re: It's Happening!!! The St. George trial started Monday, May 2. Media stopped covering 5/10.

First attempt happened under Kip. It didn’t get to a vote.

It got to a vote and won because SWB was that goddamn bad as mayor and convinced people it was now or never.

quote:

---

Bc the metro council and library board do not always see eye to eye on how to spend the money, so it sits

---

What a joke. If it is fitting in the bank then they don’t need it.

quote:

---

Because it actually gets used, and real cities have downtown libraries. Just because you do not use it, does not mean it shouldn’t exist. The downtown library is used more than a few other branches - but no one ever questions their existence.

---

So you say, others say otherwise.

quote:

---

What are you talking about? What art decorations? Plus, this is probably an approved expenditure.

---

One of the directors questioned why so much was being spent on art. He was run off.

quote:

---

t’s an appropriated millage - only for libraries, to be used for other means it would have to be put up for a vote to the people. The city/parish cannot just take library money and use it for something else. I’m surprised it hasn’t been ‘stolen’ yet.

---

I understand the process. Put it to a vote. Let the voters decide. Oh wait, that doesn’t work in EBR anymore.

You are a fool if you don't think demographics were a influencing factor in the boundaries ultimately drawn for St. George.

I am split on this issue. I support the right for the people to choose their own government but I am also for less government and St. George isn't looking to reduce government roles but to just DUPLICATE roles already being done. It's not like they want to improve anything, its like the organizers just want control for the sake of control.

Of course if the people voted for their own government, let them have it, the organization of it just seems pointless.

quote:

---

armsdealer

---

No.

quote:

---

If the amount of visitors that library gets isn’t high

---

It’s higher than you think … and higher than some other branches - although I’m sure Covid had an affect on the stats I was familiar with

However, at least the money is there for the library to spend - there are plenty of departments that overspend. The library is there for the people, regardless if you use it or not. But some of these other departments with financial problems have no excuse - they are truly over staffed and do no work, yet collect plenty of overtime for not doing anything. Which I hope, St. George, if incorporated, doesn’t make the same mistakes.

And I agree, the money spent on that library was too much, but a renovation was necessary and the money was there.

quote:

---

It's probably been brewing for a long fricking time.

---

It has. The fact that many middle class people spend up to 20,000 per year per kid for high school and up to $10,000 per year for grade school bc the parish schools are terrible is a main driver. Add in the insult of paying taxes for a completely mismanaged, failing, and rundown school system and it makes one only want it more. That area is tired of being the piggy bank for BR’s failed social experiments and programs.

So… this a-hole has no proof of any racism but, because the whole thing is portrayed as racism, it becomes the perception. And thus it damages BR and his business.

Do these people hear themselves when they speak?

The Advocate Article on Day 2

quote:

---

Engquist acknowledged that he personally contributed $10,000 to the anti-St. George cause and that H&E Equipment contributed another $25,000.

---

quote:

---

He also said his board began pushing him to relocate the company headquarters long before the St. George effort began.

"All of those problems with the city of Baton Rouge were in existence prior to the movement to incorporate St. George," Peck said.

"Yes," Engquist agreed.

---

quote:

---

"Baton Rouge has a lot of issues -- crime, litter, traffic, schools. All of that is making it hard to recruit executive talent," he said while being questioned by Brett Furr, one of the attorneys for East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and Metro Council leader LaMont Cole.

---

Didn’t we go to school with this a-hole’s kid?

quote:

---

However, at least the money is there for the library to spend - there are plenty of departments that overspend. The library is there for the people, regardless if you use it or not. But some of these other departments with financial problems have no excuse - they are truly over staffed and do no work, yet collect plenty of overtime for not doing anything. Which I hope, St. George, if incorporated, doesn’t make the same mistakes.

---

Which departments?

Unless I’m reading the CP budget wrong (thanks Teke), the library’s 413 FTE budget is larger than every other department except BRPD (887 FTE) and BRFD (610 FTE).

Departments with a smaller FTE budget than the Library Board include:
- City Court (155 FTE)
- Transportation & Drainage (109 FTE)
- Maintenance (268 FTE)
- EMS (247 FTE)
- Social Services (233 FTE)

It seems like the library’s lack of finance issues has a lot more to do with the fact that it has a huge dedicated (which is an extremely important detail) funding source than anything else. I’m not anti-libraries or anything, but I do question whether the amount we spend on the library system relative to other needs is reasonable.