giving the human race a bad name, edition 10043

[lagilman]

EtA: in the words of the Twitterverse: Please Retweet. Let's get this guy's name all across the globe as an example of walking, talking piece of shit.


If anyone hasn't heard about this yet:

Ugly battle has librarians in Oak Brook turning to Teamsters

Short version: 69-year-old criminal attorney Constantine "Connie" Xinos wants to shut down the library in Oak Brook, IL. Money shot:

"Those who come up here with tears in their eyes talking about the library, put your money where your mouth is," Xinos shot back. He told Sydney and others who spoke against the layoffs of the three full-time staffers (including the head librarian and children's librarian) and two part-timers to stop "whining" and raise the money themselves.

"I don't care that you guys miss the librarian, and she was nice, and she helped you find books," Xinos told them....He said Oak Brook had to "stop indulging people in their hobbies" and "their little, personal, private wants."


It should be noted that the person "with tears in their eyes" was an 11 year old girl, speaking out in support of her beloved library.


It has been my observation that people who speak out against libraries, education, and reading in general, are the sort of people who would prefer everyone else be ignorant and uneducated...the better for people like them to lead them by the nose. it has especially been my observation that grown humans who delight in making young humans unhappy are walking, talking piles of shit.

I hope Oak Brook kicks his ass into a deep, dark cave somewhere, and stands up for literacy, and taking care of the next generation's education.

Comments

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a fucker. Curses are on their way. Thoth is the god of writers, IIRC...

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Actually, Oak Brook, Illinois, not Ohio. And Oak Park is a separate Illinois town (my father lived in both).

Otherwise, yes, I agree with everything you said.

[lagilman]

eep, sorry. blame the caffeine (too much or too little, not sure). Fixed.

[bentleywg.livejournal.com]

(It still says Oak Park in the last paragraph.)

[lagilman]

gee, not even a "psst, btw?" to soften the correction? :-P

[bentleywg.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I'm at work on a break and this is a quick drive-byposting. Sorry.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Ohio's libraries have gotten creamed in budgets, as almost all save for Cleveland and Columbus get their money from the state. The Governor originally wanted to cut the state's library budget in half, but ended up settling for a 30% (or so) cut. In response, a lot of communities are putting local levies on the budget to help keep libraries open.

I find it hard for a lawyer who drives a Mercedes and lives in a gated community to complain about the head librarian making as much money as she does. If you want to talk about usefulness to society, she's does far more than he does. Of course, if government does exactly what he wants government to be -only police, fire, street and building maintenance- he'd pretty much be out of a job.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

::sigh::

I missed the Illinois too. Oh well, the comment still stands, although not as appropriate.

[divanoir.livejournal.com]

Wow.

[jtucktattoo.livejournal.com]

I'll be the asshole.

The lawyer sounds like a douche, BUT almost 100,000 a year is pretty high for a librarian in a small town.

Libraries already hive a HUGE overhead. They make no profit and are tax and donation supported.

I do NOT think the library should be closed. I love libraries and the fact that we as humans feel the need to provide free access to literature and reading is one of the very things that lifts us up and makes us more.

But in a real world, that 100,000 dollars will go a LONG way to keeping books on the shelves. Yes she deserves a paycheck, but that seems a bit over-reaching.

Just my opinion.

[lagilman]

1. A librarian with an advanced degree, in a very affluent suburb of a major city? $96,000 is not out of line, especially if she's also management (there's a hell of a lot more to being head librarian than shelving books. I will leave it to the professional librarians to weigh in on specifics)

2. The head librarian's firing is hardly the point of the story -- they fired most of the staff, and this guy wants to gut it entirely. Nobody asked the librarian if she'd take a pay cut, while the economy's in the tank, far as I heard...

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Just to put Oak Brook in perspective...

Oak Brook has a population just over 8700, which is smaller than I would have thought. It does, however, have a large tax base, being the headquarters of the McDonald's corporation and a major regional shopping area. The average home value is over half a million dollars. It is home to the Oak Brook Polo Club and a golf course which was once home to the Western Open.

The median income in Oak Brook is just under $150,000.

[jennetj.livejournal.com]

OK, my turn to wade in. My roommate works for this library, and is one of the few surviving librarians on staff. The $100,000 was salary AND benefits, and while it was high for a librarian, it was in line with what other department directors in the village make. And those remaining librarians, my roommate included, make nowhere near that kind of salary. Because Oak Brook is a public municipality, anyone who wanted to could make a FOIA request for the salaries of the library staff.

Oak Brook is a small town, but it is a very wealthy one. Most of the homes are in gated communities. This is the home of McDonalds world headquarters, many other corporate offices, and such amenities as a bath and tennis club for residents (in addition to a regular park district), world-renowned golf courses, a polo grounds, and a very high-end shopping mall. The residents of Oak Brook do not pay property taxes to the village - all village services are funded by tax revenues from the corporations and the mall. So the library doesn't cost the residents of Oak Brook a penny.

Also noted, Mr. Xinos holds no official office in Oak Brook, but carries enough influence that everyone in the village kow-tows to him.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Is this how this guy typically treats people? I can't imagine this going viral is going to help him any. Of course, considering what passes for discourse and thoughtful discussion these days, I probably shouldn't count on that.

[jennetj.livejournal.com]

Yes, apparently it is. He's been known to spend 3/4 of an hour at committee meetings (where he is not even a member of the committee, but attends as a resident) spewing invictive and nobody will stop him (residents who speak at meetings are supposed to be limited to 5 minutes). Even to the point of "jokingly" saying they should bomb the library. I don't know what he's got on people, but they're terrified of him.

I honestly don't think he'll care if this goes viral, and it's probably a point of pride to him that he's been named "The Evilest Man in Illinois" by one website.

Meanwhile, the librarians at Oak Brook don't know from one day to the next whether they'll have a job, or what the next ridiculous cut will be (they're now removing virtually all the printers from the library in a cost-saving move). They've been forbidden to shorten their hours nor reduce their services, even though the only way they can keep the doors open 65 hours a week with sufficient staffing is if no one gets sick and no one takes vacation.

I guess it's true - the rich really are different.

[lagilman]

I wonder how they'll all feel when their property values start to sink, because the town gets such a bad name, and the resources that they weren't paying for (a major real estate bonus) go downhill....

Because you know he'll just move on to the next thing, when he's done with this, and a town doesn't survive without families moving in.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

the servants can take the bus to work.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

But they don't want bus service, as it lets the undesirables in.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

time to dust off the slave quarters out back then...

[lagilman]

no, no, the servants have that lovely little bunk house in the back he built for them... extra charge for electrical and heat, but nothing outrageous. And they can shop at his store -- for cash on the barrel, of course.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

All that's old is new again.

I'm surprised the guy's name isn't Frick, and the town in question isn't Homestead, PA.

I don't know what's scarier, Connie himself or the people who commented in the news article supporting him.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

They've been forbidden to shorten their hours nor reduce their services

What insanity is firing people to save money but not shortening hours? Or not cutting back services but removing printers?

(The local library has cut out all weekday morning hours. It's a salary cut to the librarians, but it's also significant power savings, and for the time the library is least needed.)

[jperceval.livejournal.com]

WTF is with this guy? Did a "mean" librarian shush him as a kid and now he's getting even?

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

it has especially been my observation that grown humans who delight in making young humans unhappy are walking, talking piles of shit.

The part that made me want blood was where he oh-so-smugly said [paraphrased] "I wanted that kid to lose sleep."

What an utter shitweasel.

[g33kboi.livejournal.com]

There's a special place in hell for people like that. ::infuriated and disgusted::

[mt-yvr.livejournal.com]

Kept waiting for the punchline. I mean... he wasn't real, right?


Oh hell, he is. COMPLETELY unable to form sentences to even begin to cover "wtf?"

[lagilman]

Cue "Grinch" soundtrack. Except this guy doesn't have a heart to enlarge.

He's not talking about it costing money out of his pocket. He's not saying that everything needs to be taken down a notch across to board to make the budget work. he's saying anyone who wants a library is indulging in "their little, personal, private wants."

What's he indulging in, hmmm?

[mt-yvr.livejournal.com]

I kept thinking the exact same thing. It's too much a "my interests are much more important" rant NOT to have a "and now... what I want to replace them with!" (flourish)

My lord he's an idiot.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

What's he indulging in, hmmm?

Simultaneous ego-stroking for jerking people around yet again and sucking up madly to his corporate overlords.

[jennetj.livejournal.com]

Thanks for helping to spread this. Needless to say, it's an issue near and dear to me and mine. When I showed L how it had spread, she was stunned - and heartened. It probably won't help them keep their jobs, but it may spread some mud around where it needs to be spread. Though I have to be careful what I say in any forum, and she can't comment at all about it (she even declined to comment to a reporter from the Chicago Tribune who called her yesterday).

Someone on Twitter asked Neil Gaiman to forward it to Colbert, and I hope someone does - Colbert would have a field day with this one!

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Heh. Connie probably doesn't even know who Colbert is, and if he does, he'd probably never realize it's just satire.

[signeh.livejournal.com]

I kind of hope Keith Olbermann hears about it. He-I-Will-Not-Name would make a splendid Worst Person In The World.

[jennetj.livejournal.com]

Good idea. I just sent a link to the article to the Countdown email addy.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

I am tempted to write to the Commandant of the Marine Corp to tell them about Mr Xinos, who lists being a Marine on his resume, and that this is not a good poster child for the Corps.

[lagilman]

ooooo......

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/mcu/lli/Professional%20Reading%20Program.htm

The Marines even have a Professional Reading List. Wouldnt they just love an anti-book spokesperson.

[lianneb.livejournal.com]

"I wanted that kid to lose sleep that night," a grinning Xinos says Wednesday, as he invites me for a nearly two-hour interview in his Mercedes-Benz in the gated Oak Brook community where he lives. "This is the real world and the lesson, you folks who brought your kids here, is if you want something, pay for it."

This was the part that had me really ready to strangle him. Complete and utter asshole.

[arouraleona.livejournal.com]

Not to come in too late, but:

As someone considering a MLIS, that's no cheaper a degree than a masters in anything else. But the salary is often not reflected for librarians unless you're running archives for a big company or something.

Seattle Public Library shut down for one week this year (week of labor day, since they were already closed on the monday). Saved them several hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary, budget, and utility costs for all the branches to do this. They also were able to toss in some repair work at a few of the branches during the downtime that didn't disturb anyone (or go in after hours which costs more).

But at the same time it didn't kill the library or the staff. They plan on doing it again next year. It just seems like a creative way to save money without severely harming your community. Schools were back in session, so the kids didn't really need it during the day, they didn't have to cut specific library programs if they simply didn't have programs at any library for one week. It worked.

Hour reduction is such a great idea if money is a problem! And money IS a problem for most libraries right now.