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Thursday, December 05, 2002

By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

City Council preliminarily approved lease agreements for the Carnegie Library main branch and 17 neighborhood branches yesterday, over complaints by two councilmen about a library option to sell some of the facilities.

Council held off action on proposed requirements for disabled access to homes built or refurbished with city assistance.

The Carnegie Library has never had leases for its city-owned buildings, going back to the 1890s when Andrew Carnegie, Mary Schenley and city government reached various agreements to build the main branch in Oakland. The library wants to spend more than $50 million to upgrade the 18 citywide branches and says lease agreements are necessary to fund the work.

During the renovations, Carnegie Library officials may decide that some branches are in poor locations, too small or cannot be effectively updated, director Herb Elish said. In those cases, the library wants the option to buy the buildings for $100 each from the city and sell them, and put the proceeds back into library renovation funds.

Elish said branches will be maintained in every neighborhood that currently has them; that is, if a branch is sold, another will be built or purchased in the same neighborhood. The city will have the first option to buy the buildings before they go on the open market and sales would also have to be approved by the city mayor and solicitor.

Councilmen Bob O'Connor and Jim Ferlo complained the plan would eliminate council oversight of the city-owned buildings.

O'Connor said the library's lease-buy plan is "taking [council] out of the ballgame" and is "giving the store away." Ferlo said the plan would "violate the public trust" and he may challenge it in Orphan's Court.

Council tentatively approved the plans 6-2 with Ferlo and O'Connor voting no; Alan Hertzberg was absent.

Council held off for one week Ferlo's measure requiring disabled access to publicly funded homes. The bill would require houses built or substantially renovated with public funds to meet standards for disabled accessibility, including no-step entrances, first-floor bathrooms and wider doors and hallways.

Mayor Tom Murphy and other city officials have criticized the measure, saying it would hurt the city housing market. Ferlo significantly watered down the measure to answer such criticism -- exempting many city loans and tax abatements from the requirements, rejecting a requirement for bathroom grab-bars and shrinking the widths for entry doors -- but still agreed to hold the measure for more debate next week.

Tim McNulty can be reached at tmcnulty@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542.