Ax Falls on 2 Library Branches in Palos Verdes : Budget: Board votes to cut 19 employees, trim hours and scale back on buying materials. Closures scheduled for July.

The Palos Verdes Library District has voted to close two branches and cut back the hours at the main Peninsula Center library, and officials warn that the entire system may be in jeopardy because of state budget cuts.

After agonizing for months over how to ease the system’s financial crunch, district board members decided 4-0 Thursday night to make the cutbacks in an effort to trim a total of $1.1 million from the 1993-94 fiscal-year budget.

Library officials also cut 19 employees from its payroll, leaving the district with a staff of 57 employees, compared to 94 a year ago. The district also will be spending about one-third less on library materials next year.

“Unfortunately, it’s not the end of the story by any means,” said board member Christopher Tara. “We are so at the whim of Sacramento now that what it comes down to is an issue of local control, and what that comes down to is money.”

The district, one of only a few special library districts in the state, could face an additional $400,000 to $800,000 in cuts, depending on what state lawmakers decide. Proposals to shift between $1.3 billion to $2.6 billion in property tax revenue from local governments to the state remain up in the air.

Both branches--Malaga Cove and Miraleste--are scheduled to close July 16. In addition, Friday and Saturday hours at the Peninsula Center library will be reduced, and the facility will be closed Sunday.

The library district, which covers Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Rolling Hills Estates, was formed in 1928 and serves 70,000 residents. The district has fallen on hard times primarily because of declining property tax revenues.

At a public hearing Thursday night, nearly two dozen residents pleaded for the branches to be kept open, and many charged that district officials had not fully searched for ways to trim the fat.

“You have to do a complete look at how you do the services and what the services are,” said Harold Jesse, a resident of Palos Verdes Estates. “You have to look at true downsizing.”

District officials, however, said the district’s $2.6-million budget already is nearly one-third less than a year ago. In addition, board members say some suggestions to ease the burden would not work. A proposal to charge $10 per library card, for example, conflicts with a state attorney general’s opinion to retain free access to library services.

Other residents proposed scuttling a $19-million expansion of the main Peninsula Center library, a project launched last December and scheduled for completion in late 1994.

“We, the people of Palos Verdes, need these libraries,” said Robert Altounian of Palos Verdes Estates. “We need all three of them, but we don’t need a Taj Mahal.”

But district officials say the majority of the money pegged for construction could not be used for everyday operations because the project is being funded almost entirely by a revenue bond that voters approved in 1991.

Still, many library patrons said they would donate money to keep the Malaga Cove and Miraleste branches open, even on a limited basis. The Friends of the Library, a support group of Palos Verdes library volunteers, offered to chip in $40,000, but only if it is used to keep each branch open for eight hours a week over the next six months.

The board deadlocked at 2-2--board member Teresa Sun was absent--on a motion to accept the offer, sending the proposal into defeat.

“With more time and consideration and better planning, we can find a better way to make use of the Friends’ money,” said board president Janet Smith, who voted against the offer along with Bill Glantz. “I’m not opposed to the gift per se.”

Board members Tara and Elliott J. Hahn voted to accept the offer. The proposal is expected to come before the board again at its next meeting on July 8.

Still, the wrangling over the budget could be a moot point. If a state proposal to eliminate or consolidate special districts passes, the Palos Verdes library system could be dissolved, perhaps within the next year, officials said. It then could be restored only if 25% of voters in the district protest and a majority vote in favor of reforming the district.

The proposal to dissolve the districts, which has been endorsed by Gov. Pete Wilson, has been passed by the Assembly and is pending in the state Senate.

“(Approval of the bill) is basically a done deal in Sacramento,” Glantz said. “It’s going to happen.”

Another proposal, a bit less likely to gain approval from state lawmakers, would place district funds in the hands of the county Board of Supervisors. The district would be forced to compete for dollars along with more pressing services, such as fire protection and flood control.

Some board members, however, said the district could fund itself if state lawmakers remove restrictions that bar the library system from assessing parcel taxes on residents. It would cost about $175 per home each year to fund the district’s 1993-94 budget.

“There’s nothing permanent about anything we are doing,” Tara said. “We need to retrench. We need to fight for another day.”