5 Cities Reject New Taxes to Fund Libraries

Representatives of most cities in Ventura County’s library system Thursday rejected new taxes as a way of pumping life into their ailing libraries, saying that county officials should instead consider streamlining the operation to free up money to keep their branches open.

In a meeting of the Ventura County Council of Governments, leaders from five cities--Simi Valley, Moorpark, Port Hueneme, Fillmore and Santa Paula--said their constituents would never approve new taxes as a way of funding county library services.

“I can almost guarantee that in Fillmore you won’t see any type of tax passed,” Fillmore Mayor Linda Brewster said.

Instead, city and county representatives said they believe that the library administration is top-heavy and could be cut to provide more money for books and other services.

“I don’t think we’ve taken a look at the system in the ‘90s,” County Supervisor Judy Mikels said. “We’ve just been putting Band-Aids on a ‘70s library system.”

Faced with a 50% reduction in funding since 1993, the county’s Library Services Agency has seen staff and library hours cut by about 40% and funds for new books slashed by two-thirds.

Dixie Adeniran, library agency director, has visited every city in the system in recent months, warning that their libraries could close if they do not find creative ways to fund them.

Suggested funding sources included increasing the sales tax and adopting a new parcel tax.

Adeniran said she was disappointed that few cities showed interest in those measures.

“It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that since 1991-92, the library system has lost a lot,” Adeniran told the city representatives Thursday. “My biggest fear is that we’ll do nothing.

“While we will continue to provide the best service we can with the money we have, the basic problem is money.”

Only representatives of three cities said Thursday that they would support a $35 to $40 per parcel tax to fund the agency.

Faced with ever-shorter library hours, Camarillo, Ojai and Ventura have tentatively approved plans to put the tax before voters to support the libraries in those cities.

“We’re looking for a cooperative effort,” said Ventura Mayor Tom Buford, noting that the City Council has agreed to put a citywide tax measure on the fall ballot if the county does not come up with a plan to fund the library agency.

“But when the funding starts falling short and when facilities aren’t maintained as they should be, you have to look at other methods.”

Adeniran said the library system is doing the best it can with the cut in revenue.

“I am encouraged by commentary from several of the cities in realization that providing additional services for residents requires additional money,” she said.

Officials who support the tax acknowledge that persuading residents to reach into their pockets will be no easy task.

It took Santa Paula three tries to approve a $25 parcel tax to fund its community library last year.

Meanwhile, county supervisors are examining creative approaches.

Supervisor Maggie Kildee said the county might look into sharing resources with the new California State University campus, which is slated to open by the year 2000.

Supervisor Frank Schillo is examining forming library districts where larger, independent libraries, such as those in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard, would take smaller county library branches under their wing.

Schillo is proposing that the Oak Park county library share resources and staff with the larger and wealthier Thousand Oaks Library, which left the county system in 1982.