Just about everything in cities seems fair game for privatization these days. Trash pickup, parking meters. But libraries?
That’s different.
The question, explored in a recent New York Times article, is as charged and volatile as you might expect.
Some cities are turning to a Germantown, Md., company to run their libraries to cut costs. The article is pegged on Library
Systems & Services’ being contracted for the first time by a healthy city, not one that’s desperate. Library
Services says it can cut $1 million from the budget of Santa Clarita, Calif.
In Santa Clarita, as elsewhere, the company consistently runs into an attitude that libraries are too important, too sacrosanct
to be outsourced. Employees don’t like it—no surprise there. But some of the fiercest opposition comes from patrons.
Company officials counter that many libraries are poorly operated and exist as much to secure lucrative jobs as to serve
the public.
Library Systems cuts costs mostly by slashing overhead and pushing out unionized workers, many of whom have both pensions
and 401(k)s—think General Motors restructured.
Asked about the merits or demerits of a for-profit operator, Tom Shevlot, president of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public
Library board, said he’d never heard of the idea. As a result, he withheld judgment.
Musing hypothetically, Shevlot said the state’s lease of the Indiana Toll Road to a private operator appears to have
been a good idea. But libraries aren’t roads, he emphasized. The work is service- and knowledge-based. So he questions
whether high levels of service and expertise could be maintained in a system where profit was the motivation.
“You have to look at these things very carefully,” he warned.
The library is certainly under financial strains. The proposed budget it’s presenting to the City-County Council is
5 percent below last year, to $39 million, and includes big cuts in hours of operation, among other things.
What about you? Would you see a private operator as a nightmare, savior or somewhere in between?
Welcome to the archives for NewsTalk, an IBJ blog published from November 2007 through December 2010.
A private operator for Indy-Marion County library?
September 29, 2010
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something to take iman's mind off CART,,,the league itsownself doesn't do it
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Someone mentioned a green roof. Every designer of a new urban building should be required to at least explore the feasibility of a green roof. The ability to cut carbon dioxide, save precious rainwater (drought this summer??) and re-use grey water, cool the building cheaper, and improve the view for neighbors, should be, not only the good neighbor thing to do, it should be the responsible neighbor thing to do. Too bad the city didn't require it when they gave up downtown green space for the Simon Building. Surprised they aren't requiring it now.
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About the same means down, like the TV ratings.
My favorite tradition that needs to be brought back is the 25/8 rule. -
Your stats are incorrect. The 85k Government employees working in Marion County includes all government workers in Marion county. That is state, federal, non profit agencies, city and county. The stats the article list is the number of employees for all of the city/county employees and it is correct. That number includes the library, airport, convention center, and so on. The policy of extending benefits to domestic partners is consistent with private sector companies of the same size. Isn't the mantra of most conservatives "run the government like a business."
Also, too say the "fiscal proposil is huge" without considering the actuarial factors involved is a bit of an overstatement. We really don't know if it is huge or not. If all of the people added to the plan are healthy and don't have claims then it could bring cost done or hold them neutral. -
There are 85,346 government employees in Marion county according to Stats Indiana.
My understanding is that this proposal covers not only same sex partners and children, but opposite same sex partners who are not married and any kids.
It also covers all city and county employees, plus municipal corporations which use city/county benefits packages including Health and Hospital Corporation (Wishard), Indianapolis Airport Authority, Indianapolis Convention Center,Lucas Oil,Bankers Life, Indianapolis Marion County Library, and Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation (IndyGo).
Certainly Indianapolis Public Schools will also want more benefits also.
The fiscal cost on this proposal is huge.
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I'm sure then the administration will be calling. Especially if the company hires Joe Loftus.
Governmental and not-for-profit enterprises are more complex and outcomes are more difficult to measure. Taxpayers or donors comprise one set of customers who pay for services that another set of customers may use. There exist two major objectives, satisfy both those who will use the services and taxpayers or donors.
With respect to the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library, a contract with Library Systems and Services would unnecessarily add complexity and give a foreign corporation a slice of our local taxes. It would also be an affront to Indiana University and our librarians who have sacrificed to obtain advanced degrees in library science. We may be confident that LSSI would first satisfy its stockholders and then our taxing authorities that fund the contract. Since the outcomes for persons using the library are more difficult to measure, those rewards would surely be the last to be considered.
The only arrangement with LSSI that one might imagine to be in the best interests of our community would be a limited engagement as a turnaround vehicle in the event of municipal bankruptcy.
As for Ingrid...as someone who has hired a few people in the last couple of years, I can assure you that I have met many former $70-100 K per year employees that are now out of work...engineers, very educated, highly skilled technical people, who would give anything now to make $50k, they are applying for entry level positions at $25-30K...$50 K is now, alas, a very good paying job...to say "I barely make $50K" as if that is not very much money shows a misunderstanding of where the labor market is these days...better be glad you have it, a lot of highly skilled people who are out of work would tell you otherwise.
This STINKS of a BALLARD payout for a SPECIAL interest group.
This idea was presented by the author, not the mayor. Oh, I guess you missed that point.
Sheesh......
Ok??????
What we do know is that when Libraries start playing "corporation" instead of public service we get into trouble. We've got Management who have fancy dancy titles: CEO, COO, CFO, without the requisite skill sets to fit said titles; an Executive committee that would rather play management theory bingo than use the experience and wisdom at their fingertips and create the waste of tens of thousands of dollars spent on outside contractors, management "training" and other useless experiments that have fallen to the wayside over the years. Library Boards who naively think they can handle multi-million dollar contracts w/o guidance.
These "management" people from LSSI are more carpetbaggers looking to milk gullible "corporatized" Library leaders for their cash. What will be left is a decimated collection, demoralized staff, and a hemorrhage of talent, skills and dedication as the last long term hangers-on flee the Orwellian destruction of our beloved Library.
Hyperbole? Those who lived through Linda Mielke know the Catch-22 levels of insanity that await the Library staff that chooses LSSI. Without her (and her predecessor to a lesser extent) there would not have been the fear and loathing of management that brought in the Union.