On January 6, Josephine County Commissioners voted to terminate the lease of the Grants Pass central library. Commissioners have since said they simply want to renegotiate the $1-a-year lease of the county-owned building. This comes after a legal battle last year over whether residents could opt-out of the library’s special tax district. It also follows a period of ten years in which the library system was run by a nonprofit and volunteers, rather than by the county. Josephine County Commissioner Chris Barnett and Jennifer Roberts, President of the Grants Pass Friends of the Library, join us to fill us in.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Last week, Josephine County Commissioners voted to terminate the lease of the Grants Pass central library. The vote led to a protest in front of the county courthouse. Commissioners have since said that they simply want to renegotiate the $1 a year lease of the county-owned building. In a few minutes, we’ll hear from the president of the group Grants Pass Friends of the Library. First, I’m joined by Josephine County Commissioner Chris Barnett. Welcome to the show.
Chris Barnett: Oh, thank you for having me.
Miller: Why did you vote last week to terminate the library’s lease?
Barnett: Well, I think things are out of context. It was our first day, three hours sworn in, and this got dumped on our lap from the previous administration, about conversations that were supposed to happen between the Josephine Community Library and the board of county commissioners. It was brought to our attention that they’re trying to come to the table to talk about some repairs.
This is a landlord/tenant issue, according to a lease agreement that the county has with the community library … I guess from the past board. Remember we only had one commissioner from that last board that was there, which was Commissioner West. It was his last public meeting with the county. Us two brand new commissioners had this come up as a topic. And it did show that attempts were made to meet with the library, and they had failed. Why they failed, we’re trying to figure that out. Because we did a press release the very next day, and we’re trying to come to the table to talk about repairs that the library and Grants Pass [inaudible] has, and trying to talk about those repairs.
Miller: Where does the lease termination stand right now?
Barnett: The lease right now [is] with legal. They have legal as well, and they’re trying to negotiate to talk. Basically, the board previous to us has asked the library to come to the table to talk to the board of county commissioners about this situation, about the repairs that are needed and how this impacts the county, how this impacts the library and how we can come to a mutual agreement on this.
So there is a lease in place. But there was some bad information that said that they were being evicted. And that’s not true. We said it in a public meeting today, we said it in the paper, the news – they are not being evicted. There is no letter to vacate. Simply a conversation.
I’m just one commissioner. Remember, there’s two others now. We have a full board as of yesterday. And I’m going into this new position with a fresh new start. I would love to have a conversation with the library. I went to the library. I’ve tried to reach Ms. Kate Lasky, the director of the community library. And nobody’s reached out to us. Nobody whatsoever.
And this is, I guess, the problem the last board was trying to reach. It’s unfortunate because I think there can be a happy resolution.
Miller: The library director, Kate Lasky, did tell KDRV News recently: “The county administration has not reached out to the library in the last six years about changing the lease agreement or negotiating for maintenance costs or other maintenance concerns that they actually have.” There’s also been some back and forths about the notification that she got from the commission about this meeting. And from her perspective, from what I have read, she has said that she wasn’t available, nor was her legal counsel for the meeting last week. But she did make herself available for six other days. But the sense I’ve gotten from the commission, and as you talked about with fellow commissioners last week, is you wanted to move faster, basically to force the library to go to the table.
So, about that. As you’ve said, it seems like you stand by this vote because from your perspective, it is going to force this conversation. If $1 a year is too little from the county’s perspective to get in rent for this county-owned building, how much do you think the library should pay?
Barnett: Well, I’m not at liberty to say. I’m just one person. That’s where these discussions … Remember, we’re coming into a situation where we don’t have all the information. So when you get all the information, which I’m up to speed on now, they have made three previous attempts I believe since September when this all came up. And nobody has come to the table or talked with the last administration. That last administration, that last piece that was there last Monday, is no longer here. So these matters are still outstanding. And our legal counsel and their legal has been working together diligently to try to say, why are we not coming to the table to talk about this? It’s very weird for us new commissioners to see what’s going on here when nobody’s coming to talk. So that’s where it’s at.
Miller: Chris Barnett, thanks very much.
Barnett: You bet.
Miller: Chris Barnett is one of the members of the Josephine County Commission.
For another perspective on this, I’m joined now by Jennifer Roberts. She’s the president of the group Grants Pass Friends of the Library. Jennifer Roberts, welcome.
Jennifer Roberts: Thank you for having me.
Miller: To understand this current situation, I think it’s helpful for our listeners if we go back in time a little bit. What happened to library funding in the late 1990s?
Roberts: As I understand it, in the late 1990s, the county board of commissioners, then, absorbed a library levy that had been passed earlier into the general fund under Measure 50. That was a 33 cents per $1,000 appraised value that was absorbed into the general fund, and which the county still has. Part of their tax base is actually money that voters of Josephine County voted to use to fund the library. And that broke trust with a lot of people in the county.
Miller: And that eventually led the county to close the library system because that money that had previously been going to the library, as I understand it, went to the general fund for things like the sheriff’s office or other county costs. How was the library able to reopen just two years later?
Roberts: That’s correct, yeah. In 2007, the county closed the libraries. A group of citizens came together and reopened the libraries using donations and volunteers. We operated as a nonprofit for almost 10 years while a PAC was trying to pass a special library district, where the funds collected could only go to the library – that happened in 2017.
Miller: Why do you think the library has been such an issue in Josephine County for so long, such a political football?
Roberts: I don’t know, but it’s exhausting. I don’t know why the library in particular is such a political football. I truly can’t say. I just know that people in this community really truly love this library. You can tell by all of the incredible support that came out when this news came out. The protest was astounding. It was not coordinated by anybody at the library. It just sort of happened organically out of the community.
Miller: Can you tell us about the moment when you heard about the board’s vote to exercise its 30-day notice to terminate the lease?
Roberts: Absolutely. I was shocked, I was appalled. My first thought was “oh gosh, here we go again.”
But I have to say that I’m also really grateful to the people who have been paying such close attention to what’s happening in local politics. It’s only because folks were listening carefully to what’s happening in commissioner meetings that we knew that this was something that was even on the table. And so I’m really grateful to those folks. It just highlights, I think, the need to pay attention to local politics.
I will say that as far as I know, the library has not received any official communication from the commissioners about this termination of the lease. I find that frustrating as well. Commissioner Barnett said they just wanted to do this to have Kate Lasky come to the table. She did give them, as you mentioned, three different dates in January where our legal representation could be available. I just wanted to respond to that.
Miller: I want to turn to the larger issues that the commissioners talked about last week as justification for this vote. They basically said this is not a county library now, this is a community one. As you noted, this is based on the Josephine Community Library District, separate from a county district or a county levy. And their argument, if I understand it correctly, is that the county shouldn’t forego market rate rent for its own building. What’s your response?
Roberts: I’m not entirely clear what they mean when they make that distinction and they say that it’s a community library. That was a name change to distinguish it from the county after the special district was passed. There are special districts for libraries throughout Oregon. It’s nothing unusual.
The $1 a year lease was negotiated when the libraries operated by a nonprofit, which they no longer are. And that was in part to help the county, because the county has a mandate in its charter, under the finance section in the charter, that it shall support and maintain libraries in Josephine County. They could point to this and say “we are supporting the library by letting them have the building for $1 a year.” And there are other buildings in Josephine County that are leased out for $1 for a year. So we’re not unusual in that. Does that answer your question?
Miller: I think it does. A year-and-a-half ago, the Josephine Community Library Foundation bought an entire city block with nearly $2 million in private donations and grants from foundations. Where do plans for a new library stand right now?
Roberts: This has really highlighted why it’s important for us to get our own building. So far, we are still fundraising. The foundation is planning to break ground in 2027. There’s been so much work by dedicated community members and volunteers on planning the library, working with architects, working with community stakeholders, with grantors, with donors. Just tremendous amount of work that has gone into this. And that is happening in 2027.
Miller: Jennifer Roberts, thanks very much.
Roberts: Thank you very much for your time.
Miller: Jennifer Roberts is the president of the group Grants Pass Friends of the Library.
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