05-06-2011, 02:38 AM
lmao, check this out for ironic
Library feeling heat over buying $1K chairs
Christine MacDonald / / The Detroit News
Detroit — A Livonia furniture dealer is defending the Detroit Public Library's purchase of lounge chairs that cost $1,092 and have become a symbol of extravagance for a system considering closing 18 branches.
...
The system faces an $11 million shortfall and could close 18 of 23 neighborhood branches and lay off as many as 191 of 333 workers. The south wing overhaul grew from a $300,000 update.
Jo Anne Mondowney, the library executive director who has been on the job for 19 months, said her staff tried unsuccessfully to return the chairs after learning how much they cost. Construction was approved by the library board the same month she started the job, but commission minutes show a $624,000 contract for furniture and shelving was OK'd under her watch in May.
Gerald Dajnowicz, 68, who has had a Detroit library card since he was a child, called the chairs the "squandering of scarce funds."
"What has happened through the years is it's become almost a castle down there," Dajnowicz said of the main library. "There aren't $2,000 chairs in the branch libraries, believe me."
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110426/METR...ver-buying-$1K-chairs#ixzz1LYChWNSk
Library pays $6,500 for business cards for all
Christine MacDonald / / The Detroit News
The paper
A purchase order from March 2010 showing the cash-strapped Detroit Public Library spent more than $6,500 to buy business cards for all its employees — including clerks and janitors who questioned why they need them.
...
Unions and even some commissioners contend the library wasted money on a $2.3 million renovation of the Main Library's South Wing that includes 20 European-designed chairs that cost $1,100 apiece, eight stainless steel trash cans that cost $1,110 each and two fireplaces that ran $5,000 a pop.
The expense follows a fundraising plan two years ago that didn't go as planned. The taxpayer-supported system spent $200,000 in hopes of raising $20 million.
Instead, less than $100 was raised, The News reported in February.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110505/METR...brary-pays-$6-500-for-business-cards-for-all#ixzz1LYDskOXo
Nepotism rampant at Detroit Public Library
1 in 6 staffers have relatives who work in strapped department
Christine MacDonald / / The Detroit News
Detroit— Administrators say they take pride in the "family atmosphere" at the Detroit Public Library, but questions of nepotism, cronyism and mismanagement are dogging the cash-strapped system.
Three top library executives have had family members on the payroll, including until recently the human resources director's two children. The system gave a library commissioner's nonprofit agency $15,000 to sponsor neighborhood events. And another commissioner's daughter was given a $150,000 event planning contract in 2009.
...
Hiring relatives is so common at the library that about one in six staffers have relatives among the 376 employees, according to an internal review obtained by The Detroit News.
"This nepotism and cronyism has led to the downfall of the city," said Reginald Amos, a retired Detroit Fire Department deputy chief and resident who said the family hires remind him of ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's administration. "It's the friends-and-family plan. It's not about serving the people. It's self-serving."
...
Erin Thomas started with the library in 2007 as an entry-level clerk earning about $9 an hour. But after unions complained that Thomas was working outside of her classification, Deputy Director Juliet Machie offered Thomas a contract position in March 2009 earning up to $150,000 over two years to plan events.
...
http://detnews.com/article/20110506/METRO01/105060383
etc, etc, etc
Library feeling heat over buying $1K chairs
Christine MacDonald / / The Detroit News
Detroit — A Livonia furniture dealer is defending the Detroit Public Library's purchase of lounge chairs that cost $1,092 and have become a symbol of extravagance for a system considering closing 18 branches.
...
The system faces an $11 million shortfall and could close 18 of 23 neighborhood branches and lay off as many as 191 of 333 workers. The south wing overhaul grew from a $300,000 update.
Jo Anne Mondowney, the library executive director who has been on the job for 19 months, said her staff tried unsuccessfully to return the chairs after learning how much they cost. Construction was approved by the library board the same month she started the job, but commission minutes show a $624,000 contract for furniture and shelving was OK'd under her watch in May.
Gerald Dajnowicz, 68, who has had a Detroit library card since he was a child, called the chairs the "squandering of scarce funds."
"What has happened through the years is it's become almost a castle down there," Dajnowicz said of the main library. "There aren't $2,000 chairs in the branch libraries, believe me."
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110426/METR...ver-buying-$1K-chairs#ixzz1LYChWNSk
Library pays $6,500 for business cards for all
Christine MacDonald / / The Detroit News
The paper
A purchase order from March 2010 showing the cash-strapped Detroit Public Library spent more than $6,500 to buy business cards for all its employees — including clerks and janitors who questioned why they need them.
...
Unions and even some commissioners contend the library wasted money on a $2.3 million renovation of the Main Library's South Wing that includes 20 European-designed chairs that cost $1,100 apiece, eight stainless steel trash cans that cost $1,110 each and two fireplaces that ran $5,000 a pop.
The expense follows a fundraising plan two years ago that didn't go as planned. The taxpayer-supported system spent $200,000 in hopes of raising $20 million.
Instead, less than $100 was raised, The News reported in February.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110505/METR...brary-pays-$6-500-for-business-cards-for-all#ixzz1LYDskOXo
Nepotism rampant at Detroit Public Library
1 in 6 staffers have relatives who work in strapped department
Christine MacDonald / / The Detroit News
Detroit— Administrators say they take pride in the "family atmosphere" at the Detroit Public Library, but questions of nepotism, cronyism and mismanagement are dogging the cash-strapped system.
Three top library executives have had family members on the payroll, including until recently the human resources director's two children. The system gave a library commissioner's nonprofit agency $15,000 to sponsor neighborhood events. And another commissioner's daughter was given a $150,000 event planning contract in 2009.
...
Hiring relatives is so common at the library that about one in six staffers have relatives among the 376 employees, according to an internal review obtained by The Detroit News.
"This nepotism and cronyism has led to the downfall of the city," said Reginald Amos, a retired Detroit Fire Department deputy chief and resident who said the family hires remind him of ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's administration. "It's the friends-and-family plan. It's not about serving the people. It's self-serving."
...
Erin Thomas started with the library in 2007 as an entry-level clerk earning about $9 an hour. But after unions complained that Thomas was working outside of her classification, Deputy Director Juliet Machie offered Thomas a contract position in March 2009 earning up to $150,000 over two years to plan events.
...
http://detnews.com/article/20110506/METRO01/105060383
etc, etc, etc