Impressed by a coalition-conducted survey documenting strong library support, the Salinas City Council tacitly endorsed the plan May 16 by establishing a committee headed by Mayor Anna Caballero to work with activists on educating area residents about the budget crisis. “These organizations are a true grassroots movement that want library services to not only be continued, but enhanced,” said Save Salinas Libraries representative Peter Haas in the May 18 Monterey County Herald.
The proposed initiative would be the second half-cent sales-tax measure in a year; voters’ rejection in November 2004 of a local sales tax resulted in officials scheduling the closing of the three-branch library system and the shuttering of the city’s six recreation centers. However, the city council rescinded the libraries’ mid-June closing date after a vigorous grassroots campaign raised $500,000 to keep the facilities open 8–10 hours per week through December.
The libraries are operating with a reduced workforce and no credentialed director at the helm: Julia Orozco was forced into retirement last December to save her $126,000-per-year salary and Assistant City Manager Jorge Rifa is overseeing SPL operations. “Right now, as we’re rebuilding, we’re not going to go back to having a director,” Caballero told NBC affiliate KSBW-TV May 26.
Posted June 3, 2005.