ATTACHMENT 2

Excerpt from April 10, 2006 Meeting

13a(5).    Council Member Greene regarding a Request for Council Guidance on Naming Rights Policy.

Council Member Greene said the Naming Committee had been working to respond to a request from the Library Foundation on the concept of naming rights to help fund collection improvements recommended in the 2003 Library Services Master Plan.  She said they had looked at the existing naming policy and realized that it did not apply to this situation.

Council Member Greene said this would be a threshold the Council would be crossing as an official policy.  She said the Committee was seeking guidance from the Council because there were policy issues to weigh in choosing to allow naming rights through fundraising. Council Member Greene added she did not believe it could be settled tonight, but she wanted to begin the conversation.

Mayor Foy remarked he had not thought through a policy.  He said regarding the Library he did not have a problem with naming rights but did have a problem with how it was displayed. Mayor Foy said if the Council wanted to do this then there had to be specific guidelines.  For example, he said, those guidelines might be a room could not be named “The Jim Jones Room” with a big sign placed on it.  Mayor Foy said a room might be named for someone with a small plaque placed in the Library or in the corner of the room.

Mayor Foy said he saw the benefit of having people participate in funding for the Library, and if this was a way that would help raise money then he did not object.  He said he did object to standards that he did not think lived up to the public nature of the building. Mayor Foy said while he understood the ability of private gifts and the ability for someone to attach their name to a public facility, that action crossed a certain line.  He said he did not want to cross far over and the entire Library be named for someone.

Council Member Greene said the Library Foundation recognized that there was a line, and had indicated they did not want to rename the entire Library.

Mayor Foy said then the first line was whether or not to do it at all.  He said he was not willing to cross that line, but would draw a line somewhere else.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said the way it was proposed it appeared to be open to name conference rooms, collections, or other items without limitation as to whether it was named for a person.  He said he would be very much against a policy that allowed a corporate entity to purchase naming rights for a room or even a brick.  Council Member Kleinschmidt said he did not think a public facility was an appropriate billboard for a for-profit business.  He stated that it appeared that could be contemplated given the materials provided to the Council, and that would be an absolute no for him.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said other areas where he was less absolute about but leaned towards no was naming something for people who were large donors.  He said they see spaces dedicated and they know that the person bought the dedication.  Council Member Kleinschmidt said that was not the same, for instance, as naming the Post Office Plaza in honor of someone, because the community would be doing it to honor that person or persons.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said when you walk through a facility and see rooms or books or chairs purchased by someone, he believed that sent an undemocratic message that you could purchase a facility that was supposed to be owned by a community.  He said that struck him as wrong.  Council Member Kleinschmidt said he was as solid in his objection to that as he was to the corporate entity idea.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said he had a problem with someone being able to purchase the honor.  He said the discussion earlier tonight regarding the Post Office Plaza was a discussion of the entire community embracing the memory and honoring the Straley’s and Charlotte Adams and the gifts they had given to the community.  Council Member Kleinschmidt said allowing someone to purchase that honor was a stark contrast.

Council Member Harrison quoted a paragraph from page four of the Library Foundations letter to the Council: “It would be premature for the Foundation to present a “naming rights plan” to the Town Council at this point because the floor plan for the building expansion has not yet been designed.  Also, we recognize that the Town Council may want to use some spaces within the Library to honor community members who do not have the resources to purchase naming rights.”

Council Member Harrison said that paragraph was admitting that there was some possibility of the scenario posed by Council Member Kleinschmidt.  Council Member Kleinschmidt agreed that was what the language implied.

Council Member Hill said he had never seen a situation where this sort of policy had been adopted and he had thought it was an improvement to have a personal or corporate name on a facility.  He said they might do much better just selling small plaques and having a “donor wall” for them, rather than selling naming rights to rooms or other things.  Council Member Hill said this was the Library, and if someone wanted to contribute to it only if something was named for them, then he did not have much sympathy for that.  He said those were his personal opinions, and basically he was opposed to it.

Council Member Ward said it was his understanding that the Library Foundation’s petition was not descriptive of what they needed.  He said they came to the Council to discover if any tools lay in this area that might assist them while they were attempting to raise money to assist the community.  Council Member Ward said they were asking for guidance regarding accepting donations from individuals or a corporation and recognizing them in some physical way.  He said the Library Foundation indicated they would be able to raise more money if they had such a tool.

Council Member Ward said he wanted to make it clear that they were not being at all dogmatic about what they end up allowing, if anything.  He said he was ambivalent in that he could see both sides of the issue, and realized the benefit of television programs when at the end they scroll through a list of contributors that allowed him to see a program that he presumably may not see as many of or at all.  Council Member Ward said on the other hand he did not want to sell the Town or the Library to a commercial for-profit organization that may or may not in some future time have their name besmirched in such a way as to cause embarrassment for the Town.  He said this topic deserved conversation beyond this evening.

Council Member Greene thanked Council Member Hill for expressing the Library Foundation’s position on this, which she believed was entirely right and reasonable.  She said they all want the Library to succeed, noting it was not a question of the Foundation raising funds but of how much they could raise.

Council Member Greene said for her that was squarely a policy issue.  She said it was the difference between what they could raise the old fashion way, and what they could raise if donors knew they would have their name on something.  Council Member Greene said the question was, is that difference large enough to cross that threshold?  She said, even if it was names on small plaques, it opened the door to other kinds of larger naming rights.  Council Member Greene said they could all look at the University and see names on everything, but bear in mind that the amount of public money the University received compared to its total budget was less than 25 percent.  She said the University had already crossed all sorts of thresholds in terms of public/private interests, but to her the Library belonged to the public

Mayor Foy said he did not see how accepting private donations changed things.  For instance, he said, they already had the Love Trust which was private money that they used to help fund the Library.  Mayor Foy said he did not see what the problem was in acknowledging that.  He noted that Andrew Carnegie had given money for libraries all over the country in the last century, and there were many plaques honoring those gifts.  Mayor Foy said he did not believe that had besmirched those communities, rather it had opened up public libraries to be accessed by more people.

Mayor Foy said he could see where a plaque that said donations to fund the collection were received from the following individuals might be placed in the lobby or somewhere appropriate, and that might be as far as they want to go.  But, he said, he was not sure that the purity of not acknowledging private assistance was so clear.

Mayor pro tem Strom said he had not heard Council Member Kleinschmidt make a distinction between private individuals and corporations.

Mayor Foy said he agreed with Council Member Kleinschmidt in that he was not interested in corporations.

Council Member Hill said naming rights as opposed to donor recognition through a plaque were two different things and theoretically would be okay.

Council Member Greene responded if that was not a naming right, then she could possibly support that.

Council Member Hill commented that in the Ronald McDonald House there were many plaques recognizing contributions. Council Member Greene said she would not call that a fair comparison because the Town was not structured like Ronald McDonald House.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said he did not object to a plaque recognizing people who gave money at the entrance of the building, but did not think a particular item should carry a name.

Mayor Foy said you could also have a plaque in a room that said the room was made possible through a generous grant from someone.  Council Member Greene responded that was different from a generic plaque placed in the lobby that contained a list of donors.  Mayor Foy said he did not object to that.

Mayor pro tem Strom said there was a unique element to that.  He said the public had supported bonds and the funds were available to build the Library.  Mayor pro tem Strom stated this request was for books and other elements, so the request was you name a room for a donation but the donation went for materials for the Library.

Council Member Greene said she would be in favor of placing small labels in the front of books to acknowledge contributions.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said what Mayor pro tem Strom was saying was that this Library was brought to the Town by the people of Chapel Hill, not by an individual.

Mayor pro tem Strom said this request was to piggyback on the public investment.  It said it was not as if the building would not be there if they did not cross this threshold

Council Member Greene said that made it easier, because money was not being given for a room.  Mayor Foy asked, what if someone did give money for a room?  Council Member Greene said the request was for books.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said the facility was coming from the bond sale.  Mayor Foy said he would be happy to accept donations rather than issuing the bonds.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said he would go back to his original argument that it was undemocratic.  He said if you were so gracious as to give an amount of money that would allow the building of a room, he did not believe it was community-oriented to be able to say, “This is my room.”  Council Member Kleinschmidt said he found that offensive, because one would be giving money to the public for a public space, and could not own it.

Council Member Thorpe commented that the land for the Pritchard Park next to the Library was donated to the Town.  He said he would be against naming parts of the Library for people who were more financially well-off than others.  Council Member Thorpe said he agreed there was a difference between honoring individuals for their service to the community and allowing someone to purchase that right.

Mayor Foy suggested that the Naming Committee review the comments made tonight, and bring back to the Council options to consider.  He said one could be no, and one or two could be modifications of what to do.  Mayor Foy said that might include calling a public hearing