Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Law Library Lease topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee continues law library lease after heated exchange over Brooks Hall storage
Summary
Supervisors continued a decision on a lease extension for the San Francisco Law Library at 1145 Market Street after a lengthy exchange about boxed collections stored at Brooks Hall and an amendment from Supervisor Tang seeking a timeline to repopulate vacant second‑floor shelving.
The Budget and Finance Committee continued action on a proposed five‑year option to extend the lease for the San Francisco Law Library at 1145 Market Street after extended questioning about the library’s stored collections and use of space.
Director Marsha Bell told the committee the law library serves tens of thousands of users annually — she cited roughly 25,000 visits in 2017 and over 10,000 reference questions — and described a seminar program and meeting spaces used by pro‑bono organizations. Bell said the library holds about 100,000 volumes and that many materials remain stored in Brooks Hall following the library’s temporary Veterans Building location and the 1995 City Hall retrofit.
Supervisor Tang pressed for concrete steps and offered a proposed amendment requiring the law library to populate currently vacant Second Floor shelves by July 1, 2018 with materials now held in Brooks Hall, or allow the city to repurpose that Second Floor space under the lease. Director Bell said the restoration and review process is labor‑intensive, raised environmental/OSHA concerns and said the library lacks sufficient staff and budget to complete the work without city assistance. Real Estate Director John Updike said Real Estate is willing to cooperate and provide a modular facility in Brooks Hall for safe review but emphasized limited resources.
The Budget Legislative Analyst advised that the matter is a policy question because litigation between the law library and the city is pending. Given the unresolved operational and legal questions, the committee voted to continue the item for one week to allow parties to return with clarifying language and options, and to meet deadlines with ownership and stakeholders.
The committee’s action preserves options for the Board to consider subsequent amendments tying space use to concrete timelines while acknowledging the operational and environmental constraints the library described.
