Blog note: this article references a recent grand jury report.
Despite the protests of hundreds of angry residents, the Escondido City Council voted 3-2 Wednesday night to begin the process of outsourcing the city’s library service to a private company.
An overflow crowd of more than 250, almost all opposed to the plan, packed the City Council chambers and for hours pleaded with the council not to move forward with signing a contract with Maryland-based Library Systems and Services Inc.
But Mayor Sam Abed joined by councilmen Ed Gallo and John Masson, voted to pursue the arrangement with the for-profit company in order to save $4 million in the next ten years in operational costs and more than that in future pension payouts.
“This is an opportunity to make the library better,” Abed said, citing a recent County Grand Jury report that was critical of the services the library provides the community.
“If LS&S doesn’t make it better I will break the contract after one year.”
Casting an emotional “no” vote was Councilwoman Olga Diaz who called the library the “heart and soul and core” of the city.
Diaz said during her more than eight years on the council she’s been inspired only once — when John Masson laid out a vision to build a new library near Grape Day Park. She said she decided to run for reelection last year just to see that project happen.
But with the outsourcing vote and the library being treated by the rest of the council as just another city service, she said she now feels she has wasted her time “all for a moment of false frugality.”
Councilman Mike Morasco also voted against the plan saying he has been torn over the issue for months.
August 23, 2017
The San Diego Union-Tribune
By J. Harry Jones
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