Huntington Beach Council to Act on Library Proposal

The City Council is scheduled to act tonight on a recommendation that the city’s public library system be made a separate department of city government.

The library system currently is part of the Community Services Department. City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga has proposed making the library system a separate entity to “improve communication, effectiveness and efficiency.”

Uberuaga also proposed that incumbent Library Director Ron Hayden be named as the head of the new Library Department. No changes in city budget or staff salaries for anyone would be involved, Uberuaga said.

“The fundamental change involved is one of a reporting relationship, whereby the library director will now be reporting directly to the city administrator instead of the community services director,” Uberuaga said.

The proposal for a separate department for the library system has been strongly endorsed by the city’s Library Board of Trustees and also by the Library Patrons Foundations, Friends of the Library and Friends of the Children’s Library of Huntington Beach.

“We firmly believe the library should be an autonomous department best served by reporting to the city manager,” said Dorothy Silverman, president of Friends of the Library. “The library provides distinctive services which should not be grouped with dissimilar services.”