Salinas, in a Bind, Wants a New Page on Libraries

The banner draped across the one-story brick facade of the Cesar Chavez branch library reads: “Your Door to Education.” But at 10 a.m. on a recent Tuesday, the doors were locked and the parking lot empty.

The Chavez library, like the city’s two other branches, is open only a few hours a day five days a week and faces closure in June as a result of a financial crisis that has descended upon this city of 150,000 in the heart of the Salinas Valley.

Cities across the country have been struggling to balance local budgets, but Salinas’ decision last fall to shut down its library system brought it international notoriety. Salinas was the hometown of Nobel Prize-winning novelist John Steinbeck. A life-size bronze statue of the author stands guard over the city’s main library downtown, which bears his name.

But over the last few weeks, Salinas residents seem to have experienced a bookish epiphany.

After rejecting a ballot measure last year that would have provided new taxes for libraries, residents have suddenly decided to open their wallets. Contributions are pouring into Rally Salinas, a nonprofit group established to keep the libraries open until a permanent solution can be found.

Launched about five weeks ago, Rally Salinas has collected $240,000 toward its goal of raising $500,000, with an additional $75,000 contribution expected to arrive soon. If the goal is met, the money would pay for a skeleton crew who would move from library to library, opening the three branches for a day or two each week starting in June.

Donations have arrived from all over.

When actor Bill Murray competed in the AT&T; Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament in February, he signed over his $12,500 in prize money to Rally Salinas. Wealthy ranchers have pledged even larger donations. Grade-schoolers have pitched in pennies, dimes and quarters.

Local residents hosted a fundraising flea market at the Elks Lodge. One civic activist persuaded the 110-boy St. Michael’s Choir from Toronto to stage two benefit concerts in the area in April.

“Things are coming together in ways I don’t think anyone envisioned two months ago,” said Mayor Anna Caballero, who is spearheading Rally Salinas.

But not all residents are on board.

Mark Dierolf, an insurance broker and vocal critic of Caballero and the City Council, has no plans to contribute to Rally Salinas, even though he was until recently a member of a library support group.

The reason: He, like a number of others, believes the library situation is part of a larger problem with mismanagement. City money is being squandered on excessive salaries and benefits for employees, Dierolf said.

“They just can’t manage the money they have,” he said. “The only way to correct it is to fire the mayor and City Council.”

City Manager Dave Mora acknowledges that Salinas has had trouble convincing residents that finances have been affected not by mismanagement but by economic forces beyond the city’s control. Mora said Salinas has been squeezed by a drop in sales tax revenue and by the state, which has hoarded tax money normally earmarked for local governments.

Salinas has been hit harder than most because it is a relatively poor city with few revenue sources besides sales and utility taxes. More than 16% of its population lives below the poverty line, compared with about 4% in nearby Monterey.

Mora said the city has cut $15 million and eliminated 123 jobs since the financial crunch began two years ago. But rising costs, such as health insurance and retirement benefits, have more than made up for the cuts.

The city’s tax revenues, Mora said, allow it to spend about $419 per capita. Monterey has more than three times as much per capita, thanks in part to taxes paid by free-spending tourists. San Jose has more than twice as much per capita.

“One of the issues beginning to come to light is the realization that the numbers we gave two years ago were correct,” Mora said. “There isn’t enough money to continue the level of operations we have had.”

Support for Rally Salinas may indicate that residents have become more willing to pay for certain services.

The plan is to use the Rally Salinas money to keep the libraries open on a rotating basis in hopes that voters sometime this year will approve a special tax to permanently fund library operations.

Caballero said the city probably would canvass residents to determine what type of tax, if any, they might support.

Caballero said the recent surge in donations left her confident that Rally Salinas would meet its $500,000 goal.

The larger question is whether she can win over enough skeptics like Dierolf to pass a library tax.

“If they put a tax for libraries on the ballot, I can’t say what will happen,” Dierolf said. “As far as I’m concerned, the only solution to the library debacle is new management.”