Comments on: County library chief’s critics air concerns at meeting

By: Working Class

Working Class — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:46:27 +0000

@Taxpayer,

She gets paid so much because she’s a County department head / administrator type. They can’t live in Bennett Valley or Marin County, send their offspring to private schools, and drive $60k cars (subsidized by the county, of course) if they earned only what they’re worth. These types probably can’t make it in private corporate culture, where the real money is, so they take the next best route to earning more than they deserve – government.

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By: Taxpayer

Taxpayer — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:49:55 +0000

Why does she get paid so much money?

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By: ArthurAndrew

ArthurAndrew — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:25:36 +0000

The Library Commission reaffirmed what I have read in the Grand Jury’s report. It appears that the Library isn’t ours “The Publics” yes I said it is no longer The Public Library as many of have us known it to be. It may as well be called the Cooper Book Place or the Fries Collection. Because there is nothing public about it. This Commission should be ashamed at how they handled themselves last night. I hope the man filming it releases that film soon. The arrogance was fuming from the Commission as they resembled nothing close to being a humble servant of the public good. They became angry and defensive at comments made and scoffed at the suggestion that having the “Hot Topic” at the end of the agenda looked to be intentional. Then adding insult to injury by not even talking about it was truly revealing.

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By: James Pines

James Pines — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:04:43 +0000

Send Cooper on her way, cut the salary and benefits to a reasonable rate and assign the supervision of the position to the county administrator to hire and fire.

There will be a line around the block of willing applicants to fill the position.

The county needs a real manager, not a librarian lending out books running the system.

Now can we all get on to some real issues facing the county like pensions, wages, the roads and how the Board of Supervisors gets paid?

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By: Kirstin

Kirstin — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 17:53:21 +0000

The management style and decisions of Dir. Cooper, as documented in the grand jury report and seen at the Board of Supervisors’ meeting, unfortunately represent a barrier to efficient, open and patron-centered libraries. It is disappointing that virtually nothing was addressed with regard to her last night. The commission needs to exercise its authority and resolve this situation one way or another as speedily as possible.

I also hope both the commission and the director intend to do more than just reply to the grand jury within the 90 day response deadline. They should also make every effort to actually complete where possible, or at last begin, to comply with all the orders of the grand jury.

Another matter of concern was the announcement by Chair Freis that SEIU has failed to review employee bargaining papers in a timely manner, thus preventing the employees from yet seeing the proposed contract terms. This is another matter of negligence and needs to be handled quickly by union officials. who appear to be severely procrastinating, for whatever reason.

Vice Chair May did ask for costs for opening a library on Mondays for a few hours, and that is a small step in the right direction. But it really doesn’t go far enough. It is important that the commission and director see their way clear to opening half the libraries on Monday and half on Tuesday while they look for financial avenues that can restore us to a full six-day schedule.

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By: Over Easy

Over Easy — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 17:45:49 +0000

I’ll take the job! 200K a year to manage 13 libraries, count me in brother.

I’ll be cooperative, courteous, on time to work, no sick days, and I’ll buy my boss lunch every day.

Seriously these local government wage’s are ABSOLUTELY absurd. 200K to hire talentless, do nothing, blame everyone else leadership? They wouldn’t make it as the greeter at Walmart.

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