John et al,
As the chair of the Saint Paul Library Board, I will address at least some
of the issues that have been raised here.
When I took office in 2016, one of my East Side constituents was moved to
create a spread sheet of recreation center hours and programs across the
city, with an overlay of area median income. Alas, in our city's wealthier
neighborhoods, there were lots of programs and hours; in our areas of
concentrated poverty, there were *very few*.
It immediately became evident that in those neighborhoods where people can
afford to sign their kids up for teams and classes, they do. And in low
income areas where families cannot afford to pay, it was hard to field a
team or fill a class. Even though Parks and Recreation provided
scholarships, families with barriers of poverty and language were unaware
of these options.
In the name of equity, we have worked since that day to increase free and
low cost programming in areas of concentrated poverty. This included about
$100K in the last Coleman budget, and has been tripled in the 2019 budget
to over $300K.
I start with this example, because the total revenue from library fines in
an average year is about $250K. A similar analysis to the one my
constituent did on rec center hours revealed that libraries in wealthier
neighborhoods, where families could afford to pay the fines, they do. But
in libraries in low income neighborhoods, families who couldn't afford the
fines had their cards blocked. Of the 51+K cards blocked, the highest
percentage were in areas of concentrated poverty.
Library staff spearheaded the move to consider the elimination of fines and
fees and conducted the research. For the last several years, there have
been no fines on children's materials. Yet, even without fines, materials
have been returned at the same rate that they had been with the "incentive"
of fines. While I should have more research at my fingertips, it is my
understanding that the research of libraries in Minnesota and across the
country, which have eliminated fines, have had the same experience.
When library staff were invited to share their experiences at the Mayor's
Library Budget Address, they said that it was clear that when a family is
struggling to keep food on the table, paying library fines is a necessarily
low priority. Getting to the library to return books on a timely basis is
additionally challenging for a family with transportation challenges,
difficult work schedules, etc.
Saint Paul happens to be one of the only cities in the metro area with
poverty on the rise. Our libraries are vitally important to families in
poverty to find needed resources and assistance: books, videos, music,
computers, computer hot spots, homework help, computer training and
certification, job seeking assistance, early childhood education and play
resources, healthy snack times, story times in about 11 languages, and
librarians who will help you with ANYTHING, just to name a few of the
things people find there.
[It is here John, that I take issue with your "library as anachronism"
statement. Perhaps more than any other city department, our libraries are
constantly reinventing themselves to meet the needs of the people who walk
through their doors. Faced with new immigrants who had no published books
in their languages, the libraries went out and published their own.]
I put the costs of eliminating fines in the same category as creating free
and low cost parks and recreation programs. When I took office in 2016,
two Ward 7 recreation centers had been shuttered and one more had been
demolished. For families in poverty and new immigrant families, it is
vitally important for their children to have access to safe places to
connect with caring adults. There are countless stories of young people who
share stories of going to college, or finding a career, because someone at
a library or recreation center connected them to resources or opportunities
to change their lives.
At any rate, I have not addressed your specific call for the specific
evidence on which the policy is based. Beyond our library's own experience
with years of not charging fines on children's materials, I know it exists.
And I can also assure you that our library staff and board will be
evaluating the ongoing impact of the new policy, particularly any impact
that it has on the collection. With that information, our libraries will
determine whether the policy should be tweaked or changed over time.
Thank you for this thoughtful discussion. I welcome any specific
questions, and will do my best to follow up. Meanwhile, a happy, healthy
and peaceful 2019 to all!
Jane Prince
Ward 7 City Councilmember
Chair, Library Board
Rest of post
On Tue, Jan 1, 2019 at 10:45 AM John Gaylord <<email obscured>> wrote:
> That all makes sense, and the arguments pro and con for fines seem clear,
> but I'll echo Tom's remarks. One can believe 'fines don't work' without
> believing that the change of policy will be cost-free. If the policy change
> will cost extra money, taxpayers will be charged for it.
>
> I get the emotional reason for the change, which may or may not be
> evidence-based. The policy stems from the belief that fines depress
> utilization by citizens in economically disadvantaged zip codes, which some
> seem to equate with 'people of color' even though it impacts people of all
> colors.
>
> A taxpayer can be for or against policy based on emotional reasons, but
> they are on the hook financially regardless. If we're going down that path,
> let's clearly and accurately state the effect in financial terms - since
> citizens, including those in economically disadvantaged zip codes will be
> paying for it.
>
>
> John Gaylord
> Union Park, St. Paul
> About/contact John Gaylord: http://forums.e-democracy.org/p/johngaylord
>
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*Jane L. Prince*
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