Hourly Update

Filtering porn on library computers to be determined by committee

A decision on whether to filter pornography from all public library computers has been sent to a yet-to-be created ad hoc committee with no time table for making a recommendation. Supervisor Ray Carroll had pushed for the county to filter all computers after a television news team showed him footage of people viewing pornography on library computers. After his motion to filter all pornography failed for lack of a second, he voted against sending it to the committee, calling it an attempt to kill the issue. Supervisor Ann Day also voted no. But a majority of supervisors said they want to defer to the expertise of librarians, First Amendment lawyers and law enforcement. In the meantime, the county plans to spend $40,000 on privacy screens to prevent passers-by from seeing what computer users are looking at. Library Director Nancy Ledeboer had said that was her preferred solution. In other business, the supervisors approved a 6 percent increase in sewer rates now and another 6 percent increase to go into effect six months from now. The Wastewater Management Department had wanted a series of four 10 percent increases over two years.