The Mayor and some members of the Detroit City Council are attempting to get control of our libraries.  This move is not motivated by a love of books, but by the desire to control more public money. Over the years, mayors seeking to increase public funds know Detroiters will support our libraries. Over the last 50 years, every single mileage increase has been approved by an overwhelming majority of voters. 

Thanks to the work of the current library commissioners, people showed up at the Neighborhood and Community Services Standing Committee meeting last week to voice objections to the proposed takeover. Many more objected directly to members of the City Council. There will be a long fight ahead if we want to keep independent, healthy libraries.

The Chair of the committee, Coleman Young, opened the session saying he was changing the agenda. The issue of the library would not be taken up.  He told people they could go home if they wanted to talk about the library.  No one put much credence in that promise. When public comments opened, teachers, parents, library lovers, students and artists all talked about how important our libraries are and how much they need to be protected from political pressures.

As predicted, after all the public comments, Young put the issue of the library back on the agenda. This was to allow Council Member Scott Benson to defend his idea to take over the library. While citizens had been kept to a strict 2 minutes, Benson rambled on about how the city, meaning the Mayor and the City Council, should appoint all members of the Library Commission, not the school board, as is currently the case. Benson argued that the city puts money into the library so it should exert direct control.

The truth is that while the city budget allocates some meager amounts to the library, this is because of direct citizen votes demanding support for libraries.  The city budget already has mechanisms of control. 

What is really at stake is the desire to remove independent oversight that can block the efforts by the Mayor and his pals to capture more of the library revenue for use in their pet projects. This take-over attempt started when the independent library commission objected to how much money city officials were taking from the libraries, not allocating to them.

As Detroit was struggling after the bankruptcy, the city took $1.1 million dollars from the library in 2015. Over the next five years these numbers continued to climb, tripling by 2020.  Last year the tax captures were set at $3.3 million, and this year at $3.4 million. Alarmed, the Library Commission raised concerns with the Duggan administration. In classic retaliatory mode for daring to question the Mayor’s priorities, the libraries were threatened with a loss of even more money. 

In addition to taking money through the shady practice of tax captures, the City controls capital expenditures. It routinely blocks the ability of the library to allocate money for maintenance. The City has refused to honor the will of the voters to provide an ongoing source of money for needed improvements.  In 2009 the people passed a millage increase that explicitly stated money would be used for libraries. Russ Bellant, a long serving Library Commissioner, said “We have not seen a dollar in 13 years. We are now forced to spend $2.2 million in necessary roof replacements and new HVAC systems by borrowing from our fund balance.”

In addition to taking tax captures without any accounting and refusing to allocate money for needed improvements, the City administration takes a $1.2 million administrative fee from the libraries. It does not itemize the services provided, or give any accounting of how this money is spent.

Benson argued that the City should control the libraries because it supports them. Following Bensons logic, a fair argument could be made that the Library Commissioner should appoint someone to council, given how much is already taken from the libraries. The libraries, like our schools and some federal funds, are consistently raided by the Duggan administration.

Benson’s claim that “the city” should have more control over the libraries is a naked power grab by Duggan and some on the council.  The City, through the direct votes and activities of its people, already supports and directs our libraries. The Mayor and Council should stay out of the way.