Tom Brown's message illustrates again that there is either a communication
disconnect among all the groups of players, some heavy duty issues for which
those most intimately involved in the issue--the librarians (something like
80-85% of MPL's annual budget is staff costs, so there's a whole bunch of
staff) do not have a clear picture of how to move forward. If the board, the
management, the staff and the public do not have a clear picture, how, in the
name of can the public vote intelligently less than a week from today?
I could kick the seeds out of a pickle.
Wizard Marks, Central
List Manager wrote:
> Forwarded on behalf of Tom Brown, president of the Library workers' union:
>
> It is a fact that Library Board members attended the September and October
> general membership meetings of AFSCME Local 99. They, along with Richard
> Rose, attempted to drum up our support for the referendum.Their hope was
> that
> we would pass a resolution in favor of the referendum. Because of time
> restraints the discussion was tabled until the October meeting. At the
> October meeting a motion was offered to pass a resolution in favor of the
> referendum. After a lengthy discussion the motion was put to a vote of the
> membership. The motion failed and no further action was taken. The reasons
> for
> it's failure were many and varied. The general concensus was that members
> who
> support the referendum should be encouraged to do so on a personal level.
>
> Without going into a lot of detail these are some of the reasons a
> resolution was not passed by Local 99--
>
> -The library project is too expensive and is competing against the School
> Board referendum
> -Uncertainities about staffing levels during the construction period and
> future staffing levels in the new library.
> -Concerns about the "actual" plans for the branch libraries
> -Closing the central library for approximately two years and the
> unavailability of a good portion of our collection
> -Keeping the current site open and building on the Nicollet Hotel site is
> preferred
> -Considering the fact that the Library Board and Local 99 went through a
> protracted and contentious negotiations and relations between us have been
> strained(but improving), Local 99 was not inclined to give our support to
> the
> referendum--- but support on a personal level was encouraged
>
> I hope this clarifies our position.
>
> Thomas Brown
> President Local 99
>
> Forwarded by David Brauer, List manager, Mpls-issues
