MOORPARK : Council Increases City Library Hours

Preferring an immediate increase in library hours over a protracted “ego game” with the county, the Moorpark City Council has decided to use $14,670 in general fund dollars to expand the hours of the Moorpark library through June.

The council this week voted 3 to 2 to use the tax dollars to bolster library hours, which were slashed from 51 to 20 hours a week last summer during the county’s budget crisis.

Council members had hoped to fund the additional hours through redevelopment dollars due the county, but county officials indicated recently that they would not agree to that plan.

“This has become an ego game and egos are a very dangerous thing,” said Councilman Pat Hunter. “I’m prepared to swallow my pride and make the appropriation out of the general fund because I feel it’s the right thing to do.”

Councilman Scott Montgomery, who joined Councilman John Wozniak in dissenting, angrily rejected Hunter’s suggestion that he was motivated by ego.

“It’s not ego, it’s principle,” Montgomery said. “I refuse to pick the pockets of the residents of Moorpark when they’ve already been picked once.”

Montgomery accused the county of playing games in refusing to accept the redevelopment money and said the city was setting a dangerous precedent by opening its general fund to support a service residents have already paid for through property taxes.

“The easy way out is to capitulate to the intimidation of the county,” Montgomery said.

Mayor Paul Lawrason was the first to take a position on the issue Wednesday, saying the council had a responsibility to residents to get the library open now.

“I think it’s time to stop playing politics with this situation and take an action that’s going to get the library open,” he said.