Library seeks $7.5M appropriation to prepay/refund library bonds; public raises concerns about Brooks Hall collections

The San Francisco Public Library requested the Board's Budget & Finance Committee approve an ordinance to re-appropriate roughly $7.5 million from the FY2016 general reserve to pay down lease revenue bond debt and pursue refunding that the Library and the Comptroller's Office of Public Finance identified as producing long-term savings.

Library staff said the supplemental appropriation would reduce current debt from about $28 million and that refinancing could produce estimated long-term savings in the range of $14 million to $16.7 million over the life of the bonds. Jamie Karubin from the Comptroller's Office of Public Finance joined library staff to answer questions.

Public comment included criticism from Peter Warfield, executive director of the Library Users Association. Warfield said the Library Commission presentation at the Board did not disclose further moves of Brooks Hall collections and argued there was insufficient public process for relocating core materials. "I think that the lack of public process here is very problematic," Warfield said. "It's a real dismantling of the library as a library," he added, urging more public involvement before approving funding that could lead to collection moves.

Committee members and the budget analyst generally supported the appropriation as sound fiscal management and moved the item forward with a positive recommendation to the full Board. The committee took the motion on item 22 without objection.