Shaker Heights Public Library should remain independent. It is Shaker Heights community's library!

Shaker Heights Public Library is supported and much loved by the community. It is a highly regarded institution, a regional landmark and a central part of Shaker Heights community life. Since its establishment
in 1937, it has been independent and under the local control of the Shaker Heights Public Library Board of Trustees.

Mayor Leiken and the Financial Task Force he assembled recommend that the the Shaker Heights Public Library be handed over to and subsumed by the Cuyahoga County Public Library. Whether or not this recommendation is wise, or has been fully considered is actually beside the point. We assume the Mayor and his Task Force members are well-intentioned.

However, the decision to surrender local control over the
Shaker Heights Public Library is not up to Mayor Leiken or his
Financial Task Force.

The Shaker Heights Public Library Board governs the Shaker Heights Library.
According to Ohio law the Shaker Heights Public Library can only be dissolved into another public library district if the Shaker Heights Public Library Board votes to do so. The Shaker Heights Public Library
Board does not agree with Mayor Leiken’s proposal and wrote a response that you can read at this link.

According to the tax rates obtained from the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer website http://fiscalofficer.cuyahogacounty.us/pdf_fiscalofficer/en-US/BudgetCom/2015MillageRptResidential.pdf
a Shaker Heights homeowner currently pays $133.26 per $100,000 propertyvalue per year to the Shaker Heights Public Library. If that same homeowner were in the Cuyahoga County Public Library district the
homeowner would pay $86.43 per $100,000 property value per year to the library. The difference? $46.83 per year.

Is it worth $46.83 per year to keep local control over your community’s public library?

Currently the Shaker Heights Board of Education appoints the Shaker Heights Public Library Board; if you disagree with a Library Board decision, you can directly contact the 5 elected school board members. Because there are 46 elected officials who collectively appoint the Cuyahoga County Public Library Board the public has no way to hold that Board accountable. The Cuyahoga County Public Library Board is currently the subject of a lawsuit based on numerous alleged violations of the Ohio Open Meetings Act (part of the Ohio Sunshine Law), including the process used to sell the Telling Mansion, an Ohio Landmark, listed on National Register of Historic Places and the South Euclid-Lyndhurst Library Branch for over 60 years. The Library sold Telling Mansion despite strong community protest.

Please sign this petition directed to the Shaker Heights Public Library Board and Mayor Leiken and let them know that you want the Shaker Heights Public Library to remain independent, intact and your
community’s library.

Thank you and please spread the word!