Starr's Appointment Provokes Controversy in San Francisco

The appointment of Kevin O. Starr, an associate professor of English on leave since June, to the post of interim city librarian in the San Francisco library system has sparked a minor political controversy in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Library Commission, a seven-member board chosen by the mayor, appointed Starr to the post upon the recommendation of Mayor Joseph Alioto. Alioto met Starr here last Spring and offered him a position as an executive aide in June.

Political Pawn

Nancy Musser, president of the Guild, said yesterday that the appointment "makes the city librarian a political pawn as opposed to a professional appointment."

The Librarian's Guild, a 100-member organization of professional library employees, sharply criticized Starr's appointment, charging that Starr lacks the professional credentials for the post.

"In as much as the mayor is elected, and the commission is appointed, and I work for the mayor and didn't rise through the ranks--then this is a political appointment," Starr said last night.

He said that Guild opposition has subsided because of the temporary nature of the appointment and his belief that the permanent librarian should be a professional.

Starr said that he expects to return to his executive aide post once a permanent librarian is chosen.

"I will stay in San Francisco as long as I can be useful to Mayor Alioto," he said, suggesting that he might request an extra six-month leave to aid Alioto's gubernatorial bid, should the mayor win the June primary.

The Guild abandoned plans for a library employees' walkout when an acceptable search committee was formed, Musser said. "We accepted the word of the (library) commission that this was an acting appointment," she said.

A spokesman for the mayor said yesterday that the city librarian is exempt from civil service requirements and that reaction to the Starr appointment was favorable "in many quarters with which we are concerned."