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Budget committee approves $720,000 Friends of the Library grant amid public criticism
Summary
The committee approved retroactive acceptance of up to $720,000 from the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library to support programs including Summer Read SF, while several public speakers accused the Friends of poor financial stewardship and cited an FPPC finding; staff offered to provide more financial information to the committee.
The Budget & Finance Committee voted to retroactively authorize the San Francisco Public Library to accept and expend up to $720,000 in a mix of in-kind gifts, services and cash from the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library for fiscal year 2014–15.
Maureen Singleton, a library representative, said the Friends' support funds a wide range of programs and services and highlighted last summer's Summer Read SF: "we had a total of 18,212 unique participants in the summer read program, and they read for 213,000 hours," she said while asking the committee for approval of the gift.
During public comment a speaker identifying their office as San Francisco Open Government alleged that a federal Fair Political Practices Commission finding showed a library official failed to disclose benefits from the Friends and questioned the organization's financial stewardship, saying, "It's going into the pockets of the people who work for the friends." Peter Warfield of the Library Users Association also urged more transparency and said the group had not provided information to the Library Commission.
Supervisor Avalos and other supervisors said they supported moving the resolution forward but asked staff to return with more detailed expenditure information: Monique Smutta of the Controller's Office offered to summarize past expenditure information for the committee. The committee approved the resolution and moved it forward with recommendation.
The record shows both programmatic benefits cited by library staff and strong public concerns about the Friends' finances were raised in committee; staff promised follow-up information to the Budget Committee.
