Commissioners Approve $275 Million Price Tag
for Upcoming Library System Bond Referendum
Posted July 17, 2008; revised July 21, 2008; updated July 18 and July 22, 2008
The Fulton County Board of Commissioners voted July 16th to let county citizens decide in November whether or not the
county will borrow $275 million to expand and refurbish the county's libraries.
Several months ago, the commissioners approved a plan for building eight new branch libraries, expanding two libraries,
and renovating 23 others. Yesterday's vote added to the upcoming bond referendum approximately half the price tag for also
building a new $170 million Central Library.
The bonds authorized by the referendum would supply about $84 million for the new Central Library, and private donors will be asked
to contribute the remaining $85 million.
Building a new Central Library - rather than sticking with the considerably less expensive ($34 million) plan to refurbish
the existing building - was the most controversial part of yesterday's pre-vote discussion.
July 18th, July 21st, and July 22nd Updates :
- According to a citizen who attended the commissioners' meeting and read a
statement opposing the idea of a new Central Library, Commission Chair John Eaves noted that none of the citizens
attending the meeting were in favor of a new Central Library; he also reported that he had not received any comments from
the public praising the idea.
Commissioner Lynne Riley reminded her colleagues that the two-year process of asking the public for input about the library
system's Facilities Master Plan had generated no proposals for a new Central Library.
Eaves and Riley were the only commissioners who opposed the resolution to include in the November referendum the cost of a
new - rather than a renovated - Central Library.
- The library's July 16th press release
- Media coverage of the commissioners' vote:
A New $90+ Million Central Library for Atlanta?
Posted June 14, 2008; updated June 25, June 26, June 30, July 1, July 3, and July 7, 2008
The story so far:
March 19, 2008 - The Fulton County Board of Commissioners approves the library system's
Facility Master Plan which calls for, among other things, the renovation of the system's Central Library.
May 15th - Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts posts a
proposal to his county website that the county abandon the library system's plan to renovate the Central Library
and instead sell the existing building and build a new Central Library.
- On May 22nd, Creative Loafing publishes an
article about Pitts' proposal, along with some interesting readers' comments.
May 28th - The library system's trustees unanimously approve Pitts's resolution to amend the library's Facility Master Plan
to include the building of a new Central Library instead of raising funds to renovate the existing building.
- The county's May 29th
press release about the library trustees' approval of Pitts' resolution
- Television station WXIA's news report
about Pitts' proposal at the library board's May 28th meeting.
- An
Article posted May 30th to the Buckhead Reporter.
- Comments posted May 30th to an Atlanta-based
electronic discussion group about the library board's approval of Pitts' resolution, including remarks library director
John Szabo made at the May 28th trustees' meeting.
June 4th - The Fulton County Board of Commissioners unanimously approves Pitts'
resolution to the Board of Commissioners to amend the library system's Facility Master Plan to include the building of a
new Central Library.
- A local real estate blogger's June 5th
blogpost about the BOC's approval of Pitts' resolution.
- A local architecture blog's June 6th blogpost about the potential sale
of the Central Library and the Buckhead Branch Library.
- A June 12th John's Creek Herald
article about the proposal that includes a comment from library director John Szabo.
Coming up: At its June 18th meeting, the Fulton County Commission will discuss the cost estimates for a new Central Library.
Stayed tuned...
June 25th Update: Our sources tell us that cost estimates will be presented at the Commission's
July 2nd meeting, with a Commission vote either at that meeting, or the one on July 16th.
June 26th Update: On June 25th, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published this
opinion piece about the proposed
new Central Library written by AFPL Library Director John Szabo.
June 30th Update: On June 23rd, a Creative Loafing columnist posted
this comment, plus a comment from a CL reader.
July 1st Update: A local artist has created a
blog devoted to protesting the hasty approval of any proposal for green-lighting the abandonment of the current Central
Library.
[Our thanks to an alert WATCH reader for bringing our attention to this blog's existence.]
July 3rd Update: On July 2nd, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an
article about the Commissioners scheduled discussion of the Central Library proposal at its July 2nd meeting.
Meanwhile, another blog focused on the proposal for a new Central Library
has been created, this one by a local MBA student.
July 7th Update: At their July 2nd meeting:
- The Commissioners listened to the comments of 13 citizens (Bruce McEvoy, Margaret Anthony, Ms. Eleanor Linn, Sally Combs,
Tennent Neville, Alfredo Aponte, Jude LeBlanc, Erika Morgan, Eileen Seidman, Michael T. Riggall, Jim Alexander, Katharine
Suttell, and Jo Lynn Burge) supporting the renovation (rather than the sale and demolition) of the Buckhead Branch Library.
According to the Save the Library blog, Commissioners reiterated their
earlier decision to renovate, rather than sell, the current Buckhead Branch Library.
Supporters of the Buckhead Library say they also plan to attend the Commissioners' July 16th meeting to protest any
last-minute maneuverings within the Commission this year to entertain any further proposals from the developer who has beeb
trying to convince the Commissioners to sell the library to him so he can demolish it.
- One citizen, Max Eternity, read a statement to the Commissioners supporting the renovation (rather than the sale) of the
Central Library.
- After a presentation of the estimated costs of the Facility Master Plan, Commissioner Boxhill "requested the County
Manager to provide...details on the public interface portion of the work to be done regarding who will be involved and what
the costs will be around a possible future referendum."
As the Commissioners must approve by the end of July the language of any referendum placed before the voters in November,
the Commissioners would presumably vote on this language at its July 16th meeting.
AFPL Limps into the 21st Century...
News & Comment Archives
AFPLWATCH news items and editorials are archived approximately one
month after they are posted.
- Scan a complete list of previously-posted news articles and editorials
here.
- Click on the links below to read the text of previously-published
AFPLWATCH news articles and editorials:
- Local and national publications were documenting AFPL's deterioration
long before AFPLWATCH was begun in November 2000, and continued
to do so. Read the news stories and editorials about AFPL published in
other media in:
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
LibraryLand Listening Post
News from All Over that's relevant to what's going on--or not going on--at AFPL.
- Ways Libraries Can Help You in a Bad Economy
Posed July 23, 2008
A website called The Consumerist has posted a list of
seven ways to save money by using your public library.
The most valuable thing about this blogpost is not the list itself, but the comments posted by readers.
Want a sampling of what people in the U.S. think of their public libraries - from what they value most about them to why
some people avoid them like the plague? Read the frank, compelling, and sometimes hilarious reader comments to this blogpost.
Then think long and hard about what AFPL needs to do to improve its rep among county residents - including how it needs
to focus its marketing - once it finally begins getting any marketing.
With another library bond referendum coming up, maybe there'll be another round of emphasis on improving the range and/or
the quality and/or the efficiency of what AFPL does for its users (and funders)?
In the meantime, it's fascinating to read about which public library systems have produced citizen cheerleaders (and why),
and where people feel pretty miserable about their public library (and why).
Found via LISNews.
- Are Internet Browsing Histories on Public Library Computers Confidential?
Posted July 22, 2008
Until the inevitable day when a federal judge rules one way or the other on whether the Internet-browsing patterns of
public library users are protected by the U.S. Constitution, librarians and local police officers will continue to argue
about whether to surrender their computers when the police show up to impound those machines as part of a criminal
investigation.
An incident in Vermont involving a
child who police think was raped, tortured, and murdered by a library Internet terminal-using rapist, torturer, and murderer
surfaces this issue in the most extreme set of circumstances imaginable.
If you think you already know where you stand on this question, read the comments about this story at
LISNews and think about whether you'd like to be the federal judge forced to decide this question.
- UK Municipal Government Accused of Age Discrimination in Forcing 65-Year-Old to Retire
Posted July 22, 2008
Details from the Camden New Journal.
Found via LISNews.
- Library Users Respond to City's Closing of Its Branch Library by Starting One of Their Own
Posted July 22, 2008
Details from the
Boston Globe.
Found via LISNews.
- Booklover Alert: Another Roundup of Stuff-Used-as-Bookmarks
Posted July 22, 2008
Last month we posted a link to a list of things librarians have found in returned books.
Here's a list of things found in books by people who work in bookstores specializing in used books.
It turns out that booksellers routinely find the same sorts of weird stuff in their (ab)used books as librarians do.
Our own fave impromptu gross-out bookmark of all time: a strip of bacon.
Found via LISNews.
Click here to read all previously-posted Booklover Alerts
- Computer Hacker Sticks Massachusetts Library with $15,000 Phone Bill
Posted July 19, 2008
There aren't enough details in this news story to know
if this sort of scam is more likely when a library uses a VoIP-based phone system, but that was the first wondered when we
read this headline.
Could somebody find out if this is yet another reason to dread the advent of VoIP for the library system that the Fulton
County IT Dept. has decreed shall be installed at some point (to "save money," of course)?
Found via LISNews.
- Dept. of Law-Breaking Librarians (Wisconsin and North Carolina Divisions)
Posted July 19, 2008
Yesterday LISNews posted not one but two news stories involving librarians who've
recently run afoul of the law. A librarian in Milwaukee
apparently served liquor to some teenagers at two different parties at her house, and a librarian in
Burlington, NC, has been arrested for falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen.
- Borrowing vs. Buying; Convenience vs. Thrift
Posted July 18, 2008
One of the blogs at the Wall Street Journal has devoted the past couple days to a lively discussion of the pros and
cons of using libraries as a money-saving strategy for busy families.
Library workers and library administrators would be astonished by what some people (not all of them residents of New York,
incidentally) have decided are the most valuable services provided by public libraries - and why.
Among other things, the comments on this blog confirm the fact that the level of public awareness of public libraries and
what they do or do not offer varies wildly, even among presumably well-informed citizens/consumers. Also humbling: what
factors determine whether or not (some) parents lead them to make public libraries an integral part of their families'
lives - or not.
For these and other reasons, the blog is absolutely compulsive reading. Libraries don't need any more focus groups to find
out how people perceive and/or use libraries: we just need to keep reading nlogs like this one, and adapt our services
(and hours of service) accordingly.
Read. This. Now.
Found via LISNews.
- Public Libraries and "Walkable Neighborhoods"
Posted July 18, 2008
This blogpost isn't about libraries per se,
but it got us to thinking that the existence of a nearby public library should probably be routinely figured into the
criteria used for calibrating the relative desirability of a given neighborhood.
- So Many Disposable Books, So Few Enduring Ones...
Posted July 17, 2008
One publisher's
conclusions about why U.S. bookstores - and many U.S. libraries - are cluttered with disposable infotainment
rather than - well, with something more valuable.
Found via LISNews.
- Memo to All Library Directors, Library Administrators, Library Managers on Planet Earth:
Posted July 16, 2008
Good leaders surround themselves with talented, outspoken
individuals, not yes-men (or -women).
Found via the
Librarian in Black.
Sources of LibraryLand Bulletins:
- By a wide margin, the most frequently-used source for "LibraryLand" is
LISNews
- Other frequently-used sources (in addition to AFPLWATCH readers themselves):
Contribute an item to (or recommend another resource for) "LibraryLand Listening Post"
The Webmaster's Mailbox
Post your comment to AFPLWATCH
Read comments previously posted to AFPLWATCH.
Rumors & Speculations
Hear/Say
Heard any AFPL gossip recently? Share it with your colleagues by
sending AFPLWATCH an email.
If you prefer not to tell us your name, sign your email with the pseudonym
of your choice.
Read previous items posted to this section of
AFPLWATCH
Inquiring Minds Want to Know...
...what's the big holdup on hiring people for the four administrative
vacancies that AFPL finally began recruiting for five months ago?
(Posted August 10, 2006; updated October 6, November 3, and December 31,
2006; and January 16, February 7, March 7, April 11, May 15, June 13,
June 29, July 7, August 11, September 7, October 2, November 2, and
December 7, 2007; February 8, 2008; March 18, 2008; April 4, 2008; May 6, 2008; and June 7, 2008)
Four critically-needed administrative posts - Branch Group Administrator, Technical
Services Manager, Community Relations Manager (aka public information
officer), and Central Library Administrator - have gone unfilled since their
vacancies were first advertised on March 10, 2006. All four positions had
been vacant long before then - two of them were vacated before Mary Kaye Hooker was
fired over two years ago. Surely by now there are sufficient numbers of
applicants for all four of these positions for the current library director
to choose among. Why the protracted delays in these four long-awaited
hirings, and why have there been no explanations of those delays?
October 6, 2006 Update: At a meeting of
library managers on October 5th, library director John Szabo stated that
an interviewing team for these vacancies would be created the second week
in October.
November 3, 2006 Update: At the November meeting of library managers,
there was no comment on the status of these important pending interviews.
AFPLWATCH has not been able to verify that any of these interviews had been
conducted in October or had been scheduled as of November 1st.
December 31, 2006 Update: No further news on the scheduling of
interviews for any of these four positions was forthcoming by year's end.
January 16, 2007 Update: We were reminded of the apparently interminable
impasse on filling these key vacant positions when we read a recent
posting at
The Librarian's Guide to Etiquette, one of AFPLWATCH's select
sources of reliably-hilarious library humor. To paraphrase the LGE posting:
Hiring administrators for a public library system is a big deal. Be patient
and do not rush the process, no matter how excruciatingly slow it may seem.
There is a reason that it takes longer to hire a public library administrator
than...
- growing your hair out
- filming a season of
Survivor
confirming a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court
delivering due process to prisoners at Gitmo
creating a new human life (from foreplay to delivery)
That reason may not be obvious to anyone, but there must be a reason.
February 7th Update: At a meeting of library managers on February
5th, library director John Szabo reportedly said that he had finally received from
the county's personnel office all the paperwork on the outside applicants
for these four administrative vacancies, and that letters inviting
candidates to the job interviews would be mailed out soon.
March 7th Update: At the March 1st meeting of library managers,
an announcement was made that initial interviews for three of the four positions
had either been held earlier that week, and that initial interviews for
the fourth vacancy had been scheduled for later in March.
April 11th Update: At the April 10th meeting of library managers,
Library Director John Szabo said that interviews were still being conducted
for the four vacant administrative positions.
May 15th Update: At the May meeting of library managers, Library
Director John Szabo said that he hoped to be able to announce the appointment
of the new Public Information Officer "soon," and that a second round of
interviews of candidates for the other three administrative vacancies was
underway.
June 13th Update: At the June meeting of library managers, the status
of these four critical vacancies did not appear on the meeting agenda and
library director John Szabo said narry a word about them.
June 29th Update: According to an announcement earlier this week,
the installation of some new software in the county's personnel department
will require a month-long hiring freeze beginning July 11th. And according
to today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fulton County Manager Tom
Andrews has announced he will
resign by the end of the year.
How will these two things further complicate and/or delay the filling
of AFPL's four administrative vacancies, we wonder?
July 7th Update: Once again, the status of
the library administration vacancies was not included on the agenda of the
July meeting of library managers, and library director John Szabo said nary
a word at that meeting about it.
August 11th Update: Zero, nothing, nada mentioned at the August 9th
managers' meeting about the filling of any or all of the four vacancies.
September 7, 2007 Update: More thundering
silence at the September 6th meeting of library managers about any progress
in filling the organization's four critical administrative vacancies.
October 2, 2007 Update: In an email to staff
dated October 1, 2007, AFPL Director John Szabo announced
appointments to two of the four positions.
November 2, 2007 Update: Status reports on recruitment efforts for
the remaining two unfilled Administrative Team vacancies (the Central
Library Administrator and the Technical Services Manager) were not on the
agenda of the latest monthly meeting of the library director John Szabo
with library system managers, nor did Szabo mention any developments during
that meeting.
December 6, 2007 Update: At the final 2007
meeting of library managers, nothing about the two still-unfilled administrative
positions was on the meeting agenda, and the library director made no
comments about them during the meeting.
February 7, 2008 Update: Ditto.
March 18, 2008 Update: Ditto.
April 4, 2008 Update: Ditto.
May 6, 2008 Update: Ditto.
June 7, 2008 Update: Ditto.
Read items previously posted to this section of AFPLWATCH
Notice something about the library that makes no sense?
Contribute an item to "Inquiring Minds"
Dept. of Wishful Thinking
Posted July 16, 2007;
updated July 27, August 29, September 28, October 31, November 2, 2007; April 4, 2008;
May 6, 2008; June 7, 2008; June 13, 2008
Anybody want to guess how far past "the end of June 2007" the county's
Information Technology Department will announce the availability of wireless
access to the Internet in the county's public libraries? Or even when IT
will begin the installation of the wireless access gadgetry?
"The end of June 2007" wasn't the first wireless installation target date
mentioned to (skeptical) library managers, but as of mid-July, no wireless
gizmo installers had been spotted at any branch library.
July 27th Update: By late July, IT
employees had begun visiting each branch to identify where its wi-fi
equipment will (eventually) be installed. Still to come: the equipment
installations, and the procedures needed to regulate the use of this
service after the equipment is activated.
August 29th Update: Still no word that
any AFPL library has had its wi-fi equipment installed.
September 28th Update: No reports of
any wi-fi equipment having been installed at any AFPL library.
October 31st Update: Zero installments
this past month of any wi-fi equipment at any AFPL library.
November 2nd Update: Library Director
John Szabo told library managers at their monthly meeting with him that
funds to implement the wi-fi apparatus in county libraries was part of
the Information Technology Department's 2008 budget - a budget that won't
be approved until January 2008.
April 4th Update: From what someone
thought they understood from some comments the library director made at a
managers' meeting in early 2008, the funds requested for installing wi-fi in the
county'slibraries were not included in the budget the commissioners approved
in January, and the project will have to wait until county managers can
either figure out how to pay for it by shifting around existing funds, or
the ask commissioners for a special appropriation later this year. Whether
or not this report is accurate, the wi-fi project does remains on hold,
frustrated library users continue to ask library staff why it's taking so
long to implement, and there was no update on the project at the April 3rd
meeting of library managers.
May 6th Update: Although a question was asked at the May meeting of
library managers about the continued delays in implementing wi-fi in AFPL libraries, there was no progress to report:
the implementation still awaits the specific instructions of the Commissioners (or the County Manager)
to locate the funds (about $100,000 the first year) to pay for it.
June 7th Update: Having repeatedly surfacing at meetings of library managers,
questions about the incredible delays in implementing wi-fi in the library system recently surfaced again at a General Staff
Meeting. Meanwhile, more and more local fast-food chain outlets are introducing wi-fi to lure customers, and
more and more library patrons are being caught unplugging library desktop computers so they can plug in their
personal laptops instead. In other words, the farce continues for another month with no county action on this issue.
June 13th Update:As thousands of library users continue to steadily lower
their opinion of the Atlanta-Fulton Library System every time they ask (again) whether libraries finally offer
wi-fi and find out we don't, dozens of other outfits seem to be managing, somehow, to provide it. You - and
your library users - can find out exactly who's advertising that fact by checking various state-by-state, city-by-city
wi-fi directories on the Internet, such as:
In fact, to mollify the annoyance of these would-be library wi-fi users for what's apparently going to be a long
wait for in-library wi-fi, you might want to use these directories to compile a give-away printed list of the free wi-fi
providers located near your non-wi-fi-offering library. (Just be sure to update your handout frequently!)
[The list of wi-fi directories was compiled by the Montana State Library's Maggie Meredith; her list was posted
at MaintainIT Project, and that posting
was blogged by Jessamyn West at Librarian.net.]
Read items previously-posted to this section of AFPLWATCH
Heard or read a prediction about the library
that's wildly unrealistic?
Contribute an item to the Dept. of Wishful Thinking
Challenges Facing Large Library Systems Like AFPL
Webmaster's Note: The still-exhausted survivors of Hurricane
Hooker remain preoccupied with the excruciatingly slow and energy-draining
project of gradually freeing themselves from the embarrassing mediocrity
and dysfunctionality they find themselves and their patrons still mired in.
Meanwhile, luckier librarians in public library systems elsewhere have been
spending at least part of their time figuring out what they need to do
to be more useful to their users.
While AFPL's customers have learned to expect mediocre service from Fulton
County's libraries, AFPL administrators can't expect the library's users to
wait indefinitely for better collections, for better-equipped,
better-staffed, and better-maintained facilities, and for mission-relevant
programming.
This section of AFPLWATCH aims to highlight some of the dozens of current
library service issues and challenges AFPL administrators should be paying
attention to, and finding ways for AFPL managers and staff (those who give
a damn about improving customer service, that is) to effectively address.
Another Fast-Growing Group of "Underserved" Users?
Posted January 9, 2008
Most public libraries - there are a few notable exceptions - are, for various
reasons, way behind the curve when it comes to dealing with that
growing group of library users who seldom, if ever, darken their libraries'
doors.
As routine Internet use in our society increases, more people are interacting
with the library as mostly-remote users. More and more people are searching
our catalogs and databases - or trying to, anyway - from their Internet
connections at home and/or at their workplaces. They actually visit a
library only when we we alert them (usually, via email delivered to their
computers) to pick up an item they've placed on Hold. These patrons probably
wouldn't make even those visits, either, if we didn't force them to, by
refusing to provide drive-thru Holds pickup service or refusing to mail
them the library items they're interested in borrowing (because we're
unable or unwilling to provide certain items in computer-readable format).
Most libraries and librarians feel obliged - or at least are periodically
exhorted by library administrators and funders - to ferret out and find
ways to better serve whatever "underserved" populations happen to reside in
their service areas. Typically, this means finding ways to belatedly better
serve long-ignored groups such as non-native-born or native-language-speaking
citizens, or various hard-to-ignore cohorts in various age groups (teens,
senior citizens) or demographic groups (the huge droves of the medically-
uninformed-and-therefore-medically-at-risk, for example).
Would Internet-centric users of libraries qualify as the latest mostly-underserved
group of public library users?
Biblioblogger David Lee King thinks so.
Maybe public library administrators - including the ones at AFPL - who have
remained breathtakingly inert in the face of the clamor from some quarters
for more user-friendly catalogs, more interactive library websites, and for
more intensive experimentation with "social software" applications on those
websites would become a bit less indifferent if they could be convinced that
their indifference and procrastination constitutes deliberately ignoring an
obviously "underserved" population of taxpayers?
Instead of continuing to focus on bidness-as-usual (i.e., rejoicing in
accomplishments like "more library cards issued this year than last year"),
public library administrators need to think more about - and take some
significant action on - better serving some of their current cardholders:
the ones who are doing more and more of their interacting with the library
via their computers. Or who would like to, if their libraries would only
meet them halfway in that great ether-based cloud more of us are moving
around in these days.
Read previously-posted Challenges:
-
The Biggest Elephant in the
Living Room Library?
Posted September 8, 2007
-
Public Libraries: "The People's University" or Asylums for the Homeless?
Posted April 4, 2007
-
Over-Protecting Employees vs. "Throwing Them to the Sharks"
Posted November 29, 2006
-
Convincing People Who Don't Use Libraries to Start Using Them
Posted September 13, 2006
-
Clarifying the Purpose of the Public Library
Posted August 16, 2006
-
What Job Skills Should Today's Librarian Possess?
Posted July 22, 2006
-
Encouraging Creative Employees
Posted June 21, 2006
-
“Fifteen Provocative Statements”
Posted May 17, 2006
-
Library Passion vs. Library Slavery
Posted May 1, 2006
-
A Futurist Predicts the Fate of Libraries
Posted April 5, 2006
-
Keeping Library Techies Happy and Productive
Posted March 16, 2006
-
The Importance of Interactive Library Websites
Posted February 20, 2006
-
Public Libraries and the Homeless
Posted January 6, 2005
-
Services for People Who Never Darken the Library's Door
Posted December 14, 2005
-
"Libraries: Standing at the Wrong Platform, Waiting for the Wrong Train?”
Posted October 31, 2005
-
Maximizing Clarity in the Library Catalog
Posted October 19, 2005
-
An Online Public Access Catalog Manifesto
Posted October 10, 2005
-
“The Truth about Libraryland”
Posted September 6, 2005
-
The Life Cycle of Library Systems
Posted August 11, 2005
-
The Paraprofessional's Lament
Posted August 3, 2005
-
What to Do with "Digital Estates"?
Posted July 18, 2005
-
In Search of an Emotionally Healthy Library
Posted June 6, 2005
-
Are Library Catalogs Necessary?
Posted May 31, 2005
-
How Librarians Will Become Extinct
Posted August 16, 2004
Contribute an item to this section of AFPLWATCH
Wasted Taxpayers' Dollars
- Continued Incompentence, More Cost Overruns at the Fulton County Jail
Posted July 10, 2008
The dreary
details published by Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- Former Fulton County Magistrate Judge Charged With Human Trafficking
Posted June 19, 2008
Although not a story about wasted taxpayer dollars, this
indictment of a former county legal advisor who was on the county payroll a few years ago makes you think twice
about the effectiveness of the so-called "merit system" designed to persuade citizens to trust Fulton County
officials.
Found via NorthFulton.com.
- Dept. of Bread and Circuses: Commissioners Vote to Build $6 Million Concert Venue
Posted April 4,2008
...despite the fact that the county doesn't have enough money in its coffers
to properly maintain the facilities it already owns, despite the the fact
that a county revenue shortfall is expected this year, and despite the fact
that the construction estimates for the concert arena are three years old.
Details from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- $74,000 Fulton County Contract for Not Doing Any Work
Posted February 11, 2008
So much for the county's careful monitoring of its lucrative contracts.
In
this case, you have to wonder why this never-done work was ever deemed worthwhile
in the first place, especially its price tag is as big as this one.
Even more infuriating: the county's officials don't seem to have in place
any regulations that would allow the county to recoup this money for county
taxpayers.
- The New Yorker's Take on the Nichols Case
Posted January 31, 2008
The Brian Nichols murder trial has caught the attention of the New Yorker.
Jeffrey Toobin,
writing in the magazine's February 4th issue, sums up the bumbling of
county employees both before and after Nichols' March 11, 2005 killing
spree at the Fulton County Courthouse:
"After the shanks [the home-made weapons] were discovered [on Nichols while
he was in the county sheriff department's custody during Nichols second
trial for an alleged rape], [presiding] Judge Barnes said he wanted the
sheriff's department, which handles security at the courthouse, to provide
Nichols with additional guards, yet he was escorted to court [on the morning
of the 11th] by a single female deputy sheriff. Part of [Nichols'] attack
on the deputy was captured by surveillance cameras, but no one was
monitoring them....During a subsequent investigation, five sheriff's
deputies were found to have lied about their actions with regard to Nichols.
Eight deputies were fired for misconduct, all but two of whom were
later rehired." [Emphasis ours.]
If lost revenues from the several cities that have defected from county
government, plus the county's share of the cost of prosecuting Nichols
don't bankrupt the county, the settling of several lawsuits filed against
the county by the relatives of Nichols' victims probably will. The
almost unbelievable fact that the county re-hired negligent county
employees whose actions or failures to act (or even to be at their assigned posts
on March 11, 2005) probably strengthens the arguments for wrongful death
that have been made in those lawsuits. Higher taxes, anyone? And does
everyone having business at the county courthouse feel safer, now that
the security staff there assumes they can get their jobs back if they
ever (temporarily) lose them through incompetence? And yet commissioners
continue to deny that Fulton County government is beyond reform.
- Newspaper Headline Reminds Taxpayers of County Funds Squandered in 2004
Posted January 21, 2008
The relevant statement - "Fulton [County] eventually recovered all but $500,000 of the $7.2 million in
improperly invested funds" occurs at the end of this Atlanta Journal-Constitution story.
- Nichols Case Cost County Taxpayers Another $125,000...
Posted January 17, 2008
...and that's before the inevitable legal settlements arising out of
multiple lawsuits filed against the county by Nichols' victims' families.
The $125,000 is also in addition to the $1.5 million Nichols' lawyers
have already spent on their client's defense.
Details from today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- County Taxpayers to Pay Less for Smaller Government? Not in Fulton!
Posted January 16, 2008
More than one county commissioner
publicly denies there's any relationship between the salaries of
several of its department heads and the now-diminished extent of their
previous responsibilities.
How come the logic of higher-salaries-for-more-extensive-responsibilities
doesn't work in reverse, we wonder? But then, logic is always the
first casualty when an entrenched power bloc, like the Fulton County
Commission, loses - through it repeated incompetence and refusal to
sanely steward taxpayer dollars - the confidence of the people who
elected them.
Spooky Quotation
Posted July 16, 2007
"What happens when we stop focusing energy on things that we can’t control?
That energy gets focused on things that we can control, and ironically, we
end up exerting more influence."
--Peter Bromberg, from
a July 6, 2007 posting to Library Garden
* * *
Read previously-posted quotations from the Post-Hooker era; from the Hooker era
Comic Relief
Greeting Cards for Co-Workers
Posted July 1, 2008
In some respects, working in a library must not be all that different than working anywhere else.
Check out the workplace-themed greeting cards at
SomeCards.com
Examples:
Found via the Lo-Fi Librarian.
* * * * *
Read library humor items previously posted to AFPLWATCH:
-
What Do You Call a Group of Librarians?
Posted February 27, 2008
-
Are Your Library Co-Workers Insane?
Posted August 1, 2007
-
Reparations Sought from Public Libraries Nationwide
Posted July 15, 2007
-
Dept. of Literary Humor
Posted June 8, 2007
-
"Go Where the Users Are!"
Posted March 21, 2007
-
"Librarianship, I Wish I Knew How I Could Quit You"
Posted February 1, 2007
-
"Nation's Gays Demand Right to Library Cards"
Posted January 18, 2007
-
When Librarians Attack! DVD Enjoys Brisk Sales
Posted December 13, 2006
-
Help Stamp Out Library Trends!
Posted November 22, 2006
-
What's with Libraries and Those Annoying Golf Pencils?
Posted November 3, 2006
-
"The Annoyed Librarian's" Guide to Summer Fun
Posted August 7, 2006
-
"The Annoyed Librarian's Guide to Public Service"
Posted July 17, 2006
-
Library Spa 2.0
Posted June 14, 2006
-
Are You Geeky Enough to Become a Librarian?
Posted May 6, 2006
-
The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Librarians
Posted January 19, 2006
-
"Rules for Approaching the Kung Fu Librarian’s Desk"
Posted December 14, 2005
-
The Wit & Wisdom of "The Warrior Librarian"
Posted October 26, 2005
-
Ideas for Library Conference Topics
Posted September 20, 2005
-
"Signs, Signs, Everywhere Are Signs..."
Posted September 13, 2005
-
"Guide to Old Fashioned Library Remedies"
Posted September 6, 2005
-
Organizational Administration: A Modern Lexicon
Posted August 11, 2005
-
Spontaneous Human Combustion At The Circ Desk
Posted July 27, 2005
-
The Top 50 Publisher-Rejected Children's Book Titles
Posted July 22, 2005
-
Filing Cabinets Can Be Hazardous to Your Health!
Posted July 11, 2005
-
A Compendium of Funny Reference Questions
Posted June 29, 2005
-
"Do You Work Here?"
Posted June 20, 2005
-
You Know You're a Librarian When...
Posted June 10, 2005
-
Romance Novel Cover Art In Search of Less Euphemistic Titles
Posted May 28, 2005
-
David Letterman's Top 10 Drawbacks to Working in a Cubicle
Posted December 31, 2003
-
Advanced Governance
Posted December 13, 2003
Contribute an item to this section of AFPLWATCH
Relibably-hilarious library humor Internet sites
(updated January 15, 2008):
History Lessons
Flashbacks!
July at AFPL
One Year Ago...
Among AFPLWATCH's complaints posted in July 2007:
A year later, none of these failures has been remedied, and AFPL still doesn't have its own webmaster.
Two Years Ago...
July 31, 2006
AFPLWATCH posts links to the previous
twelve months worth of AFPL circulation statistic rankings, asking why
library administrators stubbornly refuse to reallocate staff to the busiest
branches and stick with allocations determined almost a decade before.
Two years later, there still hasn't been any significant reallocation of staff
based on which branches are busiest and which ones are least busy.
Mid-July 2006
A local television station airs the results of its so-called
"investigation" of "lewd behavior" in metro Atlanta libraries, including AFPL's Central
Library.
Three Years Ago...
July 14, 2005
Former Child & Youth Services Administrator Doris Jackson tells YA and children's
librarians that it's OK for branches to ignore the library system's policy
on honoring Patron Holds for the latest Harry Potter title, so that
people browsing branch collections on or after the book’s July 16th release date
might be able to find copies on branch shelves.
Four Years Ago...
July 30, 2004
AFPLWATCH publishes a story showing how
decisions made by the Hooker/McClure regime plus a prolonged county hiring
freeze has resulted in one-third of the library system's 34 facilities
being operated for many months without full-time managers.
July 30, 2004
The county manager announces he is extending a deadline for applications
for the vacant library director's position (empty since MKH's firing in
May), and does not designate a new deadline. (The hiring of successful
candidate John Szabo is not announced until the following February, and
Szabo does not report to work until the following April.)
Five Years Ago...
July 23, 2003
Library Director Mary Kaye Hooker tells the trustees that "16,000 people
a month" use the Central Library's fourth-floor computers.
July 26, 2003
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Library Loses Bias Suit
Ruling"
July 31, 2003
The Office of Public Library Services announces it has assumed responsbility
for filtering all computer workstations in Georgia's public libraries
effective August 4, 2003.
Five years later - and despite repeated requests - library staff have still
never received instructions for temporarily disabling the filter, instructions
required by federal law.
Six Years Ago...
July 31, 2002
Library Journal: "Murder-Suicide in Atlanta-Fulton Branch"
Two months later, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution described
the circumstances leading up to the murder.
Eight Years Ago...
July 13, 2000
The law firm hired by AFPL employees who had earlier filed
a Group Grievance with Fulton County protesting
a massive transfer of AFPL's Central Library employees in May 2000 asks
AFPL board of trustees chair William McClure to reinstate the employees to
their former jobs or face a lawsuit. (McClure refused, and the resulting
successful lawsuit cost Fulton County taxpayers more than $18 million to
settle.)
Nine Years Ago...
July 21, 1999
Atlanta Journal-Constitution headline: "Controversial Texan to
Lead Fulton Library"
Ten Years Ago...
July 6, 1998
Following AFPL Director Julie Hunter's resignation, library
employees sign a petition demanding that the
library system's board of trustees resign.
July 16, 1998
Atlanta Journal-Constitution headline: "Resolution to Re-Vamp
Fulton Library Board Fails in 3-3 Tie"
Twenty-Five Years Ago...
July 1, 1983
A decision by the citizens of Georgia (via a referendum the previous November) to transfer Fulton County the
library system previously operated since 1902 by the City of Atlanta becomes effective. The new library system
is named the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library.
|
The Library Lawsuits
Upshot
County, Librarians Settle Discrimination Lawsuit
Posted January 8, 2004
Additional links posted January 9 and January 17, 2004
Final two paragraphs updated monthly between January 2004 and July 2004
A settlement has been reached in the case of the racial discrimination
lawsuit against the Atlanta Fulton Public Library. According to
reports in local media, the settlement consists of three payments of
over $6,000,000 each, for a total of more than $18,000,000, to the 8
plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The settlement ends a bitter struggle that began in September 1999 with
the arrival of Mary Kaye Hooker as AFPL's library director. Testimony
and evidence at the trial showed that library board members repeatedly
expressed their concern to Hooker over the racial make-up of management at
the Central Library. On two occasions, the board demanded a list of Central
managers by race, and board committee minutes recorded board members’
comments about the race of the Central managers and a need to do
something about it. The plaintiffs argued that a May 2000 transfer of
most of Central's managers was the outcome of the board’s concern over
the race of the managers, and that the transfers were equivalent to
demotions.
At the federal trial in January 2002, the jury found for the
plaintiffs. The county appealed the verdicts and the amount of the
jury's damage awards: $23,364,400 million, plus court costs of an additional
$371,316 (later reduced by the judge to a total of $16,859,400).
In June 2003, a panel of the appeals court judges affirmed
the lower court rulings; in July, it rejected the county's request for
the entire court to review the case. The county then appealed the case
to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was scheduled to decide on January 9,
2004 whether or not to grant the appeal.
At its December 17, 2003 meeting, the Fulton County Board of
Commissioners, whose new chair had been elected the previous month,
authorized the county's attorney to make another settlement offer to
the plaintiffs, and the plaintiffs accepted that offer later in
December. The confidential settlement agreement was revealed by WSB-TV
News on January 7th.
Contrary to the initial media report (and subsequent ones), all eight
of the plaintiffs--Janet Bogle, Sherri Bowers, JoLynn Burge, Jean Cornn,
Maureen Kelly, Nancy Powers, Mary Starck, and Katharine Suttell--are
white. Monica Foderingham-Brown, an African-American librarian, had
been part of the suit from the beginning, but the trial judge removed
her from the case after ruling there was insufficient evidence to
support Foderingham-Brown's claim that her transfer had resulted from
her having spearheaded a petition calling for the board to resign well
before the May 2000 transfers.
Read the
story as reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Read the
story as reported in the online edition of Library Journal.
Read the
story as reported in the online edition of American Libraries.
Read a
summary of the court's decision written by librarians for librarians.
Read an
analysis of the court's findings published in the Stetson Law Review.
Beween June 6, 2003, when the appeals court upheld the lower court's
guilty verdicts and multi-million-dollar damage awards against Mary Kaye
Hooker and William McClure, and May 19, 2004, when the County Manager
fired Hooker, the Commissioners met twenty-three
times. At any one of those meetings
the commissioners could have voted to no longer pay Hooker's salary and
recommended that McClure be removed from the library's board of trustees;
they did not do that.
The library system's
Board of Trustees met fourteen times between the
appeals court's June 6, 2003 ruling and May 19, 2004, when the County Manager
fired Hooker. At any point during that period, the board could have fired
Hooker for violating federal anti-discrimination laws, but they did not do
so. The trustees also failed to remove McClure from the board, despite the
fact that he, too, violated federal anti-discrimination law.
The Commission's and the library board's failure to dismiss Hooker and
McClure took place amid various demands - for example, the Fulton County
Tax Association's June 2003 "Call to Remove
Fulton Library Director and Library Board Member Found Guilty of Practicing
Discrimination" - that these two individuals be prevented from further
damaging the library system.
After library and county officials failed to act, Georgia's legislators
passed a bill in the spring of 2004 that abolished the library board
of trustees as of June 30, 2004, thus ending McClure's tenure on the
library board. On May 19, 2004, the county manager (empowered as Hooker's
supervisor by the recent legislation) finally fired Hooker.
Read previously-posted updates on the lawsuit,
including a photo of the
plaintiffs
Library Settles Second Lawsuit
Filed for Retaliation Against AFPL Employees
Who Won Previous Lawsuit
In December 2003, a settlement was reached in a separate lawsuit against
AFPL filed by librarians Mary Starck and Maureen Kelly, two plaintiffs in
the previous lawsuit against library system.
The second suit charged both discrimination and retaliation. Kelly protested a
punitive transfer and Starck protested the denial of a job - she had been
the preferred candidate and eventually was chosen only after she filed a
grievance.
The second lawsuit was settled for $250,000. This settlement was in
addition to the $18 million that Fulton County paid to settle the lawsuit
filed by Kelly, Starck, and other AFPL employees in 2000.
One of our favorite quotes from the various news reports about the second lawsuit:
"When I learned we had two of the plaintiffs in the original lawsuit
before us again in EEOC grievances, I was incredulous. Then I was furious.
Nobody could be that stupid, I thought."
-Stephen Dorvee, Vice Chairman, AFPL Board of Trustees,
Alpharetta Revue & News, October 15, 2003
AFPLWATCH's reaction (posted October 20, 2003) to Dorvee's comment:
All library personnel transactions, including recommendations for hire
(like the one for the position Starck interviewed for) and transfers (like
Kelly’s) go through the library's administrative chain of command before
they reach the full board of trustees. That chain includes libary human
resource manager Sylvia Culver, library director Hooker, and the library
trustees' Personnel Committee. Every single person along that chain of
command who signed off on these transactions had to have known the names
of the two individuals involved in those transactions, and that those
individuals were plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the library. If the
"system worked", how did both these actions get past Culver? Past Hooker?
Past the members of the [trustees'] Personnel Committee?
Despite Hooker's attempts to spin to the trustees and to the county's
Equal Employment Opportunity Office how these incidents occurred, Hooker's
fingerprints are all over these personnel actions, right next to those of
former Deputy Director Carolyn Garnes.
Not long after the EEOC grievance was filed that led to the second lawsuit,
Deputy Director Carolyn Garnes abruptly resigned; eight months after that,
Library Director Mary Kaye Hooker was fired. Culver, however, still works
as AFPL's Human Resources Manager.
Background
- Anyone not familiar with the facts of the original lawsuit may want
to read
a summary of the circumstances leading up it.
- Summaries of the testimony given each day during the original trial,
compiled from notes taken by AFPL employees who attended, are posted
here.
Documents
Hurricane Hooker
(August 19, 1999 - May 19, 2004)
"Hooker's  Howlers"
Grab yourself a barf bag and read a sampling of the
lies and distortions from the mouth or word processor of Mary Kaye
Hooker before the County Manager finally fired her on May 19, 2004.
"Daily Affirmations" for Mary Kaye Hooker?
Posted February 21, 2004
"Still Strategizing..."
Posted August 17, 2003
The Ideal Library Director...
...is the opposite of what AFPL had from 1999 to 2004.
Updated May 9, 2003
Library Staff Morale:
In the Proverbial Toilet
Posted May 5, 2003
By the time former library director Mary Kaye Hooker was finally
fired in May 2004 and the former library board was abolished in June
2004, morale among library workers had sunk to its lowest level in over
a decade. To find out why, read "The Floggings
Will Continue Until Morale Improves!"
The Amateur Hour:
AFPL's Trustees at Work
Peacocks on Parade:
Embarrassing Antics of AFPL's Clueless Trustees
Updated May 16, 2005
Examples of the cluelessness and/or ego tripping of AFPL's board of trustees.
"Scoundrel Time"
Final Update: January 21, 2004
William McClure once chaired AFPL's library board and--despite the
successful $18 million lawsuit brought against him and others for race
discrimination against library employees--McClure remained a board member
and committee chair until the former board was abolished by Georgia law
on June 30, 2004.
Shortly after leaving AFPL and until he died on October 25, 2005 at age 57,
McClure "served" the citizens of East Point as a city council member. For
comments from East Point citizens outraged about McClure's antics on the
council, read "Reports about One of Our Former
Illustrious Board Members".
Damning Documents
Down the Rabbit-Hole:
Dispatches from The Surreal Library
Sobering Thoughts in a Troubled Time
Read these Sobering Thoughts, posted during Hooker's regime:
- "Teamwork - and, at AFPL, Its Opposite"
- “Brutal Bosses and Their Prey”
- “Those Who Can, Do; Those Who Can’t, Bully”
- Does this sound like any library director you know?
- Does this sound like any board of trustees you know?
- The Secret Wellspring of "Hookerspeak" Revealed!
- “Does Your Boss Put the ‘I’ in Idiot?”
- "When Dopey's in charge, it's you who's always out of your mind..."
- "Being a Library Director Means Never Having to Say You're
Sorry
--No Matter How Sorry You Are"
- Workplace sociopathy + sadism + narcissism + paranoia = the Business Psychopath
- "Clouds of excuses and disclaimers..."
- "The 10 Deadly Sins of Leadership"
- "Deception of others is closely linked with self-deception...."
A Library System in Shambles
The Bad Drives Away The Good:
The AFPL Brain Drain, 1999-2004
Updated August 17, 2004
For the breathtakingly long list of the many administrative
employees, subject specialists, and computer technicians who were
involuntarily transferred, prematurely retired, or resigned from the
Central Library during (or shortly after) the five-year tenure of
recently-dismissed Library Director Mary Kaye Hooker, check
"Would the Last One Out Please Turn Out
the Lights?"
|
|
If you have already received--or if ever in your life you do receive--an
application for your city's or county's vacant library director position
from this individual--Mary Kaye Hooker, aka Mary Kaye Donahue-Hooker aka
Mary Kay Donahue--instruct your interview team to request and review
a free copy of The Hooker Dossier before offering a job
to this applicant.
