Advocacy

I have always been an advocate of various endeavors - mostly political, but mostly not too personal. I have some pretty strong political opinions and sign petitions online on a pretty much daily basis. I also write emails to my local commissioners, mayor, and city manager on a weekly basis. Last fall I got involved with a grass roots campaign to help get two commissioners elected in my city of Lake Worth. The older I get the more passionate I seem to be getting when it comes to both local, state, and national issues. I have gravitated from just signing form letters, and petitions, to actually walking the streets of my City to campaign for candidates. And this past weekend I took it a step further by sending out a plea for help for the Lake Worth Public Library. I sent an email to both the Florida Library Association listserv and the Palm Beach County Library Association Listserv. Many people emailed me to offer support and encouragement and it was very appreciated. Besides this email to the listservs, I also sent a more personal email to the city commission, mayor, and city manager. I have copy and pasted both messages below. The more libraries get attacked - and it now seems to be a yearly thing - the more proactive those of us who care about them need to be.

Letter to the FLA and PBCLA listservs:

Good afternoon Library Community of Florida,

The Lake Worth Public Library needs your support. The Lake Worth City Manager is proposing drastic cuts to the Lake Worth Public Library and will be meeting with the City Commission this Monday (3/21) at 5pm to discuss, and possibly implement, these cuts. The City Manager is suggesting that the library staff needs to be cut from 7 full time employees to 1 full time employee and adding an additional 2 part time employees. She intends to run the library with 1 full time staff member and 4 part time employees. She is also proposing to cut the hours the library is open from 40 hours a week to 30 hours a week. The City Manager believes that this minimal staff can maintain the library with the additional help of volunteers. This proposal comes in the middle of a budget year that has already been approved by the City Commission. I encourage those of you who value libraries to contact the Mayor, City Commission, and City Manager of Lake Worth, to show your support for the Lake Worth Public Library. Their contact information can be found below.

Mayor – Rene Varela - rvarela@lakeworth.org / Phone: 561-586-1730

City Commission:

Suzanne Mulvehill, Vice-Mayor – smulvehill@lakeworth.org / Phone: 561-586-1734

Jo-Ann Golden – jgolden@lakeworth.org / Phone: 561-586-1730

Scott Maxwell – smaxwell@lakeworth.org / Phone: 561-586-1730

Christopher McVoy – cmcvoy@lakeworth.org / Phone: 561-586-1730

City Manager – Susan Stanton – sstanton@lakeworth.org / Phone: 561-586-1630

Lake Worth City Hall is located at 7 North Dixie Highway, near downtown Lake Worth. Public Comments are allowed at the meeting on Monday.

Attached is a copy of the proposed budget cuts. The part about the library is on page 7.

Brian R. Smith

(Member - Lake Worth Library Advisory Board)
Reference/Interlibrary Loan Librarian
Delray Beach Public Library
100 W. Atlantic Ave.
Delray Beach, FL 33444
(561) 819-6405

Letter to City of Lake Worth officials:

Good morning City of Lake Worth officials,

I took the time this weekend to read the proposed staffing cuts to our City and I honestly don't know where to begin. The level of service we citizens already receive is poor in my estimation and I can only imagine it will get worse with less staff. As a librarian I am especially concerned with the proposed cuts to the library. I have been a professional librarian in public libraries for close to 5 years and you can not run a library with volunteers. It is not possible and not recommended by anybody in the profession. Even getting volunteers to show up for routine tasks such as shelving books is difficult. It is important that you know that a cut in hours from 40 to 30 per week eliminates any state aid the library may receive in the future, either directly or indirectly (see Florida Statute, Chapter 257.17 (2a)). The library is now only open minimally 5 days a week for 40 hours, and this already makes it difficult for citizens to use the services provided. Less hours means less opportunity for families, the unemployed, entrepreneurs, and everybody else who relies on the library for empowerment. I strongly urge you to maintain the current level of funding to the library and if anything increase the staffing and increase the hours the library is open. I plan on speaking tonight at your meeting more on this. I believe that this proposed cut of 70 employees could be the death blow to the City. I have invested too much in my neighborhood, my home, and my City, to let Lake Worth die and I will go down fighting. I am also extremely offended that both the Library Advisory Board and the Library Supervisor were not consulted before proposing these cuts. I have taken the time to inform both the Palm Beach and State library community of these matters.

Sincerely, Brian

Brian R. Smith
City of Lake Worth Library Advisory Board Member
Mango Groves Neighborhood Association Board Member
Vice-President/President-Elect Palm Beach County Library Association
Florida Library Association Public Relations Committee Member
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