There appear to be some odd things about the relatioship of the Library Foundation to the City. For one, the Foundation seems to be at liberty to use City staff and supplies, which means the Library Department pays the costs of fundraising done on behalf of the Foundation, but the Foundation doesn't have to report the amount of City staff used in its behalf. Is that a good accouting principle? My proof? Foundation fundraising letters are sent out through City water bills. Who picks up the tab for that? The Foundation? Or you and me, Mr. and Ms. Taxpayer? Maybe that's okay with you. But is it done with your knowledge? Where's the money going that they are fundraising? Toward the library? How much to further plump the Foundation budget and who oversees that? Guess. Are foxes overseeing the henhouse?

Posted by Leanne | reply to this comment
July 19, 2007 10:41 am

Leanne: You've got it wrong. The investigator fox is having a chicken dinner with the fox who raided the henhouse, similar to the SawyerKnoll report that concludes that nobody done nothin wrong.

Posted by Buddy in Mission Valley | reply to this comment
July 19, 2007 8:55 pm

Buddy, I don't mind being wrong. I am actually desperate for the City to prove me wrong. Another part of the intwined relationship is that some of the Commissioners sit on the Library Foundation Board. It is bad enough the mayor reappoints at least one commissioner who doesn't bother to come to meetings, it is bad enough to have city staff in the Development Office work for the Foundation (just move that staff to the Foundation -- why should City taxpayers pay for these people if they are working for another agency?), but the same people who have muddled the new main library fundraising are still in charge of it. What does it take for the "strong" mayor to realize the weakness in this plan? If you keep doing a wrong thing over and over, it doesn't suddenly become right.

Posted by Leanne | reply to this comment
July 19, 2007 11:28 pm

Please DO folllow up on the audit of what happened to the City's $1 million investment in getting funding for a new central library. What about the issues Leanne raises about blurred responsibilities between Library Foundation and Library Commission? Based on the record to date, both bodies have been dysfunctional. Why is that? And why do you allow Library Foundation chairman Mel Katz to sidestep your questions about his group's near-invisible "campaign" to, uh, raise money to build a new main library? Keep Library Fortnight alive until we really understanding what's going on.

Posted by Francine Foraday | reply to this comment
July 20, 2007 12:10 am

For anyone who is interested in the merging of the Foundation with the City department, note that the address of the Foundation is the same as the Central Library downtown: link And the contact person for the Foundation is Jay Hill, the Development Director for the San Diego Public Library: link So how much of the library's funds are given to the San Diego Library Foundation? Isn't the money supposed to flow in the other direction...the Foundation raising funds to pay for its own staff and to provides for the San Diego Public Library (and, primarily, the Main Library project)? Am I missing something? Are there other private foundations funded by public agencies? Maybe there are. I just didn't think that was how nonprofits were suppose to work. But I've always been naive.

Posted by Leanne | reply to this comment
July 20, 2007 7:59 am

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