Why Is New York City Planning to Sell and Shrink Its Libraries?

Defend our libraries, don't defund them. . . . . fund 'em, don't plunder 'em

Mayor Bloomberg defunded New York libraries at a time of increasing public use, population growth and increased city wealth, shrinking our library system to create real estate deals for wealthy real estate developers at a time of cutbacks in education and escalating disparities in opportunity. It’s an unjust and shortsighted plan that will ultimately hurt New York City’s economy and competitiveness.

It should NOT be adopted by those we have now elected to pursue better policies.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

PHOTO & VIDEO GALLERY: September 16, 2014 Rally Outside BPL Trustees Meeting- BPL Trustees Vote To Hand Off Brooklyn Heights Library To Hudson Co. As Developer

From NY1 coverage of the Citizens Defending Libraries press conference and subsequent BPL vote picking a developer to sell and shrink the Brooklyn Heights Library.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014, Citizens Defending Libraries held a press conference and rally outside the Grand Army Plaza library as the Brooklyn Public Library trustees were about to hold their broad meeting inside. 
Press Conference
At the press conference, Citizens Defending Libraries announced its commencement of a Citizens Audit and Investigation of library sell-offs and shrinkages in Brooklyn.  To launch its audit and investigation Citizens Defending Libraries, the day before issued Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to the Brooklyn Public Library which it is issuing together with similar requests to a number of government agencies and entities.   See: Monday, September 15, 2014, Press Release: Citizens Audit and Investigation of Brooklyn Public Library- FOIL Requests.

Here is video of the Citizens Defending Libraries press conference (click through to watch on Citizens Defending Libraries YouTube channel for best viewing)-



Citizens Launch Probe of BPL's Secret Libary Selloff Strategy

Not many minutes after the press conference, the BPL board of trustees voted to hand off the Brooklyn Heights Library to developer Hudson Co. to build a 30-story luxury condo tower for a price the is quite likely to wind up being a net loss to the public:  The library would be sold for a gross price of just $52 million (about half the development rights were handed off to Forest City Ratner in 1986).  Various costs to the public must be netted out of that figure and those costs add up.  The BPL has estimated that a greatly shrunken  21,000 sq. ft. “replacement” library would costs $10 million, but this figure is low-balled and suspect.  At the Donnell p/s/f replacement figures it will come to $15 million. Additionally, replacing the 28,000 sq. ft. Business and Career Library (BPL’s figure) would be another $20 million. That $35 million total leaves just $17 million to be eaten up in transaction and consultant costs. . .  Among other things that’s not considering the public currently actually owns much more space, 63,000 square feet, at this central destination library, not just the 49,000 square feet that $35 million or more might be able to one day replace.. .

. . .  In addition, there will be significant disruption and the neighborhood will be without a proper library during the entire period of construction.  The BPL has stated that construction is assured to take no longer than three and one half years.  During that time the BPL will rent (at developer expense) a small amount of interim space from the Lady of Lebanon Church, just 8,000 square feet. At the very least, not counting all the rest of the spacethe public will be losing, for the entire time of construction we, the public, is losing the rental value of 21,000-8,000= 13,000 square feet in Brooklyn Heights.
BPL trustees get ready to vote to sell and shrink Brooklyn Heights Library
The BPL has publicized that one of the theoretical benefits of selling and shrinking the Brooklyn Heights Library at a likely significant loss the public is that Saint Ann's School, a private Brooklyn Heights school with a building on the same block as the library, will get a new gymnasium.  But, it is misleading to say that Saint Ann's School is getting a new gymnasium from the library sale: Saint Ann's, a private school is selling development rights it owns, then essentially spending what it gets on the gym, and it should not be the mission of the library to sell and it shrink public assets, at will assuredly be a loss to the public, to create deals for the benefit of private parties, developers, or even a private school like Saint Ann's.

Another supposed theoretical benefit of selling and shrinking the Brooklyn Heights Library is that there will be 114 "affordable housing" units provided at site away from the luxury condos and the library that has historically served patrons from all over the borough of all incomes.  The other publicly paid for subsidies going into those "affordable" units has not yet been calculated and those subsidies could probably be better used than as an inducement fro a libraries dismantling.

Grin and Bear It?

This could constitute comic relief if the subject were not so serious. . .  The BPL apparently worried that its board meeting might be flooded with angry protesters because of its announcement of its selection of a developer for the Brooklyn Heights Library site.  The day of the meeting the press had already been notified of the developer selection with the BPL press release: Brooklyn Public Library Announces Development Partner for New Brooklyn Heights Library.  While the press and certain insider parties were notified in advance of the trustees meeting, Citizens Defending Libraries was not.
Trustees- From NY1 report on BPL board vote
In fear of such a public onslaught, the BPL had two heavy police barricades transported up and placed outside the room where the trustees meeting was being held.  In addition, New York police officers were asked to guard the door.

All of this became more obvious when the trustees asked the public in attendance (largely representatives of Citizens Defending Libraries) to leave the room so that the board could discuss the Brooklyn Heights Library in executive session.  (For conflict of interest reasons former Bloomberg spokesperson Jordan Barowitiz, now with the Durst real estate organization and Kyle Kimbell of the NYC Economic Development Corporation were also asked to leave during this executive session discussion and then during the ensuing publicly held vote- making it interesting that never during any the preceding foundational decisions culminating in this vote was any similar recusal required.)
Police barricades brought to the third floor to protect the trustees as they voted . .  to enrage the public?
Those gathering outside the trustees meeting awaiting to return after the executive session were told that we couldn't be there by a man who identified himself as in charge of building security.  He said our presence at our usual spot waiting to return was a fire code violation and that we were blocking a public hallway.  We pointed out that neither of these things was true and remained.  When he bullied and threatened to have us arrested the two police officers present looked reluctant to participate in his silliness and nothing subsequently happened as we remained in place.

After we returned to the room to hear the dismaying vote to sell and shrink the library, we listened to a presentation the board that board appeared to feel proud about, although some of us found it more stomach-turning: It was about instituting a new virtual reference librarian program where, with emails responded to in a week's time, the BPL would, from another location identify the "appeal factors" of the reading patrons like to do in order to recommend with their electronic response in a way "as personable as possible" what the patrons might like to read more of.  . . 

. . . As we sat listening a door slammed and we heard someone yelling out what sounded like. "FIRE, FIRE!" outside the room.  We wondered what it was.
BPL President Linda Johnson flinching on camera as she hears herself called a "liar" in the middle of a NY1 interview
The answer was revealed watching the NY1 report on the library sale later that evening.  As NY1 was interviewing BPL president Linda Johnson she was interrupted, startled by the load cries, which could have been "FIRE, FIRE!" or "LIAR, LIAR!". . . in retrospect, probably the latter.  (See: NY1: Brooklyn Public Library Votes to Sell Brooklyn Heights Branch to Private Developer, by: Michael Herzenberg,  09/17/2014.)
The cries were from library sale opponent Marsha Rimler who was subsequently interviewed by NY1 after Ms. Johnson, making the eloquent and succinct case that the Business and Career Library should not be exiled from the Brooklyn Height Library in order to drastically shrink the library down.

With all the talk about it being a violation of the fire code to stand in the hallway outside of the trustees meeting it might have been appropriate to call attention to such absurdity by shouting "FIRE"- And it could have been appropriate to call attention to how our sale of public assets is a virtual "fire sale" at absurdly low prices.  . . .

. . .  Where was BPL president Linda Johnson standing with NY1's tripod, camera, camera person and interviewer with microphone set up for the interview?  Right where we had all been told nobody could stand because it would be a fire code violation.  And that was the spot where Marsh Rimmler was interviewed in a similar fashion moment latter.

Is Ms. Johnson a "liar"?  The BPL's minutes document that Ms. Johnson instructed the trustees that they follow a strategy of withholding information from the public and others, but some make subtle, careful distinctions about these matters.

New Center For An Urban Future Report
Jonathan Bowles of the Center for an Urban Future on NY1 segment of its new library report
The day before the BPL board voted to sell and shrink the Brooklyn Heights Library a new Center for an Urban Future report (Re-envisioning New York's Libraries) was released with great fanfare at at gala event attended by all the libraries and invited "community leaders."

The mantra being repeated when talking about this new report is that is "from an independent party" and therefore somehow more credible about its subject, which as Ms. Johnson told the BPL board, was "largely about the crumbling infrastructure of the city's libraries" and said that the "very exciting and momentous" sale of and shrinkage the Brooklyn Heights Library is "exactly the type of initiative that the CUF report recommends."  ("CUF" being short for Center for an Urban Future.)

Linda Johnson being treated as a credible interviewee by Errol Louis in NY1 "Inside City Hall" segment
However, the Center for an Urban Future Report does not exactly reflect the work of a more credible independent party.  The very next day at the NYPL trustees meeting Jonathan Bowles of the Center for an Urban Future told the NYPL that the report's assessments of the physical condition of the libraries was entirely based on information that the libraries had themselves supplied.  That explained, this summing up of the report's value offered by Ms. Johnson toward the end of the trustees meeting, listened to carefully, may sound somewhat different than she intended:
It's nothing that 's extremely new, but it's everything that we have been saying and it couldn't be better from an independent third party sort of endorsing what we've been saying about our capital needs. 
In essence, if all the Center for an Urban Future was doing was sending around in a circle BPL furnished information, then its report was based on the information the BPL originally commissioned former Forest City Ratner Vice President Karen Backus and her company to do and that was after she made adjustments to it when they asked her to work on it further to make it a more convincing argument for the planned real estate transactions like selling off the Brooklyn Heights Library.

And yet, with BPL Board chair Nicholas Gravante ("this is a very, very well-done presentation") was one of the trustees said during the meeting "it's actually very interesting reading, it talks about" all the money needed by the system as if this information were new, and mentioning that information about the report had appeared in the Wall Street Journal the day before:  New York City Public Library Branches Need $1.1 Billion in Repairs: Report- The City Has a "Broken Funding System" in Which Libraries Rely too Much on Discretionary Funds From City Council Members, by Jennifer Maloney, September, 15, 2014

Indeed, the report was been part of publicity onslaught that whereby the public is likely to be convinced that the physical condition of libraries is even worse than they actually are and that libraries, as currently designed, don't meet the needs required.  The day it was released a Brian Lehrer show segment covered it with a title about the dire physical condition of libraries:  The Brian Lehrer Show: Are NYC's Public Libraries Falling Down? Monday, September 15, 2014.  (Click below to listen or go to the show segment page to comment.)




The day after the BPL board meeting vote to sell the Brooklyn Heights Library, Linda Johnson appeared with David Bowles and the interim head of the Queens Library on NY1 with to reiterate (emphasis supplied) that the report's assessment of the capital needs was "all the more powerful" because it comes from "and independent party":   
So we need a comprehensive plan and I think that’s what’s so wonderful about the Center for and Urban Future Report, is that it calls for something that we’ve been aching to do for quite some time and its from an independent party which makes it all the more powerful.  We need a systematic way to look at the problem.  We’ve identified across the three systems over a $1 billion in capital needs.             
At no time did Errol Louis interviewing Ms. Johnson about these capital needs assessments or the sale and shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights library seem to realize that Ms. Johnson might be a less than credible interviewee who withholds information.  Nor, did Errol Louis seem to fathom that the root source of the information being provided about the BPL system would be former Forest City Ratner Vice President Karen Backus. (Video available at NY1:  Experts Weigh In on Issues Facing City's Library Systems, NY1 News, 09/17/2014.)
The new report stumbles, creating some contradictions.  It was funded by the Revson Foundation which has been getting involved in these library real estate issues for a while now, apparently recommending with a study sometime before the beginning of 2009 that certain libraries, including Sunset Park, be sold for redevelopment into mixed use real estate opportunities.  At the NYPL trustees meeting the day after the BPL board vote Jonathan Bowles bemoaned how there were so many very small libraries in the system, smaller than 10,000 square feet, that need to be enlarged.  The Wall Street Journal, writing about the report said, “Queens has 41 library buildings smaller than 10,000 square feet, compared with 26 in Brooklyn and six in Manhattan.”  . . .

. . . But the Revson Foundation has been supporting the mission of Spaceworks to shrink libraries like Red Hook's 7,500 square foot library to even smaller sizes, in that case taking the library down to just 5,500 square feet.

This is not the first Center for an Urban Future report about the libraries.  The first report, "Branches of Opportunity," came out in January 2013 just before Citizens Defending Libraries was formed and may have stumbled in that it provided a wealth of information to support the case that Citizens Defending Libraries was making that libraries were being intentionally underfunded by the Bloomberg administration with the goal of turning library buildings into real estate deals, rather than support what the Revson Foundation was doing behind the scenes in relation to creating those real estate deals.

This second, new report may be clumsily at odds with the first in that the first report documented that library use in New York City is way up, "a 40 percent spike in the number of people attending programs and a 59 percent increase in circulation over the past decade.”  While both these respective forms of library use were way up, traditional use, books and circulation were up the most, and by far almost all of that circulation increase is physical books as circulation of digital books at that libraries is still a very small fraction even as the libraries try to force patrons to go in that direction.  Nevertheless, the new report is advocating that the libraries need to be physically restructured to shift them over to devote more space for programmatic use.  (The answer is simply that all libraries should be enlarged and not shrunk, and that tearing down libraries rather than adding on to them is inefficient, a two steps-backward-one-step-forward approach.)

In the NY1 discussion of the report the buzz words used for expensively "redeveloping" our libraries in this way is to have "more functional space. . more flexible space." See this article on that concept: Thursday, April 25, 2013, Building a “Murphy Library.”

 Ms. Johnson Johnson in that NY1 segment dismissively and inaccurately refers to the libraries we used to have as "more transactional" as if all that people did in the se libraries was just picked up books they knew they wanted, which is ironically, actually a model those working sell and shrink libraries are working towards.
From the report- Featured in NY1 coverage.  There's more to read on subject of how little the city now spends on libraries.
 Not everything in the report is content that Citizens Defending Libraries disagrees with.  The report makes the point that spending for libraries is a very small fraction of the city's budget.  That percentage is small even though one of the benefits of libraries is to support education.  See the slide above that was part of the NY1 review of the report.  For more about how small a percentage of the city's spending goes to libraries see this Noticing New York article: Tuesday, April 29, 2014, What's Wrong With These Numbers?: The Baccarat Tower's $60M Penthouse and NYC's Library Budget.

Confusion: Luxury Tower to Be More Than 50% Bigger Than Reported in Press Announcements of Deal
Two incorrect reports that the new tower would be 20 stories.  On the left the New York Times correction.  On the left, the same incorrect information in a photo caption on the Brooklyn Paper

There was some confusion, likely attributable directly to the BPL, in the reports of the deal to replace the Brooklyn Heights Library with a luxury tower. . . A number of reports, the New York Times and the Brooklyn Paper included, inaccurately stated that the luxury tower would be 20 stories.  The Times had to publish a correction that the current plan is for the tower to be 150% of that, thirty stories.  Not mentioned is that none of the plans so far made public show how tall the building would be if all available development rights.  Apparently there was a rumor amongst reporters going back to the BPL that there was an "unwritten agreement" that the building would not be made taller than 20 stories (inaccurate).  Of course, an "unwritten agreement" is only worth the paper its printed on.

Here is the wording of the New York Times correction:
Correction: September 19, 2014

An earlier version of this article, using information from a spokeswoman, misstated the height of a building proposed at the site of the Brooklyn Heights library branch. It would be 30 stories, not 20. The error was repeated in a photo caption and story summary.
In another error, the Brooklyn Heights Blog reported incorrectly that the gross sales price for the library would be an overstated $60 million, not the $52 million now being cited.

Conflict of Interest?: BPL Being Represented by NYC Economic Development Corporation

During the NY1 Errol Louis interview Linda Johnson makes the following, perhaps surprising statement about the BPL in the Brooklyn Heights Library transaction: 
We’re being represented by the Economic Development Corporation of the City of New York.
What makes the statement surprising is that at the BPL meeting Kyle Kimbell of the NYC Economic Development Corporation, a trustee on the BPL's board, had to recuse himself from the board's vote for conflict of interest reasons.  Pretty much all the things that would pose a conflict of interest in terms of Mr. Kimbell as head of the EDC participating in the vote would also come into play a conflict of interest needing to be considered with the EDC representing the BPL to carry out the transaction.

Language of Resolution To Sell Brooklyn Heights Library

At the trustees meeting Linda Johnson read aloud only a small part of the resolution the trustees adopted, its most pertinent part.  Apparently the resolution was very long with lots of preamble to document that the BPL had theoretically done everything correctly to sell and shrink its assets.  What Ms. Johnson chose to read appears to have been bollixed.  This is what she read:
Staff and the board of trustees of the Brooklyn Heights Advisory Group recommend that the board vote to accept the decision of the selection committee of the Hudson companies as the developer of the property at 280 Cadman Plaza West, the property where the Brooklyn Heights branch sits.
The reference to the "Brooklyn Heights Advisory Group" and its "board of trustees" appears to be a reference to the so-called "Community Advisory Committee" because there is no "Brooklyn Heights Advisory Group" in so far as anyone knows.  But the so-called "Community Advisory Committee" has no "board of trustees" and the group never voted to recommend the selection of this developer as far as several of its members know.  Further, the "Community Advisory Committee," for most of its existence a fairly limited group, was chaired by the Friends of the Brooklyn Heights Branch Library group that took the position that it could not interfere with what the BPL itself in any respect.  The second most important member of that group was the Brooklyn Heights Association that said it was following the lead of the Friends group. (See:  Saturday, April 13, 2013, Condoning The Sale and Shrinkage Of The Brooklyn Heights Library, Does The Brooklyn Heights Associations Think Of Friends Group As A Fig Leaf? It Should Think Again.) . ..

. . . . Ergo, we have yet another example of a round-robin, a complete 360 circle, where the BPL is acting on recommendations, and viewpoints, theoretically that actually emanated from the BPL as their original source and the only party taking true responsibility although attempts are being made to shunt it off on others.

It is our information that the "selection committee" referred to in the wording of the resolution consists of three individuals, BPL trustee Peter Ashkenasy (who was charged with persuading Borough President Eric Adams to buy into the theory that because funds had been withheld from the libraries the public's library assets should now be sold off) and two (hapless?) BPL staff members.

Below are some more stills from the NY1 coverage of the Citizens Defending Libraries press conference and the BPL's vote.
"I am outraged at the secrecy," says Michael D. D. White to NY1
Other News Reports

Below are other news reports of these event many of which can be commented on (as can the Brian Lehrer segment above):
Photo from the Brooklyn Paper taken just as various members of Citizens Defending Libraries had already started heading in to the BPL trustees meeting
The Brooklyn Paper- Sold! Brooklyn Heights library to developer for $52 million, by Matthew Perlman, September 17, 2014

Melville House- Brooklyn Public Library announces branch sale to developer; Citizens Defending Libraries launches investigation, by Claire Kelley, September 19, 2014.

Brooklyn Eagle- Brooklyn Public Library approves $52 million sale of Brooklyn Heights branch to developer Hudson Co., By Matthew Taub, Special to Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn Brief, September 16, 2014.
New York Times story in the print edition misreporting that the new luxury tower would be only 20 stories, including in caption.

New York Times- Trustees Endorse Plan to Sell Land Beneath Branch of Brooklyn Library,
by Tatania Schlossberg, September, 16, 2014.

Brooklyn Heights Blog- BREAKING: Hudson Companies / Marvel Architects Announced as Brooklyn Heights Library Developer, by Michael Randazzo, September 16, 2014

Capital New York-  Brooklyn Public Library zeroes in on developer for Heights, by Dana Rubinstein, September, 16, 2014.

DNA Info-  Brooklyn Heights Library Development Plan Includes 114 Affordable Units, by Nikhita Venugopal, September 16, 2014.
DNA Info- Bushwick Library to Get $4M to Fix Roof Where Plaster Fell During Storm, by Serena Dai, September 22, 2014 (A taste of upcoming manipulative reports.)
Brooklyn Heights Blog-New York Daily News Really Likes Plan for Brooklyn Heights Library, By brooklynheightsblog, September 24, 2014.
Daily News Editorial-  Check out this library- A development project shows great promise to revitalize dilapidated branches,  New York Daily News, September 22, 2014.
The Daily News editorial above, cheerleading for the real estate industry refers to the central Brooklyn Heights Library, a major destination library that is at least the second most important in the BPL systems as a "wreck" and an "outpost."  Little does the Daily News appreciate what the BPL thinks a true, very small "outpost" library could be, having considered recently establishing just in nearby DUMB a model future "outpost" library that would be just 1,700 square feet, far before the 10,000 square feet the Center for and Urban Future Report is too small.   The Daily News also gave credence to the BPL's manipulation that not fixing the air conditioning at the Brooklyn Heights Library works as pretext for both keeping very short library hours there plus selling and shrinking it as well.. . .  When it comes to its editorials, the Daily News should be understood to really be the voice of its owner, real estate developer Mort Zuckerman. 
The Brooklyn Heights Library is designed by Francis Keally, the same man who designed the Grand Army Plaza Library (above), a former president of the once-venerable Municipal Arts Society and a head of the New York chapter of the AIA
Brooklyn Heights Library in NY1 report on BPL board vote, designed by same esteemed architect as the Gran Army Plaza Library, described as a "wreck" and an "outpost" by the Daily News cheerleading for its demise. 

Monday, September 15, 2014

Press Release: Citizens Audit and Investigation of Brooklyn Public Library- FOIL Requests

PRESS RELEASE & NEWS ADVISORY-  (For photos and video of press conference click here.)

New York City

WHAT: Citizens Defending Libraries announces commencement of a Citizens Audit and Investigation of Brooklyn Public Library- Issuance of Freedom of Information Law requests
WHEN: Tuesday, September 16, 2014, 5:00 P.M.
WHERE: Grand Army Plaza Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, New York, 11238 (Take the 2, 3 train to Grand Army Plaza).

Citizens Defending Libraries will hold a press conference and rally Tuesday, September 15, 2014, at 5:00 PM outside the Brooklyn Public Library Grand Army Library (just prior to the BPL’s trustees meeting) to publicize that . . . .

. . Citizens Defending Libraries is commencing a Citizens Audit and Investigation of library sell-offs and shrinkages in Brooklyn.  To launch its audit and investigation Citizens Defending Libraries is, this week, issuing Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to the Brooklyn Public Library together with similar requests to a number of government agencies and entities.

The purpose is to probe more deeply into recent disclosures about the BPL’s secret real estate and development plans; those recent are revelations themselves the result of diligent citizen inquiry.

A citizens’ review of a decade’s worth of minutes of the Brooklyn Public Library trustees meetings obtained for the benefit of Citizens Defending Libraries recently disclosed far more than was ever previously publicly known or revealed to the press, including many shocking revelations about how the BPL has been secretly planning for many years to sell off and shrink Brooklyn public libraries pursuant to creation of a “Strategic Real Estate Plan.” See Noticing New York: Sunday, August 31, 2014, Mostly In Plain Sight (A Few Conscious Removals Notwithstanding) Minutes Of Brooklyn Public Library Tell Shocking Details Of Strategies To Sell Brooklyn's Public Libraries.

The FOIL requests that Citizens Defending Libraries is issuing seeks further significant details about the many matters that the history chronicled in the BPL minutes bring to light, including:
    •    Links back to Forest City Ratner. How a firm run by a former Forest City Ratner Vice president was hired in 2007 (apparently without bid) to put together the BPL’s “Strategic Real Estate Plan” and how the BPL trustees specifically wanted more work to be done by that consultant to “strengthen the argument” for the real estate plan, making it more convincing.  (The two libraries the plan prioritized for sale with announcements at the beginning of 2013 were both next to Forest City Ratner Property.)  The initial payment to the firm run by the former Ratner Vice President was $925,000.

    •    Many Highly-paid Consultants.  How many highly-paid consultants were hired with, or without competitive bid, in efforts to support and implement the BPL’s library real estate plans and how much, in total, were they paid?  FOIL request to the BPL asks about more than nine consultants and what they were paid, including Booz & Co, which was involved in vouching for the NYPL’s real estate plans when it sold the beloved Donnell Library for a pittance and implemented the Central Library Plan that collapsed embarrassingly last May.

    •    A New “Economic Development” Mission For the BPL.  It asks about the Ivy Group, a consulting firm, who in doing a “community needs assessment” assured the BPL that “economic development” should be part of its mission.

    •    Affected Libraries.  The FOIL request asks for details about plans for the following libraries that have been discussed as being for sale, shrinkage, “redevelopment,” or otherwise already specifically mentioned as being part of the BPL’s real estate plans:
    •        Brooklyn Heights Library
    •        Pacific Branch
    •        Sunset Park Branch
    •        Red Hook Branch
    •        Williamsburg Branch
    •        Brower Park Library
    •        Midwood Library
    •        Gravesend Library
    •        Clinton Hill Library
    •        McKinley Park Branch and another seven or eight leased libraries being acquired with or without the formal threat of eminent domain.
    •    Enforcement of Secrecy.  Information is requested how the library sales, no doubt expected to be objectionable to the public, were kept secret, including from those public officials responsible for funding the libraries, with the New York City Office of Management and Budget being informed of which libraries were affected by the real estate plan only after its objection to being kept in the dark and only after the BPL trustees decided to require OMB to hold such information in “strict confidence.”

    •    Plans to Lock In new de Blasio Administration. Communications about the BPL goal of locking the next elected administration into the Bloomberg administration pursued real estate plan per BPL president Linda Johnson’s reminder to the trustees that the intention was for the plan be “deep in progress” so that the next administration “will not derail it.”

    •    Breakdowns and System-wide Air Conditioning Contract.  The public has been suspicious about how widespread air conditioning breakdowns and problems have been cited as an excuse to sell and shrink libraries.  The FOIL request asks about a system-wide air conditioning contract with a particular firm that was given a system-wide five-year contract for the BPL's HVAC needs before the breakdowns started.

    •    Parallel Library System Plans/The Offensends.  The FOIL requests communications between the library systems about the plans being pursued in parallel by the NYPL and BPL for the sale and shrinkage of libraries, including asking for communications between David Offensend overseeing library sell-offs and sales at the NYPL as Chief Operating Officer and Janet Offensend, his wife, a key trustee added to the BPL’s board at the same time the BPL was getting underway with very similar plans.
There is much more covered* in the FOIL requests which Citizens Defending Libraries is making available on its web pages, together with section headings in bold for ease of reference purposes.

Citizens Defending Libraries is strongly of the opinion that these matters ought to be under investigation by our public officials (as in some cases they may already be), including the following:
    •    The new Mayor’s Office
    •    The New York City Comptroller
    •    The State Comptroller
    •    The New York State Attorney General
    •    The New York City Public Advocate
    •    The City Council
    •    The New York State Department of Education
    •    The State Legislature
    •    The Federal government.
Nevertheless, Citizens Defending Libraries does not believe it should simply assume that any of the public officials or offices above will be investigating these matters soon enough or with sufficient vigor that the public, Citizens Defending Libraries included, should not itself undertake immediate and vigilant follow-up to investigate further what has already been uncovered.
(*  Other matters asked about in the on-line FOIL requests being submitted by Citizens Defending Libraries FOIL requests include: * Communication with New York City Landmarks Commission for its inventory and survey of BPL libraries that are potentially eligible for designations as landmarks, * Communications with NYC's Department of Design and Construction respecting the condition of the Brooklyn Heights Library and DDC's several repeated assessments of the adequacy of the air conditioning system, * Communication- or the absence thereof- with NYS Department of Education pursuant to regulations about BPL's intent to transform its libraries and system through real estate plans and transactions, * Communications with select individuals (including certain politicians) or groups about promoting the library sales and shrinkages, *  Communications about legislation enacted in 2007 reconstituting the boards of the BPL and its foundation and effectively giving Mayor Bloomberg more control (S6233/A9160 introduced June 2007 and signed into law by the governor as Chapter law 569 on August 15, 2007), * Drastically diminishing book counts, * Communications respecting conflicts of interest and their handling, *  Communications about Spaceworks, the private company created by the Bloomberg administration in 2012 which has as one of its principal missions the privatization and shrinkage of New York City public library space it characterizes as "underutilized," * Communications with development agencies about economic development and real estate plans of the BPL, including communications with the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York about issuing bonds, *  Communications with respect to the fact that BPL president Linda Johnson does not have the qualifying credentials to be a library director under the state education law, * Communications with respect to the BPL's accommodation of Mayor Bloomberg's desire for the BPL to sell Snapple on at Brooklyn's libraries.)
CONTACT:
Carolyn E. McIntyre, Michael D. D. White
Michael White, 718-834-6184, mddwhite@aol.com
Carolyn McIntyre, 917-757-6542 cemac62@aol.com

Follow us on Twitter: @defendinglibraries

For photos and videos of prior Citizens Defending Libraries rallies opposing the sale, shrinkage, underfunding of New York City libraries, and elimination of books and librarians in the year and a half since its founding, see:

PHOTO GALLERIES- PAST EVENTS

http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2014/01/photo-galleries-past-events.html

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FOIL REQUESTS MADE TO BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
FOIL REQUEST MADE OF BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY
I hereby request the following pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law.  (Please note that section headings in bold are for ease of reference purposes only and not intended in any way to limit or otherwise substantively modify what is requested below).

Consultants hired in connection with the justifying, promoting, shaping or otherwise advancing library real estate deals and transactions, including sale, redevelopment or shrinkage of library property and/or the elimination of books and librarians.
Karen Backus & Associates, the firm run by former Forest City Ratner Vice President hired to prepare “Strategic Real Estate Plan”
Please supply the “Strategic Real Estate Plan” prepared by Karen Backus & Associates, all iterations thereof (indicating dates) including but not limited to all drafts of that document.  (Karen Backus & Associates should be deemed to include any successors to that firm, including but not limited to U3 Advisors.)

Please, in each case, include all component or attached documents included in that document or otherwise made a part of it.

Please also supply all communications exchanged with Backus and/or other outside parties (including, but not limited to, those where such parties have been copied-in each and every case in this request communication with any party refers, not by way of limitation, also to all those communications on which they have been copied)  respecting changes or modifications made to that document or what its content might include, including but not limited to, communications to the Backus firm in furtherance of the noted information in the February 2009 minutes that the BPL board wanted the Backus firm to continue its “analysis” to “strengthen the argument for” the “Strategic Real Estate Plan.”

Please also supply all communications about the engagement of the Backus firm, what the terms of that employment were to be and how it was to be determined whether the Backus firm was to be engaged, including all communications about whether the retention of Backus was pursuant to a competitive process and, if so, all communications and submission by any competitor firm in that process.

If the Backus firm was not to be engaged by such a competitive process, please supply all communications and documentation with respect to what method or justification was intended to substitute for such competitive process.  Such communications should include, but not be limited to, communications with outside parties such as the mayor’s office.

Please include documentation of all amounts paid to the Backus firm including and in addition to the $925,000 authorized to be paid to the Backus firm at the February 8, 2011 trustees meeting and all information and communications about amounts to be owed that are not yet paid.
Ivy Group, firm that delivered a “Community Needs Assessment” telling the BPL to adjust its primary goals and engage in "support for economic development"
Please supply the “Community Needs Assessment” prepared by the Ivy Group, all iterations thereof (indicating dates) including but not limited to all drafts of that document.  (The Ivy Group should be deemed to include any successors to that firm.) 

Please, in each case, include all component or attached documents included in that document or otherwise made a part of it.

Please also supply all communications exchanged with Ivy and/or other outside parties (including, but not limited to, those where such parties have been copied)  respecting changes or modifications made to that document or what its content might include.

Please also supply all communications about the engagement of the Ivy firm, what the terms of that employment were to be and how it was to be determined whether the Ivy firm was to be engaged, including all communications about whether the retention of Ivy was pursuant to a competitive process and, if so, all communications and submission by any competitor firm in that process.

If the Ivy firm was not to be engaged by such a competitive process or at any time considered not to be so engaged, please supply all communications and documentation with respect to what method or justification was intended to substitute for such competitive process.  Such communications should include, but not be limited to communications with such outside parties as the mayor’s office.

Please include documentation of all amounts paid to the Ivy firm and all information and communications about amounts to be owed that are not yet paid.
“The Revson Study” slating and identifying libraries for potential sale and redevelopment
Please supply all reports and work done in connection with the “The Revson Study” identified in the February 2009 minutes as identifying the Sunset Park library as being a likely subject of redevelopment, all iterations thereof (indicating dates), including but not limited to all drafts of that document.

Please, in each case, include all component or attached documents included in that document or otherwise made a part of it.

Please also supply all communications exchanged with those authoring that document or otherwise associated with it, including, as the case may be, the Revson Foundation, and/or other outside parties (including, but not limited to, those where such parties have been copied)  respecting changes or modifications made to that document or what its content might include.

Please also supply all communications about how the study was generated, what terms applied to the generation of that document and how it was to be determined whether the study was to be done by its authors or by others, including all communications about whether the engagement or retention of the author was pursuant to a competitive process and, if so, all communications and submission by any competitor in that process.  If others did other such studies, please furnish those as well.

If the Revson entity was not to be engaged by such a competitive process or at any time considered not to be so engaged, please supply all communications and documentation with respect to what method or justification was intended to substitute for such competitive process.  Such communications should include, but not be limited to communications with such outside parties as the mayor’s office.

Please include documentation of all amounts paid to the Revson Foundation, in compensation, reimbursement or otherwise and all information and communications about amounts to be owed that are not yet paid.
Booz & Co. the same firm previously hired by the NYPL the summer of 2007, not long before its sale of the Donnell Library for a pittance, to advise the NYPL on its real estate “strategy.”  (NYPL COO David Offensend emphasizing the Booz firm’s experience to the NYPL Board.)
Please supply all reports and assessments of Booz & Co., pursuant to its engagement as referred  to in the February 8, 2011 minutes, all iterations thereof (indicating dates) including but not limited to all drafts of those documents.  That includes, but is not limited to all such documents with respect to “right-sizing” the library system.  (Booz & Co. should be deemed to include any successors, predecessors or other incarnations of that firm including but not limited to Booz Allen Hamilton.)

Please, in each case, include all component or attached documents included in those documents or otherwise made a part of them.

Please also supply all communications exchanged with Booz and/or other outside parties (including, but not limited to, those where such parties have been copied)  respecting changes or modifications made to those documents or what their content might include.

Please also supply all communications about the engagement of the Booz firm, what the terms of that employment were to be and how it was to be determined whether the Booz firm was to be engaged, including all communications about whether the retention of Booz was pursuant to a competitive process and, if so, all communications and submission by any competitor firm in that process.  Please include among other things:
    •    the information furnished by Booz based on which Linda Johnson represented to the BPL board that Booz came to BPL “with extensive experience with libraries”

    •    All representations that the Booz firm made about their involvement with the NYPL’s  Donnell sale, Central Library Plan and other real estate strategies.
If the Booz firm was not to be engaged by such a competitive process or at any time considered not to be so engaged, please supply all communications and documentation with respect to what method or justification was intended to substitute for such competitive process.  Such communications should include, but not be limited to communications with such outside parties as the mayor’s office.

Please include documentation of all amounts paid to the Booz firm and all information and communications about amounts to be owed that are not yet paid.
Any other additional consultants hired after Booz & Co. was already hired (per February 8, 2011 minutes) as refereed to in the Tri-li letter sent to Patricia Harris by the three library systems after the March 7, 2011 Gracie Mansion summit for the “Shared Technical Services initiative” referred to in that letter as a firm “with no perceived ax to grind.”
Please supply all reports and assessments of any other additional consultants hired after (and in addition to) Booz & Co. was already hired for the “Shared Technical Services initiative” as referred to in the letter to Patricia Harris from the three library heads after the March 7, 2011 Gracie Mansion summit.

Please, in each case, include all component or attached documents included in those documents or otherwise made a part of them.

Please also supply all communications exchanged with those consultants and/or other outside parties (including, but not limited to, those where such parties have been copied)  respecting changes or modifications made to those documents or what their content might include.

Please also supply all communications about those consultants, what consultants were considered to be engaged, what the terms of that employment were to be and how it was to be determined whether those consultants were to be engaged, including all communications about whether the retention of those consultants was pursuant to a competitive process and, if so, all communications and submission by any competitor firm in that process.

If those consultants were not to be engaged by such a competitive process or at any time considered not to be so engaged, please supply all communications and documentation with respect to what method or justification was intended to substitute for such competitive process.  Such communications should include, but not be limited to communications with such outside parties as the mayor’s office.

Please include documentation of all amounts paid to those consultants and all information and communications about amounts to be owed that are not yet paid.

Please also include all communications with the other library systems and other parities about including in the letter to Patricia Harris any reference to the “substantial value of retaining a consulting firm for the Shared Technical Services initiative” and inclusion of the phrase “with no perceived ax to grind.”
Berlin Rosen, the politically connected public relations firm specializing in “crisis management
Please supply all reports on work done for the BPL by Berlin Rosen.

Please also supply all communications exchanged with Berlin Rosen. and/or other outside parties (including, but not limited to, those where such parties have been copied).

Please also supply all communications about the engagement of the Berlin Rosen firm, what the terms of that employment were to be and how it was to be determined whether the Berlin Rosen firm was to be engaged, including all communications about whether the retention of Berlin Rosen was pursuant to a competitive process and, if so, all communications and submission by any competitor firm in that process.

If the Berlin Rosen firm was not to be engaged by such a competitive process or at any time considered not to be so engaged, please supply all communications and documentation with respect to what method or justification was intended to substitute for such competitive process.  Such communications should include, but not be limited to communications with such outside parties as the mayor’s office.

Please include documentation of all amounts paid to the Berlin Rosen firm and all information and communications about amounts to be owed that are not yet paid.
IA Interior Architects and Stephen Furnstahl, the firm hired to do an analysis of repair needs at the Brooklyn Heights Central Library when the BPL was electing not to present previous analysis by Karen Backus Associates or, as requested, the previous analysis of the New York City Department of Design and Construction.
Please supply all analyses and reports prepared by IA Interior Architects and/or Stephen Furnstahl, all iterations thereof (indicating dates) including but not limited to all drafts of that document.  ( IA Interior Architects and/or Stephen Furnstahl should be deemed to include any successors or predecessors to that firm.) 

Please, in each case, include all component or attached documents included in that document or otherwise made a part of it.

Please also supply all communications exchanged with IA Interior Architects and/or Stephen Furnstahl and/or other outside parties (including, but not limited to, those where such parties have been copied)  respecting changes or modifications made to that document or what its content might include.

Please also supply all communications about the engagement of the IA Interior Architects and/or Stephen Furnstahl, what the terms of that employment were to be and how it was to be determined whether the IA Interior Architects and/or Stephen Furnstahl was to be engaged, including all communications about whether the retention of IA Interior Architects and/or Stephen Furnstahl was pursuant to a competitive process and, if so, all communications and submission by any competitor firm in that process.

If IA Interior Architects and/or Stephen Furnstahl was not to be engaged by such a competitive process or at any time considered not to be so engaged, please supply all communications and documentation with respect to what method or justification was intended to substitute for such competitive process.  Such communications should include, but not be limited to communications with such outside parties as the mayor’s office.

Please include documentation of all amounts paid to IA Interior Architects and/or Stephen Furnstahl and all information and communications about amounts to be owed that are not yet paid.
WSP Flack & Kurtz
Please supply all analyses and reports prepared by WSP Flack & Kurtz, all iterations thereof (indicating dates) including but not limited to all drafts of that document.  ( WSP Flack & Kurtz should be deemed to include any successors or predecessors to that firm.) 

Please, in each case, include all component or attached documents included in that document or otherwise made a part of it.

Please also supply all communications exchanged with WSP Flack & Kurtz and/or other outside parties (including, but not limited to, those where such parties have been copied)  respecting changes or modifications made to that document or what its content might include.

Please also supply all communications about the engagement of WSP Flack & Kurtz, what the terms of that employment were to be and how it was to be determined whether WSP Flack & Kurtz was to be engaged, including all communications about whether the retention of WSP Flack & Kurtz was pursuant to a competitive process and, if so, all communications and submission by any competitor firm in that process.

If WSP Flack & Kurtz was not to be engaged by such a competitive process or at any time considered not to be so engaged, please supply all communications and documentation with respect to what method or justification was intended to substitute for such competitive process.  Such communications should include, but not be limited to communications with such outside parties as the mayor’s office.

Please include documentation of all amounts paid to WSP Flack & Kurtz and all information and communications about amounts to be owed that are not yet paid.
K&K Property Solutions
Please supply all analyses and reports prepared by K&K Property Solutions, all iterations thereof (indicating dates) including but not limited to all drafts of that document.  ( K&K Property Solutions should be deemed to include any successors or predecessors to that firm.) 

Please, in each case, include all component or attached documents included in that document or otherwise made a part of it.

Please also supply all communications exchanged with K&K Property Solutions and/or other outside parties (including, but not limited to, those where such parties have been copied)  respecting changes or modifications made to that document or what its content might include.

Please also supply all communications about the engagement of the K&K Property Solutions, what the terms of that employment were to be and how it was to be determined whether K&K Property Solutions was to be engaged, including all communications about whether the retention of K&K Property Solutions was pursuant to a competitive process and, if so, all communications and submission by any competitor firm in that process.

If K&K Property Solutions was not to be engaged by such a competitive process or at any time considered not to be so engaged, please supply all communications and documentation with respect to what method or justification was intended to substitute for such competitive process.  Such communications should include, but not be limited to communications with such outside parties as the mayor’s office.

Please include documentation of all amounts paid to the K&K Property Solutions and all information and communications about amounts to be owed that are not yet paid.
Ed Tettemer and Mo (Maureen) Craig for branding and PR Advice
Please supply the branding and PR presentations prepared by Ed Tettemer and Mo (Maureen) Craig.

Please, in each case, include all component or attached documents included in that document or otherwise made a part of it.

Please also supply all communications exchanged with Ed Tettemer and Mo (Maureen) Craig and/or other outside parties (including, but not limited to, those where such parties have been copied)  respecting changes or modifications made to that document or what its content might include.

Please also supply all communications about the engagement of the branding consultants, what the terms of that employment were to be and how it was to be determined whether the branding consultants were to be engaged, including all communications about whether the retention of the branding consultants was pursuant to a competitive process and, if so, all communications and submission by any competitor firm in that process.

If the branding consultants were not to be engaged by such a competitive process or at any time considered not to be so engaged, please supply all communications and documentation with respect to what method or justification was intended to substitute for such competitive process.  Such communications should include, but not be limited to communications with such outside parties as the mayor’s office.

Please include documentation of all amounts paid to the branding consultants and all information and communications about amounts to be owed that are not yet paid.

Libraries that are part of the “Strategic Real Estate Plan” and/or “The Revson Study” or are otherwise proposed to be the subject of real estate transactions.

Please supply copies of all sale or development plans and/or proposals with respect to any and all libraries in the Brooklyn Public Library system, including all iterations thereof (indicating dates) including but not limited to all drafts, plus all communication with developers or communications on their behalf about such plans and proposals or their possibility.  Include, without limitation, as amongst those communications, any communications on which developers have been copied.  Include also all communications with other outside parties about such plans, proposals or possibilities, including but not limited to communication with the mayor’s office, any deputy mayor’s office, the New York City Office of Management and Budget  the New York Economic Development Corporation and/or the New York City Department of Design and Construction.

In any case where you are choosing to invoke an exception to not immediately so provide such information due to currently ongoing negotiations with respect to certain libraries, please specify which libraries are the subject of such currently ongoing negotiations and please furnish the requested information as soon as such negotiations are no longer ongoing.

Please include the above, without limitation, the requested information and communications with respect to the following: 

Brooklyn Heights central library (this means whenever mentioned herein, the library both in its entirety and all its consistent parts, including the Business and Career library and branch library portions)- One of the libraries the BPL has prioritized for sale that is immediately adjacent to Forest City Ratner’s One Pierrepont Plaza and for which development rights, some still unused, were transferred to Ratner.

In addition to any other communications, please include all communications about potential development with Forest City Ratner plus all communications with St. Ann’s School.

Pacific Branch- One of the libraries the BPL prioritized for sale that is immediately adjacent to Forest City Ratner property (across the street from “Atlantic Yards” and yards from the “Barclays” arena).

In addition to any other communications, please include all communications about potential transfers of development or air rights, including any discussions about purchasing the adjacent Park Slope Medicaid Office Building.

Sunset Park Branch- The library for which the BPL board considered denying a renovation in 2009 (per February 2009 minutes) because of its place as an emerging mixed-use real estate opportunity in “The Revson Study.”

In addition to any other communications, please include all communications with respect to pursuing objectives for this property considered by “The Revson Study.”

Red Hook Branch- The library substantially renovated after Superstorm Sandy and reopened again in April 2014, now proposed to be shrunk via a re-renovation from a an already small 7,500 square feet to a much smaller 5,000 square feet with the lost space privatized and turned over to the private company Spaceworks, futhering its mission of treating library space as underutilized.

In addition to any other communications, please include all communications with Spaceworks and any competitor to Spaceworks considered for similar acquisition of space in the library and also include all communications with Mr. Spenser Robertson and or the Robertson Foundation and/or the Pave charter school.

Williamsburg Branch- The library substantially renovated and reopened with fanfare at the beginning of 2005, where Spaceworks intends to take over the second floor.

In addition to any other communications, please include all communications with Spaceworks and any competitor to Spaceworks considered for similar acquisition of space in the library.

Brower Park Library- The library considered in 2007 for redevelopment into a 7-floor residential condominium (per the September and December 2007 minutes).

In addition to any other communications, please include all communications concerning the first proposals to demolish the building and build a 7-floor residential condominium, communications about funding to be obtained from the city therefore, the developer’s agreement to submit to BPL a proposal outlining an offer for a new branch library on the site in a more formal and detailed manner, and any such follow-up submissions.

Midwood Library- The library for which the BPL board and Executive Committee considered a proposal with respect to its sale in 2005 (per the April 19,  2005 minutes).

In addition to any other communications, please include all communications concerning the proposal including anything communicated respecting any belief that libraries of the BPL were to be put up for sale.

Gravesend Library- The library that the BPL considers to be part of its “strategic real estate plan,” for which it has been invoking the prospect of eminent domain, and for which, in connection therewith, City Councilman Domenic Recchia found money for that purpose.

In addition to any other communications, please include all communications with City Councilman Domenic Recchia and other public officials concerning how the city funds being obtained were part of the BPL’s  “strategic real estate plan.”

Clinton Hill Library- The library that was written about in Browntstoner (10/24/07) as being proposed for redevelopment into a mixed-use real estate project.

In addition to any other communications, please include all communications concerning the proposal including the proposed new size of the library including, but not limited to any estimations of what size the library could potentially be shrunk down to and what portions could be shifted underground.

McKinley Park Branch and any other of the seven or eight leased libraries being acquired with or without the formal threat of eminent domain- Libraries that could, like Gravesend, be similarly part of the BPL “strategic real estate plan” while being acquired more cheaply for redevelopment by eminent domain.

Communication with New York City Landmarks Commission respecting inventory or survey of BPL libraries that are potentially eligible for designations as landmarks (per description of April 28, 2009 minutes).

Please furnish all communications with the New York City Landmarks Commission respecting any inventory or survey of BPL libraries potentially eligible for designations as landmarks, including, not by way of limitation, the communications identifying eight libraries that are potentially eligible for designations as landmarks.   Please include, not by way of limitation, all communications respecting which libraries might or should be prioritized or not for such review, the BPL’s telling Landmarks that it wanted landmarking of library sites to wait or be otherwise deferred, plus communications referring to the comprehensive analysis of the BPL’s real estate portfolio the Landmarks commission was informed the BPL was conducting.

Please also include all communications with the Landmarks Commission made at any time respecting the potential landmarking of the Pacific Branch and Brooklyn Heights library.

Air conditioning contract with Performance Mechanical Corporation, the “Brooklyn-based” (or actually possibly New Jersey and Long Island based) company that was given a system-wide five-year contract for the BPL’s HVAC needs (per June 15, 2010 minutes) with a 22% increase in expenditures after which air conditioners around the system started breaking down and were cited as reasons to sell and shrink BPL libraries. 

Please supply the contract with Performance Mechanical Corporation, all iterations thereof (indicating dates) including but not limited to all drafts of that document.  Similarly, please supply all previous contracts with the firm.  (Performance Mechanical Corporation should be deemed to include any successors or predecessors to that firm.)

Please, in each case, include all component or attached documents included in that document or otherwise made a part of it.

Please also supply all communications exchanged with Performance Mechanical Corporation and/or other outside parties (including, but not limited to, those where such parties have been copied) respecting changes or modifications made to that document or what its content might include.

Please also supply all communications about the engagement of Performance Mechanical Corporation, what the terms of that employment were to be and how it was to be determined whether the Performance Mechanical Corporation was to be engaged, including all communications about whether the retention of Performance Mechanical Corporation this time or at any prior times was pursuant to a competitive process and, if so, all communications and submission by any competitor firm in that process.  Please also include all communications respecting the 2010 renewal of the contract, including, not by way of limitation, communications with respect to any increase or change in compensation for that contract.

If the Performance Mechanical Corporation was not to be engaged or its contract renewed by such a competitive process or at any time considered not to be so engaged, please supply all communications and documentation with respect to what method or justification was intended to substitute for such competitive process.  Such communications should include, but not be limited to communications with such outside parties as the mayor’s office.

Please provide all communications Performance Mechanical Corporation, including, but not limited to instructions about works to be performed and problems with air conditioners in the system.  Not by way of limitation, this should include communications since the current renewal version of the contract went into effect and all communications before that time.  Among other things, please include the communication upon which the representation to the trustees in the minutes that Performance Mechanical Corporation was Brooklyn-based.

Please include documentation of all amounts paid to the Performance Mechanical Corporation firm and all information and communications about amounts to be owed that are not yet paid.

Communications with (and related to) New York City Department of Design and Construction respecting the condition of the Brooklyn Heights Library, renovations thereto (including the air conditioning system) and its several repeated assessments of the adequacy of the air conditioning system.

Please furnish all communications with the NYC Department of Design and Construction about the condition of the Brooklyn Heights Library and renovations thereto, including, not by way of limitation, the air conditioning system.

Please include communications describing the renovation of the library done approximately 1991/1992, including information about what new air conditioning was put in at that time and all information about asbestos removal and asbestos conditions at that time.  Please also furnish all communications to any members of the public that the air conditioning equipment put in place around 1991/1992 was as delivered and installed perfectly operational

Please furnish all the documentation exchanged with DDC and with the public and elected officials that the air conditioning system was functioning well, (whether optimally or not) from 1996 to 1998.

Please furnish all the information about the new chiller units installed around or about June 2002 including all of the documentation that this installation was fully adequate and appropriate and upon which representations were made that a completely new cooling system was installed.  Please furnish all communications made to this effect to the public, elected representatives and other public officials, and as the case may be, the press.

Please furnish all communications to the DDC informing it that the BPL intended to repudiate the DDC’s many prior assessments of the air conditioning system design adequacy.

Please furnish all communications with the DDC about the BPL real estate plan, real estate strategy (including any actual or tentative predecessor plans), “The Revson Study,” the work of Karen Backus and Associates and the community needs assessment ultimately done by the Ivy Group.

Communication With New York State Department of Education- Pursuant to compliance with filing and regulation requirements and communications respecting BPL’s intent to transform its libraries and system through the implementation of real estate plans and transactions.

Please furnish all communications with the New York State Department of education about the BPL real estate plan, real estate strategy (including any actual or tentative predecessor plans), “The Revson Study,” the work of Karen Backus and Associates and the community needs assessment ultimately done by the Ivy Group.

Please also furnish all required filings with The New York State Education Department including any annual reports, submission with respect to requests for state aid and any five year plans of service.

Communications with the New York City Office of Management and Budget about identifying and holding “in strict confidence” names of libraries affected by the BPL’s “real estate plan” (per the May 17, 2011 minutes).

Please furnish all communications with the NYC Office of Management and Budget respecting the BPL real estate plans and BPL’s furnishing it to OMB.  Not by way of limitation, please include all of OMB’s expressions of reluctance to give funds to libraries based on the fact that because the BPL had not identified libraries affected by the real estate plan, OMB did not know how libraries might be used.  Please furnish all communications to OMB identifying the affected libraries and all communication with OMB respecting BPL expectations that OMB would coordinate or help the BPL to build god will for the plans.  Please include all communications with respect to BPL communications to OMB that identification of the libraries affected by the real estate plan was to be kept in strict confidence.

Communications with government officials, elected officials and stakeholders to promote the Karen Backus developed  (including those key government officials, elected officials and stakeholders mentioned per April 28, 2009 minutes when the Backus plan was requested to be further worked on to strengthen it as an argument for the real estate plans.)

Please furnish all communications, related to exploratory conversations or otherwise, with government officials, “key” or otherwise and elected officials and stakeholders promoting the real estate plans including, not by way of limitation, those reflective of the “short-term and longer-term communications strategies for Trustees and staff” developed for such promotion.

Not by way of limitation, please include all such communications with the following, their office or their representatives:
    •    Brad Lander
    •    Jimmy Van Bramer
    •    Vincent Gentile
    •    Christine Quinn
    •    Marty Markowitz
    •    Urban Librarians Unite, or any of its representatives.
Communications about the BPL goal of locking the next elected administration into the Bloomberg administration pursued real estate plan (per Linda Johnson’s reminder in the October 11, 2011 minutes of conversation concerning the intention that the plan be “deep in progress” so that the next administration “will not derail it”).

Please furnish all communications with all other parties, related to the goal of preventing the next administration from derailing the real estate plan sought to be advanced with the Bloomberg administration.  Not by way of limitation include communications concerning executing a contract with a developer for the Brooklyn Heights Library and taking other actions with respect to it before December 31, 2013 and what ways the BPL would attempt to lock in a sale of the Pacific Branch library.

Not by way of limitation, please include all such communications with the following, their office or their representatives:
    •    Mayor Bloomberg
    •    First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris
    •    Daniel Doctoroff, whether working for New York City or later for Bloomberg, L.P.
    •    Brad Lander
    •    Jimmy Van Bramer
    •    Vincent Gentile
    •    Christine Quinn
    •    Marty Markowitz
Please also be sure to include such conversations as were had by any and all trustees including (whose names came up in this regard) Board Chair Crowell and Trustee Kimball.

David Offensend and Janet Offensend communications.

Please furnish all communications concerning Janet Offensend’s potential assumption of the position of trustee and/or any postion on the board of either the BPL or its foundation.  Not by way of limitation, please include all communications with or on which David Offensend is copied.

Please furnish all communications between the Offensends about BPL or NYPL libraries, operations or management, including, not by way of limitation all communications about the proposed sale or change in size of any libraries including, not by way of limitation, the Donnell Library, the NYPL Central Library Plan, the Brooklyn Heights Library, the Pacific Library, the Visual and Performing Arts Library, the BAM South library, the Grand Army Plaza library.  Please also, not by way of limitation, include communications about the operation of libraries and not by way of limitation the elimination of books, librarians.  Include communications about digitization.

Please also include all communications between the Offensends about board changes at any of the three library systems and wishes of the mayor or anyone working for him or his deputies.

Communications about legislation enacted in 2007 reconstituting the boards of the BPL and its foundation and effectively giving Mayor Bloomberg more control (S6233/A9160 introduced June 2007 and signed into law by the governor as Chapter law 569 on August 15, 2007).

Please furnish all communications about legislation enacted in 2007 (S6233/A9160, Chapter law 569) that reorganized  the boards of the BPL and its foundation including, not by way of limitation, all communications with lawyers communicating what was to be accomplished by such legislation and what was to be effected after its enactment plus all communications with legislators about it.

Please also furnish all communications with the mayor’s office, the borough presidents office or representatives thereof respecting the implementation of appointments to the board once the legislation was adopted.

From the beginning of 2007 forward, communications with Friends of the Brooklyn Heights Branch Library, Inc. and Deborah Hallen, Friends of the Brooklyn Heights Branch Library, Inc being the friends group that went through reorganizing moves in 2012 and thereafter as key for its role supporting and condoning the proposed sale and shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights Library and Ms. Hallen being the figure who took a leadership role in that regard.

Please furnish all communications with the Friends of the Brooklyn Heights Branch Library, Inc. and Deborah Hallen respecting, in any way, the status of the air conditioning or repair needs at the Brooklyn Heights library or its proposed sale and/or shrinkage and/or any proposals to relocate its Business and Career Library.  Not by way of limitation, include all communications from BPL spokesperson Josh Nachowitz or other BPL representatives with respect to plans to:
    •    Announce the sale/shrinkage of the library
    •    Have a meeting (hosted by the Friends group or otherwise) to present the plans to the public.
From the beginning of 2004 forward, communications with the Brooklyn Heights Association of any of its board members about the Brooklyn Heights Library, the BHA having coordinated with the Friends of the Brooklyn Heights Branch Library to take similar positions paving the way for the sale and shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights Library.

Please furnish all communications with the Brooklyn Heights Association or any of its board members (including, not by way of limitation, David Offensend who resigned from that board February of 2001) respecting, in any way, the status of the air conditioning or repair needs at the Brooklyn Heights library or its proposed sale and/or shrinkage and/or any proposals to relocate its Business and Career Library.  Not by way of limitation, include all communications from BPL spokesperson Josh Nachowitz or other BPL representatives with respect to plans to:
    •    Announce the sale/shrinkage of the library
    •    Have a meeting (hosted by the Friends group or otherwise) to present the plans to the public.
    •    The position the BHA will take with respect to the sale and any coordination that will be done with the BPL and the Friends group.
Information about plans for teeny-tiny (1,700 square foot) prototype model library referred to as “Out-Post” library discussed as being located in DUMBO neighborhood (per the minutes of September and December of 2007 and February of 2008).

Please furnish all communications about plans for the design, purpose and location of the first new model “Out-Post” library, including, not by way of limitation, all instruction and communications with any designer, architect, library expert, elected official or their representatives, not by way of limitation City Hall, the NYPL or Queens Library, any prospective landlord, and any community groups (for instance the DUMBO Neighborhood Association) about what was proposed and/or to be accomplished by these plans.  Not by way of limitation, please include all communications about what was an adequate or appropriate size for this library.

Information about shrinking the Brooklyn Heights Library and decommissioning it of its central library and destination library functions by shutting down the Business and Career Library functions at that site.

Please furnish all communications with any external parties concerning decisions or the formulation of plans by the BPL to shut down Business and Career Library operations at the Brooklyn Heights Library and/or relocate such functions elsewhere.  Not by way fo limitation please include all communications respecting the amount of shrinkage in the size of the Brooklyn Heights Library that could result.

Book Counts (observed to be significantly shrinking): Both library by library and for the BPL system as a whole. (It was not observed via any notation in he minutes that such information was given to the board trustees, but presumably tabulations exist in FOILable form.)

Please furnish tabulations, at least for every year, from 2003 through the latest in 2014, of the count of books in the BPL system, both overall and for each individual library in the system.  If the information is available please indicate both books readily available to public on the shelves and such books and materials that may be in storage, retrievable at certain library locations like the Brooklyn Heights Library and the Grand Army Plaza Library.

Communications with NYPL, the Queens Library and/or Booz and Co. about the calculation of cost savings, or the lack thereof, from the implementation of Book-Ops and other collaborative efforts, operation or opportunities.

Please furnish all communications with outside parties and not by way of limitation with the NYPL, the Queens Library and/or Booz and Co. about the calculation of cost savings, or the lack thereof, from the implementation of Book-Ops and other collaborative efforts, operation or opportunities.

Not by way of limitation, please include communications with respect to and in any way coordinating information given to the Wall Street Journal for its 2013 article concerning Book-Ops, the statements of David Offensend and the BPL and the disagreeing statements from Mr. Galante of the Queens Library.

Please also include any communication respecting any possible merger of the library systems.

Please include all communications about the bills of Booz and Co. and how such charges and related expenses were to be divided up between the three library systems.

Communications with Bruce Ratner, Forest City Ratner, Forest City Enterprise or their representatives about the Pacific Street Library- across the street from Atlantic Yards near the arena, the Brooklyn Heights Library- whose development rights are combined with Forest City’s own adjacent property, the BPL’s proposed partnership with Ratner concerning the Nets basketball team, the BPL’s hosting of “Footprints: Portrait of a Brooklyn Neighborhood," the show that free-speech advocates claimed the BPL censored to further Ratner’s interests and any solicitations or communications respecting prospective donations from Ratner, including with respect to the proposed Visual and Preforming Arts Library across from the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Please furnish all communications with “Ratner parties” (Ratner parties means Bruce Ratner, Forest City Ratner, Forest City Enterprise or their representatives or any of their many related real estate entities and companies involved in running the Nets and “Barclays” arena).  Not by way of limitation, please furnish all communications concerning:
    •    Pacific Street Library
    •    the Brooklyn Heights Library
    •    the BPL’s proposed partnership with Ratner concerning the Nets basketball team
    •    the BPL’s hosting of “Footprints: Portrait of a Brooklyn Neighborhood"
    •    any solicitations or communications respecting prospective donations from Ratner including with respect to the proposed Visual and Preforming Arts Library across from the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
    •    Air conditioning at any BPL library.
All communications with Saint Ann’s School respecting development rights and the Brooklyn Heights Library.

Please furnish all communications with Saint Ann’s School and/or any of its representatives or trustees respecting development rights transferable to the BPL’s property and/or any proposed sale or redevelopment of the Brooklyn Heights Library.  Not by way of limitation, please include all communications with Matthew Bloom, Director of Finance and Administration for Saint Ann's School.

Communications with New York City Conflicts of Interest Board and state conflicts of interest board respecting actual or potential conflicts of interest and their handling.

Please furnish all communications with any external parties including the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board and any other similar state entity about actual or potential conflicts of interest and their handling.

Not by way of limitation, please include:
    •    Communications in regard to the request and response for an opinion from the Conflicts of Interest Board respecting whether it would be a conflict of interest for Anthony Crowell to perform activities on behalf of the BPL (case number 2006-041, dated February 6, 2006).  Please also include any communications respecting Jordan Barowitz in this regard.

    •    Communications respecting the exemption from disclosure filing rules sought by the BPL and Queens Library from the Conflicts of Interest Board in 2008.

    •    Any communications with respect to the formation of Spaceworks and possible lack of compliance with the ethics rules.
Communications about Spaceworks, the private company created by the Bloomberg administration in 2012 which has as one of its principal missions the privatization and shrinkage of New York City public library space which it characterizes as “underutilized” not withstanding greatly increasing use of the library system.

Please furnish all communications with any external parties including, not by way of limitation, the mayor’s office and Spaceworks company and those involved in forming it, respecting the creation of Spaceworks and its proposed relationship and interactions with the BPL and other NYC library systems.  Not by way of limitation, please include all communications respecting which libraries Spaceworks should consider looking at for its purposes.  Also include all communications about any competitive process utilized or considered to select and identify Spaceworks as a potential partner for the BPL in any way.

Communications with the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York about issuing bonds for the BPL’s or other libraries.

Please furnish all communications with the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) since the beginning of 2005 about the possible issuance of bonds or provision of other DASNY financing to fund the BPL, its libraries or other New York City libraries.

Not by way of limitation please include:
    •    All communications respecting or in any way in connection with Linda John’s request to BPL board members that they fill out the questionnaire from DASNY in order to receive funds from it.

    •    All communications about legislation enacted in 2014 (Assembly Bill 9241 and Senate Bill S6931, introduced April 2nd, signed into law by the governor August 11, 2014) that authorized DASNY financing for the BPL.  Not by way of limitation, include all communications with lawyers communicating what was to be accomplished by such legislation and what was to be effected after its enactment plus all communications with legislators about it. Please also furnish all communications with the mayor’s office about this legislation.
Communications with development agencies about economic development and real estate plans of the BPL (of special interest to the public on the theory that the BPL would only be communicating with development agencies and city development personnel about matters not directly related to the main core of the BPL’s mission to provide library services).

Please furnish all communications since the beginning of 2003 with the following, and as the case may be their staff and representatives:
    •    The New York City Economic Development Corporation.  Not by way of limitation, please include all information about the transfer of employment from EDC to BPL of Josh Nachowitz, all communications from trustees Sharon Greenberger, Laurel Blatchford and Anthony Crowell.

    •    Daniel Doctoroff.   Not by way of limitation, please include all communications from trustees Sharon Greenberger, Laurel Blatchford and Anthony Crowell.

    •    First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris.  Not by way of limitation, please include all communications about the approvals for the sale and/or shrinkages of libraries, (not by way of limitation those of the NYPL and Queens Library), Booz & Co., the Revson Foundation, the “Revson Study,” potential mergers of the libraries and their operations, and the potential landmark status of any libraries and the withholding and/or delay of capital repairs for Brooklyn Libraries, and the March 7, 2011 summit at Gracie Mansion and other similar meetings.
Communications with the NYPL about the sale of libraries and plans for the shrinkage of libraries and the conversion of libraries into real estate deals (that would explain how and why the BPL and NYPL, unlike the Queens Library, wound up with such very similar plans with respect thereto, including having sale and shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights Library closely replicate the sale for shrinkage for the NYPL’s Donnell Library and similarities between the NYPL’s Central Library Plan and BPL’s master plan for the Grand Army Plaza Library.)

Please furnish all communications with the NYPL, and as the case may be the Queens Library, since the beginning of 2004 relating to the sale and shrinkage of libraries and other real estate transactions concerning libraries and the Central Library Plan and the master plan from the Grand Army Plaza Library.

Communications with respect to qualifications to run the Brooklyn Public Library and the fact that BPL president Linda Johnson does not have the qualifying credentials applicable to library directors under the state education law.

Please furnish all communications with external parties including, not by way of limitation, the New York State Education Department and the Mayor’s Office concerning the absence of qualifying credentials on the part of Linda Johnson to be a library director and how the BPL could or intended to cover that deficiency.

Communications with respect to BPL intent to be the first public library to build on Mayor Bloomberg’s effort to create New York City's partnership with Snapple by installing Snapple Machines in the BPL’s libraries (per the November 15,  2005 minutes).
 
Please furnish all communications with external parties about the BPL intent to build on New York City's partnership with Snapple.  Not by way of limitation, please include all communications with respect thereto by Daniel Doctoroff, Anthony Crowell, the mayor’s office and the City's Marketing Office and any communications about how the Queens Library and/or Queens Library head Thomas Galante had previously indicated that the Queens Library was not interested in participating in this partnership together with any communications about objections to the partnership by the New York City Comptroller.
FOIL REQUEST MADE OF NEW YORK CITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (9/16/2014)
 I hereby request the following pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law.

Please furnish all communications between the Economic Development Corporation and other parties since the beginning of 2003 about the sale, shrinkage and/or redevelopment of New York City libraries including, not by way of limitation, communications with the Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Public Library and Queens Library, the Mayor’s Office, Spaceworks and, as the case may be, their staff and representatives.  (Not by way of limitation, communications include any communication on which a party is copied.)

Not by way of limitation, please include all information about the transfer of employment from EDC to BPL of Josh Nachowitz, all communications from trustees Sharon Greenberger, Laurel Blatchford and Anthony Crowell, First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris, David Offensend and Janet Offensend and all communications from Daniel Doctoroff.

In any case where you are choosing to invoke an exception to not immediately so provide such information due to currently ongoing negotiations with respect to certain libraries, please specify which libraries are the subject of such currently ongoing negotiations and then, in addition, please furnish the requested information as soon as such negotiations are no longer ongoing.
FOIL REQUEST MADE OF NEW YORK CITY LANDMARKS PRESERVATION COMMISSION (9/25/2014)
I hereby request the following pursuant to the freedom of information law.

Please furnish all communications between the New York City Landmarks Commission and/or its staff and representatives and the Brooklyn Public Library respecting any inventory or survey of BPL libraries potentially eligible for designations as landmarks, including, not by way of limitation, the communications identifying eight libraries that are potentially eligible for designations as landmarks (sometime probably prior to and around the time of April 28,2009).   Please include, not by way of limitation, all communications respecting which libraries might or should be prioritized or not for such review, the BPL's telling Landmarks that it wanted landmarking of library sites to wait or be otherwise deferred, plus communications referring to the comprehensive analysis of the BPL's real estate portfolio the Landmarks commission was informed the BPL was conducting.

Please also include all communications with the Landmarks Commission made at any time respecting the potential landmarking of the Pacific Branch, the Brooklyn Heights library and (by the same architect as the Brooklyn Heights library) the Grand Army Plaza library.

Please also include any communications with any City Hall offices about such communications with the BPL including, not by way of limitation, any communications with First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris and her staff.
FOIL REQUEST MADE OF NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION (9/25/2014)
I hereby request the following pursuant to the freedom of information law.

Please furnish all communications of DDC with the Brooklyn Public Library about the condition of the Brooklyn Heights Library and renovations thereto, including, not by way of limitation, the air conditioning system.

Please include communications describing the renovation of the library done approximately 1991/1992, including information about what new air conditioning was put in at that time and all information about asbestos removal and asbestos conditions at that time.  Please also furnish all communications to the BPL or any members of the public (or forwarded thereto) that the air conditioning equipment put in place around 1991/1992 was as delivered and installed perfectly operational.

Please furnish all the documentation exchanged with the BPL and with the public and elected officials that the air conditioning system was functioning well, (whether optimally or not) from 1996 to 1998.

Please furnish all the information about the new chiller units installed around or about June 2002 including all of the documentation that this installation was fully adequate and appropriate and upon which representations were made that a completely new cooling system was installed.  Please furnish all communications made to this effect to the public, elected representatives and other public officials, and as the case may be, the press.

Please furnish all communications to the DDC informing it that the BPL intended to repudiate the DDC's many prior assessments of the air conditioning system design adequacy.

Please furnish all communications which the DDC was included in about the BPL real estate plan, real estate strategy (including any actual or tentative predecessor plans), "The Revson Study," the work of Karen Backus and Associates and the community needs assessment ultimately done by the Ivy Group.

Please furnish all communications with Performance Mechanical Corporation hired by the BPL for all its HVAC needs and al information with the BPL about Performance Mechanical Corporation.

Please also include any communications with any City Hall offices about such communications respecting BPL libraries or matters including, not by way of limitation, any communications with First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris and her staff.