Boise’s downtown library could be back on after city officials meet with ballot group
Boise’s city attorneys will meet with a lawyer for a citizens group to review the city’s new library ordinance that the group passed via a ballot measure last year, Mayor Lauren McLean says.
The city lawyers will work with Boise Working Together lawyer Brian Ertz to work out the specific intentions of the ordinance, McLean said Thursday in an interview.
The ordinance, which won overwhelming support from Boise voters, requires a future citywide election on library projects that cost $25 million or more. Its passage halted city plans for a proposed $100 million replacement for the main downtown library.
The measure passed, and so became city law, despite city lawyers’ concerns that the ordinance would be so restrictive that it could prevent the city from doing any work on a proposed new main library without a citizen vote.
David Klinger, spokesman for Boise Working Together, says it is not.
“If there are aspects regarding the legal nature of our ordinance, it’s entirely appropriate for it to be hashed out among the attorneys,” Klinger said by phone. “We’re looking forward to having that conversation.”
McLean met with several library stakeholder groups Thursday and with the Boise Public Library’s Board of Trustees. She said the conversation between attorneys would be an important part of making sure the city can still come up with an improved library at some point.
She said the City Council may need to amend the ordinance to make sure city staff members can work on the library.
“I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to come up with a way to move forward,” she told the board.
Margo Healy, president of the library’s Board of Trustees, said it is important to find a solution for the main library because at some point, the current main library building will become too expensive to maintain.
“There’s tension there,” she said. “How long can we stay here at a reasonable cost before we make that move to a new library building?”
The library ordinance is one of two that voters passed in November after Boise Working Together proposed them. The second one requires a vote on sports stadium projects that would cost $5 million or more. That measure’s passage, and McLean’s defeat in November of Mayor David Bieter, who championed it, led the Georgia-based stadium developer to drop plans to build the stadium in Boise.
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 5:24 PM.
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