Pasadena Library Staffers Celebrate an Election With a Happy Ending

At 11:15 a.m. Wednesday, a dozen little pairs of eyes looked up expectantly at Pasadena librarian Donna Watkins, who opened the preschool storytime group a little more exuberantly than usual.

One day after 86% of Pasadena voters agreed to renew the city’s library tax for another 10 years, Watkins and her staff at the Hastings branch of the Pasadena Public Library--along with the rest of the city’s librarians--celebrated by doing what they always do: helping people find and enjoy the resources they have to offer. On Wednesday, the usually friendly service came with even bigger smiles.

“We’re feeling very appreciative and very grateful,” Watkins explained. “It makes it very rewarding to work here, especially today.”

So with a request to Kristina Marie Austin, 4, to put her “bottom on the floor, please,” Watkins began the tale of “The Baby Blue Cat and the Dirty Dog Brothers,” by Ainslie Pryor, expertly reading upside-down so the 2- to 5-year-olds could look at the pictures as she went along.

Pasadena residents first approved a library tax four years ago, when its Central Library was being forced to operate on reduced hours and close on Sundays. Some of the eight branch libraries were operating only two to three days a week, said Ross Selvidge, a member of the Pasadena Public Library Future Funding Task Force.

In September, Selvidge and his team began examining what would happen after June 1998, when the roughly $20-per-household tax was set to expire. Without the $1.35 million per year that the tax generates--20% of the library budget--the system would have been in worse shape than before, the team found.

And although some in Pasadena boast that there is a branch library within walking distance of just about every residence, the touted satellite facilities most likely would have been scaled back or forced to close altogether, Selvidge said.

So a group of volunteers, still battle-weary from their earlier fight to impose the tax, banded together again to ensure the fee continued in light of Propositions 218 and 62, which force municipalities to gain voter approval before imposing or extending certain special taxes.

With as many as 150 volunteers, the Save the Pasadena Library Campaign raised $120,000 in money and in-kind contributions and phoned, faxed, mailed, leafleted and knocked on the doors of their neighbors.

Altogether, said campaign manager Fred Register, the group contacted 35,000 of those most likely to vote. In the end, 10,706 residents voted in favor of the measure; 1,693 opposed it.

The job four years ago was tougher, Register said. Although a few California communities, such as Berkeley, passed such taxes right after the approval of Proposition 13 in 1978 threatened their library systems, it had been years since anyone had tried to pass a library levy.

“There was a sense that it couldn’t be done, that it was too high a hurdle in these anti-tax days,” Register said.

“I think the success we had in Pasadena energized the library community all over the state.”

Later Altadena, South Pasadena and other cities also passed library taxes.

More than anything else, the high margin by which the tax was renewed means that Pasadena residents appreciate their libraries and are satisfied with the service they receive, city officials said.

“Part of it is tradition--when the whole civic center was laid out, the first thing built was the library,” Pasadena City Councilman Paul Little said. “It’s probably the best $20 of my tax money that is spent.”

At the Hastings branch, where there are three reading sessions for children each week, including Monday night’s popular “Pajama Storytime” that often draws 100 children, librarians also offer a host of adult programs. There is Internet training, investment seminars, a book club and topical lectures and tutorials.

Louise Shammas, a 31-year-old mother and immigrant from Syria, said she happily voted in favor of the tax.

“It’s a luxury, having these libraries,” she said. “It’s not such a big sacrifice for the education of your kids.”

Even some of those who did not support the tax said they love the library.

“We’re library fans,” said Marge Wester, 52, pointing to where her three grown children used to sit for Storytime. “It’s just a matter of whether the city wants to use our tax money for libraries or use it elsewhere and try to create a new tax.”

Selvidge said the way the tax was designed ensures that the city will do its part. Pasadena can only levy the tax if it kicks in an amount of money set and adjusted with the inflation rate, which now totals about $5 million. That means there would be no annual battle to decide library funding.