Nancy Adams Shares Success Tips of Successful Whitehall Township Referendum
In April of 2011, the Whitehall Township Library heard that the school district, which had been supplying 75% of the library's funding since 1971, would no longer be able to continue doing so. This would mean a loss of $430,000 from an operating budget of $575,000. Funding was scheduled to end by June 2012. Whitehall Township, located in Lehigh County, has a service population of 25,000 and is comprised of the Whitehall Township and Coplay Borough. Losing that percentage of income could mean closing the library.
Library Director Nancy Adams, in her position at Whitehall Township since 1998, says that the school district proposed that the library seek a referendum. Adams said that everyone was cautiously optimistic in public but quietly very worried. “We knew that losing the referendum would assuredly close the library, as the loss of three-quarters of its income could not easily be replaced.”
After months of negotiation, the school district agreed to be the taxing authority, accepted the library’s petitions and, on August 8, passed the needed resolution to put the referendum on the November 8 ballot. Time was ticking. Planning for the referendum was started in September and the campaign officially opened the beginning of October.
Making it Possible
Adams said that the County Board of Elections advised them to form apolitical committee (PAC) to raise and expend campaign-specific funds. Two local businessmen agreed to be the committee’s president and treasurer. (The Chairman of the Referendum Committee was the immediate past president of their Board of Trustees).
“We did not use a consultant, although we ‘consulted’ many people at libraries that had successfully won referenda,” Adams explained.“We are particularly indebted to personnel from the J. Lewis Crozer Library in Chester, Parkland Community Library in Allentown, and the libraries of Monroe County for their willingness to share stories and to give advice. The folks at Commonwealth Libraries and PaLA were endlessly supportive.”
“We did hire both an attorney and a public relations person,” Adams added.“The library paid for the former, who advised us until the referendum was accepted for the ballot. The latter designed our campaign brochure and website, an expense well worth the money that the political committee paid her.”
Getting the Message Out
“Because of the ambiguity of the restrictions on 501 (c)(3) organizations for ‘influencing the outcome’ of political campaigns, we avoided having paid staff discuss referendum issues with patrons. The brochure and website did the job of ensuring that the library’s whole story was consistently communicated.”
“We also listened to veterans of other political campaigns,” Adams explained. “They said we needed to ‘touch’ voters three times before the election to ensure that they were well informed about our issues.”
They chose the following means to reach everyone:
their brochure, a website at letters to the editor from patrons in two localnewspapers, a quarter page newspaper ad, postcards to the super voters, lawn signs, bookmarks and campaign ribbons for distribution at community events.
“To our delight,” Adams remarks, “both local newspapers (The Morning Call and Whitehall-Coplay Press) plus Channel 69 News took a real interest in our plight and featured us on several occasions.”
Adams said “Naturally, our Board of Trustees, Friends of the Library, and staff members formed our original advocacy groups, and none of them needed much coaxing. The 25 petition circulators, many of them older patrons who were recruited for that one activity alone, stayed with us through the campaign and worked as volunteers at the polls on Election Day as well. Our patrons themselves, while not organized in any official way,talked about the library’s grave situation among friends and acquaintances in the community. The Whitehall Area Chamber of Commerce was also supportive.”
An Off Year Election Helps
“According to everyone we consulted, who knew anything about elections, our best chance of passage was to put the referendum on the ballot in an off year election, preferably a primary, when there would be a minimum number of voters,” Adams said. “We learned of our problem too late to make the May primary, but the November 2011 was considered to be almost as favorable for our purposes.”
“Without question, the commitment of the Whitehall Township citizens, who didn’t want to lose their public library, was the key to our success. They came out in large numbers specifically to vote in favor of the library tax, and several said they returned early from vacations to do so.
The fact that everyone connected with the library steadfastly refused to blame the school district for withdrawing its funding was probably also critical. We feared that some voters might say “no” to the referendum in a misguided attempt to spite the school district.
Victory
“Our initial Election Day victory was reported in the newspaper as 72% to 28%,” Adams explains.“When the official certified results came out, a reporting number transposition changed that to 61% to 39%. The larger plurality was more dramatic, but the certified number is still a significant win.”
“Winning the referendum means we can replace the school district’s annual support with the library tax dollars. The remaining 25% of the annual budget income will still need to be raised in the usual ways, and fundraising will remain a challenge for the future as our needs grow.
Encouragement for Others
Adams said that “Ideally the invaluable services your public library provides to its community are all the justification that should be needed to acquire support. Remind the voting public at every opportunity about those services and the return on investment that they represent.”
She advises that “If you have the luxury of some extra time before your formal campaign must begin, amp up your publicity to showcase what you offer (without any mention of a pending referendum or shortage of funds); an extra year ahead of time would be ideal. Regardless of how successfully we serve our public, there are still many people whom we never touch. Those people need to know about us, and many of them are the ones who “love libraries” in the abstract. They just might be the surprise “yes” voters, who realize that a community without a public library is somehow a lesser place to live.”
More tips from Adams include:
Adams suggests that those considering a referendum make use of their local Board of Elections personnel, who can help shepherd you through the process. “Your local municipal officials and state representatives need to be informed about your situation, so that they can intelligently answer questions from their constituents.” She says that in the months before the campaign formally beginthat they made a “big deal of encouraging voter registration with no mention of the possibility of an upcoming referendum. In August we jumped into the Facebook pool just to reach another segment of the population with our information about library services (again, no political agenda in evidence). Also as part of the independent website that the PAC sponsored, there was an email address for folks' questions, offers of volunteer time, or donations. The Chairman of the Referendum Committee received and answered these emails.”
Adams wishes the best to any library facing the need for a dedicated tax referendum and is happy to pass along any tips they picked up along the way.