Part 2 What Happened: The Library Takeover Resolution is Passed…

The link below will take you to transcriptions from the August 24, 2010 Santa Clarita City Council meeting. At this meeting the library takeover resolution was passed by City Council, with the one exception of Councilmember Bob Kellar, to hand management of our local libraries over to a private and for- profit corporation, LSSI. No opinions or comment have been inserted. They said what they said, and it is here for you to read.

Section One includes the arguments for the takeover presented by Darren Hernandez, Deputy City Manager,  presentations by LSSI representatives, and a few local proponents.  Section Two has only the remarks by Margaret Donnellan Todd, County Librarian for the County of Los Angeles.  Section Three includes Council discussion and voting on the resolution, and a brief final comment by Cam Notlemeyer. The remarks by the almost 50 opposing speakers were to lengthy to include.

Our purpose in publishing these transcripts is simply to reveal what was actually said by the proponents and our Council, City staff, and LSSI.

“Anomolies…?” & Who Decides What Books are Bought for the Library?

The Request for Proposal PS-10-11-20 — LIBRARY COLLECTION REVIEW AND APPRAISAL dated November 10, 2010 read in part: “There are approximately 450,000 volumes in total. This total consists of approximately 375,000 books, 30,000 audio recordings, 30,000 video recordings and 15,000 periodicals. The selected firm will be provided a copy of the collection listing for the appraisal. The condition of the collection can be assumed to be that as found in the average large, modern public library. The successful proposer will be provided a collection data list of materials to work from. The list should contain the title, publisher, date of acquisition and quantity.”

The RFP provided for a contract award on January 12, 2011 and a project completion date of February 21, 2011—about five weeks to do the review.  How did LSSI complete a comprehensive on-site assessment in one day? Hopefully, the City will make public the list LSSI provided.

Was this RFP awarded, or was it abandoned in favor of having LSSI do the review? Since LSSI receives five percent of the cost of all acquisitions per contract, [In accounting for the cost of the Library Materials, LSSI shall include a fee of five percent (5%) of the cost of the Library Materials ordered (“Materials Handling Fee”) Add another $45,000!]. Is this not a lot like asking the fox to watch the henhouse and charging for security duties?

“Gentlemen are requested to deposit in the Lion’s Mouth the Title of such books as they may wish to have imported.”

Suggestion Box at Ben Franklins Library

The RFP stated that there were 450,000 items in the local collection; you state the County website showed 524,000 items, and LSSI’s one day review came up with 287,000 items. Why was an accurate assessment not done prior to the decision by the City to take over the library? Such details should have been discovered in the City’s attempt to exercise due diligence before awarding a $19,000,000 contract. These “anomalies” should have been reconciled before the City considered taking over the library, so that all costs could be accurately estimated and benefits accurately described. Why weren’t the collections inventoried before the City embarked on this path?Why no community input on new book purchases? Who decides, until the new library is built, which books get tossed for lack of shelf space? LSSI collection experts in Maryland?  Or vague recommendations for the CPLAC. How about the people who use the library? So much for “local” control of our libraries.

Follow the library money, if you can…

There are many questions and issues regarding City Council’s choice to remove our local libraries from the Los Angeles County Library system. Charges and countercharges about what is true or not true about the library takeover abound. Ron Dubberly, a President of LSSI, said at a public Library Committee meeting March 10, 2010 that the opposition is using “lies, big ones.”

The money part of this question is complicated. It is includes savings projections that are always questionable, and various claims made regarding past yearly costs and the tax sources used to pay those costs. Also to be considered are estimated “start-up costs” and what appear to be spiraling actual start-up costs , —and how they will be paid back (see). The question of a new library tax, or to some an old County tax redistributable to the City’s coffers, further clouds the confused picture.  See letter to our City Council from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

Another “link” in the “What Happened” document chain…395 out of 400? Really?

The  chain of City exchanges regarding the library to August 24th , can be viewed here.

On February 10, we posted some of the documents regarding the library takeover. See Part 2 – What Happened – Staff Bringing Back the Library Issue, the Process…?

On August 24, 2010, Darren Hernandez made a presentation for the City to explain why the City should assume control of our local libraries. In that statement he said:

“… To determine the costs of operating the libraries through a contractor, a Request for Proposals was issued.  A proposal was submitted by LSSI.  A staff panel reviewed the proposal, using multiple criteria, and the proposal was scored very highly… a score of 395 out of a possible 400.  References were checked… but… and… references were checked.  We called cities and visited cities that were current and former clients of LSSI, and they all recommended the firm very highly.”

CITIZEN PUBLIC LIBRARY ADVISORY COMMITTEE — Dubberly’s “Process”

by Lori Rivas

The this article was offered as a hand-out to the Citizen’s Public Library Advisory Committee on the evening of March 10, 2011.

Committee facilitator and LSSI executive Ron Dubberly bases his committee “process” on the book The New Planning for Results: a streamlined approach, by Sandra Nelson for the Public Library Association.  Blatantly missing from Dubberly’s “process,” but vitally integral in Nelson’s book, is the input, education and expertise of current, local librarians, without whom the committee is driving blind.  It is my hope to garner better library services for Santa Clarita by encouraging library advisory committee members to seek the advice, expertise and input of our current, local librarians, in alignment with the “process” that Dubberly is leading.