Summary:
Ann was interviewed by Brenda Hepler on November 5, 2008. As the City of Lafayette’s Community Development Director, she was closely involved with the Library Project from 2001 onward. She played a major role in the selection and acquisition of the building site, the selection of the architect, creation of the consortium, development of the grant proposal, winning of the grant, and also in fundraising. Ann says that the way the community came together to create its new library shows that Lafayette is a very special place.
Oral History:
Brenda Hepler: One, two, three. Testing, one, two, three. This is the interview of Ann Meredith by Brenda Hepler on November 5, 2008. Stay in keeping with the traditional opening question of every meeting. What are your first best childhood memories of libraries?
Ann Meredith: It would be going to the Beverly Hills Library with my mother after school and picking out books. And I remember it because it was in the Beverly Hills City Hall, which is an historic building. And going there, picking out books, going home. That’s my first memory.
BH: Okay, great. And how important was reading to you growing up?
AM: Very important. My whole family’s a reader. We have, as long as I can remember, there’s all those books all over the house. My father was a nonstop reader, and my mother read a lot. My mother was a teacher, so an elementary school teacher. So it was just part of our household.
BH: And then where did you grow up then? In Beverly Hills, was it?
AM: Beverly Hills.
BH: Yes, okay. And what awareness of community do you have growing up?
AM: Well, my father was an employee of Los Angeles County, and my mother worked for L.A. City Schools. So kind of the concept of working for the community as part of the family.
BH: Any particular memories of community involvement?
AM: I’m trying to think. Well, we lived in a really close-knit neighborhood, and everybody looked out for each other. People had lived there a long time. So I think that was probably the most important memory, at least the early memory.
BH: Up close and personal.
AM: Yeah.
BH: And your education? Where did you go?
AM: I got a Bachelor of Arts in Art from UCLA, and a Master’s of Arts in Architecture and Planning from UCLA.
BH: Oh, okay. And your work experiences from, let’s say, the time you finished college and got your Master’s to today.
AM: I actually had one job that’s relevant. I was in high school. Actually, my very first paid job was, I was a library aide.
BH: Oh, oh. Sorry, just skip that.
AM: That’s okay. At the West Hollywood Library. And then after, in between undergraduate and graduate school, I was a school teacher. I taught art. And then after that, I worked pretty much, I came, as soon as I got my Master’s, I moved up here, and I started working pretty fast for the city of San Leandro. I was the city’s graphic artist. And I was there five years, and then I went to Vallejo, the city of Vallejo, and I was there for 20 years. And then I’ve been in Lafayette for seven.
BH: And what is your role exactly with the city of Lafayette? Let’s kind of get that into the interview, but you’re…
AM: Well, my title is Community Development Director.
BH: Community Development Director. Okay.
AM: And as the City Manager says, that’s pretty much everything outside except police and parks. So it’s public works, which is maintaining streets and trees and the medians. It’s engineering, which does the roads and any kind of physical improvements, and planning, who does all the development in terms of new houses, new stores, that kind of thing. And then I, but most of my time is spent on special projects, like the Library.
BH: Any other special projects besides the Library?
AM: The downtown planning process. I’m doing all the environmental work in terms of sustainability, greenhouse gas emissions.
BH: Great. I do see those. That sounds like you have a full plate. What attracted you to Lafayette, as far as wanting to work in Lafayette? Was there anything particular about when this job came up? What attracted you to it?
AM: Well, I’d been in Vallejo for a long time, and we just happened to move to Lafayette. And so soon, about three months after we moved to Lafayette, this job opened up. And since I was ready to leave Vallejo, and this job was advertised, and I’d never worked for the city I lived in. So I tried, and I got it. It’s been interesting.
BH: And so why did you choose Lafayette to live?
AM: Schools.
BH: Schools. And how many kids do you have?
AM: One.
BH: One. And so how old, what boy or girl?
AM: A girl. She went to, we lived in Walnut Creek before, and she went to Seven Hills through middle school. And then a lot of the kids from her middle school class were going to Acalanes.
BH: I see.
AM: So we had to move into the district.
BH: Yeah. So that’s when you moved here, and then when she finished…
AM: We moved back schools.
BH: Yeah. Defining the goals of the community as a place of mutual support, shared values, and acceptance of difference, and experiences you’ve had that may be one of those.
AM: I think the library, having what I’ve observed with this whole community effort for the Library, well, it hasn’t involved everybody. It’s really involved a huge segment of the community. Kids and older people, and families, and single people. And it’s been, I think, remarkable that people have come together for that. I don’t know how many communities would do it to that extent. So I think Lafayette’s special in that way.
BH: Any personal experiences or stories related to this idea? Just examples?
AM: Well, I think it’s just, usually, you know, I work with a lot of volunteer groups, and this isn’t a criticism of volunteer groups, but, you know, people start out on a project very enthusiastic and gung-ho, and they’re going to spend all this time. But as the project goes along, people’s lives, you know, they have busy lives, and they drift off. And while they’re still committed, maybe emotionally to a project, they just don’t have the time. But this project, I’m always amazed that, you know, we have these meetings, and the same people show up faithfully and want to participate. And want to participate in the process, getting it built.
BH: Yes, it is amazing. So how long ago were you in any contact with the Lafayette Library? When would you say your first, your earliest memories of Lafayette Library? Was it when you started this job, or prior when you were leaving?
AM: That was when I started this job. And it was really, I don’t even think I had gone to the Library, because actually we lived closer to the Pleasant Hill Library. So I don’t think I even went to the Library here until Steve Falk, the city manager, talked about, this was 2001. You know, they’re looking for a site. So I got involved with site selection.
BH: Okay. And how do you feel a library serves a community? In what ways?
AM: Well, I think it’s a very special asset for a community. It’s free, and that means it’s available at no cost. It’s no cost to everybody. Books and information and all the resources that they have are available to everybody, no matter what their financial situation is. Maybe that’s not quite so true in Lafayette, but I think in general, a library and a community is just a great community asset for everybody, because it is free and available. And Lafayette is just a great resource for all ages. Supplements the good education that kids get here. And Lafayette’s demographic says there’s a lot of kids and there’s a lot of older people. And so it’s a wonderful asset for the older community as well.
BH: Big print. And let’s see. In your job, what do you see as the relationship between the city government and the Library? How do you see the two connecting, other than you are obviously in charge of the development of the Library? How else? What is the connection or relationship between a city government and a Library? The Library?
AM: Well, a lot of communities, the Library is part of the city organization. It’s like the police department, there’s a Library. Lafayette’s different than that. In fact, most of the communities in Contra Costa are different than that. They have the County system. But I think there’s always a very strong relationship in a community between the city government and the other public entities in the community. The schools, libraries, utilities, anybody else that’s providing public services to the community. There’s always a mutual respect, mutual coordination to ensure that, one, that all of us understand what the others are doing so that we can work together on the things, things, pool resources.
BH: Does the city have power to hire and fire people in the Library?
AM: No.
BH: No. Is that County Library’s role?
AM: That’s County Library.
BH: I see. So as far as this city, we don’t have that kind of power.
AM: No. Not now. In the new Library, it’s going to be a little bit different because we will have a City employee working at the Library.
BH: Oh, okay. And the role of this?
AM: That would be the Building Superintendent?
BH: The Building Superintendent?
AM: The Building Superintendent. The City will be, well, we own the building, but we’ll be maintaining it. And then the County Library will run the Library. And then the Library Foundation will run the programs.
BH: I see. Okay. Good. And let’s see. Any particular experiences you’ve had that you might like to share relative to this relationship between the City and the development of this Library? But how do you, I mean, have you particularly enjoyed your role in this capacity? I mean, I’m sure it’s been trying.
AM: No, I think this is a fascinating project. I’ve never, I’ve worked on a lot of very interesting projects, but never a Library like, particularly a Library like this. So I’ve enjoyed it very much. I’ve always been impressed with the Library staff, County Library staff, and Anne Cain, and Laura Donahue. And Laura Donahue, to Susan Weaver, and Miss Donna, and everybody that works over at the Library.
BH: Okay, great. Now, we worked here in ’62. So looking at the 2008 library, maybe call it 2009 library. You were here after the 19, you were not involved then with the 1996 study program. However, you were part of the vision task force. Is that correct?
AM: No.
BH: No. All right. So you came after the vision task force. And so you started in 2001. Is that correct?
AM: Yes.
BH: All right. So in 2001, what had been accomplished then when you got this job?
AM: Well, the Vision 2000 Task Force had done, there had been a site selection process. I think they were looking at 13 sites.
BH: Okay.
AM: I’m trying to remember now. And I think by the time I got involved, I think they had pretty well, they’d narrowed it down to three sites. And then it was really looking at those three sites. I really got involved with it.
BH: So how about, so in other words, you were there, came at the time, three sites were possibilities. Had the, there had been no architectural plans?
AM: No.
BH: At that point?
AM: No.
BH: No. Okay, good. So what do you think created the change from the limited number of people named as contributors to this larger group that came forward? What do you think might have made that spark?
AM: I mean, in terms of the-
BOTH: Development of the fundraising…
BH: And the people involved too?
AM: Well, I think there’s always been a very active core of people who have always seen this as a goal. Friends of Lafayette Library, obviously, and then the Lafayette Community Foundation, Anne Grodin, always had this as a goal. And then I think it was just, I think it was probably just a group of people that saw that this could happen. And once the site was selected, and then it just, then we, I remember the sequence, the site was selected, and then the architect was selected through a competition. And I think that competition got a lot of people excited, because we had the four finalists, and people went to the Veterans, the old Veterans Building to look at it. We had a thousand people come through. So I think that really got people to the point that this, yeah, this really is going to happen. And then the next big one was the winning the state grant.
BH: Were you in Sacramento at that?
AM: Yes.
BH: So what were some of the feelings you had up in Sacramento relative, you know, here we are, Little Lafayette, and all these other people trying?
AM: Oh, it was an interesting experience, because I had, I was in charge of putting the grant together. And it turned out that, you know, that we really only had, we’d hired a consultant to do the work, but the work was just not very good. And so finally, I took it over. And it was, I remember it was right over Christmas, because we, it was due in the first part of January. So…
BH: What year was this due?
AM: It would have been 2003. And it was due in January 2004. And so all the activity leading up to it, in terms of getting the architects selected, the plans done up, and the City Council decided pretty much at the last minute to go ahead and try for it, because nobody thought we’d get it. And…
BH: Who were the people that thought it was worth growing?
AM: Well, Anne Grodin.
BH: Anne, yeah.
AM: Yeah. Yes, definitely. And so we thought we’d try, and I worked on it. I remember I was with my family, and we were down in San Diego, and I remember I was working on it. I was proofreading the application at Christmas, down south. And it just worked out. The application, we submitted it, and then we didn’t hear for a long time. And then we made it to the finals, and then that day in Sacramento. It was just a matter of, a lot of it was luck, but a lot of it was just, you know, we had a good proposal.
BH: Mm-hmm, yeah. And do you think the consortium had a part in…
AM: Oh, definitely. Yeah, the uniqueness of this.
BH: And what do you remember as far as how the idea of the consortium bubbled up?
AM: Well, if I can remember correctly, it was one of the, I forget what the name of the group at that time, it was Bob Fisher, mentioned that maybe he could get, I think it was JFK University, to participate in some programming. And then Roger Falcone, and then Roger Falcone, I’m not sure it was at that meeting, but he came up with the way we could get the Lawrence Hall of Science, and then it just grew from there.
BH: Yeah, it was inspirational.
AM: Yeah.
BH: So why is this new library important to you?
AM: Well, personally, it’s an exciting project. It’s an important public facility to the community. It’s going to be a great asset. It’s going to be beautiful. So, I mean, I’m proud of everything that’s happened so far. I hope, you know, when it’s all done, and we look back, but continue to be proud of it. I’m sure I will be.
BH: And of course, all right, so as part of your job, what role or roles have you played relative to the library itself? So you wrote the grant, or basically took on the final editing and all that at the grant. What else, what have been your other roles as far as the city development?
AM: Well, I was, I still am technically the project manager. But I took the, I did all the architectural, you know, taking to getting the design, the grant, just kind of going through the process of getting all the drawings. Once we got to the point of construction drawings, then it really, we handed it off to Tony Coe, our city engineer, and so he’s been handling the actual construction part.
BH: Oh, I see. Okay. How has your art background worked into this project? Do you see a major connection there?
AM: Well, obviously through the, helping out with the fundraising, doing the graphics, helping out with the graphics.
BH: Oh, I see. Oh, yeah. That’s right, the graphics.
AM: Mm-hmm. And then, just kind of a coincidence, the two architects, Barbara Flammang and Wade Killefer, they were going through architecture school at UCLA at the same time I was.
BH: Oh.
AM: And while we didn’t know each other, we remembered each other. So when I hadn’t seen them since, well, we all graduated from UCLA. So that was a coincidence.
BH: Yeah. What have you enjoyed the most in participating in this library development?
AM: I just see, I think just seeing that, just from trying to find a site, and then to now it’s being built. I mean, I think the whole thing is pretty remarkable.
BH: Mm-hmm. And in your observation, who have you seen making a real impact, say, you know, the same people who you feel has a real impact on the library development?
AM: Like, the City Council has always been very supportive of it.
BH: Mm-hmm.
AM: Don Tatzin, from the City Council, always has made this kind of his special project. Obviously, Steve Falk, the City Manager, he has always come up with the creative ways of getting, making things happen in terms of making the agreement with the Veterans to get, so we can get the sites. Yeah. So, and then, so that’s when the City, on the outside, obviously, Anne Grodin, the Friends of the Lafayette Library.
BH: Mm-hmm. Yeah. What are your best memories, any stories of, what was the most fun you had, memorable moments?
AM: Well, probably being in Sacramento on that day, getting the grant, because it was such a surprise.
BH: Yeah.
AM: And we, you know, we were at the very end, we’d been there all day, and it was Steve Falk, Anne Grodin, Teresa Gerringer, Ann Appert, Gwen Lennox, I think that was, oh, Ruth Bailey, and a couple of other people. And then just sitting in that room, and just seeing all the different communities, how important this was, because there were some very poor communities. This was to me, this was their only chance to get a library. And the pleas they made, you know, the stories they told, and their presentations, and it was just a very exciting, moving day. One you’ll always remember…
BH: I’m sure, yeah. What values did this, or your contribution, let’s see, what values, this is not, were met in being involved with this library? In other words, your personal values, what were, what did the development of this Library fulfill? Well, I don’t like the way it’s stated on the paper.
AM: Well, community service has always been very important to me, and I mean, seeing a public library being created in a community, I think, certainly fulfills that, you know.
BH: Have you seen an increase in community involvement in this process in any way?
AM: Well, Lafayette community as a whole is very active in community affairs. I mean, there seems to be like a lot of volunteers, a lot of people willing to spend the time. As the library has become real, and more and more activities are happening around the library, I’ve seen, you know, through Gwen’s committees, how involvement has increased.
BH: Yes. And what in this new library is the most exciting to you?
AM: Well, I think the architecture is going to be spectacular. The fact that it’s a green building. All the technology, obviously, which all new libraries are getting. The relationship of spaces, the rooms, all the different rooms that there’s going to be in the community hall. I think just as a place, it’s going to be very special.
BH: And of what value, because I don’t think I’m going to be asking everybody this, but I know you are very involved with the public art that has been chosen. What value do you see public art being in connection with the library?
AM: Well, there were a lot of discussions about this with the committee about Oakland Museum helping us with this. And so they’ve really been running the process and getting the discussions going. And so there was a lot of discussion with the committee about what is public art and what’s its value. And I think the consensus was that it should stimulate thought. You may not like it or the aesthetics of it, but if it gets you thinking, if it gets you, if it broadens your horizons, then that’s important, especially at the library.
BH: And why do you think the people of Lafayette have responded so enthusiastically to this new library project?
AM: Well, as a community as a whole, education is so important. So this is really going to be a place of education for all ages. That’s probably the main thing.
BH: What outcome do you hope for the most with this new library? In other words, what would you like to have, or what do you consider the most important impact this library could have on the community when it’s completed?
AM: Well, it’s going to be, I mean, it’s physically located at the heart of the community. So both physically and emotionally, it’s going to be become the heart of the community. It’s going to continue the redevelopment of the downtown in terms of carrying through all the enhancements of the downtown that have happened around the core, and it’s going to now start moving down to the east. So I think that’s important.
BH: Okay. And what do you look forward to enjoying the most once the library is completed? For yourself?
AM: Well, two things. The city will be holding its public meetings there. And so while the community center is, you know, a good facility, this one’s going to be, just make the meetings, that much better. I just think it’s going to be a special place for me to go at lunchtime. And enjoy the field. And enjoy, yeah.
BH: Do you feel, and in what way, does this new library meet the criteria for a 21st century library?
AM: It’s not going to be just about books. It’s going to have the technology so that all the internet capabilities are there. It will provide a meeting place for discussion, it will have occupied programming that you may typically think about in a traditional library. There could be dances, there could be festivals, there could be speakers, art shows. It’s going to go much through the traditional or kind of the 20th century idea of a library.
BH: Okay. And how do you think, this is a bit redundant, but just as a finale, how do you feel it will enhance our sense of the community?
AM: Well, it’s going to provide, it’s going to provide a center. I think it’s going to be a real landmark in the community, both physical and emotional landmark. And it’s going to become a meeting place for, you know, all ages. It’s just going to provide a venue for the community to do its community things.
BH: Well, Ann, I think we have covered everything. Do you have anything else that comes to mind that you would like to…
AM: I don’t think so.
BH: Okay. Thank you very, very much.
AM: Okay, thank you very, very much.
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