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1905 - County buys property to build Newhall Jail (now next to city's Old Town Newhall Library) [story]

City to Take Library Operations In-House?

City of Santa Clarita | Thursday, Jan 4, 2018

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The Santa Clarita City Council is expected to consider taking the city’s library operations in-house when the council meets Tuesday.

The city established the Santa Clarita Public Library system in 2011, and its three libraries have been operated by a private contractor since that time.

If the council approves the plan, the libraries would be staffed by city employees beginning July 1.

Despite high marks and progress made toward meeting the city’s service expectations the first four years, “over the past two-and-a-half fiscal years, service has not met the city’s high expectations,” according to a city staff report.

Plus, new pensions caps for public employees that went into effect in California in 2012 make it “cost effective to operate and staff (the library system) with city employees,” the report states.

As a result of the changes, the city staff report estimates first-year cost savings of $393,931 if the city staffs the libraries with its own employees at the same level the contract provider, LSSI, has been operating under its current $3,388,409 contract.

“The City’s insourcing estimate includes a competitive pay and benefits structure to attract and retain talented public library professionals to provide Santa Clarita residents with high quality public library services,” the report states.

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7 Comments

Tessa Lucero says:

Friday, Jan 5, 2018 at

Should’ve stayed with the county system.

Reply
DP Rickmers says:

Friday, Jan 5, 2018 at

Control over People’s Palace of Books to be returned to The People! Praise be!

Reply
CBrwon says:

Friday, Jan 5, 2018 at

Good news. I am tired of government outsourcing jobs to the private sector with taxpayer money.

Reply
Roger A. Moore says:

Friday, Jan 5, 2018 at

Get rid of this homeless shelter and provide some tents with computers in them. Now that’s saving money.Come on guys you aren’t going to save any money, really. haha

Reply
JTaylour says:

Friday, Jan 5, 2018 at

Congrats to the City for a good idea. Let’s meet what the Stevenson Ranch library offers — lynda.com trianing videos.

Reply
Pat Probasco says:

Friday, Jan 5, 2018 at

Will we still be able to get books from the other library’s, or will we only get books from our 3.
Some of the books we get from Riverside are so damaged, but when they are returned, they want us to pay for damage, that was there before.

Reply
- SCVNews.com says:
  
  Saturday, Jan 6, 2018 at
  
  Same library system; only the operator is changing. (And some cost savings; and probably better responsiveness and stability in personnel.)
  
  Reply

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