AFSCME
Council 14, AFL-CIO
2001
Address: 2718 East 24th Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55406
Day Phone: 651/632-7233
Evening Phone: 612/729-4088
Cell Phone: 612/618-7149
Office Seeking: Minneapolis Board of Library Trustees
Campaign Committee: Mains for Library Board Committee, 2718 East 24th
Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55406, John See Chair
Campaign Contact: John See, 4508 Oakland Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota
55407, 612-825-6585
Background Information:
Provide a brief biography
and explain your qualifications for this office:
Briefly define your
philosophy of government:
This is a great question—one no one else has asked it. In my 13 years as a government employee, I did think about what our government should be. A few of my guiding beliefs are:
q
Government
is the basis of our civil society.
q
Our
democracy works best when everyone can be involved in government: Everyone needs to have a voice in
government decisions.
q
Government
has the responsibility to insure that everyone can exercise their first
amendment rights, not just to have access information but to express their
views.
q
Our
society works best when everyone is a part of that society: Everyone deserves a reasonable standard of
living; Everyone deserves the benefits of our society.
q
Government
can help level the playing field for people with less power.
What are your top three
priorities if elected?
In no specific order, these are my priorities for the Minneapolis Public Library System:
q
Protect
everyone’s first amendment rights.
q
Insure
that we have a world class library system.
This includes everything: buildings, collections and services.
q
Make
the Minneapolis Public Libraries the town squares of our communities; the
gathering places for people; the places to exchange information and ideas--Help
make the Minneapolis Public Libraries welcoming to everyone in our community.
In general: Minneapolis government is the people of Minneapolis; all the people of Minneapolis. For Minneapolis to stay healthy, people who live and work in Minneapolis need to be paid a fair wage for their labors. The union movement is one of the few groups fighting for fair wages and benefits.
Specifically regarding the Library system: Without the work of its AFSCME employees the Minneapolis Library System would fall apart (figuratively and literally). The Board needs to work with AFSCME to provide the best services possible. This includes seeking out the opinions of its AFSCME employees.
What other
endorsements do you have or are you seeking:
I currently have no other endorsements but many are pending. I am seeking the endorsements of :
q
Minneapolis
City DFL,
q
Central
Labor Union Council,
q
Minneapolis
Building and Construction Trades Council,
q
DFL
Feminist Caucus,
q
DFL
Stonewall Caucus,
q
Teamsters
Describe your
campaign:
It is currently just getting started.
q I will be seeking the DFL endorsement on May 5. In the last five weeks, I have visited and addressed each of the 13 DFL ward conventions. I believe I am the only candidate for Library Board who has addressed each of the ward conventions.
q
I
am also seeking the endorsements of other labor unions and DFL caucuses (e.g.
Feminist Caucus) prior to the convention.
q
I
will need Labor help in get out the volt, voter registration, lawn signs,
literature drops and financial support.
AFSCME Questionnaire:
1.
As a user, how often do you
frequent the different library branches?
Since my daughter now has a driver’s license and my son has graduated from North, a lot less than 2 years ago. At that time, it was at least one visit every two weeks on average. The primary libraries visited were East Lake and Central. Currently it is about once per month.
In the last month, I have visited every library in the system (including walking around Linden Hills). If elected, I will visit each library on a regular basis.
2.
How do you plan to keep in
touch with MPL’s staff?
If elected, I will be visiting each library on a regular basis. I also would suggest that all representatives of all the staff regularly make presentations to the Board. When I was a board member and chair of the Minneapolis Telecommunications Network, I regularly sought the advice of staff. When I work with nonprofits to develop information technology plans, I insist that all staff are involved; they all have a vested interest and they all have information to bring to the table.
3.
What is your position on
contracting out or privatization? Under what circumstances would you support
the contracting out of services currently provided by the libraries?
I am strongly opposed to privatization of public services. For 13 years I was a state government employee (Minnesota Government Engineers Council and Minnesota Association of Professional Employees) and I know it does not work.
The only situations where I would support changes in current services would be if the Board worked jointly with other Minneapolis Boards (e.g. Park or School Boards) to jointly provide some services. In this case, I would insist that the unions were involved in the project and that the projects follow the collective bargaining agreements.
4.
What would be your focus
concerning increased book collection?
What kind of resources would you put into increasing the Library’s
collection?
Even with the Internet and other forms of electronic information and publishing, books will not be going away. The book collection is the central part of the MPL. As publishing grows, our collections have to keep pace. However, even with the new central library, there will be a limit on the size of the collection. The MPL will have to regularly cull the collection while protecting the important and unique parts of the collection.
This is the best point to note I will be working to increase the overall budget of the MPL system.
5.
What expertise or knowledge
can you bring concerning new trends in publishing, including e-books, books on
various media, and other formats?
I have been involved in new and electronic media for years. I currently direct a program that helps nonprofit organizations make effective use of new information technologies. (See the attached background summary). Books and information are moving to electronic media. This will continue and accelerate. The MPL needs to embrace these new technologies. The new and remodeled buildings need to be designed to be flexible since we do not know what the next technological innovations will be.
In addition, these new technologies allow everyone
to be a publisher—everyone to be a producer of information. The MPL system needs to help people exercise
their first amendment rights (the Franklin Library computer lab is an example
of this).
6.
Given that musculoskeletal
disorders are the number one injury in the American workplace, what would be
your focus on employee health on safety?
It is in everyone’s interest that employee health and safety is a top priority of the library board. The MPL employees are a valuable resource. Investments in ergonomically designed equipment are investments in the future of our employees and investments in the future of the MPL.
7.
Given that the Internet and
pornography has been a problem at the Library, what is your understanding of
the current situation?
From what I have heard (which was primarily from the mass media), the situation was not handled well. Complaints were ignored. It took too long for the Board to establish appropriate policies. Reasonable and legal controls (e.g. protecting children from pornography) were not used.
However, from my experiences on the Minneapolis
Telecommunications Network board, I am cautious of any controls placed on First
Amendment Rights. I saw City Council
members try to restrict debate and freedom of expression by claiming to protect
the public from “pornography.” At MTN,
we succeeded in meeting the needs of our employees and the public while not
limiting First Amendment rights.
The Internet will continue to grow as a valuable
information resource and the MPL has an important role in closing the digital
divide. It will be a balancing act.
8.
Would you accept a campaign
contribution from AFSCME political committees?