Most of us are on our guard for political spin when it comes at us from the national stage.

We know the usual suspects, and know what to watch out for…much of the time.

But sometimes when the proverbial ‘astroturf’ is growing in our own backyard, it can catch us by surprise.

I don’t know about you, but I have become uneasy about efforts to fix things by breaking what is working and paying no attention to the things that need mending.

The recent survey conducted by an independent pollster to learn the public’s perceptions about the Kern County Library System held positive surprises. People are happy with their libraries and they have appreciation and esteem for their trained librarians. I read the full report.

People who use the library see it as a valuable center of the community. As the Advocates for Library Enhancement (ALE) observed: “•52% of respondents disagreed that the county should outsource the library; this number rose to 60% among frequent library users; •52% of respondents supported a 1/8 of one penny sales tax to support the library; •Support for a sales tax rose to almost 2/3 when told the money could only be used to support the library.”

But on October 20 the Kern County Young Republicans endorsed public-private partnership for library operations. A group calling itself “Better Libraries for Kern County,” brand new members of the Kern County Young Republicans, has been spinning the results of the survey to try to dupe the public.

They are astroturf. Their agenda is to promote privatization. That model starts right out with breaking the part of the library system that is working. The first act of Library Systems & Services, LLC (the only “private partner” in the field) is to fire the trained and credentialed library staff. Using our tax dollars to hand profit to a private business with a management plan that entails asking all of us to increase our volunteering for free to enhance their private equity firm owners’  bottom line just doesn’t make sense.

The other thing that does not make sense is this group’s misrepresentation of the survey’s findings.

County supervisors with their eyes on higher office want as many privatizing scalps on their belt as they can obtain. It is good for their political resumé when they reach for the next rung on the ambition ladder.

But people don’t like to be gamed.

Next Thursday, Nov. 12, come to the 6 p.m. hearing at the Frazier Park Library. County Administrator John Nilon—who has been working on the privatizing agenda for over a year— will be there to hear how you feel about your library.
—Patric Hedlund, Editor
From the November 6, 2015 issue of The Mountain Enterprise

Photo captions:

A scene from the library’s Trunk or Treat Oct. 24

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This is part of the October 30, 2015 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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