Posted on 06/03/2011 5:44:09 PM PDT by SmithL
Despite strong opposition from Republicans, the Assembly narrowly passed a union-backed bill to make cities and counties blow through a series of roadblocks before they can privatize their libraries.
Under Assembly Bill 438, library systems would have to:
• pick a contract after a competitive bidding process.
• give four straight weeks of public notice before enacting a change, doubling the current requirement.
• prove through a broad analysis that a switch away from the free public library system saves the city or county money.
• show that the cost savings are not simply a factor of lower pay for the private company's employees.
• require an audit before hiring a library contractor charging more than $100,000 a year.
• ensure that the public employees don't lose their jobs.
National contractor Library Systems & Services, which already runs some libraries in the state, and the Service Employees International Union engaged in dueling lobbying efforts on the measure
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.sacbee.com ...
Union members as a whole like their reading material. /s
Simple solution: Close them all.
Barring that,
Eliminate the entire library system as a budget/cost saving measure. open “All New Public Literature Centers” staffed with non-union people in the same buildings with the same inventory on Monday and announce publicly that dur to widespread public demand the all new system was put in place to ‘fill a vital need in the community that union greed destroyed.’ Announce that the old system was costing the taxpayers XXX dollars and the new system saves them XXX and that those savings are going back into the pockets of the taxpayers, not union coffers.
....How about privatizing the legislature...let the people (voters) of California really see the hard cash realities of public “service”...... Why do members of the legislature emerge wealthy....
Creeps and crooks gather in Sacramento....
Don't single out Sacramento, it is a communicable disease and is spreading like wild fire everywhere!
The city of L.A. already approved opening up the LAPL branches from 5 days to 6 starting this July Where they got the money from this broke city is beyond me. Originally since I arrived in L.A IN 2007, it was open for 7 days...then budget cuts reduced it to 5 days in 2009.
But in all honesty, I’ve heard some guys call it the Homeless Hilton because that’s where the homeys sleep during the day, and yes, I’ve seen them sleeping in their nice corner.
The best part was while I was waiting for my laptop and I used the public computers for 2 hours in 2008. 2 black dudes got into an argument who was assigned to a specific computer.
Then one of the black dudes said in front of the 50 computer users, ‘BROTHA, STOP FIGHTING, THE WHITE PEOPLE ARE WATCHING’.
The guy beside me just rolled his eyes.
I have a blind friend who loves baseball, prefers to experience the game at a stadium, sees nothing wrong with taxpayer support for the construction of stadiums
and believes taxpayer support for public libraries is a discriminatory use of our taxes.
Don’t flame me. I am only the reporter.
This came up in a conversation where I was explaining why I opposed taxpayer support for stadiums for professional teams.
If so, that is the crony capitalism approach that many in the GOP have gotten away with supporting for years - shifting the "operator/office/function" to a "private" contractor - while the obligation and the cost - the cost of the contract - is still the responsibility of government, and the taxpayers.
It's not "privatization", and in terms of corruption its worse than being left as a 100% government entity.
The state Legislature has gotten out of touch with reality. Our small rural County has laid off a quarter of its General Funded workforce in the past three years. It will be laying off another 40 people between now and July 1. If the cities cancel their contracts with the Sheriff, their won’t be law available for hours.
We don’t provide County libararies any more. They are lucky that we continue to provide a communications backbone and a wharehouse distribution system. If the local communities don’t provide a building and staff them with volunteers at some level, then there is no library. We are going to be using the new code scanners for self-checkout just like the grocery stores and payment of fines online. You can also order a book online and have it dropped off at a community drop off point. Pick up and drop off weekly.
This is the new reality. Can’t afford librarians anymore.
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