Libraries to Stay Open--for Now : Finances: Regular hours remain until county budget is finalized, public is told at hearing.

During their first day of budget hearings without hundreds of protesting union members, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Friday heard instead from a public that pleaded with them to save parks and libraries threatened with closure.

By the end of the unusually placid four-hour session, county Librarian Sandra F. Reuben disclosed some good news amid all the doom and gloom. Until the budget is finalized, she said, the county’s 87 libraries will continue operating at regular hours. For weeks, Reuben warned that a proposed 20% cut in her budget would necessitate closing some libraries several days a week while curtailing hours at others.

After the hearing, supervisors announced that they have postponed the next special budget sessions, slated for Monday through Wednesday, and the usual Tuesday board meeting. Instead, board members will travel to Sacramento so they can appeal to Gov. Pete Wilson and state lawmakers for help in closing their unprecedented $1.2-billion budget deficit. The amount is about 10% of the proposed $11.1-billion budget for fiscal 1995-96.

Chief Administrative Officer Sally Reed said she will fly to the state capital and spend all week there--to make sure the county’s interests are protected as lawmakers try to pass the state budget and close their own budget gap.

“We want to make sure all our bases are covered,” said Reed, who added that supervisors have not yet determined who they will meet with or when. Several supervisors said they are especially worried about a state proposal to eliminate an additional $123 million in badly needed funding.

*

After ordering $257 million in cuts last month, the supervisors must slash $1 billion more from the budget for the coming year, or find that amount in other revenue sources. Besides seeking financial support from Sacramento, Reed said, county officials will press for the authority to raise some taxes to increase revenues, including a 10% surtax on alcoholic drinks.

The next local budget hearings--rescheduled for Thursday, Friday and July 17--are the latest in a series of public meetings in which county residents have been asked to respond to the proposed cuts and layoffs.

In her budget, Reed has recommended closing County-USC Medical Center, the nation’s largest public hospital, as well as dozens of parks, pools and libraries. She has also proposed eliminating 18,255 county jobs as a way of averting what she says is a looming fiscal catastrophe.

On Friday, dozens of residents told the supervisors that parks and libraries are among the most important resources the county provides to the public, and that the amount of money spent on them is minuscule within the overall county budget.

“You asked me to say no to drugs and gangs, and I did,” 9-year-old Jessica Lemos of Walnut Park told supervisors. “Now you want to take away the only place that I have--my park.”

Others said the parks not only provide an oasis from gangs and drugs, but also sports activities, educational classes and even food for hundreds of thousands of children countywide. “We feel they are the best way to keep our children off the streets,” said David Ortiz of South-Central Los Angeles, who said his two children use Roosevelt Park every day.

*

Several dozen other speakers said the libraries and the parks are the last areas the county should cut, because they are investments in children.

“When we tighten our own budgets, we don’t take from our kids,” said Niles Boyer, appearing with his three young children and wife in tow. “We take from ourselves. We should not cut the programs for our children.”

The libraries are in desperate need of a bailout because the state took away $30 million in annual funding two years ago, Reuben said. Last year, the supervisors provided a $20-million bailout, but board Chairwoman Gloria Molina told Reuben not to expect similar help this year.

Instead, supervisors are considering asking voters to approve an assessment district that would raise revenues for libraries through annual fees. A hearing on the issue is set for August.

Reuben said library hours may still need to be scaled back later and employees could be laid off. But she said she wanted to wait until the board passes its budget, which is expected later this month.