Merced County leaders push back on ‘false narrative’ over library plans

After experiencing a firestorm of commentary on social media, and receiving hundreds of postcards and emails over the past week, Merced County supervisors are insisting they have no plan in their hands to privatize library services in the region.

Nevertheless, library supporters showed up at the county’s regular board meeting on Tuesday morning to denounce the idea of privatization, and some left saying they were unconvinced the issue was resolved, and called for a clear signal from the CEO’s office that the “discussion” has ended.

Public comment on the library issue also carried over to a county-hosted Town Hall in Merced on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, it’s not clear who started the so-called discussion over privatizing library services, when it actually began, and how the conversation possibly progressed among county staff members, administrators and elected leaders.

Last week, Board Chair Josh Pedrozo confirmed to the Times that county staff was looking at a proposal to provide library services through a contract with a private company with the goal of cost savings in the county budget. The name of the vendor was not revealed, but Pedrozo insisted he had not seen any plans to close libraries or reduce library staff.

After a Times story on the subject (which included comments and reactions from library supporters) was published, Merced County released a statement saying: “No decisions have been made regarding privatization of the Merced County Library system. County Executive Office (CEO) staff is in the very early stages of exploring potential efficiencies as we routinely do with all of our departments, but no changes to library operations are currently underway.”

At the very start of Tuesday’s board meeting, Pedrozo took the uncommon step of addressing the issue before the regular public comment period when it appeared multiple residents who showed up were going to do the same.

“I would like to address a recent article in the County Times regarding the privatization of our library system, a topic I personally disagree with,” Pedrozo began. “However, I believe as elected officials our primary responsibility is to be effective, responsible and efficient stewards of taxpayer dollars. If there are opportunities to engage in open discourse and debate I am more than willing to engage with anyone, whether it’s in my office, these chambers, or in public. Productive discussion is essential to ensure we serve the needs of our constituents. That being said, I will not engage with the vitriolic comments often seen on social media. At no time has there been any consideration or discussion about closing libraries or reducing the services they provide. My colleagues and I take our roles seriously. Our duty is to ensure resources are used effectively and provide high quality services to the people of Merced County. To be clear, the county’s libraries are not closing or being privatized. Closing or changing services that libraries provide has never been part of the conversation. Our goal is to not reduce library access or services, but to improve them. In fact we are opening a new one in Dos Palos. As elected officials, we are responsible for evaluating all county departments to ensure the best possible services for our residents. Unfortunately, after making a call about library services it led to the mobilization of forces operating outside the sphere of reality. In an attempt to be transparent, it is my belief that if changes are going to affect a department, those involved should be informed at the very beginning. However, some individuals have taken this information and crafted a narrative to suit their own agendas. These individuals are not focused on collaboration or resolution, they are focused on control and advancing their own interests. Instead of focusing on the positive, we are instead focusing on the negative. The county issued a statement of fact, yet many people only want to hear what fits their narrative. And let me be clear, no changes to library services are happening. The discussion was preliminary at best. Period. End of story. I do want to say this. It was never my intention to put my colleagues in a difficult position, and for that I sincerely apologize. In hindsight, I should have informed the vice chairman of my intentions, and I did not, and I take full responsibility for that. However, it was never my intent to go behind anyone’s back, and I deeply respect my colleagues and the staff who work tirelessly to serve Merced County. … I may not always agree with my colleagues, but I appreciate their willingness to engage in meaningful discussions because in the end we all strive for the same outcome: the betterment of our county.”

A limited 30 minutes of public comment followed, and it was dominated by the library issue. Applauds rang out at moments, despite the Board chair asking for decorum in the chamber.

Said Kenra Bragonier: “I respectfully request, on behalf of major stakeholders with a direct investment in the library system, that if, and/or when, the Board and Staff may consider taking actions related to privatization or actions that would significantly reduce the library budget or services, that you publicly partner with library stakeholders in a process that includes these stakeholders in the discussion, and evaluation of such considerations well in advance of board action. …We request to be included in the process because we want to be part of the solutions rather than having to be adversarial.”

Pamela Merritt Bennett, a retired biology teacher, said: “You told us that there will be no changes in library services, and I heard that, but in these times, it’s hard for me anyway to know if what people tell me is true in the long term.”

Susan Walsh, the president of the Merced County League of Women Voters, said: “I’m sad that the tone of this meeting was negative to start with because I actually believe this is a good day for democracy. That this last week was a good time for democracy. People were alerted to an issue that was of concern with them and they shared their opinions with their elected officials. Isn’t that what we want as a county and as a society?”

She ended her statement by saying, “Until we hear officially from the county that this is over, uh, it’s not over.”

Library supporters abruptly left the chamber after public comment, but many gathered for a group photo in the hallway, and a few including Walsh continued to talk to reporters about ongoing concerns for one of the “lowest-funded library systems in the state that costs about $11 per capita in the county.”

“Until we see an equivalent message from the CEO’s office, why would we assume it’s over. … The CEO’s office said they were looking at this. They said they were investigating privatization. They were looking at savings.”

Walsh said last weekend more than 22 people from 10 local organizations met to talk about their concerns over the library. She said those talks will continue in the days ahead.

At the end of the meeting, during board member comments, other leaders on the dais spoke up about the library issue.

Supervisor Lloyd Pareira commented: “Merced County has hundreds of contracts with private companies that do services for Merced County. It is not out of the norm that staff look for opportunities.”

Supervisor Scott Silveira suggested it was an outside vendor that initially approached the county about improving library services.

“As a county supervisor, as someone who has a fiduciary duty to the taxpayers of the county, and more importantly of my district, any time that anybody comes to us and says they have the ability to offer us this more efficiently, provide better service, and a cheaper cost, I am interested in having a conversation,” he said. “We go to these conferences, and you have a whole room full of these vendors that give you the elevator pitch, and part of the pitch is to pique your attention. And I don’t care whether it would be the library. I don’t care if it would be the Sheriff’s Department. I don’t care whether it would be Health and Human Services, I don’t care what department it is … Where we were at in this process was exploring this idea to see that if it was even worth going down this road … Some people feel we should have engaged the librarian, the library staff, Friends of the Library, early. I will tell you, I at least wanted to understand what was going on before, because ultimately when you talk about bringing someone else in, this changes people’s lives, it changes people that work for the library. And so if this is a nothing burger, which I think it is a nothing burger now, after having done some research, why do you get all these people upset and worked up over nothing. That’s the frustration in it.”

Silveira added that he had already told some of his constituents that he would “do it all again.”

“If someone provides an opportunity that is going to provide better, more efficient, more economically cheap services, I am always going to have that conversation. I have fiduciary duty to the taxpayers to do that. I’m not going to apologize for that.  In my opinion there are reasons for what we did. We are where we are now. … It was exploratory, and I would do it again, and again, and again.”

Supervisor Daron McDaniel offered more details on how the library discussion got started, but without naming who was involved. He said he never saw a “written proposal.”

“It was a verbal proposal that was pitched to me. I wanted to make sure our accounting staff saw what was pitched because I wanted to see actual numbers first, and I’ll be honest, I was a little selfish when I was told $500,000 to $600,000 savings per year, and I’ll say, I was a little selfish about it because my constituency in Atwater has always advocated on behalf of expanding the hours in Atwater because they want their kids to be able to go do their homework after school or even in the evening, and so a little selfishly, I saw this as if we can save money, this is the way. … Extending services and hours … and so selfishly, that’s what I just put what I thought was happening. Like I said, we do give it to staff, trust but verify. We wanted to compare it to actual numbers before it was even a discussion, and just like my colleague said, if it’s a nothing burger, it’s a nothing burger. We get pitched all the time on savings that we throw to staff to look at, and if the money is there, then, we tend to have a discussion from that point on, but if it’s not there, it’s not even worth the discussion. … We’re building libraries. We’re not closing libraries. We’re getting ready to try to extend services in Winton as well. In fact, I’m going to redo the flagpole at the Atwater Library, and we are going to put lights on the flag so the flag flies all the time. So, the emails that we got … it was getting frustrating, continuing to read the same stuff, and it seemed like the longer it was out there, the worse the information got, and reading some of these emails, it was like, it was unbelievable what some of the people say. … It was getting very discouraging.”