City Council reconvenes '97 library expansion committee

By Kara Chalmers

The City Council reconvened the library expansion committee at its meeting May 9, with few changes to the original 1997 roster.

Although at the council's April 5 meeting Councilman Nick Streit pushed for replacing some of the committee members with new ones, only five people applied for the open positions. The three applicants the council chose happened to be on the original list.

"The three people who had the best qualifications and knew the most about the library were the three that were originally on the list," Streit said.

On March 30, Saratoga's library commission voted to reconvene the 1997 committee. Except for people who were no longer available, the list was the same as three years ago.

When interim city manager Bill Norton presented the commission's recommendation to the council on April 5, Streit said that recreating a three-year-old committee would leave out people who have moved into Saratoga during the last three years. He said that these people--who in March helped pass Measure N, the $15 million bond measure for a renovated and expanded library--deserved an opportunity to interview for positions on the committee. By holding interviews, the council would open the positions to average interested citizens, and not have a committee composed mainly of current and former library officials.

"I don't like reconstituting something that's three years old," he said at the time.

The council decided to leave three of the 11 seats open and to interview applicants on April 25. They voted to add a public safety commission representative to the list and to drop two library commissioners, one of whom was Ruth Gipstein, and two community representatives, Edward Sessler and Jack Grantham (both prior library commissioners) from the list, as well.

But the council ultimately selected Ruth Gipstein, Jack Grantham and Edward Sessler, all of whom were sworn in May 9. Mary Henderson, a retired engineering and medical librarian, and Frank Lemmon, a Friends of the Saratoga Libraries member and a precinct co-captain for Measure N, were interviewed but not chosen.

"My original goal was to get a better cross section of the city since the demographics are changing," Streit said in a later interview. He said that, unfortunately, people with young children, the demographic group that is growing in Saratoga, didn't apply for the open positions.

But Streit said the three new members are excellent candidates who are extremely knowledgeable about the library. He said all had creative ideas and seemed to be in consensus about features needed in the new library.

Other than the three new members, the committee has one council representative, Mayor Stan Bogosian; the chairwoman of the library commission, Marcia Manzo; the interim city manager and later, the permanent city manager; a representative of the Friends of the Saratoga Libraries, a position that Bill McDonnal and Mary-Jeanne Fenn will share; a representative of the Planning Commission, Mary-Lynne Bernald; a representative of the heritage preservation commission, Robert Peepari; a representative of the public safety commission; and a representative of the Santa Clara County Library, Deputy Librarian Julie Farnsworth.

Saratoga Community Library head librarian Dolly Barnes and the city's administrative services director, Mary Jo Walker, are nonvoting members of the committee. Manzo will serve as the committee's chair and all members will serve until the library's renovation is completed.

The committee is now at work preparing a request-for-proposals form for the library's design, which the council will need to approve, according to Manzo. The committee also will recommend an architect and will monitor the design and construction of the library's expansion, she said.

The city's next step is to form an oversight committee for Measure N. The library commission plans to send its recommendation for oversight committee members to the council on May 17. Groundbreaking for the library's renovation is scheduled for August 2001.

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