April 17, 2012 – Daily Brief

Fixed. Thanks.

“But I was gonna go to the Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!”

A bit melodramatic for my taste, especially the first paragraph. We will see if TBB follows through with his promise to turn the libraries back to the public control. Not going to happen.

The libraries are under public control. Our Council Members are the Library Trustees. Much better and more local control now than when the libraries were under the control of the County Supes.

From TBB’s web site “Give the Santa Clarita libraries back to the people by making them public again and not for profit.”

Both the supporters and the opponents of the library takeover had it wrong. The decision to spend $30+ million on a monument to 20th century paper technology in downtown Newhall made as much sense as driving using only the rear view mirror. It would have been better to give every resident of Santa Clarita a $50 gift certificate towards an e-reader, and it would have saved a ton of money.

The libraries serve many other needs aside from books, which is all I use them for. Many people use them for research, periodicals, and borrowing DVD’s. Not everyone can afford a computer and internet access so this becomes the only net access that some can have. I can read books on my phone and rent movies via my wi-fi enabled TV. But many people are years away from being able to do this.

Silence, your understanding of the history of the library building seems lacking. The building’s design was planned under the leadership of the Los Angeles County Library. However, the City was always responsible for its payment as the County couldn’t affored to build new and adequate libraries. If we had to pay for it, doesn’t it make more sense to operate it as well? The fiscally irresponsible County was already beginning to show its inability to provide proper services. I’d rather be able to drive over to City Hall on a Tuesday evening to complain about services than have to drive to downtown L.A. on a work day just to be ignored.

Some people just don’t understand. The libraries are public and are not for profit. Just because the management company makes a profit doesn’t make the libraries non-public or for-profit. They are still under the control of the City – a municipal entity. Anyone who doesn’t understand the concept has no place in government. Let’s all stop using the local bus company becasue it is operated by a private company, but yet it is still a municipal service. Postings on TBBs website should not be taken as gospel.

Your distinction is correct. What you’re conveniently blurring out is the fact that a private company is turning a profit delivering a public good (knowledge, sharing etc). If we hired Blackwater to patrol our streets under the badge City of Santa Clarita Police, we’d still ostensibly have a public police force, but Blackwater’s motivations would be entirely different (and many times at odds) with the motives of a public agency.

Waste management is earning profit providing a public good as is Time Warner. Perhaps we should all become socialists or communists and ban profit. With respect to private entities that are operating under a public contract, I would imagine that if they wish to continue with their contract that their motivations might be tempered to mee the needs and wants of the public agency. And if the public agency isn’t leaning hard enough, then the people will. The people have already spoken on what they want from the library. If the managers don’t meet the peoples expecatations the City will be told and then it will be up to the Council to either change the performance or change the provider.

Television, or more accurately spectrum, is a public good in that its used by one individual doesn’t preclude its use by another individual and it can’t be effectively excluded from use by anyone. Time warner operates television stations under license by the FCC; but no one needs to pay Time Warner to get free television, all they need to do is hang an antenna. Another way of saying this is that Time Warner is allowed to profit off a public good (spectrum), but I’m not required to pay Time warner to access the public good. That’s not the same with the libraries; my property tax is literally going to fund LSSI’s profits, I have no choice in the matter unless I want to move. “Perhaps we should all become socialists or communists and ban profit. ” Look how lame this is. Why don’t we just outsource the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force to Blackwater, Lockheed, and Boeing? Surely they can train soldiers, Sailors, Marines and such faster, better, cheaper than we can. Surely it’s okay for them to profit off of our collective defense. Why not fire LACFD and hire private contract firemen and force us scvers to buy insurance if we want coverage? “I would imagine that if they wish to continue with their contract that their motivations might be tempered to mee the needs and wants of the public agency” That’s not what usually happens. Usually the public agency starts to believe its customer is the contractor, rather than its constituents. Take for instance what happened recently with MV Transportation, the private bus operator used by the city. The bus contractor was having trouble meeting the stringent on-time requirements the city put out; they were losing money on the contract they negotiated in fair faith. But instead of firing them, or making them suffer, the city just lowered the standards for the contractor and now I gotta wait longer for my bus just so some investor gets the ROI he was expecting out of the deal. Does that sound fair to you that I am burdened with that cost?

Yes, the people have spoken and they tossed the councilwoman leading the charge out of office, did they not?

not all of us cast our vote based just upon the library decision.

“Blackwater’s motivations would be entirely different (and many times at odds) with the motives of a public agency.” Wow, if I didn’t know better I’d think you were making a case against public sector unions.

Our city was able to reduce our costs and make improvements to the libraries. It is up to the city council/library board to monitor operations to make sure that we are getting the most for our money and LSSI is meeting their contractual obligations. I couldn’t care less who cuts the employees their paychecks. Imagine the cost savings and improved efficiencies if our state outsourced the DMV.

Better public control would be to draft a charter which specifies a library board of trustees appointed by the council, and not the actual council itself. Dare to dream

Phil – depends on your definition of “control.” I have friends and family that are presently Library Trustees on their City run libraries in LA County. Everyone of them has some kind of knowledgeable library background, experience and/or education, and were extensively interviewed to obtain their seats as Trustees. The City staff I’m sure has control of the financial comings and goings with our library, but as far as control of the day to day activities of our libraries – doubt that our 5 Council members are involved let alone in control.

The city claimed this was “common” for council members to sit on library boards. Based upon my unofficial survey of almost 30 cities, this is a lie. I only found one city where one member of the library board sat on the council as well. The council should appoint a library board with people that know something about libraries on it.

I’m patiently waiting to see how this library matter plays out, if skeptically. But the thing that bothered me from the moment I heard of the possibility of the city breaking away from the LACo system was that our city does not do arts and culture very well. They just don’t have very good taste. That’s fine, ordinarily. Other things matter more. But we ought to have someone with a strong nose on all things books who is on the city payroll, whose interests aren’t conflicted and who LSSI answers to, not the other way around.

Palmdale is next — I’ve heard an (inside) rumor that LSSI is taking over Palmdale’s library system starting July 1st — and is in the process of courting Lancaster!

Nor are our council members in daily control of the City. There job is to hire the best managers. Hence, we now have LSSI instead of the County. Is the problem that LSSI’s employees are non-union?

First paragraph lists some women game changers. Prefer your women more docile, do you, Petz? Joking aside, I get your point, but I did not intend to equate the women listed in the first paragraph with our local agitators, as far as level of change affected. Just meant to say that anyone can be a game changer, and the women listed in my first paragraph don’t/didn’t possess any special abilities not available to anyone, anywhere. I list a spectrum from women leaders, to a donkey, all used to make changes for good. Surely we all fit somewhere on that spectrum. Surely.

Lori God bless you and your family. Well said and well done. While I am sure I won’t/don’t agree with all of your political sentiments/views I know that on this one I sincerely do. Nice to see this letter published today when we see the sycophant Strickland’s latest and not unexpected turncoat move. It is all about him. Hopefully he WON’T be elected to Congress.

Thanks, SCV Sage.

Thank you for the column Lori. It is an honor to have you say those things, and it was an honor to work with you on our campaign. My election (when confirmed tomorrow) will be because of the number of hard working volunteers. Without all of you, I would not have won. I will do my best to serve everyone with respect, and will work very hard for all of you. Lori, I will try to live up to to some of the great examples that you gave.

Just be honest, and do your research, listen to the public, and make moral choices. That’s about the best anyone can do, councilman.

Lori, Nice op-ed!

Thanks, Mikec.

Great column Lori! It was also great working such a historic campaign with you. The prognosticators saying that the incumbants would easily win were looking at only historical data. They were not taking into account the amount of dedicated, motivated, and knowledgeble team of volunteers that TimBen assembled. TimBed led an awesome campaign with some new and brilliant moves but I have to believe it was the volunteers that made all the difference.

Thanks, Jim. It was great with us all working together.

I can’t wait to tell my kids about this. I may be able to retire by 79 after all.

I’m dealing with this very issue right now. My wife and I recognize that one of two things will happen… our parents will need assisted living (at rates as high as $5-7k/month perhaps) or they will need to live with us, or one of our siblings. Being as how my wife and I are the most established…. we’re quickly realizing it is likely to be us. So, what do we do? Do we buy the 5 bedroom house that is totally excessive for our needs today, in anticipation that we will need out house a relative? Do we even have the ability to deal with sharing our home with one of our parents (will they be OK moving into OUR space?) Its a question that will have to be dealt with… but when?

Having a parent move in with you isn’t always possible, even with a 5 bedroom house. For one thing, a great many houses are built with no bedrooms on the ground floor. For another, who is going to quit their job to stay at home and watch Grandma? Back in the day when multiple generations lived together, most women stayed at home. I like the idea of cooperative living for seniors. Although I do sometimes fantasize about torturing my teenage daughter by moving in with her when I’m older, I rethink that strategy when I look at her bedroom and bathroom. It would no doubt be torture for both of us…. My parents never required assisted living. My dad did require the services of a housekeeper after my mother died, and he benefitted from meals on wheels, but he managed well on his own until one day he fell and hit his head. He died a week later. I think it’s wise to for elderly parents to live in proximity to adult children if possible, and to have access to in-home care if needed, but multigenerational living isn’t for everyone.

Multigenerational living isn’t for everyone- that’s for sure. But very few can afford in home care- and the state’s IHHS is facing massive cuts.

And everyone thought CEMEX was the big problem.

And some still do.

…like Bertha, maybe?

Whoops. Supposed to be below NIC’s comment