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Flaherty, Ferlo, O'Connor call for public hearing

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Two city councilmen and city Controller Tom Flaherty are calling for a public hearing on proposed lease agreements for the 18 branches of the Carnegie Library. The leases would allow the library to sell some of the city-owned facilities and replace them with others.

The trio said today's final vote on the leases should be postponed to give the public and city government more oversight over possible sales. Library officials have said they would sell branches only if they could not be upgraded, would replace them with new facilities and plow the sale proceeds back into library improvements.

But Flaherty, Jim Ferlo and Bob O'Connor said language allowing the Carnegie to sell some of the branches was abruptly added to the lease legislation at council's meeting Wednesday, and the public deserves a say on the agreements before they are finally approved.

Ferlo said council's quick action on the leases for the city-owned facilities showed "complete disdain of the public trust. It's very clear that Andrew Carnegie is rolling over in his grave right now."

Carnegie Library Director Herb Elish said the library has been discussing its renovations in public meetings and with council members for more than a year, and a postponement for a public hearing would delay scheduled upgrades to the Homewood and Brookline branches.

Council President Gene Ricciardi, a library board member, said he was "very confident" in the library's overall renovation plans and would push for a final vote on the measure today.

The Carnegie Library has never had formal 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 main branch and the 17 neighborhood 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, are too small or cannot be effectively updated, Elish told council last week.

In those cases, the library wants the option to buy the buildings for $100 each from the city, sell them, and put the sale proceeds back into library renovations. The money the city budget sacrificed from the sales would effectively be a contribution to the library's building fund.

Elish said branches will be maintained in every neighborhood that currently has one. If a branch is sold, another will be built or purchased in the same neighborhood.

According to the lease legislation, 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 mayor, General Services director and solicitor.

The Carnegie Library is receiving $16 million in Allegheny Regional Asset District tax funds this year, with $1 million supporting a $25 million bond issue for reconstruction.

At a news conference in his City-County Building office yesterday, Flaherty said the library could sell off facilities to free asset district funds for other purposes, like a new hockey arena or upgrades to PNC Park and Heinz Field. One of the choicest properties would be the Mount Washington branch on Grandview Avenue, which Flaherty described as "a developer's dream."

In a later interview, Elish denied the plans had anything to do with other RAD allocations.

The sales options were included in leases forwarded to council members; discussed in newspaper accounts on the library's construction plans; and placed by council's general services committee chairman, William Peduto, into lease legislation on Wednesday. Flaherty called the sales language in Wednesday's measure "stealth amendments."

On Friday, a group of citizens filed a petition calling for a public hearing on the matter. Five council members, representing a majority of council, can also call for a hearing.

If council does not postpone a vote on the leases tomorrow and grant a public hearing, Flaherty said he would go to court to block the leases and force one.