READING IN A HURRY: Libraries usually get...

READING IN A HURRY: Libraries usually get hit first in tight city budgets. In Anaheim, the librarians are fighting back--with ideas. When their magazine budget was slashed recently, they persuaded loyal patrons to buy subscriptions for them. Now they plan to charge for taking out bestsellers--$1.50 per book. . . . “We’ll always keep one copy of each bestseller on a reserve list at no charge,” says spokeswoman Verna Sgritta. “But we can’t afford multiple copies. The rental fee is for those in a hurry.”

BUS BUST: There has long been a premium on parking at Seal Beach’s Old Town. So John Baker was rattled when he saw city crews turning three prime parking places near his Main Street liquor store into a no-parking zone. It turns out that someone at City Hall mistakenly believed that the area was a bus stop. Within 48 hours of his complaint, the parking spaces were back. . . . “I’ve never seen them move so fast on something,” he says. “I think it’s great.”

MARATHON MAN: The gray-haired, square-jawed man seen running each noon at the County Courthouse is Superior Court Judge James L. Smith. Next year he figures he’ll have to work noon hours. . . . Smith, 56, has been elected by his peers as the court’s presiding judge for 1994. Running trials on time with heavy budget cuts will be the big problem, Smith says: “It’s not like you get a whip when you become presiding judge and tell everyone what to do. In these tough times, we will have to work together.”

STRAIGHT & NARROW: Smith is one of the few judges in Orange County to publicly favor making some of the drug user laws more lenient. But you won’t hear him speak out on such matters next year. “I won’t discuss issues controversial,” Smith says. “I’m not going to be Wally the Wimp, but the presiding judge cannot promote his own agenda.” . . . Smith says his drug views may have cost him a few votes, but that judges here rarely take such issues personally: “We have a lot of collegiality on our bench.”