With our San Diego city council slashing local library hours and services — cutting the library budget 24% — perhaps it’s time for our wise leaders to look at what Riverside County did over a decade ago. The county, with 34 branches, contracted out the operation of their libraries to a private firm (LSSI), and today the county supervisors are DELIGHTED with the results — both the cost and the service.
Coincidentally LSSI will be in San Diego today (15 September) through Saturday for the League of California Cities convention — at the downtown convention center. See their email below.
They are here to talk with willing cities about alternatives to the current costly system of running government libraries.
Hopefully city officials from THROUGHOUT San Diego County will give this outfit a serious look. It’s time to think outside the library box.
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LSSI Invitation to CA City Politicians
If you are preparing to attend the upcoming League of California Cities 2010 Annual Conference in San Diego this week, I hope you will take a few minutes to stop by Booth #727 to learn more about the savings, efficiencies and local control inherent in the Public/Private Partnership model for library operation.
– Bob Windrow, Vice President
California Region
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City of Santa Clarita Votes in Favor of Public/Private Partnership.
LSSI is selected to operate new library system.
August 23, 2010
The Santa Clarita City Council voted to award a five-year contract with Library Systems & Services, LLC, to operate a newly established three-branch Santa Clarita Public Library.
Under the public-private partnership agreement, the branch libraries will remain in the public trust, managed by the City of Santa Clarita and operated by LSSI.
Santa Clarita, the fourth largest city in Los Angeles County, considered several options for providing library services to its patrons and, ultimately, decided to withdraw from the County of Los Angeles Public Library System.
Through two dedicated assessments, taxpayers in the Santa Clarita Valley contribute $8.5 million annually to the county library system but receive only $6 million in services. City residents also pay 100 percent of the costs to operate the three branch libraries – even though unincorporated residents use the city libraries as well. With concerns of future county deficits, city council moved ahead and voted to take over its own branch libraries.
Leading up to the vote, city officials worked closely with community stakeholders to demonstrate the benefits of running their own libraries which included expanding branch hours and enhancing programming and customer service. Outreach to business leaders, parents & educators and neighborhood associations proved to be successful in generating support for the public-private partnership.
I welcome the opportunity to discuss your community and its libraries, and whether LSSI might be an option that’s right for your future. Please stop by, or contact me directly:
Bob Windrow
Bob.Windrow@lssi.com.
800-638-8725, ext 227
www.lssi.com
Comments 15
Noted in Santa Clarita…
http://scvtalk.com/2010/09/20/september-20-2010-daily-brief/
There was NO community support for LSSI taking over the Santa Clarita libraries from LA County. There were like 48 speakers opposed and 1 for. Bob Windrow is misrepresenting the community sentiments. The only community stakeholders it appears LSSI worked with was City Staff and the City Council.
Of those 48 speakers, how many were employees of the public Library system, or friends, relatives or associates of an employee, or library patrons that had been encouraged to attend and oppose the private proposal by an employee, likely while the employee was on the public dime?
I would say Mike is correct very few people in community believe this is a good idea.
Spin Zone you are living up to your name…
Spin Zone asked a question, a legitimate one. Obviously, the question was posed to make a point, but it is still a question. Don’t like the question, so you spin it yourself?
That wasn’t a question.
He laid out an entire situation then added a question mark.
That was the definition of SPIN.
Indeed, maybe it was. A political question, no doubt. So, it remains unanswered. No answer? SPIN.
Just like the SPIN in there being “NO community support for LSSI.” Really, NONE? You mean none at that meeting? Oh, a majority of the City Council supported it — were they at the meeting?
It is disingenuous for LSSI to insinuate that broad public support was found for the takeover Santa Clarita’s libraries. To be fair, this is more a failure of our City Council than LSSI, but there was certainly little-to-no consensus-building with our public.
To imply that a broad-based outreach was done with “business leaders, parents & educators and neighborhood associations” is simply untrue. This item was agendized during one council meeting and passed at the very next meeting during summer break when many users were not using the libraries and were unaware that this was even being considered.
As to the speakers in opposition (of which I am one), there were approximately 50 in opposition and three in support. Many, many of those in opposition are known to me personally and NONE of them were there because of ties to LSSI. Our public was blindsided and simply wanted much more information and to suggest that the opposition was made up of a few friends and pro-union types is pure rubbish.
I have huge issues our city’s process on this matter. I don’t fault LSSI directly for this but I do wonder how Bob Windrow could hold our city up as any kind of example of broad support – this has no shred of fact.
Demand all the facts and go in with eyes wide open. It is highly likely that our voters will not be able to recover the dedicated library assessment that Mr. Windrow refers to. If so, we will again need a 2/3 majority vote to pass a new assessment for the city-run library system – highly unlikely in these times and if we fail, our city lost big-time in this transaction.
There was no support at the meeting and there has been little public support that I have been able to see anywhere. I personally don’t care. My only question is to find an example of a library run under this company.
I would suggest you check the-signal.com and scvtalk.com for information about the meetings and backlash before you call something spin.
Both the local teaparty and progressives opposed it.
This library decision was already made and had bi-partisan opposition from our community.
This is a classic case of concentration of benefit, dispersal of cost. The people who love libraries (and often use them as a club to hang out in), love “their” library employees (and are actively courted by these government union members). These are the people benefit most from libraries — hang the cost.
They are highly emotional about their benefit, and quite active in defending it. In this case, they’d rather have shorter hours and lower book budgets rather than lose “their” employee friends.
These are the “concentrated benefitters” who turn out at city council meetings — lobbying for the continuance of the status quo.
On the other side, MOST people don’t much care about the libraries (except perhaps to borrow books from). If the library is run less expensively, each of the overwhelming majority of people saves a little, but not enough to go down to city hall to speak in favor of the measure. These are the “dispersed costs” folks.
It’s the fundamental problem with government — the relatively small group of people who get the big benefit will actively lobby for their benefit, while the cost is dispersed among the full population, so it is not worth each such individual’s time to lobby to end the benefit.
Don’t be fooled because a few of those (presumably) out-of-town library crazies start posting here. They want you to draw the incorrect conclusion that the people filling city hall chambers clamoring for or against an issue are representative of the general populace.
Anyone who’s spent any time in city council meetings knows what I’m talking about. Think labor unions packing the house, and expand from there.
Mr. Rider,
The point of my post was two-fold: to point out the inaccuracies of LSSI’s statement and to recommend that San Diego follow good process to thoroughly evaluate the cost/benefit of this action. It may very well make sense for you but I don’t appreciate LSSI beginning that discussion with misrepresentations.
For that, you have now labeled me a “library crazy,” a classic (and extremely simple-minded) way to marginalize the opinion of those with whom you may disagree.
I have been a conservative all of my life and I am no fan of taxes or big government. I use the library only occasionally, primarily for purposes of research a few times each year. The only way I know a library staff member’s name is if I look at their nametag.
In my view, parsing out and/or privatizing certain public services should be done with care. For example, many argue that they shouldn’t pay school taxes once their kids or grown or absorb maintenance costs for streets that they don’t use. But if acted upon, the result of such thinking would be a third-world America with a broken infrastructure.
Libraries are similar: it is a model where all pay in and the vast resources that result benefits the greater good. Your citizens can decide what model suits them but to dismiss the importance of this decision by claiming that “MOST people don’t much care about libraries except to borrow books” is myopic and irresponsible.
To reiterate, the citizens of San Diego should get all their facts when considering this change. You should carefully weigh all the facts about your city’s future role in the county’s transfer system, additional costs for those in the immediate unincorporated areas, and any new ballot initiatives that may be required to replace orphaned assessments you pay to your county system. In short, be careful not to sell out long-term benefit for short-term perceived gains that may or may not be real.
Your high-brow approach of shallow argument and name-calling may persuade some people who base decisions on rhetoric but it’s also precisely why our country is in the toilet. My suggestion was to do your research. If you think that makes me crazy, then you obviously don’t understand one of the greatest benefits of a library anyway.
“They want you to draw the incorrect conclusion”
How very arrogant of you, to believe that you and you alone know the correct conclusion everyone should draw. Hey everyone turn off your brain Richard Rider is going to tell you how to think, feel and vote
“out-of-town library crazies ” –
Believe like Richard Rider or you are crazy. While I would agree that many of the people who opposed the city taking over the libraries from the county and handing them over to this company are indeed crazy. Many where the extremist sign waving teaparty people.
Nearly every local republican and democrat columnist opposed this move and wrote about it. Are they all crazy?
I am quite certain you are speaking about something you know nothing about…
Oh case and point Richard Rider… David Gauny was the conservative challenger in our election in April he missed winning a seat by something like 24 votes.
He was endorsed by retired deputy and frequent tea party speaker Bob Kellar who was the only opposing vote against the library takeover.
All you conservatives who keep spitting talking points at me, claiming “union thugs” and “pensions” better check yourself. In Santa Clarita the Library take over was opposed more heavily by Conservatives then Progressives and that is a fact.
Such lies. The SCV council was NOT packed with library employees. The residents were never given a chance–the sell out was already done by the time of the council hearing.
LSSI is full of it; they destroy libraries and create free book stores. If a book doesn’t check out, they get rid of it. But we NEED those books; that’s what research is all about.
San Diego–I’d block these people from entering your city.
Author
Looking back over all the vituperative responses from those opposing privately operated (though publicly owned) libraries, one thing is clear — they’ve never looked at the libraries LSSI is running now, nor checked with the politicians and customers to see how it’s worked out. Or maybe that these whiners are simply public employees writing anonymously, desperately trying to protect their gravy train.
These library Luddites clearly demonstrate that working or lounging all day in a library doesn’t increase one’s reasoning prowess.