[Publib] Post-referendum philosophical-political question

[Diedre Conkling]

John, I was rooting for you and am sorry to hear that your measure failed.  But don't be totally discouraged.

I have been paying close attention to library elections in Oregon since 1991 as well as other money measures for other kinds of government.  I serve on the Special Districts Association of Oregon Board and the SDAO Legislative Committee and we go over every election in detail.  Yep, I get to keep up with road districts, fire districts, cemetery districts, all state legislators, etc. It really is interesting but I just listen and read so am far from an expert.

I don't think there is ever a totally correct answer to when to put a measure on the ballot.  But I have noticed that often measures pass the third time out.  The message does have to change a bit but not necessarily significantly.  

The Lincoln County Library District ballot measures happened to work that way.  The election failed the first time out.  The Board then changed the amount the second time and did a lot more campaigning.  Again the measure failed.  We really did need to increase the funding so braved another try.  This time there was no change made in the amount.  Less campaigning was done, believe it or not.  What we did do was tighten up the language on the ballot measure and sent out one short, carefully worded postcard to most households, and had a couple of good bits of publicity in the local newspapers.  The measure actually passed this third try by a good margin.

We are kind of an oddity since we are not really a library but an administrative office providing funding and services to local city libraries in exchange for their providing library services to everyone in the county living outside of their city limits.  So we are kind of behind the scene, or maybe even hidden, and not the public library that every one loves.

In our state, school measures have had a very hard time passing until maybe yesterday.  A number of them seemed to do well, though not all.  I am not sure why there was this turn around.  School measures have not been a good indicator for how library measures were going to go in Oregon.  


--
Diedre Conkling
     
  Lincoln County Library District
  P.O. Box 2027, Newport, OR  97365
  Phone & Fax:  541-265-3066
  http://lcld.library-blogs.net/
  Work:  diedre at beachbooks.org
  Home:  diedrec at charter.net
   

---- John <jrichmond at alphapark.org> wrote: 

=============
We just lost at the polls--a referendum question to raise the General Corporate levy.  We got 46% of the votes; "they" got 54%.  Oh, well.  Various reasons why it didn't work, I suspect, despite months of planning, ad nauseam, ad infinitum.  We are not about to close the doors (yet).  Part of this was to deliberately do something that people don't do, i.e., plan for the future so we would NOT be in desperate straits, but who in America really plans for the future, despite all those books on planning?  Consider Social Security, health care (sic), different states' pension funds, and so on.

Anyway.  The board has talked about getting on the ballot again in the spring, but for a lesser increase, much less pain, etc.  But I have been talking to some acquaintances with school board experience, and they have said that--in their experience--coming back at the public right away is counterproductive.  They have discovered a basic attitude which says, "We told you 'no' at the last election.  Why are you coming back again now?  What part of 'no' don't you understand?"  I see the wisdom in the words/experiences passed along to me from school board refugees.  On the other hand, if something more palatable might fly, why NOT come back in the spring?  (I do not give up easily--side comment.)

Any publib wisdom on such political-philosophical questions, over against or in agreement with my school board crew?

John D. Richmond, Director
Alpha Park Public Library District
3527 So. Airport Road
Bartonville, IL 61607-1799
Ph: (309) 697-3822, x. 12
Fax: (309) 697-9681
E-mail: jrichmond at alphapark.org
________________________________________________________________________
"The past is never dead.  It's not even past." 
Wm. Faulkner, REQUIEM FOR A NUN

_______________________________________________
Publib mailing list
Publib at webjunction.org
http://lists.webjunction.org/mailman/listinfo/publib