Mayor Denis Law is recommending to the Renton City Council that it stay the course on building a new library downtown and not put an initiative to halt such work on a ballot.
Earlier this week, the King County Elections Office validated the signatures of an initiative that would require library improvements for a downtown library to occur at the existing location. It also required improvements not to occur at any other location unless approved by a majority of Renton voters.
In the recommendation, the city’s administrative staff gives a brief history of the events to date, starting with the 2010 vote to annex into the King County Library System.
A condition of that annexation, according to recommendation, included the construction by Renton of “replacement facilities for both the Main and Highlands Libraries on other properties within the city.”
The recommendation goes on to chart the course of the libraries through the 2011 purchase of the “Big 5” site, the issuing of $18 million in bonds and the new obligatory agreement between the city and KCLS to construct the libraries.
The recommendation also cites City Attorney Larry Warren’s memorandum, which states the initiative is “not valid or proper.”
The recommendation concludes that it would be an expensive breach of contract with KCLS to stop work and redirect funds to renovate the existing Cedar River building as the new library.
In a letter to the City of Renton, Bill Ptacek, KCLS director, strongly urged the City Council to not place the initiative on the ballot. He outlined the reasons why the current library doesn’t meet the needs of KCLS.
He also raised similar legal concerns as Warren and pointed to the risks of a breach of contract and agreements between KCLS and the City of Renton.
Bill Taylor, president and CEO of the Renton Chamber of Commerce, is urging the City Council to stick to its decisions to build the new libraries.
“If the council or the city changes anything as a result of this, their credibility as an elected body is gone,” he said Friday.
It is, he said, a “relatively simple situation.”
“The people voted, the council considered everything they needed to consider, they voted,” he said of the process to annex to the King County Library System and the agreements with KCLS.
“We should accept what they have done and move ahead,” he said.
The initiative group, Citizens for the Preservation of Renton’s Cedar River Library, is planning a rally at 6 p.m. Monday at the downtown library, then it will march to the council meeting at 7 p.m.
The group has retained the legal counsel of Groen, Stephens & Klinge LLP to review Warren’s statements about the validity of the initiative.
They also planned to register with the state Public Disclosure Commission to accept donations for those services.
