San Francisco Mayor Seeks Reelection
Through Library Renaissance
It’s a mayoral election year in San Francisco but the public library may be the winner, judging by the budget Mayor Willie Brown unveiled May 31. Explaining in his budget message he wanted to reinvest a two-year fiscal surplus totaling more than $200 million to “priorities that are important to all San Franciscans,” Brown has recommended $4.4 million for new book purchases, which would dedicate 10% of the library’s FY 1999-2000 budget to acquisitions. His proposal also includes $300,000 to establish a tool-lending library and funding for 24 additional library workers.
Poignantly, the mayor’s budget message singled out City Librarian Regina Minudri for turning around the demoralized library system even as she remained in critical condition after suffering a massive stroke on May 18. Brown credited Minudri for transforming “a department plagued by perennial staffing and spending problems into a department to which 74% of citizens gave a favorable rating in the 1999 Citizen Survey.”
Posted June 7, 1999.
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