AGENDA REPORT
Meeting Date: March 4, 2025
Item Number:
To: Honorable Mayor & City Council
From: Joana Torres, Community Services Manager
Stephanie Harris, Director of Community Services
Subject: REQUEST TO OPEN THE BEVERLY HILLS PUBLIC LIBRARY LATE ON THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 2025 FOR THE PALEY CENTER FOR
MEDIA TO HOST THEIR GRAND OPENING EVENT
Attachments: None
RECOMMENDATION
The Paley Center for the Media (“Paley”) is planning to host a grand opening event at the Beverly Hills Public Library on Thursday, March 20, 2025 from 9am to 11:30am. Staff recommends adjusting the library’s operating hours and opening at 12pm rather than 9:30am to avoid any major impacts to Library patrons.
INTRODUCTION
The City entered into a lease agreement with Paley on April 16, 2024. The lease allows Paley exclusive use of the ground floor room in the Beverly Hills Public Library formerly operated as the “Teen Zone” to provide free-of-charge access to The Paley Library Collection, an archive of television and radio that spans more than a century of historic holdings and numbers over 160,000 titles. Additionally, the lease states that Paley and the City will collaborate on an invitation-only opening night / ribbon cutting event to announce, celebrate and create awareness for the new Paley Library Collection space.
Over the last year, Paley has been working on their tenant improvements to the space and is ready to open to the public.
DISCUSSION
Paley would like to host a grand opening with a ribbon cutting event to showcase their new space at the Beverly Hills Public Library. The ribbon cutting would an invitation-only event and include invitations to members of the City Council, Paley Board members and media outlets, and would take place at 11am. Paley anticipates the entire program lasting no longer than 30 minutes.
Due to the timing of this event, staff is recommending opening the Library to the public at 12pm rather than 9:30am to avoid any interruptions to Paley’s program and any major Meeting Date: March 4, 2025
impact to the Library patrons. The Paley Archive is located adjacent to the quiet reading room as well as tables that are often used for studying where sound travels and will be an impact to library patrons. Staff is working to adjust existing programs to accommodate the later opening of the library including changing the day of our final Baby Story time to the week prior and beginning the next session a week earlier.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no significant fiscal impact resulting from the late opening of the library due to the grand opening event.
Stephanie Harris,
Director of Community Services
Approved By