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Library Trustees Ask County Commissioners
To Waste Another $112,000 of the Taxpayers' Dollars
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As if it wasn't reprehensible enough that the Fulton County government
has continued to pay a $100,000+ salary to Library Director
Mary Kaye Hooker two years after she was found guilty of violating
federal anti-discrimination laws, the library system's trustees--including
two county commissioners--have gotten the County Commission to approve
$112,000 to "study" in even greater detail the repeatedly-documented
employment discrimination at the library.
Fulton County taxpayers are paying yet another large chunk of allegedly
scarce tax dollars to find out what a federal court jury, a panel of
federal appeals court judges, the county's own attorney, and the
county's own Equal Employment Opportunity Office have already--and
independently--ascertained: that, beginning in May 2000 and continuing
up through at least March 2003, library director Mary Kaye Hooker has
authorized a series of specific, illegal personnel actions that have
detrimentally affected the incomes, working conditions, and careers of
dozens of library employees, and that all of these decisions
were endorsed by the library system's trustees. There's nothing
wrong with the library's policies; what's wrong is the county government's
refusal to hold its library director accountable for violating those
policies. The culprit(s) of these particular violations have
already been identified, by both internal and external investigators.
What's to "study"?
Pertinent questions Fulton County taxpayers and newspaper reporters
might feel moved to ask the commissioners:
- If the issue of equal employment opportunity at the library needs
further study, why can't the commissioners direct their own EEO staff
to conduct such a study? After all, their office files contain a
mountain of allegations and evidence of employment law violations at
the library--including the EEO Office's monthly reports to the County
Manager and numerous documents authorizing illegal personnel actions
that bear the signature of Mary Kaye Hooker.
- Why are taxpayers footing the bill for County Attorney's Office
salaries if this office is not capable of determining whether the
library's policies comply with federal law?
- Why are taxpayers footing the bill for the salary of the library
system's Human Resource Manager if she is incapable of monitoring the
library system's policies for compliance with federal law?
- Do county officials really need an outside law firm and to spend
this much money to determine whether or not the library's "practices
and procedures" are legal?
- What is the true motivation for this particular instance of the
commissioners being asked to "close the barn door after the horse is
long gone"?
- Do the successful bidders for this lucrative contract have
ties to certain library trustees or to certain county commissioners?
- Is this a belated, ass-covering attempt by the trustees and/or the commissioners to show "due diligence"
and "good faith" in any future lawsuits filed by library employees
victimized by Hooker, or filed by outraged citizens such as the
Fulton County Taxpayers Association?
- Are the trustees so afraid Hooker will sue them and/or the county
government if they fire her that they're gathering ammunition to
minimize the chances of such a lawsuit before they fire her?
Whatever the rationale for the study, spending this amount of money
for yet another study of the already-known legal situation of a
reckless and universally loathed library director is extremely ironic:
if an extra $112,000 is truly available in county coffers, most
citizens would probably prefer that the commissioners add this amount
to the woefully inadequate budget for library materials--a budget
which the commissioners have not increased for several years running,
despite the increased demand by citizens for more libraries and library
services.
Instead of agreeubg to spend another $112,000 to verify the culpability
of Mary Kaye Hooker, it's too bad the commissioners didn't save the
taxpayers that much next year by demanding that the board firie her immediately.
Contact the county commissioners.
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