Molina said the city’s contribution could have an indirect effect on other library projects by making the council less willing to allocate additional money to the Library Department because it has already “raided” the general fund for the Brentwood project.

“If I were a resident of Cypress Park, and I knew what they were doing, I would sue the city,” Molina said during a recent visit to the Cypress Park branch.

Lushing, the library commissioner, offered different advice.

“The community in Brentwood certainly has seed money from Mrs. Kaufman, but they are also going out and getting $25 donations, holding book sales and selling T-shirts,” he said. “That could be done in Cypress Park, too. It might take a little longer, but it certainly could be done.”