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2003
November 19
Mr. Ellsworth Brown, President
Carnegie Library of
Re: Requests under terms of the
Dear Ellsworth:
With this letter, I would
like to make three requests. The first is a general request. The second and
third requests are made under the terms
of the
The Pennsylvania Code provides that public libraries may receive
public funding from the
Title 22 of the
“(C) The library shall be an
integral part of general local government.”
In the case of The Carnegie
Library of Pittsburgh, this requirement
was satisfied on 1890 February 25 with the enactment into law, by the City of
Such designated “agencies” of
municipal government are required to abide by all aspects of the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law [Act of
June 21, 1957, P.L. 390, No. 212, 60 P.S. 66.1 et seq., as amended] and the
This interpretation of State
law is affirmed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Office of Commonwealth
Libraries, in their book A Handbook For
Public Library Trustees, Fourth Edition, March 1993 (Reprinted September
1998), Page 38:
“The Sunshine Law
The Pennsylvania law on open meetings (the so-called
“Sunshine Law”), Act 84 of 1986, requires public libraries which have been
designated by municipalities as their agencies to make meetings of the boards
of directors open to the public. Meeting notices must be advertised in the
newspaper at least three days prior to the meeting and also posted at the
principal office of the agency or wherever the meeting will take place.”
Mr. Ellsworth Brown 2003 November 19 Page 2 of 2
Respectfully, the following
are my requests:
1)
In both the
neighborhood meeting of September 9, and the
Pittsburgh City Council public
hearing of November 5, the majority of attendees opposed the abandonment, by
The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, of the
historic Hazelwood Library building
and the movement of the library branch to another building three blocks away. Due
to the importance of a decision to abandon an original, Andrew Carnegie-built
library building, and move a library to a different location, I would like to
arrange a meeting between you and several residents of the Hazelwood
neighborhood, to discuss the proposal of abandoning the
historic Hazelwood
Branch Library building and moving the library to a new location.
2)
The second request is made under
the terms of the
of
article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on September 22, Carnegie Library
Director Herb
Elish indicated that the decision,
regarding the proposed library move, would be made by the
Carnegie Library Board of Trustees. If
the Board of Trustees has officially rendered a
decision on this matter, and the lease
for the proposed new library site has been executed (as
reported in the November 5 issue of the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), then please
send me a copy
of the minutes of the Board meeting
where the decision was rendered and
a copy of the
executed lease agreement.
Please note that the
Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law
was amended in 2002 June by the
3)
The third request
is made under the terms of the
I
will look forward to your prompt reply.
Sincerely
yours,
Glenn
A. Walsh
gaw
Copy: Members, Council of the City of
Tom Murphy, Mayor, City of
Tom Flaherty, City Controller, City
of
Members, Board of Directors,
Allegheny Regional Asset District
David Donahoe, Executive Director,
Allegheny Regional Asset District
Senator Jim Ferlo, Pennsylvania
General Assembly
News Media in
Supporters of the Historic Hazelwood
Branch Library
