I ran across this seemingly local pro-LSSI website this morning:

There’s apparently no actual person who’s willing to be publicly associated with this pro-outsourcing website, despite the fact that many persons in our community have been willing to put themselves out there publicly in opposition to outsourcing. (See my posting on Deb Abbadie this morning).

The “Who We Are” subpage on this savenevadacountylibraries.info website includes the following comment [emphasis mine]:

Citizens Coalition to Save Nevada County Public Libraries is an ad-hoc committee of business owners, community leaders, educators, labor leaders and parents who are concerned about our library system and preserving the highest standards of professional public service. We believe that a spirited dialogue should occur within our community concerning the Nevada County Library System void of false accusations, distortions of facts, special interest agendas, and complete disregard for civility in the public arena.

Despite the reproach about false accusations in that statement, there is also this comment elsewhere on the site [emphasis again mine]:

This letter to the editor appeared in The Union on December 22, 2009 in response to Jill Sonnenberg’s letter from December 2nd. Thank you to Carole Gibson for highlighting the self-centered nature at the root of the anti-outsourcing crowd.

And yet the letter to The Union that follows, written by Carole Gibson of Nevada City and published on December 23rd, contains no credible assertion about the generally “self-centered nature at the root of the anti-outsourcing crowd.”

That in itself is a truly a bizarre (and false!) accusation. The opposition to outsourcing appears to be widespread in our community, and if it can be “faulted” for anything, it would probably be for an abundance of idealism, rather than self-centredness!

Accusing your philosophical opponent (who’s also in a real sense your neighbor) of bad faith is not what I’d call the practice of civility.

There’s nothing wrong with a local group in support of outsourcing, and nothing surprising about it either.

But why do they feel it’s necessary to hide?

Beyond the question of who created it, the most noteworthy thing about this “info” website is that there is very little actual info in it.

The “News Clips” subpage contains a total of four clippings, two from out-of-state.

The “Setting the Record Straight” subpage reads like an LSSI promotional flyer.

Check it out here. See for yourself if there’s any there … there.