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Fargo Public Library Drops LSSI ContractSome eight months into the renewal of a management-outsourcing contract with Library Systems and Services Inc., the Fargo (N.Dak.) Public Library board voted 4–1 August 25 to pull out of the two-year agreement. The contract’s termination, which will be effective October 31, was triggered by trustees’ dissatisfaction with LSSI’s failure to pay library bills on time.“With any vendor, it’s not LSSI’s name on the overdue bill, it’s the Fargo Public Library’s,” library board member Helen Levitt said at the meeting before trustees began an hour-long executive session. “Maybe I’ll never be able to live up to your expectations,” LSSI President Frank Pezzanite responded during the session to complaints that the firm’s handling of payments had caused magazine and newspaper subscriptions to lapse. Board members agreed, however, that trustees were pleased with LSSI’s nonfinancial library oversight, which began in January 2001 after sexual-harassment allegations forced the departure of the previous director. Acknowledging the “great partnership” between the board and LSSI, Pezzanite told trustees, “When you sense there’s some strain, the smartest thing to do is to find a mutual way to terminate it.” In this case, the “mutual way” is apparently working around a contractual clause that forbids Charles Pace—an LSSI employee who was assigned to the Fargo library directorship—from applying for the library helm as a Fargo city employee when the contract ends. City attorneys helped trustees and Pezzanite renegotiate the terms of Pace’s service so that he can apply for the post when it is advertised, according to the August 26 Fargo Forum. Posted September 1, 2003. |
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