Cupertino Library Commission – here today, gone tomorrow?

On July 31, 2018, the Cupertino City Council is scheduled to review a study for the consolidation of the Library Commission and other commissions into the city’s Park and Recreation Commission. The city staff provided two consolidation options to the council:

Consolidation Option 1: Consolidate the Library Commission, Public Safety Commission, and Parks and Recreation Commission into one commission, and create committees for library and public safety/emergency management to periodically report to the Parks and Recreation Commission or Council.

Consolidation Option 2: Consolidate the Library Commission, Public Safety Commission, and Parks and Recreation Commission into one commission, and encourage community members to form a community groups on library and public safety/emergency management issues to periodically report to the Parks and Recreation Commission or Council.

The full report can be found here.

The Board of the Cupertino Library Foundation strongly opposes the commission consolidation. Here is a letter sent to the Cupertino City Council from the Cupertino Library Foundation, dated July 25, 2018. Also, here is a letter sent to the Cupertino City Council from the Cupertino Library Commission, dated June 18, 2018.

The Santa Clara County Library District has issued the following statement regarding the consolidation study.

The Santa Clara County Library District (SCCLD) has seven city library commissions (Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos/Los Altos Hills, Milpitas, Morgan Hill and Saratoga (includes Monte Sereno) serving in an advisory role to the respective city, as well as SCCLD. We have found that the most effective library commissions fully understand and are aligned with the library’s mission and values. They provide an important local voice on library services and can help to strengthen the communication between the City, Library and the community. The County Library staff participate in and attend all city library commission meetings as this is important to our operations. It is the role of each city to appoint the library commissioners and determine the scope of work of the commission. This decision is outside of the scope of authority for SCCLD.