Supervisor Linda Smyth Meets with Library Advocates, Invest in Fairfax Coalition

Fairfax Library Advocates, Avi Dey and Kathy Kaplan, and members of Invest in Fairfax coalition attended a meeting today with Providence District Supervisor Linda Smyth at her new office in the new Providence Community Center not far from Vienna Metro Station.

Invest in Fairfax promotes increasing public engagement in the Fairfax County budget process and is looking to develop a single countywide plan to maintain the quality of life in Fairfax County and to preserve the high quality of public services that we enjoy.   

SEIU president David Broder spoke about engaging in a new narrative to promote integrated and multi-year planning.  He stated that the county's excellence is at risk with the current budget.

It was pointed out to Supervisor Smyth that adding business librarians to our county system would be of great benefit to new businesses needing help with understanding county, state and federal regulations.  Business librarians can also help new business owners to navigate and do research with library databases to enhance their company's performance.

Kathy Kaplan discussed the challenges of the proposed budget and pointed out that 31% of the net positions to be cut from the county workforce come from the library.  The library is only 0.72% of the county budget.  That cut in personnel is disproportionate and will damage of the library's ability serve the public and maintain service hours.  Avi Dey and the Library Advocates will continue to pursue a discussion with the county supervisors about maintaining and expanding the functionality of the library to further economic development as the budget process continues into April.

 

  SEIU President David Broder;  David Edelman, VP of Advocacy for FCCPTA;

Beth Tudan, Executive Director, Fairfax League of Women Voters

meeting with Supervisor Smyth.

Invest in Fairfax Coalition:  Front: Jessica Bowser, Fairfax County Federation of Teachers; Debbie Kilpatrick, President FCCPTA; Walt Carlson.  Back:  David Edelman; David Broder; Kimberly Adams, FEA President; Beth Tudan.