Tax Measure to Aid Libraries OKd for Ballot : Ventura: Council backs a plan that would charge property owners $35 a year to ensure Foster, Wright, Avenue facilities stay open.

With officials struggling to keep library doors open amid ongoing budget cuts, Ventura voters will be asked this fall to approve a special tax to nearly double the operating hours at their three county branches.

The Ventura City Council early Tuesday approved a ballot measure that seeks to assess property owners $35 a year to ensure that the Foster, Wright and Avenue libraries stay open while county supervisors debate a massive budget deficit.

Any increase in the levy would be capped at 6% a year.

“I’m in favor of raising some money for libraries,” Mayor Tom Buford said. “We’re trying to protect a resource and keep it alive until we can figure out what our long-term plan is.”

Nearly a dozen library supporters stayed past 1 a.m. as the council grappled with how much to ask landowners to pay to increase library hours. Minutes after the unanimous vote, the council passed a motion urging voters to approve the tax, known as Measure L.

The $35 parcel tax is not enough to restore the hours to 1992-93 levels, but council members feared that anything higher would scare away voters.

“If we’re going to do this, we better make sure we’re going to be giving them full service,” Councilman Jack Tingstrom said. But, Buford said, “if you increase that number, you might have a hard time getting it passed.”

Immediately following the unanimous vote, library supporters began plotting their campaign. Organizers plan to walk precincts, hold forums and address as many service organizations as they can before the November election.

“We’re ready to hit the ground running,” said Keith Burns, a member of the city’s library advisory board. “More hours, more books.”

Backers of the measure said they have contacted library officials from other cities such as Santa Paula and Pasadena, which have passed similar measures.

But despite a survey administered this spring that showed 86% of Ventura voters support the tax, backers stopped short Tuesday of predicting that the measure would receive the required two-thirds majority.

“People need a good reason to support a tax increase,” said Cheryl Brand, who is helping to coordinate the campaign for Measure L. “But I think they have it.”

The parcel tax would generate about $1 million a year to increase the hours at Ventura’s two larger libraries to at least 47 a week, up from 27 hours. The Avenue Library, now open 19 hours a week, would increase to at least 28 if the measure passes.

But the tax would not raise any funds to repair county library buildings, many of which have structural problems that have been ignored for years. Downtown’s Foster Library is among the most dilapidated in the system.

Councilman Steve Bennett, among others, said any capital improvements to the libraries in the city would have to come later.

“It’s the best we can do in the short term,” he said of Measure L.

Library officials have said that without an infusion of cash, a majority of the county’s 16 libraries would be pared back or closed outright by the end of the year.

The county Board of Supervisors is facing a $38-million deficit for the current year, and will make deep cuts in many of its services during budget hearings later this month to balance its budget of about $880 million.

Alan R. Langville, addressing the council Tuesday for library system Director Dixie Adeniran, said that it would cost $2.9 million a year to restore library hours in Ventura to their 1992-93 levels.

Council members said that because county supervisors have failed to come up with a way to spare the libraries from budget cuts, they would leave it up to voters to decide their fate.

“It doesn’t look like the county’s going to do anything,” Tingstrom said. “It’s more important to our community to do something rather than nothing.”

The council shied away from an alternative that would have levied the tax on businesses, industries and residential units, including apartments and mobile homes. That plan would have raised an additional $400,000 for the libraries, but council members were afraid voters would reject it.

“Anything higher [than $35 a year] we don’t think is going to pass,” Councilman Gregory L. Carson said.

One speaker said he would campaign against the tax measure.

“We must find a way to keep our libraries open. I just don’t think this is the way to do it,” said Chris Staubach. “You’re talking a lot of numbers, but I don’t hear any guarantees.

“Let’s get some guarantees.”

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FYI

FYI: Library supporters will meet today to formalize campaign strategy and fund-raising plans, as well as come up with a name for the committee of volunteers seeking to get the parcel tax approved by two-thirds of voters. To make a donation or volunteer for the proposal, call Cheryl Brand at 643-9390.