Reporter’s Notebook: City Council pushes for more

library trustees, fundraising power

By Gintautas Dumcius
Jul. 1, 2010

Several city councillors are pushing this week for the expansion of the Boston Public Library board of trustees and giving them the ability to fundraise for the cash-strapped system.

City Councillors Michael Ross, Ayanna Pressley, Felix Arroyo have filed a home rule petition expanding the mayorally-appointed nine-member board to 13 members. Term limits would also be instituted for board members.

If approved by the 13-member City Council, the petition must get a sign-off from Mayor Thomas Menino, the state Legislature and the governor. The council was expected to vote on the proposal as the Reporter went to press.

Menino’s press office did not respond to a request for comment.

The board, created in 1878, would also receive the ability to fundraise. At a recent City Council hearing on the Boston Public Library’s budget, councillors, including Arroyo, were surprised to hear from BPL officials that trustees did little to no fundraising.

Trustees last week voted to grant a nine-month reprieve to four libraries slated for closure, including the Lower Mills branch.

Fundraising for the 26-branch system largely falls to the Boston Public Library Foundation, which held a fundraiser in early June that featured Dorchester native and award-winning author Dennis Lehane. The foundation has been in operation since 1992.

State Rep. Linda Forry, a Dorchester Democrat whose district includes the Lower Mills branch, said she supports the council’s proposal.

“I do think that was a way of them thinking creatively,” she said. Forry is the wife of Reporter managing editor Bill Forry.

But she expressed some skepticism over whether lawmakers could approve it before the end of the Legislature’s session on July 31, if the proposal makes it to Beacon Hill. “It’s just going to have to make its way up here and work through the process,” she said. “I’m not sure we’ll be able to get it done by the end of our session.”

Bills that are not passed by July 31 face a harder slog through the Legislature, particularly if they are controversial.

Forry and other lawmakers have pushed back against the nine-month reprieve, saying the libraries would still be scheduled to close under the proposal, but next year instead the end of this summer.
Boston-area lawmakers in both the state Senate and House have inserted an amendment into the state’s fiscal 2011 budget that withholds $2.4 million from the library’s coffers if the libraries close. Library officials say the move would lead to “draconian” cuts to the struggling system.

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