Bill Would Let City Pull Funds From County Libraries

Despite protests from Los Angeles County library officials, a bill allowing Westlake Village to take its money and leave the nation’s largest library system has passed the California Legislature.

If signed by Gov. Pete Wilson, the bill would allow the upscale bedroom community to keep the roughly $340,000 in property taxes it pays the county annually for library services that city officials say are inadequate. Westlake Village could then use that money to finance its own library, long an item on the city’s municipal wish list.

But library officials predicted that the bill could lead to ruin for the county’s system, which finances libraries in poorer areas with revenues from more affluent communities such as Westlake Village.

“This is one more sort of thing that divides the rich and the poor in Los Angeles,” library system spokesman Phil Fleming said. “This is just one more crack in the dike to dismantle the funding systems for public libraries in California.”

Currently, if a city leaves the county’s 92-library system the portion of its property tax that had supported the library system reverts to the county’s general fund. Westlake Village officials launched the campaign to win the right to withhold the community’s money, they said, after the county reneged on promises to build a 15,000-square-foot library in the city.

City officials say they have no immediate plans to withdraw from the county system, and are working with the county to open a 6,000-square-foot facility in Westlake Village in November. But, they said, the ability to finance their own library services gives them a bargaining chip they can use to get better service from the county.

“I have the greatest respect in the world for the county library system,” Councilwoman Bonnie Klove said. “I don’t really want to see us withdraw, but they have pulled the rug out from under us before.”

County library officials deny Westlake Village was ever promised a larger library, and predicted that the city’s secessionist bill could set a dangerous precedent.

“We just feel that people don’t really understand the real implications of the legislation yet,” Fleming said.

Fleming said that if other cities decide to follow Westlake Village’s example and quit the county’s library network, it could whittle away the financial base of the system and degrade the quality of remaining branches.

Klove and others from Westlake Village said their intent is not to impoverish other branches of the county library, but simply to get their money’s worth. The only Los Angeles County library in their area is the outdated and overcrowded Las Virgenes branch, which also serves Calabasas and Agoura Hills.

Those two cities are proceeding with plans to build a new 25,000-square-foot facility that would be stocked and staffed by the county. Westlake Village opted not to participate because officials want a library of their own in the city.

The bill, which was introduced by state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita), passed the Senate on May 14 on a vote of 25 to 4 and the Assembly on Thursday on a vote of 68 to 0. It is expected to reach the governor’s desk this week.