The Missouri River Regional Library did everything wrong in its campaign to raise taxes for building a third floor, a frequent patron said.
In fact, Melody Lawson said the library should sue whoever advised the institution during its campaign efforts. She said she frequently volunteered for the school district she used to live in and was heavily involved in its campaigns to raise taxes.
The library held the first of three listening sessions Tuesday evening in its gallery space in the hopes of receiving feedback from community members on expanding library service, as well as the August election that would have raised its tax levy for building a third floor. Voters in the Cole County’s library district voted down the measure by a wide margin.
Some of the mistakes the library made during the special election that Lawson summarized included the fact that some residents will just vote against any proposition involving taxes, and that casual “yes” voters are less likely to go to the polls in a special election.
But August elections have worked for other libraries in Missouri before, Assistant Director of Marketing and Development Natalie Newville said.
“I don’t think we picked the wrong time,” she said.
The library should have publicized the tax levy differently, Lawson said. It should have promoted the levy increase at least once a month on every mass media platform in Cole County, such as radio talk shows and TV stations, and especially right before the election.
She also found fault with other campaign materials from the library. For example, she said the design graphics made the renovated building look too much like a completely new building. The library should have focused more on telling voters the exact amount their taxes would go up, she said.
Another point Lawson made was that the library did not offer enough perks to voters outside Jefferson City during the campaign. The facility needs to “offer something to everybody” throughout the county, Lawson said, even if it is just “a little kiosk at the mall.”
Lawson suggested holding an election during a presidential or gubernatorial election year to increase “yes” votes. Furthermore, packaging a tax levy increase as a bond issue may attract more supporters. She explained that was because when such an issue expires in a few decades, most of the voters who voted for the original tax rise will have died or moved away.
“That type of a plan would have been better to sell to the public,” Lawson said. “People like to believe that (a tax) is going to end.”
She would like to see the library mail out its informational material to every household in the Cole County library district. She did not think many people would seek out facts about the library or its plans online or through other means, she said.
During this event, local residents, library board and staff members talked about parking issues as well. Lawson suggested turning the basement into an underground garage. But another library user, Janet Roark, said she could usually find parking when she visited the library during the day.
Roark shared that some of her relatives did not support the levy increase because the tax hike did not contain a sunset clause. Meanwhile, she said, some other people were not users of the library and were thus uninterested in it.
The library can attract a larger variety of people to use the facility by hosting different events, such as meetings for scouts or even a UFO club, Lawson said.
The next two listening sessions will take place from 2-4 p.m. Oct. 18 and from 9-11 a.m. Oct. 30. The library is holding all the events this month because the library board has only met twice since the election.
In the meantime, the facility’s maintenance department has been collecting bids from construction company to see what critical issues the library can afford to address, Newville said.
“We’ll just take all the feedback that the community is giving us and take it to the board,” Newville said. “It’s always good to have people come in and give their opinions.”