Friends of the Moraga Library, Town Council Has Your Back

The book remains propped open, midchapter, on a potential library lease and service agreement between Moraga and Contra Costa County.

The Moraga Town Council on Wednesday postponed consideration of the lease agreement with a nod in the direction of the president of the , who objected to a lack of transparency and public notice in the negotiation of the agreement.

The council voted unanimously on a motion by Vice Mayor Mike Metcalf to postpone until the council and town manager “had a better feeling for the political acceptability” of the agreement.  The county is presenting towns and cities with a model ordinance template intended to promote more countywide consistency than has been the case in past contracts of 25 municipalities within the county library system.

“The public has had an inadequate opportunity to consider the document,” said David Kruegel, president of Friends of Moraga Library, who bristled at rebuffs he said he had received when trying to get a look at the negotiated agreement in recent weeks.

In general, the towns and cities provide the facilities and the county library system provides services and programming. There’s some devilry amongst the details in the 16-page tentative agreement, Kruegel suggested.

He said he was surprised that the agreement contained no discussion of what costs the town might expect in its first year and subsequent years.

The model contract was negotiated by a subcommittee of city managers and attorneys that did not include Moraga. said she had received positive feedback from her counterparts in Lafayette and Danville, who were on the subcommittee.

“It is frustrating that this is a contract that is basically a take-it-or-leave-it contract,” said Keimach.  On the other hand, she added, it contains provisions that will allow the town to have more control over expenses than in the past.

Dick Awenius, the county’s real-estate manager, objected to the characterization of a “take-it-or-leave-it” contract. The negotiations were an open process of compromise, he said, meant to make city-county agreements “more open and equitable.”

Thus far, Awenius said, the county has reached agreement on the new template with one municipality: the city of Martinez.

“It brings a consistency of service,” said Gail McPartland, the deputy county librarian.

Councilmember Howard Harpham paid tribute to the hundreds of Moraga library volunteers and said he wanted to give them more time to give input on the potential agreement.

Councilmember Ken Chew said he was uncomfortable supporting something presented as a “take-it-or-leave-it” offer.

Earlier in the evening, before an almost packed house at the Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School auditorium, the council was a multiple athletic supporter. It passed proclamations lavishing kudos on champion girls teams for volleyball, cross country and water polo, plus an individual state champion in cross country, . The champions, their coaches, families and smart phone cameras all were in attendance.