This explains a lot about Detroit...
"47% of adults in the City of Detroit are functionally illiterate"
Makes you wonder why they wasted so much money on their libraries?
Library pays $6,500 for business cards for all
Christine MacDonald / / The Detroit News
A purchase order from March 2010 showing the cash-strapped Detroit Public Library spent more than $6,500 to buy business cards for all its employees — including clerks and janitors who questioned why they need them.
Library spokesman A.J. Funchess said each employee got 250 cards "to be an ambassador to their communities."
"It shows everyone matters here at the library," Funchess said. "Everyone is representing the library."
"As employees, we are all a part of the same system."
Many of the cards quickly became obsolete. One year later, the library has lost 71 staffers to layoffs and retirements. Dozens more of the remaining 376 staffers could soon be laid off as the system is grappling with an $11 million shortfall and could close at least 10 of its 23 neighborhood branches.
The expense is the latest in a series that has some questioning library leadership.
Unions and even some commissioners contend the library wasted money on a $2.3 million renovation of the Main Library's South Wing that includes 20 European-designed chairs that cost $1,100 apiece, eight stainless steel trash cans that cost $1,110 each and two fireplaces that ran $5,000 a pop.
The expense follows a fundraising plan two years ago that didn't go as planned. The taxpayer-supported system spent $200,000 in hopes of raising $20 million.
Instead, less than $100 was raised, The News reported in February.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20110505/METRO01/105050382/1409/Library-pays-$6-500-for-business-cards-for-all
Stealing the people blind because most are illiterate and have no idea what is going on.
