Top Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh officials wouldn't say yesterday whether or not they will attend Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's meeting Saturday on planned library closures, and that had some advocates for threatened facilities fuming.

"They don't want to face the people that will bear the impact of this," said Jim Richter, executive director of the Hazelwood Initiative, who is rallying the neighborhood to help pack the 11 a.m. meeting at St. Mary Lower Lyceum, in Lawrenceville.

Informed Monday morning of the meeting, Carnegie Library President and Director Barbara Mistick asked for a delay.

"We urge you to work with us in rescheduling a public meeting that provides the community with ample notice to participate and enables the library to share information based on the recently released state budget," she wrote in a Monday evening letter to the mayor.

The mayor's administration didn't budge yesterday. "We strongly encourage their attendance" Saturday, a mayoral spokeswoman said.

Yesterday evening, library spokeswoman Suzanne Thinnes said that "library administration" would make a presentation on the library's finances if allowed to do so. She did not know if Ms. Mistick or library trustees would attend.

City Councilman Jim Motznik, one of four council members who sits on the library's board of trustees, and one of the handful of votes against the closure plan, urged her to attend.

"As a board member, I would request that she attend and request that she advise other trustees to make sure they attend, so they can hear what the public has to say about this," he said.

Library officials are waiting to see what the Regional Asset District board does in response to the planned closing of branches in Beechview, Hazelwood, Lawrenceville and the West End, plus the merger of Carrick and Knoxville branches. The RAD board, which supplies most of the system's funding, is set to vote today on whether to audit the libraries.

The meeting flap is the latest flashpoint in what has become a contentious exchange between library officials and the mayor.

Mr. Ravenstahl seemed stung two weeks ago when library officials announced the closures, especially because they pointedly noted that the city only contributes $40,000 to the system. That wasn't fair, he argued, in light of the $17.6 million that city and Allegheny County taxpayers contribute annually via the 1 percent RAD sales tax. He questioned library spending, and called for an audit.

On Monday, he told library officials about the Saturday meeting hours before the administration issued a news release announcing it.

"It caught us by surprise yesterday when we were forwarded the press release from the mayor's office," said Gloria Forouzan, a Lawrenceville activist who was involved in efforts to set up a November meeting.

Councilman Patrick Dowd, who represents Lawrenceville, said that library officials have told him they will attend a meeting in Lawrenceville at some point. "They're good people," he said, "so I believe that."

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