LETTER OF THE WEEK

The Friends of the Children’s Library is incensed by the letter of Ray

Buffer (“City’s budget cuts should not affect playhouse,” July 5.) To be

perfectly blunt, he still doesn’t get it.

Surely he does not expect Ron Hayden to subsidize the playhouse with

his salary. Would Ray Buffer be willing to forego his salary for the

playhouse?

Buffer reminds us that the playhouse is a nonprofit group. Fine.

Nonprofit groups abound in our community and throughout the country and

contribute in significant ways. For example, churches are nonprofit. So

are scouts, cultural centers, foundations, and many private schools and

universities. All these organizations must make money to further their

goals.

They have to pay rent and utility bills; provide salaries for pastors,

teachers and staff; promote their work through bulletins, newsletters,

and catalogs; provide parking for their staff and guests . . . we could

go on.

Nonprofit organizations generate money through contributions from

patrons and members, also through fees and tuition. Since they need money

to meet all of their expenses, they raise additional funds through

grants, generous benefactors, endowments and fund-raisers that fit the

group. These efforts do not make them for-profit organizations.

No, the playhouse is not a scapegoat. The library is a landlord with

bills to pay. The current budget reduction mandates cuts in all areas of

library services. It means reducing the book budget, reducing maintenance

costs, cutting back on supplies, and cuts in other areas. Then there are

increasing expenses.

Landlords who are faced with rising costs traditionally pass it on to

those who incur costs. The library is not asking anything out of the

question.

Last October the library board recommended to the City Council a lease

for the playhouse offering the same rent they were paying. The playhouse

refused the lease. They lobbied for a lease that would cost them only

$1-a-year rent, apparently discovering some other groups pay this amount.

Obviously they did not do their homework. Those groups are not housed in

libraries or buildings with debts to pay.

The playhouse stalled for several months, all the while giving the

public a variety of emotional theatrics. Now the city, with its woes --

infrastructure, lawsuits, rising energy costs -- has to look at the

rental situation differently. The fact is the library cannot afford to

subsidize the playhouse. It is strictly a business proposition.

Nor does the library portray the playhouse as a derelict squatter. If

it did, it would not have offered a more than fair contract last fall --

a contract the playhouse should have snatched up, it didn’t. The

playhouse has made some poor judgments and wants the library to take the

blame.

LYN SCOTT

President

Friends of the Children’s Library

Huntington Beach