Video interviews with the candidates appear below.
Library board elections have not been a high priority for us in the past — but this time around, there’s a good reason for all of us to be paying closer attention. Our Editorial board remains disappointed in the process surrounding the demise of the Robal Road location for the Central Library, and the delay this has caused in construction of a Central Library in general. However, after conducting interviews for library board members, we are now deeply concerned that even the new proposed Stevens Ranch location is threatened. Surprisingly, this library board election really matters.
Candidate Ray Miao told us during a recent endorsement interview that he believes we, the voters, didn’t know what we were voting for when, in 2020, we voted in favor of designing and constructing a new Central Library location, along with building a new Redmond library and renovating the libraries in Sunriver, La Pine, Sisters and downtown Bend. We think voters are smarter than they’re getting credit for.
To recap, the language of the last bond, in regards to a Central Library, read, “the bond funds would pay for the design and construction of a Central Library that would provide a discovery center for children to learn and play; substantial space for an expanded book and materials collection; flexible community and small-business spaces for learning, creativity, and collaboration; space for larger programs and events; and an efficient book/material processing and distribution center to serve all of the libraries in Deschutes County…”
Over 63,000 people in Deschutes County voted in favor of that vision, but Miao, along with library board candidate Tony Oliver, have an alternative — an unfunded notion of community libraries; small libraries dotted around every corner of Central Oregon. The notion of community libraries that everyone can access on foot or by bike is a decent one on its face – but there are two major considerations to remember that make it not appropriate to this present circumstance: money, and the will of the people.
While they sound nice, this district does not have the funds to fulfill such a vision. Building a brick-and-mortar in every corner of every town is expensive – expensive both to build and expensive to maintain, and places that have done it are now closing down branches. The Deschutes Library Board of yore contemplated such a model and then did extensive research that revealed it was not the ideal model. The majority of that board voted in favor of a different model to put forward for the 2020 bond. This was after a period of six-plus years of community input and visioning.
The second consideration: the public voted for the vision of a Central Library. Miao, who stood fast for that community-library model, lost when this went up for a vote among the board. Surprisingly, this fuzzy vision of smaller libraries is still threatening the success of the Central Library project.
An elected official who doesn’t respect the will of the voters and hopes to subvert that majority. Does this sound familiar? It’s the same type of behavior we’re seeing on a national level. Voters should reject it.
In this election cycle, voters will need to be vigilant. Thus far, those opposed to a majority-vote for the last library bond have been quite successful in creating chaos for this process. Candidate Oliver, who’s running against incumbent Cynthia Claridge, expressed a fear that there’s not enough money from the bond to complete the current projects on the bond list. That’s false. The projects remain on budget. Oliver said she supports community libraries in Redmond, but construction is already underway on Redmond’s new library, and any further construction of more libraries would need to come by asking voters to fund more bonds.
Members of the Bend City Council rejected the Central Library’s first proposed location, citing the need for an Area Plan for that site on the north end of town. That location on Robal Road is now the site of much construction activity, thanks to the transportation bond that passed during the same election cycle. It would have been an area ripe for a Central Library.
Due to present circumstances, the library has, wisely, retained that Robal Road plot, but now endeavors to build the Central Library that voters supported on the east side of Bend, at Stevens Ranch. There’s a time for deliberation and for the various stakeholders in a project to weigh in and to gather information before moving forward. That time, when it comes to the Deschutes Library bond, was well ahead of the 2020 vote.
We’re guessing that if Miao wins this election by 50.0001%, he’ll find himself respecting the will of the majority and persisting in his position on the library board. Similarly, he and other community members who are continuing to pursue a misguided and unfunded mission of changing the scope of the bond should respect democracy, humble themselves and move forward implementing what the people voted for in 2020.
During the May election, voters should support Marisa Chappell Hossick (Zone 4) and Cynthia Claridge (Zone 1) for Deschutes Public Library District. Both candidates support the vision already set forth, and thus respect the will of the majority.
Watch our interviews with these candidates
Marisa Chappell Hossick, Ray Miao (Zone 4) & Cynthia Claridge (Zone 1):
Tony Oliver (Zone 1):
This article appears in Source Weekly April 13, 2023.
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I did vote for the bond. But I did not vote for the closing of the East Bend Library or a new un-central main library at either Robal or Stevens Ranch.. I have concluded that I made a mistake. So I’ll vote the opposite of your recommendation.
Mickey Finn: Where did you think the Central Library would be sited when you voted? What land is available that would have been more central to all of Deschutes County residents than Robal? Genuinely curious what the practical alternatives are in your mind.
Voted for the bond on the hope that a north end location would be established. Ray’s model is more efficient for the community at large. He is much more accurate in his approach for ease of usage and accessibility for the entire population.
From the Library today:
April 13, 2023 (Bend, OR) — With construction or remodeling underway at several Deschutes Public Library locations, members of the Library Board recently discussed the status of East Bend Library, reaffirming their commitment to keeping the location open through at least the end of 2026.
“The East Bend Library is beloved by both the community and our staff,” said Library Board President Ann Malkin following the Board’s April 12 meeting. “It’s different from our other locations in that it is the only Deschutes Public Library in a building not owned by the library district, which means we periodically have to renegotiate our lease. Today, we were happy to reaffirm our commitment to the East Bend location.”
Malkin said that the current lease for the space is up on December 31, 2025, but that the library would like to extend the agreement through at least the end of 2026, when remodeling is expected to be complete on the Downtown Bend Library.
“We’ve renegotiated the lease on that space every five years since it opened in 2011,” said Malkin. “It’s a familiar process. Once remodeling is complete in Downtown Bend, we can then look at usage patterns across all library locations in Bend—Downtown Bend, East Bend, and the planned Stevens Ranch location—and make a data-based decision to determine our next steps in lease negotiation.”
As laid out in the 2020 bond summary, bond funds are being used to modernize and upgrade the East Bend Library as well as the Downtown Bend, La Pine, Sisters, and Sunriver Libraries. A new library is currently under construction in Redmond, while planning is well underway for a new library to be located at Stevens Ranch in east Bend.
The East Bend Library first opened its doors in 2011, making it the newest addition to the Deschutes Public Library System. The library is located at 62080 Dean Swift Road in Bend near The Forum shopping center off Highway 20. The East Bend Library is housed in a rented 8,000-square-foot storefront and offers access to books and movies, as well as public computers, a community meeting room, and an interactive play space for children.
Thank you for bringing awareness and providing this perspective,
I have to take issue–as I seldom do–with a Source editorial. I think my feelings about Ray Miao stem from his utterly generous, kind, public-spirited demeanor. He was an invaluable advisor to the small group of us who sought to protect Troy Field and keep it from being sold to a land speculator–and possible development into a hotel. I do support his vision for neighborhood libraries and feel that the bond measure was disingenuous in that it did not reveal to the voters that the property selected for the central library would not be immediately buildable. I am a little nervous to think that this editorial seems to be a swipe against Ray, personally, with very little mentioned about his opponents, other that they support the will of the majority, which in this case was only 52%–i.e., thousands of voters actually did vote to support a less structurally monumental way to provide library services. We need independent thinkers on our elected governing bodies, not single-minded team players obsessed with unanimity. This said, I promise I will continue to appreciate and support the Source for the many well-reasoned, courageous editorials still to come.
Foster: We hold no ill will against Ray; we just take issue with someone unable to move forward after a board vote. That’s not “single-minded team players obsessed with unanimity,” it’s called the majority position. The board voted for this course knowing that the Bend Planning Commission thought the original Robal location would be viable. Only when it went before the Bend City Council — to which your spouse belongs — did it get shut down, mystifying many. Typically the Council follows the staff/committee recommendations… but they didn’t here, and now we see lots of development in that area, with no library underway. We don’t take issue with Ray personally; we are calling out the behaviors that led us, the whole public, to see nothing accomplished in two years except for talk of a bunch of “alternatives” that the library board did not vote for. I fully respect your support and your ongoing dialogue with us, but we’re going to have to agree to disagree here.
Agreed, the City Council denial of the Robal Road location was…mystifying. As is the ongoing campaign to change the scope of library projects. Perhaps clues can be found in a recent Guest Editorial in The Bulletin.
That writer questions the will of the voters two years after Deschutes County residents reviewed the Library Board’s plans, studied the $195m bond and said “yes” to to a new Central Library and Branch Library upgrades. He argues that voters were mislead, that the Central Library – now planned for Stevens Ranch – is too big, too flawed and too far away. He deems that a book warehouse on the Eastside is sufficient, “Leaving funds,” he says, “for future system expansion.”
Expansion? Where?
He doesn’t say. Maybe he – and others – are thinking of the Bend Central District (BCD), where development lags despite its many cheerleaders, public investments and special tax incentives. Downscale the Central Library to central warehouse and might leftover bond funds be available to goose BCD development? Perhaps a library is desired there, but the type, as the writer imagines, “without stacks…freeing up space for other uses – community meeting rooms, technology centers…cultural events.” Is this enticement part of the call for “a new library board majority and a fresh look at the plan?” No sé.
But the dogged campaign to reorient the $195m bond feels like Round 2 of Thwart the Library, keeping it up in the air until it lands right where we* want it. Never mind how the majority of Library Board members voted, what the majority of Deschutes County voters wanted, and whose money it is.