OXNARD : Library Director Plans to Resign

Oxnard Library Director Gail Warner, who shepherded the library system through a period that included both expansion and severe budget cutbacks, has announced her resignation.

Warner has accepted a job as library director of Josephine County in Oregon. Although her last day officially isn’t until Oct. 1, Warner already has cleaned out her desk. She has purchased a home along Oregon’s Rogue River and is busy preparing for her new life out of state.

“I think it has been five real productive years,” said Warner who joined the city in 1988. “I enjoy a challenge and there are new challenges in Oregon.”

During Warner’s tenure, she oversaw the completion of Oxnard’s new $12-million library at 2nd and A streets and guided the automation of the city’s library system. During that same time, however, she grappled with a 32% budget reduction that badly eroded library services.

In a cost-cutting effort last November, the Oxnard City Council voted to make library services a division of the city’s community services department. Until then, the library had been a separate department.

Warner would not comment on whether the reorganization had anything to do with her departure, but her supporters suspect that the council’s action contributed to her decision to leave.

“She worked very hard for this city,” sad Felicity Harper, president of the Friends of the Oxnard Library. “She will be missed.”