County free libraries: withdrawal: use of private contractors.

Existing law provides that the county boards of supervisors may establish and maintain, within their respective counties, county free libraries pursuant to specified provisions of law. Existing law provides that the board of trustees, common council, or other legislative body of any city or the board of trustees of any library district may, on or before January 1 of any year, notify the county board of supervisors that the city or library district no longer desires to be a part of the county free library system, as specified. This bill would impose specified requirements if the board of trustees, common council, or other legislative body of a city or the board of trustees of a library district intends to withdraw from the county free library system and operate the city's or library district's library or libraries with a private contractor that will employ library staff to achieve cost savings, unless the library or libraries are funded only by the proceeds of a special tax imposed by the city or library district. These requirements, until January 1, 2019, would include, but not be limited to, publishing notice of the contemplated action in a specified manner, clearly demonstrating that the contract will result in actual overall cost savings to the city or library district for the duration of the entire contract, as specified, prohibiting the contract from causing existing city or library district employees to incur a loss of employment or specified benefits or an involuntary transfer, and imposing specified requirements on contracts for library services in excess of $100,000 annually. The bill would also provide that its provisions do not preclude a city, library district, or local government from adopting more restrictive rules regarding the contracting of public services, and would prohibit its provisions from applying to contracts between a city or library district and a nonprofit organization if specified requirements are met.