- WHO ARE WE?
- WHAT ARE WE DOING?
- WHY ARE WE SUING THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE?
- WHY THE BLASCO LIBRARY / WHY LIBRARIES?
- KOLP v Erie County Complaint
- Blasco Gannon Lease
- Erie County Documents Regarding the $1.5 Million Grant to Gannon
- Blasco Library Master Plan
- Library Fund Revenue Plan that shows the revenue for the copy machine is $25,000 per year, while the revenue for the lease is $22,956
- FAQ Printable Flyer
- Promises Flyer
- The Library is a House of Hope
- Denial of Motion for Summary Judgment
WHO ARE WE?
KEEP OUR LIBRARY PUBLIC.
We were originally dismissed as “four old ladies on the street corner.”
We are much more than that. KOLP members and supporters number in the thousands, spanning all ages, genders, incomes, backgrounds, and political affiliations. We live and pay taxes in municipalities throughout Erie County. We believe our elected officials should carry out their official duties openly, responsibly, and with reasonable input from their constituents—the residents and taxpayers of Erie County. We are average citizens. We are YOU.
WHAT ARE WE DOING?
We have filed a civil complaint against Erie County Executive Brenton Davis in the Court of Common Pleas of Erie County. We believe that Brenton Davis wrongly entered into a lease agreement with Gannon University, a private, tax-exempt institution, granting them access to substantial portions of the only public library located within the City of Erie—the Raymond M. Blasco Memorial Library. Our complaint contends that the lease is a violation of PA law, a violation of the Erie County Administrative Code, and is a breach of Mr. Davis’s fiduciary duties as Erie County Executive.
WHY ARE WE SUING THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE?
We believe that this lease agreement is NOT in the best interests of Erie County residents or taxpayers. Some of our points:
- The Blasco Library exists because of large, donated sums of money which came from many individuals and entities, including Dr. Raymond Blasco, for whom the building is named. Unlike other county departments, which serve residents almost completely through tax dollars, the Erie County Public Library, while also dependent on tax dollars, also exists and operates today in large part due to the generosity of donors and volunteers.
- As the main library of Erie County, the Blasco Library serves residents throughout Erie County, as well as libraries throughout Erie and Crawford Counties. A substantial number of residents use and depend upon the Blasco Library. We believe that any diminishment of the services and spaces within the Blasco Library likewise diminishes the community.
- The Blasco Library sits on property that was donated to the County to be nothing but a public library and an adjacent public historical museum. It was not given for the general use of the Erie County government.
- The Blasco Library was planned, located, financed, constructed, and ultimately dedicated to the County to be nothing but a public library.
- The Blasco Library property and building are held by the County as trustee, for the benefit of the public.
- Local government, by law, may not divert donated and dedicated property from a public use or convey it to a private party. This lease wrongly attempts to do so.
- This Lease will make it more difficult for the general public and ordinary taxpayers to access the first floor of the Blasco Library for the uses intended by the Library Master Plan, developed in consultation with the public.
- The Lease grants Gannon the right to use the “Leased premises” which area includes the exclusive and undisturbed use of approximately 3,280 square feet of first floor space and the shared use of the Idea Lab, classroom, garage bay, and all common areas in the building and around the property, giving substantial access of the Blasco Memorial Library to Gannon University.
- Mr. Davis should have used competitive bidding at the very least to fulfill his fiduciary responsibilities to all of us. Instead he entered into the Lease agreement term of 25 years with no rent adjustments. This was done without obtaining any other proposals, offers, and without any market value analysis.
- The rental amount arranged under the Lease does not come close to reaching the fair market value of the Leased Premises. In fact, the terms of the Lease are so disadvantageous to the County that it will lose money due to the Lease.
- The terms of the Lease are so favorable to Gannon that the annual amount of rent to be paid under the lease ($22,956) is less that half the amount charged by Gannon for the full-time undergraduate tuition and fees of a single student for the 2024-2025 school year.
- The $1,500,000 American Rescue Plan funds provided by the County to Gannon’s Project NePTWNE are, in fact, enough to pay for the entire 25-year Lease almost three times over. It is practically giving away public property to a private, non-taxpaying, religious affiliated institution.
WHY THE BLASCO LIBRARY / WHY LIBRARIES?
- The Blasco Library, within Bayview Commons, is arguably the best investment ever made by Erie County officials. According to the County website, is worth more than $28 million dollars. Undoubtedly it will be found to be worth considerably more than that when the countywide reassessment is completed. This is a public asset that continues to increase in value, even as it has led the way for all bayfront economic development over the past two decades and more.
- No other Erie County government building can be said to belong to “we the people” more than the Blasco Library. While Dr. Blasco’s gift and the donation of land from Penelec and the Port Authority were key to getting the library construction underway, it was the more than $2 million dollars raised throughout Erie County that brought the project across the finish line. Families, businesses and individuals gave willingly of themselves to make the Blasco Library a reality. Who would be willing to contribute to the next capital library project, knowing that any portion of it could be handed off to another entity without warning?
- As former Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper said, “Libraries are changing, and it is the obligation of Erie County government to continue to evolve the library for the needs of today and tomorrow.” That has been the direction and the goal of every library director and every county administration for the more than 25 years that the Blasco Library has existed.
- County leadership and vision prompted the Atlantic in 2016 to feature the Blasco Library in its pages as the “remarkable Public Library of Erie Pennsylvania.” The following year the Blasco Library Idea Lab, Media Lab, and Classroom were unveiled. The Blasco Library Teen Space was opened in 2019. After all of this progress, it is shocking to have a county administration now, only a few short years later, that seeks to give away valuable library space for what appears to be wholesale prices.
- According to the Erie County Administrative Code, the first responsibility of the Library Department is to “consider the entire spectrum of knowledge to be its purview. The Blasco Library needs to have the flexibility to meet this responsibility. A large part of the Blasco Library should not be given over to a private institution which is devoted so far only to rather undefined issues regarding Lake Erie. The mission and purpose of the Great Lakes Research Center, in the end, will never be the same as the depth of mission and purpose of the Blasco Library.
- Why public libraries, like the Blasco Memorial Library, in the first place? Because we know that a healthy and vibrant community, populated by strong individuals who share and reflect the same strengths and values, does not happen by chance. Nor does it happen in a bubble. “Education” is as much inspiration and motivation, as it is knowledge acquisition. It is lifelong, and is most effective when shared. That is what public libraries do best, and why they will continue to be needed.
- Finally, our elected leaders must begin by being good stewards of what belongs to all of us. Ultimately however, “leading” suggests a destination—not just a hand-off to a private institution that carries no mandate of accountability to citizens and taxpayers.
KOLP v Erie County Complaint
Blasco Gannon Lease
Erie County Documents Regarding the $1.5 Million Grant to Gannon
Blasco Library Master Plan
Shows that the computer lab was not moved downstairs due to COVID, but at the request of library users (aka taxpayers).
Keep Our Library Public! 
