Les Gehrett Albany Democrat-Herald | Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 10:00 pm
SWEET HOME - A third attempt to renew the operating levy for the Sweet Home library appears to have again fallen short.
Sweet Home City Manager Craig Martin said that for several years the library has been funded exclusively by the levy.
"We're going to be looking at some sort of shutdown and disruption of service. At this point, I don't know for how long," Martin said.
The current library levy expires on June 30, but Martin said the closure could take place earlier in order to balance the library's budget for the year.
While some ballots are still expected to come in from other counties, the tally of votes on hand shows a turnout in Sweet Home of 48.15 percent. Under state law, a 50 percent turnout was required in order for the measure to be approved.
Linn County Clerk Steve Druckenmiller said this morning that 1,656 of the 3,439 eligible voters took part in the election.
The measure received 1,059 yes votes to 560 no. Additional ballots were cast without a vote on that question.
An election update in Tuesday's Democrat-Herald overstated the number of eligible voters in the district and the number of votes received.
Martin said the library issue will be on the city council's agenda on Tuesday, but there is no contingency plan in place to operate the library without the levy. He said there will be a discussion of whether to try again after three successive failures on the measure. The next possible election date is in September.
Last November, the library levy was defeated in the popular vote. The city tried again in March and the measure won but did not get a 50 percent turnout.
Martin said the question is what these elections mean. What is the will of the people in an election where a measure passes with 65 percent support, but participation falls just shy of the required mark?
"Is not voting actively participating? I would say it isn't, but those are the rules we are operating with," Martin said.
Druckenmiller said he has always questioned the so-called double majority requirement, but his dislike for it is growing.
"Why should a small percentage that doesn't participate invalidate something?" Druckenmiller said.
Martin said that prior to the election, the district worked with the County Clerk's Office to review the voter lists as much as is possible. During the election, voters whose ballots were returned to the clerk's office as undeliverable were also placed in an inactive category and subtracted from the current list of eligible voters.
As a result, Martin didn't think that much could be done now to further pare the rolls in order to reach the 50 percent mark.