Behind the Scenes

It is my experience as a member of the tiny opposition minority that the alignment and agreement to shift the library system from Minneapolis to Hennepin County is a political process of remarkable dimensions. When the present city council was elected in 2005, there was concern that voting blocks and lack of agreement would be the norm, not the exception to come from this rambunctious bunch. The independent minded candidates that made the cut and were voted in said a lot about city services, including supporting libraries. Similarly, the new members of the library board that were elected reflected deep concerns about the revenue shortfall the library system had undergone and there were loud and diverse statements about how to reverse this trend. None of these included giving the library system away. It is my belief that the voters believed these campaign promises of thinking independently and actively seeking solutions to the library revenue shortfall would be on the agenda.

The notion of the shift was in none of the campaign rhetoric. It came from only one source: the staff.

Now we are at 2007 and an amazing alignment of agreement has emerged: the ONLY solution to the library revenue issue is to give the system away and dissolve the library board. Had the predictions of independent mindedness held, such a decision would not have been possible either at the library board or the city council level.

It is quite obvious that once in office, the candidates went through a transformation from independent mindedness to great conformity. I expect political historians will investigate this phenomenon for clues as to predictability. Voters need some reliability that their choice of candidate will hold to his or her values once elected. The 2005 election will be unusual in that nearly all new candidates who were elected quickly fell toward the status quo. That is an amazing conversion.

Library board responses to the public have varied, from "I did not know how serious the problem was," to "my heart is heavy but this is the best way to save the Minneapolis libraries." These statements (paraphrased here) indicate to me that a powerful bureaucracy had developed both in city hall and in the library offices - enough to become significant players in directing the change from revenue support to system giveaway from one municipal power to the regional one. It was a silent blanket of death that unobtrusively fell over the elected officials, smothering whatever independence they once had.

We will have to pay tribute eventually to the mayor's office, the county staff, and the library administration but probably not in the immediate future. That will be the task of future city councils who will be in awe of what was accomplished and they will be afraid to mount any independent actions without the implied consent of the powerful bureaucrats.

Meanwhile, several presently seated public officials are scarcely aware of how deeply they have been wounded. And, on balance, the voters are even less aware. That's the sadness about this whole thing.