When the Fargo (N.Dak.) Public Library requested a 32% budget increase for 2003, Mayor Bruce Furness began to wonder whether he could still afford a privatized city library. The Maryland-based management firm LSSI is asking for $2.1 million, only $300,000 more than Furness had proposed. However, the higher figure includes a 22% pay increase for LSSI-employed Library Director Charles Pace and an additional $125,000 for administration and overhead, according to the August 13 Fargo Forum.
Furness said the city was not dissatisfied with the job LSSI was doing, but “it’s just a question of, can we afford it?” The firm’s two-year contract expires in January, and library board member Jean Rayl speculated that the firm may decide not to renew if a compromise isn’t reached: “We have to ask ourselves, ‘Is a private industry running the library the best way we can do it? Are we spending money where we could do it more efficiently ourselves?’”
LSSI East Coast Director Tom Hehman said in the August 14 Forum that the request wasn’t necessarily a firm figure. “We are very happy with our experience in Fargo,” he added.
The company has been running the library’s operations since January 2001, following the resignation of Director Dave Davis, who had been reprimanded for an offensive comment to a pregnant employee.
Posted August 26, 2002.