“Under New Jersey law, only a certified librarian is authorized to oversee the direction of a library. A librarian’s position requires a master’s degree, and, when serving a city as large as Trenton, should have had extensive library management experience. In addition, trained library staff should be available to assist residents. Today’s library goes well beyond books — it is computer training, electronic resources and programming. This requires the expertise of trained staff.”
“We cannot be a library, so just look at this as a public building with books.”
Well, I can’t think of a more concise way to put things. We now have two simple statements that illustrate the two very different ways to look at what has happened on South Broad Street.
Mayor Mack unveiled the first of his counterfeit, zombie “Mayor’s Learning Center Libraries” yesterday, and he proved with the statement above that he has absolutely no ideas what Libraries do, what they are for. He opened up a building with books, turned the lights on, let people in. To him, that’s it! What more is there?
The excerpt quoted above is from a statement – written directly to the people of the city – from the NJ Library Association (NJLA), not “the State” as the Mayor mistakenly stated in his opening remarks. The NJLA is the trade and lobbying association representing the state’s Free Public Libraries, and their statement is really a forlorn cry to the people, trying to remind them what libraries can do.
It’s a cry likely to fall on deaf ears. We have “a public building with books” now, and three more are on their way. No matter that they won’t be staffed with enough trained experienced professionals to provide the level of services library patrons should be entitled to expect. The lights are on, The Zombie Lives! and this allows Mr. Mack to claim a promise fulfilled, however hollow and artificial this all is.
However, given the numbers that Mr. Mack quoted yesterday – the only numbers we have since neither the Mayor nor anyone in his administration have deigned to release to the public, to Council, to anyone – I don’t know how long the lights can in fact stay on.
In quick succession, the Mayor said running the branch will cost $30,000, or $40,000, or $50,000. It’s impossible to say whether he means those numbers to mean operations through the end of the current fiscal year, or for a full 52-week year. But since he compared his number several times to the annual budget numbers for the Trenton Free Public Library, let’s say that Mr. Mack intends his estimate to run that branch for a full year.
For a full year, the Mayor’s estimate of $50,000 means that his center will cost no more than $961.53 per week.
Does that seem real to you? $961.53 per week to operate a public facility, even one open only part-time, for a week?
All the professional staff – however many of them there may be; all the heat, light, water; internet service and online services and subscriptions ; security; computers, copiers, fax machines and maintenance; janitorial service (don’t forget Toilet Paper!!!); software; books, newspapers, magazines, CD’s, DVD’s; office supplies; insurance; payroll taxes; workers’ compensation; ALL OF THIS plus several items I am surely forgetting to mention; for under $1000 per week. Really!
Sorry, I can’t believe this. I can’t believe Mayor Mack.
This is the point in this kind of piece where I usually say something like “I hope I am proved wrong, I hope this turns out OK.” I can’t say that this time.
These things are wrong. They were planned and opened the wrong way. They are illegal, as the NJLA has agreed with what I have been saying.
Taken along with the news that the Mayor has, again without approval by Council and entirely out of public view, single-handedly taken the City out of its participation in the County Recycling program and committed Trenton to a massively costly new effort of its own starting in 2013, these events clearly prove Mayor has thrown all concerns for legality aside. He is unchecked by Council, by the new Business Administrator, by the City’s Law Department, by the State. He is out of control.
This will not end well.
What can we, as concerned citizens, do to show our displeasure with the Mayor’s decisions? It’s true that we can vote for someone else in the next election, but is there something we can do in the meantime to try and reverse the decisions about the libraries and the recycling program?
Thanks for writing, Bonnie!
I would say that, now that they are engaging with the issue, you should contact one or more City Council members. They are the next line of defense, if you will, in reviewing and approving the “plans” that are coming out of City Hall.
Here is a link to the City contacts page: http://www.trentonnj.org/Cit-e-Access/ContactInfo/?TID=55&TPID=5557
Scroll down to the City Council section.
Please note that I do NOT suggest you even try to contact the Mayor. It would be a waste of time; I think he is allergic to constituent communication.