Library budget: Any more cuts will mean amputation

Presenter: The library budget has been cut and cut and cut. Advocates urge the public to get involved. During public comment at the City Council Jan. 27, and at the Neighborhood Leaders Council Jan. 28, Eugene residents spoke up for the library:

[00:00:15] Linda Ague: My name is Linda Ague and I’m on the board of the Friends of the Eugene Public Library. Thank you for providing this time for public input. I want to take a few seconds to ask anyone who supports strong library funding to please stand.

[00:00:27] You have an important decision to make. We elected you to make important decisions. I don’t pretend to understand public funding, but what I do understand is that sometimes to make wise decisions it might require tempering strong opinions to benefit the greater good. You all have the budget numbers in front of you and you know the library took a big hit the last budgeting session.

[00:00:48] So I want to speak to something else. A recent study out of Princeton University for the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that we are more isolated than ever. From 2003 to 2023, we spent on an average 25% less time with face-to-face contact, even in our own homes.

[00:01:08] For some groups, it’s as high as 40%. We can blame TV, our phones, COVID, yadda yadda yadda. In addition to economic consequences, the study found this isolation led to depression, lack of civic engagement, political and cultural divisions, and the rabbit holes of conspiracy theories.

[00:01:27] The solution? Public places, sometimes called third spaces, cafes, entertainment events, and best of all: libraries. A recent Eugene Weekly article named our library as the best place to meet, even among young people. And with DEI under attack, the inclusive EPL is a perfect sanctuary.

[00:01:48] There are some who might want us to believe that our library is a luxury. But if we are going to debate how best to save our city, we need to make sure it contains those things that make it worth saving.

[00:02:03] To use a metaphor, yours is not a choice between rent and a bigger TV. It is a choice between rent and food. We need both. We need it all. This may not be your personal reality, but it is the reality of the 76% of the Eugene population who voted yes on the last library levy. It is your task to do what is best for all the city.

[00:02:28] Renee Buchanan: I’m Renee Buchanan. I’m a member of the Eugene Public Library Foundation Board. However, tonight I’m speaking on behalf of myself.

I believe that everyone in this room wants Eugene to be a safe and livable city. Each of you councilors wants a safe and livable city. Everyone watching online wants to live in a safe and livable city. I think this is true because you showed up, because I showed up, because we all showed up, we all agree this is what we want.

[00:02:56] Cutting any of the city’s department budget will be painful for many of our community members. With an $11.5 million shortfall, we are going into this budget cycle on top of huge cuts from the last biennium. We are past cutting the fat. We are at the point of amputation.

[00:03:13] The City Council asked the city manager to outline two possible budget approaches: an equitable distribution of cuts, or not touching Police and Fire and having the other city departments absorb the shortfall. As I see it your two options are:

(1) We can cut off all of our fingers and our toes and our ears and our nose, which would seem most equitable which by my calculations would be about a $1 million cut to the library, or

Option (2) We can amputate one of our limbs and keep our fingers and toes and ears and nose and and I see this as being approximately about $2 million that’s going to be cut to the library.

[00:03:53] Shall we reduce public safety? The response time for emergencies is already unacceptable. Or will we reduce community services? The safety nets for our community are already fraying. Whether we cut off all of our digits, ears, nose, and our toes, or cut off our left arm, a recovery from an amputation will be challenging, if even possible.

[00:04:15] The community is here tonight to say we want library services and we know they are essential services to many members of our community. I am confident we also want Fire and Police and a functioning municipal court and Parks and Recreation and Cultural Services.

[00:04:32] We can’t correct the statewide revenue source crisis by June, but we can avoid an irreversible city crisis by June.

[00:04:41] Dana Fleming: My name is Dana Fleming and I have the honor of being the executive director of Eugene Public Library Foundation, located in the downtown library.

[00:04:49] Thank you for your service to the community and for thoughtfully deciding how to balance the city’s budget, especially in light of revenue shortfalls. I know you continue to be faced with tough decisions. I’ve testified before that cutting the library’s general funds so deeply that there’s no funding left for books, programming, or materials should not be the new normal.

[00:05:13] It was during last week’s work session that I realized with great horror that some of you think that the library’s budget could and should sustain a devastating amount of additional cuts. Let me tell you, there is no more meat on the bone.

[00:05:28] The cumulative impact of the cuts of past years have made it incredibly challenging for library staff to balance the needs of library patrons against their limited availability and fewer resources. Additional cuts will further impede library patrons and cripple an already-diminished staff.

[00:05:47] I want to remind you that many in our community believe, as do I, that our library is the cornerstone of our city, a hub for knowledge, opportunity, and community, and worth preserving. One of the measures of urban resilience is the presence of open, accessible, and welcoming public places where residents can congregate and provide social support in times of need, but also every day.

[00:06:17] At a time when we need to look for more ways to be more resilient and have equal access to information, it is counterintuitive to catastrophically underfund one of the very institutions that make our community stronger. I appreciate what you do to try to make Eugene a better place to live. Please do not take from it one of the very best things about it, our library.

[00:06:44] Presenter: Amie Annsa:

[00:06:44] Amie Annsa: I also want to say something related to the library funding. And I said this when I got LTD’s Employee of the Month (award), October ‘23: ‘I wish that we’d live in a world where every child was issued a library card and a bus pass. I strongly believe that if you give them those two things, you give them the world.’

Continued support of the library is a very important way to protect and show support for LGBT people, undocumented immigrants and the overall health and well-being of our community. We need to know that we are going to be okay. We need to know that you are with us and that no matter what happens under this new administration, local government, which is the government that most affects people’s daily lives, is going to practice and fight for us.

[00:07:28] Presenter: Kelly Johnson:

[00:07:29] Kelly Johnson: I am not a native Oregonian or a native Eugenian, but I choose Eugene to be my home. And it has been a love story ever since I’ve moved here, and I’d like to think that I’ve become Eugene’s number one fan.

[00:07:45] Some of the reasons why I’ve made it my chosen home are because this city matched my values. It has beautiful parks, an amazing library, and invested in arts and culture. All things that made a calling to my heart and to my soul, and to so many in this room behind me.

[00:08:06] I know you all are facing really tough budget decisions and I would just encourage you to listen to the voices in this room that are advocating really hard for all the services that they believe in and make Eugene a place that they want to call home.

[00:08:24] For several years I volunteered at the Eugene Public Library, sitting at the information desk with the lovely security guards and I can’t tell you how many people came into that library from all walks of our community, particularly young people. And it’s such a safe place for so many in our community, but particularly young people.

[00:08:45] One of my favorite games to play as I sat there for my two-hour shift was to try to count how many steps a young child would take before they just took off running to the children’s section. It was usually under three.

[00:08:59] People love all of our services in Eugene and I just encourage you to be creative. You’ve already been so creative in trying to make the cuts as minimal as possible. But please support as much as you can our full spectrum of services here in Eugene.

[00:09:17] Presenter: Katharine Hunt:

[00:09:18] Katharine Hunt: I’m a Raging Granny, but tonight I’m speaking as a grandmother of two very special twin grandchildren. The library has been a lifesaver for them, a safe place for youth to meet and make friends. They also love to read.

[00:09:40] So they have been in Tweens. Tweens is children nine years of age up to 12. Now they’re in Teens because they’re 13. So they meet once a week with other young people from our community and do crafts and all kinds of activities and there’s a whole list of activities that they are able to do (that I’m leaving in case you would like to look it over).

[00:10:13] These are just two programs offered by our great library. I remember when their father was a young boy, going to the old library. We’d go down there and we couldn’t afford records and other—it was mostly records at that time—but we could borrow them from the library. And so they discovered and heard the music from, especially I was interested in the music created in the United States. So they had a great time in the downtown library at that time.

[00:10:52] So I would encourage you to please keep funding the library so that there will be new books on the shelves and programs will continue. Thank you for serving our community, all of you.

[00:11:09] Presenter: At the Neighborhood Leaders Council Jan. 28, Jess Roshak:

[00:11:13] Jess Roshak (Public comment, Neighborhood Leaders Council, Jan. 28, 2025): My name is Jess Roshak. I served on SEN (Southeast Neighbors) for five and a half years. And now I’m here as an envoy from the Eugene Public Library Foundation.

[00:11:22] We know that neighbors are really concerned about the library. The so-called ‘fire fee,’ that scenario would impact the library the least. Minimal cuts would need to be made to other places.

It is not in the bag at all that the fire fee would pass. We’re looking at three councilors are almost definite ‘No’s on that. One, we don’t know. The mayor may need to cast a deciding vote. So it is imperative that, if that is in your heart, that you would write to your city councilor.

[00:11:57] The other two scenarios, one would be a terrible scenario, which would be another $1 million cut after the last two or three years of cuts. And that would mean seven or eight librarians laid off. You can imagine what that kind of does to services and programming and things like that sort of cascade.

[00:12:13] And then the other doomsday scenario would be if the Police and Fire don’t share in the proportional cuts, that would mean probably 15 to 17 full-time librarian positions cut. Last year, 12 positions were cut. We won’t recognize it. It’s going to be very, very, very different. And it will impact the library for a decade or more.

[00:12:32] So, Feb. 10 is the real decision day. It’s not certain at all what will be happening with the library. You know, the priority has not been the library, maybe because it’s been operating at an efficient level. It operates well. People use it. We like it, right?

[00:12:48] But should that go away, people will notice and become a huge community issue. You know, it’s, you know, our unhoused community uses it. It’s a heat shelter. It’s an educational resource. I mean, it’s literacy. It’s all those things. And should those cuts happen, the doomsday cuts, it’s going to be deep, it’s going to hit really hard, and that’s hard to bounce back from. Really.

[00:13:13] Presenter: Although the city invested in a so-called priority-based budget, no priorities were ever set. The city can only deliver proportional cuts by department, instead of using program priorities set by a public process.

[00:13:26] For years, councilors have asked the city to save money by completing the long-delayed governance of Eugene Springfield Fire. They asked again this month.

[00:13:36] The city also continues to manage redundant services that are already being provided by the county, and unlike LTD, the city does not provide comprehensive performance metrics to identify programs that aren’t actually serving the community.

[00:13:50] So once again, rather than allowing targeted and surgical cuts, the city must reach for a bone saw and amputate. Library advocates ask you to contact your city councilors.

Image: CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons: Amputation set, comprising saw, three large knives, one finger saw, three scalpels, one pair artery forceps, one tenaculum, one pair bone forceps, one tourniquet, one roll ligature silk, in mahogany case, by Weiss of London, mid-19th century.