Library should adhere to wishes of voters

I just attended a public meeting at the St. Charles library conducted by the head librarian and a library consulting firm. The intention of the meeting was to get patron input for either improvements or construction of new library facilities. I attended the meeting since I am an opponent of library expansion due to the significant changes occurring in the field due to technology, i.e., electronic books, streaming of movies and music, search engines and the continued proliferation of personal and handheld computers.

The consultant made it very clear to the small audience that there were no plans for another referendum, the last one was defeated by the electorate. Instead the plan was to use the surplus in the budget to make the necessary changes that were being discussed. I then asked the librarian how much money was available for this project. After a bit of hemming and hawing, she told the group that there was $12 Million dollars currently available and the final total would be around $15 million.

What this means is that the library board has been overtaxing its constituents for many years as a way to build up this huge surplus in order to be able to achieve their goals of expansion or significant current building improvements. In this way they would not have to go to the voters for a referendum.

In my opinion, this is the wrong way to do it. The voters rejected the referendum and the board devised a way to proceed without voter approval. They will say that their budget and financials are public, but they certainly know that few people if any would ever look into this level of detail. Instead, we expect the board to follow the wishes of the voters who voted no to these expenditures.

Paul Ingevaldson

St. Charles