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MN: Now you retired, but you really didn't retire. And I want to ask, I wanted to ask you about your association with the Monterey Park Library. That was a full-time job. I mean, it really, you volunteered, but how did you get roped into that?

YK: Well, Monterey Park started where there was a Japanese American who was on the planning commission, he was an architect, but he left. And so one day I was approached by, I was working on Bunker Hill, and I was approached by the mayor, and he says, "I want you to be on the planning commission because of your background and so forth." And I said, "Well, really, it's the Chinese you ought to get, you got the wrong Asian here." He said, "No, no, I want you." And he says, "I can guarantee you three votes on the city council." I said, "Well, I have to think about it. I'm pretty busy on Bunker Hill." And he said, "Yeah, but they only meet twice a month, and most of these are small projects, so this should be a snap for you." So later I agreed and I was on the commission for eight years. Then later I was on the Recreation and Parks Commission, too. And then also instituted, they had a bus trolley line serving Monterey Park, so I said, well, the lines don't make sense. They go from City Hall to each of the corners of the (city). I said, "You've got to go along the main commercial streets," and they said, "Well, MTA won't let us do that." But then I said, "We'll change that." So I came up with new plan where they would serve all the major shopping areas, schools, and so forth, and then I convinced the MTA that, "Hey, we're the collectors, we're helping you. Yours are just going through the city. We're helping you. In fact, if you give out passes, they can ride our system free." So we got that done, so that was one of the accomplishments of Monterey Park. But then they wanted to put billboards all around our city, so I led the charge to stop the billboards, that took a long time. But then later the firemen wanted to go to the County, so then we stopped them from it, so we were becoming the community activists rabble rousers to get things (done) in Monterey Park.

But then in 1997, the chairman of the (Library Board) said, "The state's been taking money away and the city's been cutting back all our hours, and I really want some of these services and so forth. (We'd) pass a tax initiative to pay for this." And so I said, well, got to look into it. And then the City Manager says, "You can't just do it for increased hours and staffing time, you've got to have a building project." And then we decided, okay, we'll do a second story, twelve thousand square foot addition. (The tax initiative passed)... we hired an architect and we were (designing) that, then we heard that there was a three hundred and fifty (million) dollar bond measure (...) for libraries, so we could compete (for money). So we said, "Okay, we'll wait for the election six months," and then it passed. So then we had to wait another year before they got organized and how they're gonna give the money out. So we competed for that, and we won a nine million dollar grant, so we were able to double the size of the library from twenty-six to fifty-two thousand (square feet). We completely remodeled the other parts, and so we had a brand-new library in Monterey Park. So I'm known as Mr. Library, too.

MN: Now to get that money, though, the bond money, you went to Sacramento and you testified.

YK: Yeah.

MN: Tell us about that experience, 'cause you almost didn't get the money.

YK: Oh, yeah. Well, the bond measure was listed to favor new libraries, and also, especially those that were built next to schools. So it would be a combination of library school kind of thing. But many in the cities says, "Well, we can't, we want to build the library next to our civic center," or, "We don't want to do it near a school," but, "Can't we just have a, instead of a joint development, a joint agreement?" which meant nothing, of course. But we were a rehab because we were redoing that, we were doing a major addition, and the grant said that was possible, too. But we had worked on our (application), so I knew we had a great application together, 'cause I did it but not alone. But anyhow, we had the architect and the librarian, the three of us pretty much did it. So we submitted, and then we were told, just before they were having the hearing to approve the first one-third of the grants -- they had let us know ahead of time which categories there were. (We were one of the) eighteen that were designated "outstanding," and then so many as "very good" and others as "good." And there were about fifty-two applications statewide. And we thought, "Oh, okay, we got it." So the librarian and I went up there, because there were only about six that were rehab. We got up there and we thought, oh, we got duck soup. And then one person who was on the (...) state library board, overseeing this, she was the senator who had passed the bill. She wanted to get her money in San Diego. So she said, "Well, hey, we said that we were favoring new projects," 'cause there were only two of us rehab projects that were in the "outstanding." But she says, "We're favoring new projects, and those tied with an agreement. And so maybe we shouldn't fund these two rehab 'outstandings,' and put a couple 'very goods' in there. Fortunately, at that time, there was a recess, and so the head of the key staffpersons came by and said, "You better say something." I was mad that he didn't say anything, and the chairman, too, didn't say anything. And so I told the city librarian that, "We're being screwed," so I decided on how I could try to counteract it and get after them.

So when the recess was over, I was the first one to run up to the mike. (At) first they weren't going to let the public speak, but then the lawyer told 'em, "Hey, this is against the Brown Act." So I was the first one to run up there and speak. And I said, "I'm Yukio and I'm with the Monterey Park Library," and I said, "I am very disappointed in you." And I was really mad. And I said, "Hey, yes, you had said that preference for the new libraries, but with an agreement for joint development. But when all the cities said they (couldn't do it), they just have a written agreement and it doesn't mean anything, and you know it doesn't mean anything. And yet you're favoring that. And then also the act said, yes, they're going to give grants to rehab and expansion, which you are, and there are only two of us." And I said, "In fact," they have had the meetings over the year, I said, "In the past meetings, I brought up the fact this didn't make any sense for us to even put one in there, and your chairman said that" -- who was the head library administrator for the state -- said that, "Oh, no, Monterey Park should be able to put in a good application, and so you should submit." And then the head staffperson said, "Oh, yeah, if Monterey Park comes in with an outstanding project, you'll be funded." And I said, "Hey, your chairman of your committee and your chief staff person said we're outstanding, and you're gonna turn us down? And you also admitted that none of you have read any of the things. You're going by staff recommendation. How come you aren't going by your staff recommendation?" And I said, "I demand you do what's right," and I sat down. [Laughs] There was silence there, and then, of course, the senator was looking at the chairman and saying, "Is that right?" He's saying, "Yeah." So afterwards, they heard testimony from others, and then they decided, okay, you're going to have a vote, and they said the whole "outstanding" ones, we got it. But we came within an inch of losing the whole thing after five years of work. But that's how we got the nine million dollar grant.

MN: You saved the day.

YK: Yeah.

MN: So I understand there's this... when the library opened in 2006, you and your wife have a plaque in there.

YK: We had a what?

MN: A plaque.

YK: Oh. Well, yeah, they decided...

MN: Or a library wing, I'm sorry.

YK: Yeah. Well, we had decided that people who donated, those, if you gave at least twenty-five thousand, you get a room named after you, and we did it sort of lottery. And if it was a wing, contribute a hundred thousand for a wing. But then when they decided that I had put in almost seven years in this project, three-quarter time, and so they decided, yeah, I should get the ground floor wing. We had donated twenty-five thousand along with the others, but... and then there was one other guy who donated his council salary, and so they gave him the upstairs (wing). So it says, the "Yukio and Lilian Kawaratani Wing," in the library. So we got our due. And there are plaques in the front, too, listing who the key people were, involved in the new library. So it turned out very well.

<End Segment 38> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.