A private company in Maryland has taken over public libraries in ailing cities in California, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, growing into the country’s fifth-largest library system. Now the company, Library Systems & Services, has been hired for the first time to run a system in a relatively healthy city, setting off an intense and often acrimonious debate about the role of outsourcing in a ravaged economy. New York Times
Bill to Help Towns and Counties fight Unfunded State Mandates.
A New Jersey bill allows organizations that represent governments, and public safety officers and volunteers to file complaints about unfunded mandates with the with the Council on Local Mandates -- a body that can overturn laws, rules and regulations that it rules are mandates without a funding source. It cleared the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste committee this morning by a vote of 7-0, and passed the state Senate last month 36-0. New Jersey Star-Ledger
Phoenix Wants to Increase Employee Money-Saving Reward
Los Angeles County Delays Salary Figures Release
Los Angeles County officials are taking steps to keep secret the names and salaries of some highly paid county employees, saying they need more time to comply with public records law to protect workers who claim that disclosure could put them at risk. The response came after The Times asked for the identities and pay of county workers who earn $250,000 or more annually, a request made in the wake of the salary scandal in Bell, where eight current and former city officials face corruption charges of misappropriation of public funds. Los Angeles Times
State & City Crackdown on Street Gang
Illinois and the City of Elgin sued 70 alleged members of the Latin Kings gang to bar them from "standing, sitting, walking, driving, gathering, meeting, or appearing anywhere in public view with any other gang member". The state claims the gang has committed violent felonies for more than a decade, including shooting and killing its own members and others, for reasons as petty as "wearing his hat to the right." Wide-ranging injunctions against street gangs raise constitutional questions, but such injunctions have been upheld in California. Courthouse News Service
Ailing $34 Million Student Database Project a Year Behind
Reimbursing HUD May Cost Houston Millions
Houston may have to return tens of millions of dollars to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for errors it made in the use of federal funds dating back to 2001. A HUD official said the agency remains in "evaluation" mode and is working with the city to resolve adverse findings, but declined to comment on any potential new problems being investigated. Houston Chronicle
Photo: New Jersey Library Association. Creative Commons Lic. Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic
