Please Help Save Second Start !Dear Friends:
Second Start is about to be eliminated.
We need your help IMMEDIATELY if we are to survive.
As I'm sure you know from reading the paper, Oakland is facing huge deficits. All departments have been told to make cuts. The Library has chosen to make its cuts by, among other things, eliminating Second Start, along with our entire department of Access Services, which includes the Bookmobile and Services for the Disabled and Elderly - all the neediest people who can't get to, or use, the library without help.
We're told that City Council has to approve these cuts, so we're fighting this and literally taking it to City Hall in hopes that the program can be saved.
I'm asking all of Second Start's friends - all the programs, entities and people who know us and have worked with us - to write a letter in our support. Please take a moment to put in writing some of the things that you have come to learn about our work over the past years. You have seen us in action, you know what we do - please tell the Oakland City Council that Second Start needs to remain part of Oakland. There is no other city organization that will take our place if Second Start is disbanded !
As I'm sure you know from reading the paper, Oakland is facing huge deficits. All departments have been told to make cuts. The Library has chosen to make its cuts by, among other things, eliminating Second Start, along with our entire department of Access Services, which includes the Bookmobile and Services for the Disabled and Elderly - all the neediest people who can't get to, or use, the library without help.
We're told that City Council has to approve these cuts, so we're fighting this and literally taking it to City Hall in hopes that the program can be saved.
I'm asking all of Second Start's friends - all the programs, entities and people who know us and have worked with us - to write a letter in our support. Please take a moment to put in writing some of the things that you have come to learn about our work over the past years. You have seen us in action, you know what we do - please tell the Oakland City Council that Second Start needs to remain part of Oakland. There is no other city organization that will take our place if Second Start is disbanded !
2 comments:
Item Savings - FY Implementation difficulties, other comments 08-09
from City Council
Eliminated Librarian II - Elimination of supervisor for Main Library division (Children's Room)
Library Aide for Cesar Chavez Library.
Elimination of the Bookmobile
Elimination of staffing for Bookmobile. Avg 60 stops will not be serviced per month.
Library Aide, PPT
Library Asst.
Library Aide, PT
Elimination of the Adult Literacy & Disability Programs
- Adult Literacy currently serves 203 residents
- cost of equipment and staffing funded 90% by GPF or Measure Q;
- services can be provided by other local literacy programs such as Oakland Elementary Schools for Family Literacy or at Laney College, etc.
- Disability program currently serves approx 800 residents.
Eliminate Adult Literacy Program & Disability Coordinator
Literacy Asst., Sr.
from: abetteroakland.com
Measure Q
. . .At least, I could see myself supporting the elimination of the Library’s literacy programs in these tough times If the people of Oakland hadn’t voted specifically to tax themselves to pay for it only four years ago! I’m sorry, but this is just completely unacceptable. Measure Q, which pays for the bulk of the library’s literacy programs, was passed in 2004 with an overwhelming 77.2% of the vote. Sixty-two thousand Oakland residents stepped into a voting booth and checked “I want to pay $75 dollars every year for the next thirty years to support library services.”
And what is written there, clear as day, under the “Use of Proceeds” section of the measure (PDF)? “To expand library-based programs in support of literacy, lifelong learning, and information technology.” See? It says expand, not eliminate! Library Director Carmen Martinez and then-Mayor Jerry Brown signed a very straightforward ballot argument in favor the tax, promising that Measure Q will “Maintain literacy programs that teach Oakland residents to read.” And people said “Yes, I will pay for that. Send me the bill.”
End of story. Seriously, what else is there to discuss? As long as they keep collecting Measure Q dollars (that would be until 2024, FYI), any talk of eliminating the library’s literacy programs should be completely off the table. The City cannot keep breaking promises about how they’re going to spend the taxpayer’s money! Why, why, why should I, or anyone else, ever vote for another tax in this City again when we cannot trust them to spend the money as promised?
. . .
http://www.abetteroakland.com/what-measure-q-more-broken-promises-from-the-city-of-oakland/2008-10-02
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