Library trustees: The badges stay

I’m not quite sure what to make of This One from Illinois where Crestwood Public Library Board trustees have decided to keep their controversial police-like badges despite outcry from angry taxpayers who have accused trustees of wasting money on the credentials they rarely use.

In lieu of ditching the badges, the library board Monday adopted new procedures for using them. Among the rules: Trustees have to keep their badges in a safe place and can’t let friends borrow them.

“When we did this, we felt it was a perk,” board president Clyde Petersen said, adding that he didn’t think spending $600 of district money on the five-pointed stars and leather holders would create such strife. “I don’t think it’s wasteful.”

July 26, 2007 by Librarians Libraries

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5 Responses

  1. mdoneil says:
    July 27, 2007 at 12:21 am

    WTF?
    Why does a library trustee need a badge? The article relates that other cities do this. I have never heard of such a thing. Police, fire fighters, EMS, heck even the animal control officers and perhaps building inspectors but library trustees.

    What possible purpose could they serve. It seems to me that they want to portray themselves as something they are not. A perk of being a library board memeber is you don’t pay overdue fines, not that you are permitted to wave a badge to get a better parking space or let your friends do so.

    At one time a badge was part of my required dress for work. If however I were not working and I showed it to someone to get a better parking spot they would have laughed at me and then made a complaint. What do these people think a badge is doing for them. Save the money and buy a few books.

    I can see plenty of reasons not to wear or carry a badge. When someone holds up the liquor store on the corner they will not come running to me for help because I wear a badge as I don’t. No one will want me to help them evict their tenant, no one will want me to fix a parking ticket. Most importantly the great number of people who hate police officers will not throw things at me (or shoot at me) thinking I am a police officer because I don’t wear a badge.

    These people need to be booted off the board and give a good mental health exam.

  2. Anonymous Patron says:
    July 27, 2007 at 6:41 am

    We don’t need no stinking badges.
    Badges? We don’t need no stinkin badges.

  3. Anonymous Patron says:
    July 27, 2007 at 6:44 am

    Wikipedia
    Wikipedia entry on stinking badges.

  4. birdie says:
    July 28, 2007 at 7:32 pm

    Crazy
    These trustees have some sort of issues with status. There’s absolutely no need for this sort of thing and maybe they may not be the right people for the job. Do the badges help them do their job better? Maybe they just need a pat on the back or as in the Wizard of Oz, a proclamation.

    Wonder if any of them are women; I don’t think most women needs a badge to do a good job.

  5. curleygirl says:
    July 29, 2007 at 11:20 pm

    why aren’t they listening to the taxpayers?
    I don’t know how this library is funded, but if it’s by millage, those angry taxpayers will remember this.

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