Local Elections : 4 Challengers Join P.V. Peninsula Library Race

Two years ago, the Palos Verdes Peninsula Library District canceled its Board of Trustees election because no one challenged the incumbents.

This year, in a direct assault on its own obscurity, the board wrote to the local press, urging people to get involved.

The result? Four challengers, plus two incumbents seeking reelection.

One of the challengers, however, discovered after filing for the race that she has a time conflict and cannot serve if she is elected. So, in a rare turn for a candidate, Virginia T. Gardner of Rancho Palos Verdes is asking people not to vote for her.

The candidates who do want votes on Nov. 3 are Loren J. Crawford, a retired engineer; William R. Glantz, a certified public accountant; incumbent trustee Robert A. Rowe, who was elected in 1983; Anne F. Wittels, an appointed incumbent who has been on the board since June, and Wendy Yen, an educator.

Three seats on the board will be filled in November, including one that is open because trustee Don Dawson is not seeking reelection.

The five-member, unpaid board sets policy, hires the administrator and sets the library district budget, which is $2.6 million this year. Its three libraries serve 85,000 people living in Rancho Palos Verdes, Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills Estates and Rolling Hills.

Although the affluent Peninsula is a library-conscious community where whole families are patrons, observers say many are unaware of the special taxing district that supports the system or the elected board that runs it.

For several years, the board’s task has been to keep the library up to date with only two-thirds of the spending power it had before Proposition 13 devastated its budget a decade ago. The board has had to cut back on some materials, reduce hours and--in perhaps its most criticized decision--eliminate Sunday hours.

Although the challengers on the ballot generally give the current board high marks, they say they have something fresh to offer--including some ideas about reopening Sundays.

“I’ve been a library user for a long time and I take out a lot of books and I have to pay fines,” said Crawford, explaining his involvement with the library over the years. He said his experience in aerospace management qualifies him to handle budgets and “get things accomplished.”

Crawford, 72, has lived in Rolling Hills Estates for 30 years, and he and his wife, Patricia, have two adult children. He has been active in Boy Scout work.

Crawford said his biggest complaint about the library is the scarcity of research materials, which he noticed while doing design work for hospital burn equipment. “I want to see the library keyed more to adults, be more like a college library,” he said.

Glantz, 44, owns a certified public accounting business. He said he was inspired to run by two of his three children who were non-voting student members of the library board.

Restoring Sunday hours, at least at the main library at Peninsula Center, is the focus of Glantz’s campaign: “It would take reallocation of less than 2% of the budget, and with my business and accounting background, I feel I can figure out a way to make it happen,” he said. He also said the library should launch a “public awareness campaign” to inform people about library services.

Youth Activities Adviser

Glantz has lived in Rancho Palos Verdes for 19 years. He and his wife, Phyllis, have three children, one at Rolling Hills High School and two in college. He is an adult adviser for youth activities, including Boy Scouts, youth soccer and student exchange programs.

Rowe, 65, said executive leadership and business experience are requirements for service on the library board and said he fills the bill. Among other things, the incumbent trustee is a retired Navy captain, manager of four investment trusts and a member of the Los Angeles County Veterans Commission.

Calling the present board outstanding, he said it has streamlined the budget system, eliminated what he calls “micro-management,” or lengthy discussions about “little tiny things,” and begun installing an automation system to computerize the card catalogue. But he also said the library needs better public relations and must increase its collection of books and other materials.

Hopes for Sunday Hours

He, too, said he hopes that Sunday hours can be restored at Peninsula Center.

Rowe and his wife, Mary Lou, have two adult children and have lived in Rancho Palos Verdes for 20 years. For the last two years, he has been spending much of his time researching a book on the 6,000 men who landed in the first wave of the D-Day Normandy invasion that led to the end of World War II in Europe.

Wittels--a member of Peninsula Friends of the Library for 25 years who was appointed to an unexpired board term in June--also said the library has to do a better job of promoting itself--even to the point of looking more like a library.

“When you walk into the Peninsula Center Library, you can’t see any books,” she said. “It could be any institution . . . but it should look like a library.” Signs on the outside also are poor, making it hard to find the libraries, she said.

Wittels, 59, and her husband, Jerry, reared two children and have lived in Palos Verdes Estates since 1965. She has been a college student for the last 16 years, earning master’s degrees in English and arts administration. She writes poetry, book reviews and social commentary and has published two books of feminist humor.

Enthusiasm and Ideas

She called the current board “strong” and said her contribution would be enthusiasm and ideas. She said the library could offer more multicultural programs, reflecting the Peninsula’s continuing ethnic change, and restore book delivery to housebound people.

Yen, 42, has a background in history and art and is a substitute teacher in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District. She has lived in Rancho Palos Verdes for 14 years, and she and her husband, Vincent, an architect, have two children at Miraleste High School.

The candidate is on a trip to Japan, but her husband said she is running because she wants to do something for the library system. “We use it almost every day, for art materials and information for school,” said Vincent Yen.

Wendy Yen is advocating more community programs at the library reflecting the contemporary Peninsula community, including the influx of non-Anglo residents.

She is on the publishing board of 10 Speed Press in Berkeley, which specializes in “how-to” books on topics such as cooking and writing. She is active in the PTA and is a regular in the annual 10-kilometer run benefiting the library.

Gardner, the candidate who will be on the ballot but doesn’t want the job, said she realized after filing for the office that the library board meets on the same night as the board of the Southern California Horticultural Institute, where she has served for several years.

“It’s not likely that the (library) board will change its meeting for one person,” she said.