Commission Set to Vote on Renaming Library for Mayor

Mayor Richard J. Riordan this week will propose a 14% increase in spending on libraries, promising longer hours and thousands of new books as part of the final city budget of his eight years in office.

Riordan, an avid reader and book collector, announced the new spending amid a campaign by friends and supporters to rename the downtown Central Library after the mayor.

The city Library Commission will vote Thursday on whether to rename the landmark library after him--a proposal that some religious and labor leaders call a fitting tribute to Riordan’s support for literacy programs. But City Councilwoman Rita Walters, whose district includes the library, called the move an outrage, and said Riordan appointees were bestowing an unwarranted honor on the mayor who named them to the commission.

Under Riordan’s spending proposal, the budget for the city’s 68 libraries would rise from $59.9 million to $68.5 million. If approved by the City Council, library spending will have nearly doubled over the course of Riordan’s term, one of the most visible fruits of an economy that flourished through most of his time in office.

Riordan, who will unveil his full city budget proposal Friday, released his library plan in a speech to several dozen children at the groundbreaking for an expansion of the Pio Pico-Koreatown branch.

“Books are a wonderful way to open up new worlds to each of us,” he told the children. “We can be on Mars one day. We can be riding a horse out in Western country the next day. We can be a famous spy the next day.”

During Riordan’s second term in office, the hours at the city’s eight regional libraries have expanded from 48 to 60 a week. And hours at all but 16 of the city’s 59 community library branches have expanded from 40 to 52 a week, including evenings and Saturdays.

Under Riordan’s new budget, hours would be expanded at the remaining 16 branches.

“You kids deserve the best books you can get, and we adults owe that to you,” Riordan told the children. “I’m going to challenge the next mayor to keep making our libraries more and more available, have more books for them, more hours that they’re open.”

The Koreatown library renovation is part of a major library construction program financed by federal grants and bond measures. Many of the projects--though not the Koreatown branch--are being funded by a $178-million bond issue that Los Angeles voters approved in 1998. Overall, the city is building five libraries and rebuilding or expanding 28 branches.

The library buildup, which Riordan has championed, was cited by supporters of the plan to rename the Central Library after the mayor. Eli Broad, a billionaire business leader and close friend of Riordan, has led the campaign to rename the library.

“To me, it was a natural and a proper thing to do,” Broad said.

So far, Broad has enlisted the support of Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, Bishop Fredrick H. Borsch of the Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese, Rabbi Steven Z. Leder of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor leader Miguel Contreras, author Ray Bradbury and California state Librarian Kevin Starr.

Five City Council members joined them and others last month in signing a letter calling on David Lehrer, the Library Commission president, to change the library’s name to the Richard J. Riordan Central Library. Lehrer said he expects the commission to approve the proposal.

Broad said a few other council members are sure to “grouse about it,” but predicted that they could not muster the votes to overturn the commission’s approval.

“The only reason anyone would vote against it is, frankly, to be mean to the mayor,” he said.

But Walters vowed to fight the proposal. “It would be an absolute disaster,” she said. “I don’t know why he deserves the library named after him. . . . Everybody supports the library. Can you put everybody’s name on there?”

“Yes, he’s interested in literacy,” she said. “So am I. Everybody’s interested in literacy. That’s not unusual.”

A unanimous vote of the five library commissioners--all Riordan appointees--is uncertain. Lupe Reyes, the commission vice president, said she hadn’t made up her mind.

“Certainly, it’s a well-deserved thought to consider,” she said. “We need to listen to the presentation, all the pros and the cons.”

At the Koreatown library groundbreaking, Riordan feigned surprise at the proposed tribute.

“I’ve got to pretend I haven’t heard yet,” he said. “It’d be a great honor. It’d be shocking . . . an absolutely wonderful shock.”