Aud, who attended the meeting, drew attention to several “misleading statements” in board member Robert Huffman’s summary of the library staff’s bid to improve services, which was submitted as a counterproposal to outsourcing management to LSSI, the Jackson Sun reported October 5. He added that, in contrast to LSSI’s undisclosed charges, the current staff could offer services for a “zero percent” management fee, a comment that produced a standing ovation from some in the audience.
Charles Doss, cochair of Citizens Against Privatization, a newly formed group that claims to have a petition with 2,000 signatures contesting the plan, asked the board, “With all the discrepancies and all the people here [against privatization], why don’t you stop this whole mess and forget LSSI?” Board member Mary Slack replied that while she understood that “change is hard to come by, people are taking this as a personal thing. We’re trying to do what’s best for the library. It’s not personal.”
However, shortly after the meeting Huffman and board Chairman Kathryn Swindle asked Aud to clean out his office and not return in his capacity as director, even though he is technically on vacation, the Sun reported October 7. “He does not believe in [LSSI], and he has not in every way been supportive of us,” Huffman said. “He can come back as a patron, but we do not need two managers.”
Although the county commission has raised a question with the Tennessee Court of Appeals on whether the board has the right under state law to privatize the library’s management, a local judge ruled October 6 that the board could move forward with the LSSI contract. Chancery Court Judge James Butler noted that the contract states that the library can terminate the agreement with LSSI if the appeals court finds no legal basis to privatize.
Huffman called the ruling the “absolutely right decision that opens the way for the library to start repairing itself. We can get our systems back up to going right and have our contractor, LSSI, come in and get started.”
Posted October 13, 2006.