A full report will be posted Wednesday.

by Ralph Nichols

A “very angry” Burien City Council insisted in a letter Tuesday (Nov. 29) [download PDF here] that King County Library System trustees back away from yet another attempt to close and consolidate North Burien libraries.

After suggesting changes to make its wording stronger, council members directed City Manager Mike Martin Monday night to send that letter to the five trustees and library system Director Bill Ptacek.

The trustees are scheduled to consider at their monthly meeting today (Tuesday, Nov. 29) the proposal to close the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries and consolidate those services in a new facility.

The meeting begins at 5 p.m. at the King County Library System’s headquarters building in Issaquah (read more about that here).

Councilman Gerald Robison expressed “puzzlement” and “outrage” with the process used by library system staff for finding changing conditions to justify their recommendation against upgrading the two libraries.

And Councilman Jack Block Jr. said it is time for the King County Council to assume direct oversight of the largely unaccountable board of trustees and library staff.

Bond issue funded local improvements
A 2004 capital improvements bond issue, approved by voters throughout the county library system, included funds to build a new and larger White Center Library and to improve the Boulevard Park library.

But since 2007, Ptacek and his staff have slowed the pace for beginning these projects – and since 2009 have been coming up with reasons not to proceed with them.

One roadblock, according to Ptacek, was that both libraries would be too close to the Seattle City limits if Seattle annexes the remaining North Highline unincorporated area.

Burien City Councilmembers are "very angry" with the King County Library Board of Trustees.

Last winter, however, Seattle backed away from the city’s earlier plans for annexation.

Then, in late June, library system trustees voted 3-0 to place the consolidation proposal on hold until the question of whether Burien will annex North Highline is resolved.

Burien voted to proceed with annexation in October, and submitted its plan to the King County Boundary Review Board earlier this month. A hearing on that plan by the board is scheduled for early January.

Library staff tries again
Yet in mid-November, library system staff again raised the consolidation proposal. Ptacek noted that it may take at least a year for the question of annexation by Burien to be settled, and that construction costs are favorable in the current economy.

“Why the rush to get this done now, when we’re still working on annexation?” Robison asked in a direct challenge to library system staff at Monday’s meeting,

He added that the staff still hasn’t made public even how much the land for a new library building would cost.

“It just stinks to high heaven,” Robison said. “It’s outrageous. It looks like a plan to shut down libraries in North Burien.”

Councilman Jack Block Jr. noted that while the library system is building a new parking facility for Bellevue Library patrons, “many lower income people don’t have cars in White Center and Boulevard Park.

“Yet the King County Library System proposes to cut neighborhood services for people there, making it more difficult for them” to utilize libraries.

Library only zones?
Block urged his fellow council members to re-zone the two North Burien library locations for libraries only.

He also proposed asking the King County Council to consider oversight of the library system board of trustees, which is not elected and operates free from direct public oversight.

“It does not make sense for taxpayers to pay for two new libraries” less than two miles apart,” Councilwoman Rose Clark said. A consolidated library likely would be built within that distance from the two-year-old Burien Library.

Clark also said it is “reprehensible” that while Burien has a representative on the library system board of trustees – Councilwoman Lucy Krakowiak – she doesn’t keep the city and the council informed about these actions.

"We're angry. We're very angry" – Mayor Joan McGilton.

In approving the letter to the library system, Mayor Joan McGilton concluded, “We angry. We’re very angry.”

Public opposition
Burien Planning Commissioner Greg Duff, who opposed Krakowiak in the general election, said there are “inconsistencies in the program review” by library system staff.

“What have they done with the money?” Duff asked. “They sold it to the citizens under the guise of rebuilding the White Center Library and remodeling the Boulevard Park Library.”

The Burien City Council needs to develop a strategy to represent the interests of Burien before the trustees, “which we don’t have now,” he added. “We won’t take this lying down.”

Barbara Dobkin, president of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, expressed concern that the board of trustees is discussing the fate of the North Burien libraries “so far away from our community….

“Hopefully you will continue to support us” on this issue, Dobkin said.

And Liz Giba, who recently was elected a North Highline Fire District Commissioner, criticized the library system staff for operating in near secrecy.

“If it wasn’t for Rachel [Levine, president of the White Center Library Guild], we wouldn’t have known about this coming before the board. Suddenly there’s this new plan and new resolution, and we get to go to Issaquah [to oppose the pending action] again tomorrow night.”

UPDATE 11/30/11: Below is the text of the council’s draft letter, dated Nov. 29, 2011 (download full PDF of it here):

November 29, 2011

The Honorable Richard Eadie
President, Board of Trustees King County Library System
960 Newport Way NW
Issaquah, WA 98207

Dear Judge Eadie:

We learned recently that you and your colleagues will consider closing the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries to build a single facility at some other location. We are surprised and disappointed since you tabled the same proposal once already after an outpouring of public opposition. We know of nothing that has occurred since then that should cause you to change that position. We urge you to reject the idea, again, for the same reasons.

In our May 27th letter to you, we encouraged your Board to delay making this decision until the question of annexation of the North Highline area was resolved. Since then, the City has in fact voted to advance annexation and filed a formal “Notice of Intent” with the Boundary Review Board. In our letter we also wrote that if annexation does not occur, we would work with you to find a solution that is acceptable to our community.

When you asked for our community’s support in passing the $172 bond measure you advanced in 2004, you promised that both of these libraries would be improved, not closed. Now, contrary to your promise, virtually all public testimony and the wishes of the Burien Council, you are considering just that.

The King County Library Board is the only special district in the state whose members are appointed, not elected and you might have the ability to impose your will on the residents you are taxing, without their consent, on this matter. Nevertheless, we ask you to consider whether this extraordinary privilege requires yet greater deference to the wishes of your patrons, our residents, who were promised one thing and now are being told they must accept another.

Also consider the fact that both the Boulevard Park and White Center libraries are within Burien city limits; it is self-evident that the city of Burien should be deeply involved in this decision. For example, you may not be aware that one of the paramount reasons for annexation is to improve access to resources such as the libraries for our residents in general and our youth in particular. Advancing consolidation without addressing this issue is a major step backwards.

You might have the authority to make this decision unilaterally, but from the perspective of good governance, that would be a very bad idea. Please reject the idea, again, and please keep the commitment you made to the voters.

Sincerely,
Joan McGilton

Cc:

Burien City Council
King County Library System Board of Trustees
King County Executive Dow Constantine
King County Councilmember Joe McDermott
North Highline Unincorporated Area Council President Barbara Dobkin
King County Library System Director Bill Ptacek

by Ralph Nichols

In late June, the King County Library System Board of Trustees deferred a proposal to consolidate the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries into a new facility (read our previous coverage here).

Board members voted 3-0 to put the issue on hold pending more information about a possible annexation by Burien of the North Highline unincorporated area.

Since then, Burien has officially begun the annexation process, which could result in the remaining unincorporated area becoming part of the city.

Despite this move by Burien, however, consolidation of the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries in a new facility will be considered again by the KCLS trustees at their monthly meeting at the Service Center in Issaquah at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 29 (location info here).

Two years ago this month, KCLS Director Bill Ptacek made his first attempt to consolidate the libraries in an all-but-secret deal to buy Puget Sound Park on 1st Ave. S. just north of SW 128th St. before Burien formally annexed that area.

North Highline residents critical of the proposed action say a new building would deprive two disadvantaged neighborhoods of conveniently located libraries.

They also note the consolidated library would likely be located less than two miles from the downtown Burien Library, which opened in mid-2009.

The B-Town Blog has left a voice-mail asking Ptacek for comment, and will be gathering other reactions as well.

“Pursuing a consolidated library at a new location is favored for several reasons,” KCLS staff said at a recent planning meeting. “Operating one centrally located library will result in significant annual savings in operational costs; and a larger library will provide a higher level of service and increased access to library resources than two smaller libraries.”

The Capital Improvement Plan bond issue approved by voters county wide in 2004 includes funds for a new White Center Library and major upgrades to the Boulevard Park Library.

“At this time,” however, “staff is recommending that the KCLS Board of Trustees direct them to pursue the consolidation of the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries into a consolidated library at a new location.”

A site selection is already under way, staff reported, and “construction costs are more favorable now than later.”

A key factor in the staff decision to proceed is the unresolved issues involving annexation of North Highline.

The preliminary agenda for the board’s Nov. 29 meeting will be posted at www.kcls.org late Wednesday afternoon. The complete agenda with links to attachments will be posted on Nov. 25.

• Handwashing facilities unavailable
• Operating without a valid permit
• Imminent health hazard: no sanitary facilities available

“The establishment will be reopened once all issues have been resolved,” reads the county’s website.

The Public Health Food Inspection Closures homepage is online at www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/ehs/foodsafety/inspections/closures

According to the state:

“Sample results show bacteria concentrations have dropped to background levels.

The swimming beach was previously closed on September 16, 2011 due to a sewage spill.”

For more info on area beach closures, visit http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/beach/

“Preparation work including utility relocation has begun to replace the Sylvester Road Bridge,” reads the website. “The road will be closed for through traffic this Thursday, July 7th at 9 a.m. The road will remain closed until the end of the year. Motorists are advised to use a detour route (131KB .jpg) to avoid delays and disturbance to local residents.”

As anyone who has driven over it (or ventured under it) knows, the 80-year old bridge is in very poor condition. It has cracked columns and girders, worn rails and deck, and an antiquated design that will not withstand earthquake forces. After reviewing all options, engineers at the city, county, and state concluded that replacement is the most cost-effective solution for maintaining this corridor.

The new 220-foot long, single-span bridge will be slightly wider than the existing bridge, with two traffic lanes and a five-foot wide sidewalk. It will look somewhat similar to the existing bridge – here’s an artist’s rendering:

For more information, click here.

To download a detour route, click here.

The City of Normandy Park received a federal grant to replace the Sylvester Road Bridge located on Sylvester Road SW with a new bridge in 2011. As a certified agency, the King County Department of Transportation Road Services Division is managing this project for the City.

Construction updates including detour routes will be available on the King County website at www.kingcounty.gov/SylvesterRoadBridge

If you have any questions about this project, please contact:

DeAnna Martin, Communications Planner
206-684-1142
deanna.martin@kingcounty.gov

“Thank you for your patience and consideration as construction on this project gets underway,” adds the website in a nice, polite closing note.

by Ralph Nichols

Proposed consolidation of the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries was deferred Tuesday (June 28) pending more information about a possible annexation by Burien of the North Highline unincorporated area.

King County Library System (KCLS) trustees voted 3-0 to delay until then action on a staff recommendation to proceed with building a new North Highline library and consolidating the two existing North Burien libraries in that facility.

Board of Trustees President Judge Richard Eadie and trustees Rob Spitzer and Jessica Bonebright voted to place the consolidation recommendation on hold. Trustee Jim Wigfall was absent.

Before the vote, Burien City Councilwoman Lucy Krakowiak, who is also a library system trustee, recused herself.

More than 20 persons, most of them residents of North Burien and the unincorporated area, addressed the trustees for over an hour, all asking that the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries continue serving their neighborhoods.

Astha Tada, representing the White Center Library Guild, submitted petitions with signatures of 1,793 Burien and unincorporated area residents requesting the trustees to make it so.

“They want their libraries to remain open,” Tada said.

Following public comment, Spitzer promptly interjected that “it would be premature to take action” at this time, and immediately made a motion for delay.

“I agree it would be premature … while [North Highline annexation] is still so up in the air,” including possible annexation by Burien, said Bonebright, who seconded the motion.

The action to delay occurred without any discussion by the trustees or library system staff of the proposed recommendation for consolidation.

No date was set for further consideration of this issue.

Immediately after the board’s action, Burien City Councilwoman Rose Clark thanked the trustees for deferring action, and asked them to advise the city at such time as they are ready to revisit this question.

About 50 people, including those who spoke, traveled from North Burien/North Highline to the KCLS headquarters building in Issaquah, where the meeting was held at 5 p.m.

One reason for consolidation cited in the staff recommendation to the trustees was:

“Regardless of whether North Highline is annexed to the City of Burien or Seattle in the coming year, the existing White Center Library would still need to be expanded, relocated or consolidated.”

But several comments by the public focused on the 2004 library system capital bond issue, approved by county voters, which included funding for major facility improvements in both White Center and Boulevard Park.

They urged the trustees to use these dedicated funds now and upgrade the two libraries.

Greg Duff, a former president of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council and now a candidate for the Burien city council seat held by Krakowiak, was among those citing the still-untapped 2004 bond issue funds.

“So far we’ve seen nothing,” Duff said. “If you remove those two libraries, you’re lying to the citizens. If you take away our libraries, why should we ever vote for another bond?”

“Please keep your promises,” said Liz Giba, a member of the North Highline council. “A lot of people did not know” about the consolidation plan until the petition drive. After learning about it, White Center and Boulevard Park library patrons “are not very happy.”

King County Councilman Joe McDermott, whose District 8 includes Burien and North Highline, again asked trustees to wait “at least until we know what Burien does. The question really is about providing service … it is clear that there is interest there and it would be prudent to wait.”

McDermott also criticized a survey conducted by library system staff late last winter that indicated a preference for a new, consolidated facility among those responding.

“Consolidation was the only alternative,” he said. “I’m surprised your percentage wasn’t even higher” because people weren’t asked if they wanted to renovate the existing libraries and “not just whether they want a sexy, clean new library.”

Most public comments focused on the needs of many children and families in the neighborhoods and how losing the libraries would impact them.

Ian Dapiaoen, who works in White Center, said the “communities would be affected by the consolidation and closure of these libraries,” especially students whose families have limited options.

“Think about the youth who would have nowhere to go in a neighborhood without libraries,” Dapizoen asked the trustees.

He also said “it does not make sense to have a new library within a two-mile radius” of the new library in downtown Burien.

Virgil Domaoan, who lives in Boulevard Park and works with the White Center Community Development Association, questioned “how equitable” it is “to take two libraries away and replace them with one.”

Such an action would impact “a community of largely immigrant populations … that depends on public transportation,” Domaoan added. ““I’m urging you to make a decision that supports the youth … by improving the libraries that are there.”

Paul Montgomery, principal of Cascade Middle School, called the White Center Library “incredibly important to our community, incredibly important to our schools.”

“Our kids don’t have computers, they don’t have books,” like many students in more affluent communities served by King County libraries do, Montgomery said. “Think about equity issues of poverty and race.”

Tada added, “Without a doubt the librarians at neighborhood schools want them to remain open. These libraries are vital to their curriculum, they are vital to their students.”

Barbara Dobkin, the current North Highline council president, said “the students of our community use these libraries. The farther distance [of a consolidated facility] is not acceptable.”

Underscoring repeated references to the needs of many residents of the two neighborhoods, including elementary and middle school students, who rely on these libraries was the testimony of two Somali and three Vietnamese women from the area.

All five, speaking through interpreters, told trustees about the lack of computers and other educational aids at home, their dependency on public transportation, and how the loss of local libraries would negatively impact their families.

“A library is not a grocery store or a fast-food restaurant,” said Katherine Vogt of Boulevard Park, a former librarian there. “A library is a place that welcomes … it is a place of drams, a place of hope, especially for those who are poverty stricken.”

White Center Library Guild President Rachel Levine told the trustees, “You shold be proud that these people care enough about their libraries to come here tonight, as proud as you are of that wonderful award” the KCLS recently received for being named best library system in the U.S.

And Butch Henderson of Boulevard Park called proposed consolidation “a misguided effort to better serve both communities … I don’t understand the logic of taking two successful, esisting libraries out of these communities. I don’t get it.”

Krakowiak voted with the rest of the Burien City Council on June 20 for a resolution asking KCLS trustees to delay action on consolidation until after the annexation question is resolved.

Prior to casting her vote, she declared, “Libraries are very important to our communities and I support this issue wholeheartedly.”

Yet at Tuesday’s library board meeting, Krakowiak explained that, while she represents Burien interests as a city council member, she avoids conflicts of interest as a library system trustee by recusing herself from Burien library matters.

The Revised Code of Washington, however, limits its definitions of conflicts of interest involving elected public officials to financial conflicts, including monetary gain or influencing government contracts.

As we’ve previously reported, the King County Library System is seriously considering closing both the White Center and Boulevard Park library branches and consolidating them into one new branch.

This idea has not gone over very well with many White Center area residents.

One group, the White Center Library Guild, has launched a “Save Our Libraries’ campaign to “advocate for these libraries and to stress its importance to the community.” The Guild has created a petition that can be signed in front of the libraries and at various community events (read our previous coverage and find out more here).

The next King County Library System Board of Trustees meeting will be in Issaquah at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 28, and the library closure issue will be on the agenda. The guild is encouraging residents to attend and let their voices be heard.

The first 30 minutes of this meeting is open to public comment. Those who wish to speak may sign up at the beginning.

“Join the White Center Library Guild, White Center CDA and concerned community members to let the board know how important these libraries are to you, your family and your community!”

Here are the details:

WHO: Supporters of our White Center / Boulevard Park Libraries!

WHAT: King County Library System Board of Trustees meeting.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 28, 5:00pm.

WHERE: KCLS Service Center, 960 Newport Way NW, Issaquah, 98027 (TRANSPORTATION PROVIDED, INFO BELOW).

WHY: “To advocate for our libraries, our youth, our neighbors and our neighborhood’s future!”

The first 30 minutes of this meeting is open to public comment. Those who wish to speak may sign up at the beginning.

The guild also adds:

We understand that transportation may be a barrier, so please reply to this email or call (206) 694-1082 and let us know if you need a ride to the meeting and back to White Center. Our White Center CDA van and other vehicles will leave the White Center CDA parking lot at 3:30pm. The address to our office is 1615 SW Cambridge St, Seattle WA 98106 in White Center.

For more information, contact Ian Dapiaoen, Community Building Program Manager of the White Center Community Development Association at (206) 694-1082 x175 or ian@wccda.org .

by Ralph Nichols

This afternoon (May 24) at 5 p.m. in North Bend – about as far away from Burien as possible in King County – the fate of the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries may be decided.

The King County Library Board of Trustees will have before it a proposal – submitted by King County Library System Director Bill Ptacek – to merge the two North Burien libraries into a single new facility.

Burien Mayor Joan McGilton and Councilmembers Rose Clark and Jack Block Jr. are to meet with library board members at 1:30 p.m. today to urge them to delay action on the proposal, and to make a final decision only after the plan is discussed locally so affected patrons can participate.

King County Councilman Joe McDermott, whose 8th County Council District includes Burien, made the same request in a letter sent to library board members last week (read it here).

But Burien City Councilwoman Lucy Krakowiak, who also serves on the King County Library Board, won’t attend either meeting. Nor will she urge her library board colleagues to postpone consideration or to leave the two north city libraries open to serve their neighborhoods.

Despite the fact that library board members, including Krakowiak, are appointed rather than elected, she told The B-Town Blog Monday she would recuse herself from considering the North Burien libraries issue under any circumstances to avoid a conflict of interest.

When reminded that, since the city annexed North Burien, she now represents the patrons of those libraries on the city council, Krakowiak said her position was unchanged and she would still not participate in the discussion.

“We were going to present the [library consolidation] proposal at the May meeting … and will,” Ptacek told The B-Town Blog. “The board will choose to act or not act. It’s up to them. Our job is to get [them] a recommendation.

“It just happens to be that the May meeting has been scheduled all year at North Bend” for discussion of a local library issue. “We did that earlier in White Center.”

Now, Ptacek continued, the board “may or may not act on” the North Burien proposal. “My sense is that if they are concerned, they will not” take action today, but eventually “they will have to decide” what to do.

Greater Library Board Accountability?
Clark, who called the proposed consolidation “a wrong-headed way to go about serving communities,” told The B-Town Blog it is time to consider electing library board members, who oversee the multi-million dollar budget of the nation’s second largest library system.

“There needs to be some fiduciary responsibility” by library board members directly to King County taxpayers, Clark said. “I am totally blown away that the library trustees are not elected, yet they affect lives everywhere in King County and handle huge sums of money.”

McGilton, who agreed, also said there should be “several meetings” by the library board in the Burien area before a final decision is made on the future of the two libraries.

Ptacek’s push to consolidate the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries is just one controversy involving the library system in South King County alone.

Not long ago, Renton opted to join the King County system. Now the library board is also about to consider an unpopular plan locally to consolidate that city’s two libraries.

And city officials in Des Moines are outraged at recent actions by library system staff that, they say, places privacy concerns ahead of public safety.

“There need to be some answers talked about,” Clark said as she and McGilton agreed these matters suggest it may be time to consider an investigation of the King County Library System by the King County Council.

Des Moines Mayor Bob Sheckler, who has sent the library board a letter protesting the administration’s decision to remove security cameras from libraries, said while he is not familiar with the North Burien library situation, based on his recent experience “it is apparent there should be some review of the King County Library System.”

Block agreed that the library system’s “taxing authority needs elected [trustee] oversight.” But rather than an investigation by the county council, he said the appropriate agency to scrutinize it is the State Auditor’s Office.

2004 Bond Issue Included White Center, Boulevard Park
The controversy over the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries is rooted in a 2004 King County Library System bond issue, which raised funds to build or remodel libraries throughout the county.

Construction of the new downtown Burien Library, which opened in 2009, was part of that bond issue. So was expansion of the White Center Library to 10,000 square feet and major improvements to the Boulevard Park Library.

But when Seattle expressed an interest in annexing the remaining North Highline unincorporated area, the library system pulled back from proceeding with work on the North Burien libraries.

Ptacek has told both the Burien City Council and the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council that annexation by Seattle would take away too much of the service areas of the two libraries, and keeping them open would not pencil out.

The library system then began studying the possibility of consolidating the libraries in a new centrally located building.

Library Staff Pushes for Consolidation
Yet even after Seattle indicated last winter that it might not annex North Highline and would not oppose Burien moving forward with annexation, the library system administration at Ptacek’s direction has continued planning for consolidation.

At a meeting of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council in early March, Ptacek said the library system had four options: keep both the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries open while it waits on the outcome of the annexation process; move one or both libraries farther south, consolidate them into a new facility, or close both libraries.

He also made it clear that currently favorable construction costs make it practical to build a new facility to consolidate both libraries now, not later.

Ptacek repeated this Monday, noting that “after all the study that we’ve done and that we don’t know how annexation will turn out in the Highline area,” this is a good time to move forward.

“We could start on a project” to build a consolidated library building in North Burien “right away … the environment for bidding is good,” he continued. It is “better to do something sooner rather than later.”

And an “attractive new building “for the entire community” in the North Highline area “would be a desirable thing.”

Although the library board “could wait for us to see how annexation works out, it may take years to get that resolved and we don’t want to wait years,” Ptacek continued. “I think the community wants to move ahead, and that’s what our community survey shows.”

But, countered McGilton, the community survey – conducted both by phone and online – to which Ptacek points, “was skewed, seriously skewed.” It was weighted to produce a result favoring consolidation, she said, adding that she received complaints about the survey.

“I believe libraries are important whether they are in the community or in schools,” Clark declared. “This is what government should be doing. There should be more libraries, not fewer.”

LOCATION/AGENDA:

• The Board meeting begins at 5 p.m. at the North Bend Library, located at 115 E. 4th, North Bend 98045; 425-888-0554 (info here).
• The agenda for the meeting can be downloaded here (PDF file).

The City of Burien announced Thursday (Jan. 20th) that it will be closing a section of Ambaum Blvd. for construction work on Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 25th and 26th.

A one-block section of Ambaum, just south of SW 116th Street (see map below) will be closed for repair work of the storm drainage system. Short detours will be set up in both directions, with police officers directing traffic. Vehicles will be directed east to 12th Ave. S. on SW 116th St. and SW 118th St. to bypass the construction area.

Metro buses that service Ambaum Boulevard also will use the detour.

The road work and closure on Ambaum is weather-permitting; it will be postponed in the event of rain.

Ambaum will be reopened on Thursday and Friday, Jan. 27th and 28th, but will be down to one lane in both directions at SW 122nd Street because of continued storm drainage work.

The traffic disruptions will move south on Ambaum in the weeks and months ahead as construction on the storm drainage system and sidewalks continue south to SW 156th Street.

View Larger Map