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Lansing Community Library Center (LCLC) Chairwoman Marlaine Darfler was back at Monday's Board Of Education meeting to try to convince the board to allow a December 11th vote to take place in the library.  The vote will be a second try at getting taxpayers who live in the Lansing School District to turn what is currently a reading room of the Tompkins County Public Library (TCPL) into a full fledged public library.  "It will be disappointing if we have to hold the vote at the school," Darfler says.  "We really want our voters to come and see our library."

The question of chartering as a school district library was defeated in May by district voters by 34 votes.  But library officials have stated that confusion about the library's connection to the school district caused that defeat.  A school district library only has two actual connections to a school district.  First it shares the same tax base.  Second, the library is required to get permission for some votes from the school board including the initial vote to establish the taxing authority, and any subsequent votes that seek to change the tax rate for the library.
Library officials polled voters after the May defeat to find that some thought they were voting against another school library, because the three schools already have one library each.  Their challenge this time will be to explain the differences more clearly, and to enumerate the benefits a public library brings to a community.  They have also lowered the amount of money they are asking from taxpayers from 17 cents per assessed $1,000 to 15 cents per assessed $1,000.  They will also have to make voters understand that if they vote yes that the library will be eligible for significant county, state, and federal money that it cannot get as a reading room.  Bringing tax money that residents are already paying back to Lansing could be a strong selling point, especially since the proposed levy is so small.

Darfler noted that a petition to the school board that is required to initiate such a vote had been submitted last Friday.  While only 77 signatures were required, library supporters turned in 134 signatures.  Once the petition is submitted, the school board has 20 days to respond.  While most board members appear to be sympathetic to the library, they were hesitant to allow the vote to take place off of school grounds.  Darfler had been advised that a vote in the library might be possible by Lisa Areford.  Areford works at New York State Libraries, a part of the New York Education Department.

While the law is clear on which votes must be approved by the school board, it is murky on where the vote must take place.  The district's attorneys at Ferrara Law Firm have advised Interim Superintendent Tom Helmer that the vote would be on firm ground if held at the Middle School, but could be subject to challenge if held at the library.  "What the lawyer couldn't find was something that said it is OK to do that," Helmer said.  "That led him to give us the most conservative advice, which is that if you do it in a school building you certainly haven't done anything improper.  If you have it at the library we don't know for sure."

Helmer took the position that the vote should only be approved to take place at the library if LCLC attorneys can provide legal precedent to off-school votes.  The school board agreed.  "If we could get your source to convince our legal advisors, then maybe the board would feel more comfortable having the vote off site," said board president Tom Keane.  "But for right now the only thing I feel comfortable with is sharing with the board members what the attorney has said to me."

While they are publicly saying that they will be happy to have the vote wherever it can be legally held, library officials are holding out hope that the legal ambiguity can be resolved to allow the vote to take place in the library.  Officials say that clearing up the confusion about LCLC being part of the school system is critical if this new vote is to be successful.  "Our preference is definitely to have it at the library," Darfler told the board.  "We're going through all of this effort and money and time and we would love to show off the library.  We have an art show set up for that time.  We feel it helps people to understand the big issue -- that we are not a school library.  We are a public library defined by the boundaries of the school district."

Darfler has said that many voters haven't visited the library, and would be impressed if they saw it.  But while the library is certainly an impressive thing to show off, the key issue is to physically remove the vote from the schools, taking it out of the context of the school district, and stressing that the library will be an independent entity if the voters allow it. 

"We want the visual clue that it is a public library, not a school library," Darfler says.  "But if it is decided that the election will be held at the school we will work with that. We are grateful for the attention and the timely response the Board Of Education has given us regarding holding this special election during a very busy time for them."

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