Who wins? It depends what side you are on and what the ultimate definition of winning means in this instance. No one wins on so many levels. At a time when citizens no longer have full faith and trust in their national government it is disturbing and unfortunate when the same sentiment is directed toward one’s local government.
Senior administration, from City Manager Brenda Fischer on down, failed the residents of Glendale. Their unwillingness to provide full disclosure at the time of the offer to buy is appalling. To this day, we, the residents of Glendale, do not know where the idea of the sale originated. Did someone in Glendale’s senior administration suggest the idea to Midwestern University (MU)? Or as MU states in its initial February 17, 2014 letter, “Considering the current financial constraints on the City of Glendale and the dwindling use of a traditional library, we would like to express our sincere interest in exploring the possibility of a purchase…” How did MU know that there was a “dwindling use?” MU took advantage of “the current financial constraints on the City of Glendale” by low balling and offering an initial $3.4 million dollars for a building that could not be replaced for less than $17 million dollars. MU appears to have jumped at the chance to buy the building at a fire sale price. Their offer and attitude toward a proposed purchase squandered a great deal of good will between it and Glendale residents that had existed for many years.
Glendale’s senior administration lost an opportunity to demonstrate a new way of doing business. This incident reinforced many residents’ belief that attitudes and actions of senior administration has not changed despite the new faces on the senior management team. Where was the immediate disclosure in February of 2014 to council and residents of an offer to purchase the library?
This proposal had been massaged and managed secretly until senior administration thought they had all the pieces in place. Their excuse for failing to disclose was that there was a need for “due diligence.” Yet that diligence failed to take place. Part of that diligence should have been a cost analysis of a future replacement library should it be needed and an economic impact analysis to the entire city of such an action. Where was the plan of exactly how the library would be placed and work effectively in a constrained space? Instead the public was offered conceptual drawings that had no relevance to the actual space and use of the site within the Foothills Recreation and Aquatic Center (FRAC).
The senior administration lost further credibility in its failure to act as a neutral presenter of fact. For years, as a councilmember, I asked for the pros and cons of items for consideration. Under the short tenure of former Acting City Manager Horatio Skeete, we actually received that kind of information not all the time, but several times. It was a start and I, for one, was grateful. Now we’re back to square one. Instead of presenting the factual pros and cons of this idea, senior administration turned into a bunch of advertising hacks. There was no neutrality. They appeared to own this idea and worked to sell it to the public.
Why the senior administration exuberance in selling the library? They have visions of all of those dollars dancing in their heads. The sale proceeds would go into the city’s General Fund and senior administrators would have recommended that it be used to retire some of Glendale’s debt. This council, with its propensity to rubber stamp management recommendations, would have followed. Glendale remains deeply in debt and it will continue until they deal with the gorilla in the room…its ongoing, unsustainable debt for such things as the arena management agreement of $15 million dollars a year and the Camelback Park spring training facility debt.
Who are the losers? MU and its reservoir of good will among the residents of Glendale; the senior administrators of Glendale who squandered whatever credibility they had to sell a bad idea; and of course, the general public who failed to receive fair and balanced information. Who wins? The sad fact is that no one wins…no matter what the outcome.
© Joyce Clark, 2015
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Unfortunately Midwestern came across to the general public looking very bad and, I believe, lost much credibility in the process. Senior administration never really did have much credibility. As mentioned in a previous post, Ms Fischer came with baggage a simple internet search would have revealed. It is startling to me that any City Manager would publicly attack the business community. The City of Glendale administration in general has lost, because no one will trust them on anything. Just as there are neighborhood block watches, there needs to be City watches. Hopefully this has spurred the community to really pay attention as to what goes on in the City. Glendale really looks like the laughing stock of the nation. Sad. I have heard from friends in other cities that Glendale is fodder around the water cooler and not in a good way.
Joyce – Great post. My wife and I attended the library council meeting at the Foothills Branch and as has been reported it was standing room only. The event was rather cathartic for us, it was really amazing to be in a meeting that lasted for 3 hours with half of the time dedicated to the community to speak and not one person for the sale stood up. There were lots of take-away items that community members spoke of but the most enduring were the children and young adults who talked about the impact the library has had on their lives.
A few of the children told the council that their charter school has no library and they see the Foothills Branch as their school library.
One resident reminded the audience that we recently built the Skunk Creek Bridge (a multi-million dollar project) so that residents could access the library easier and safer; would we have done the construction if it only served the 2,000 to 2,600 university students?
One resident pointed out the obvious, if the university wants the building so their students have a study hall, then why would you buy it, those students are free to use it now and do for that purpose?
One resident held up a photo of the San Antonio library that is being touted as a model for the new computer rooms calling it sterile and approaching the feel of a call center. I did a little googling on the topic – the San Antonio library has 26 total libraries. The technology center was opened as a new concept and did not seem to replace a large one like the Foothills Branch. I guess if you have 26 libraries, you can afford to take a chance on a major change. A little more googling reveals that our friendly major city to the south, Tucson tried one of these technology centers in the early 2000’s and had to replace it with of all things, books. http://nation.time.com/2013/09/13/a-bookless-library-opens-in-san-antonio/
One great idea from a resident was to let the university find land in Glendale, build the city a replacement library of the same size and the city can do a fair swap. What a great idea!
One long time resident reminded us that the university used to allow local residents to attend activities on the Midwestern campus and use the facilities but then abruptly stopped. He stated this in reference to the university’s statement that residents could use the current library after the sale.
One resident asked if there had been any type of an economic impact study conducted to see what the impact of the sale would be on businesses deciding to move into the northwest valley or the effect on our home values. The answer was no.
One resident asked if residents were asked for input on whether we wanted new technologies to replace the traditional library. The answer was no.
A few residents pointed out that the presentation given was truly a sales pitch for the sale not a pro and con presentation in that there are no “cons” listed in the presentation.
One fact that came out was that the second appraisal was paid for with money that was donated in the library’s book sale. That really irritates people like me who purchase a book almost every week; I felt like I paid my own executioner.
One last point, we have heard that the university will provide services to the community including programs for vets. Man, that gets in my craw; vets served and died protecting our freedoms to have libraries.
There’ so much to write about on this Friday the 13th.
First of all, last night I watched all 2 hours of the YouTube video of the Monday night meeting which was held at FRAC.
The meeting room was small, and supposedly one of the areas that will be used for the future “relocation” of the Foothills Branch Library (FBL). I’ll address that later in this post. There appeared to be about a hundred concerned residents at the meeting – maybe more – it was really hard to tell.
From all accounts the Wednesday night meeting held at the FBL had many more attendees, and more who wanted to attend, but did not for lack of parking space.
There should be many, many more people attending any future meetings (if there really will be any more), and a larger area provided to accommodate those people! I don’t know who’s choosing the meeting place, but it seems they are purposely being scheduled in inadequate locations so as to discourage attendance.
Maybe I’m dreaming, but I’ll bet there would be hundreds and hundreds (maybe thousands?) of Glendale citizens who would attend the meetings if only there was room for them.
Of course, the most important thing is to be sure that the residents of Glendale are informed of the proposal, sale and “relocation” of the FBL. I’ve spoken to a few neighbors, and they aren’t even aware of what’s happening! This “library War” has got to be made more public if it is ever to be stopped!
Erik Strunk and Michael Beck appeared to be two hapless oafs who were instructed by their superiors to go into the battlefield ill-prepared for the fight.
In their opening presentation they used a Power Point presentation (which was not visible on the YouTube video), and they used catch phrases such as, “moving into the 21st Century”, “a National trend”, and “advanced technology”, blah, blah, blah.
I wasn’t impressed, and from the vocal responses of the attendees neither were they.
One of the locals who was allowed her comments told Strunk and Beck if they expected us to believe what they were saying, they were “insulting our intelligence”. Indeed!
Another local, in her comments, pointed out that the handout they were given showing the rooms that were to be used for the “relocation” did not appear to be drawn to scale, and the meeting room they were in could not possibly house all the shelves, books, and other items shown in the rendering. Strunk and Beck actually admitted that the pictures were not drawn “to scale”.
Another insult to our intelligence! They simply cannot “shoehorn” 33,500 square feet of the FBL into 6,100 square feet of FRAC without lying about it!
So many good points made by the citizens of Glendale – so many foolish statements made by Strunk and Beck!
I wonder who gave MWU the idea that use of FBL was “dwindling”? It doesn’t appear to me that use is dwindling; it’s always busy when I go there!
Of course, we’ll never know who said it – if it really was said. So many secrets kept from the resident taxpayers of Glendale.
As far as who loses? IMHO it will definitely be the good people of Glendale. I further believe that MWU could care less about a loss of good will from the residents. Their only concern is the growth of the University campus, the increase of programs, and the mega-dollars they get each and every year from the student tuition. They will not lose one minute of sleep over this deal if they take over the FBL and deny the people who love and use our beautiful Foothills Branch Library.
I still hope and pray that this sale and “relocation” never, ever goes through, but the realist in me says unless something major happens to stop it , we, the people of Glendale, are gonna’ get screwed! 🙁
Rather then having multiple meetings, why didn’t they call a special meeting in the CoG council chambers? That would surely hold more than these small meetings can. But as a previous comment mentioned, I am sure these spaces were chosen on purpose.
The space at FRAC is far too small , and as mentioned noisy, to contain an adequate library, not to mention the loss of other benefits of FRAC.
Reducing library hours (and staff) is one thing, squeezing it into a closet, or losing it all together is another.
Bill, Your last comment disappeared before I could post it. Sorry.
I was at the first two meetings but couldn’t attend the third. Was the presentation the same or has the tone shifted some? Were the comments similar, and did the commission have great questions (like the Parks and Rec and Library commiss9ons had)? Also, do we know when the answers to questions might be available. (That could take a long time!) Another question: We know about the appraisal coming from the book budget, which is horrendous. How can we find out about the cost of the renderings? By the way, why was the appraisal company out of Mesa, and is it just by chance that it came in just under $5K? Does anyone know who on the council knew of this before early February, and when? Thanks–I know some of you may be able to answer some of these questions.
I will post a blog tomorrow on the last meeting.