New Plans Surfacing to Bail Out Libraries : Finances: The rescue ideas range from a parcel tax to breaking up the county system. Nine facilities face possible closure.

Less than two weeks after measures to fund the county’s cash-poor libraries failed at the polls, politicians and library supporters are pushing new bailout proposals ranging from retooled parcel-tax initiatives to breaking up the county’s library agency.

Faced with the prospect that up to nine neighborhood libraries could close March 31, some library backers are planning to collect donations through a telephone hot line. The idea would give residents favoring the $35 parcel tax a chance to make contributions needed to sustain the libraries.

But supporters of the Ojai Valley area libraries are actually planning another run at the ballot box with more voter-friendly parcel-tax initiatives in the March primary election.

“We are getting educated,” said Lisa Meeker, chairwoman of the Save Our Libraries Committee in the Ojai Valley. “We are looking at our mistakes and instead of giving up, we are trying again.”

For the first time, library boosters in Camarillo are also going to take the issue to the voters. The Camarillo City Council voted last week to place a $25 homeowners’ tax initiative--$10 less than the November library measures--on the March ballot.

“Library supporters know it has a better chance of passing [than other library measures] because it doesn’t hit pocketbooks as hard and there are some more controls on it,” said Mike Morgan, a Camarillo city councilman.

Meanwhile, Supervisor Frank Schillo has been peddling his idea to break up the county’s 16-branch library system and divide library operations among the cities.

“My plan doesn’t envision any increases in taxes,” Schillo said of his proposal to establish a “Library Federation.” “We can increase library hours from the increased money that is available from freeing up expenses.”

Earlier this month, Measure L in Ventura, Measure O in Ojai and Measure N in the county’s unincorporated areas between the two cities all failed to win the required 66.7% vote.

Ojai’s Measure O came nearest to reaching the two-thirds majority vote, losing by less than 100 votes with about 64% of the vote. All three measures would have raised homeowners’ taxes $35 on average, expanding hours at larger branches and rescuing smaller branches from the brink of closure.

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If the county’s library services agency fails to come up with alternative funding before March 31, neighborhood libraries in Meiners Oaks, Oak View and Oak Park as well as the county’s historical museum library may shut down, county officials said. The Piru, Saticoy, Soliz-El Rio and Ventura’s Avenue branch libraries could also close in March if temporary funding measures do not materialize.

Ventura library backers assembled for a brainstorming session Saturday, their first meeting since Measure L failed at the polls with 53.2% of the vote. Cherie Brandt, the measure’s campaign coordinator, said library supporters plan to survey voters on their reasons for turning down the measure. Brandt also said library backers may eventually survey city residents to ask their views on how to continue to fund and operate Ventura’s three libraries.

But Brandt said the group has no plans to put another parcel-tax measure back on the ballot.

“We just haven’t gotten that far in our decision making,” she said.

But Ojai Valley-area library backers, many of them political neophytes, say they believe they now have the right formula to obtain the two-thirds voter majority.

Any proposed parcel tax, campaign volunteers say, would include a “sunset clause,” which would allow residents in 2000 to vote on whether to continue the levy. Library supporters also plan to remove the 7% annual cost-of-living adjustment, which some voters feared--incorrectly--would have doubled the amount of the annual levy in five years.

Meeker also said volunteers will spend more time taking the campaign door-to-door to reach the voters. During the last campaign, Meeker said, volunteers tried to “get out the vote” mainly by calling registered voters, which proved insufficient to muster the needed support.

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About 1,500 Ojai voters pledged to vote yes on Measure O over the phone, Meeker said, but only about 1,000 actually did so on election Tuesday.

“We talked to a lot of people who didn’t realize that their vote mattered,” Meeker said. “If people had realized that their votes counted, it would have passed.”

Library boosters in Meiners Oaks plan to put another parcel tax on the March ballot, but restrict the vote to those residents in the immediate area. By shrinking the size of the voting district, they believe the measure will stand a much greater chance of passage.

Campaign volunteers point out that Measure N had more than 70% support among residents in some precincts ringing the city of Ojai.

By limiting the voting area, library campaign volunteer George Berg said, “I think it would be a comparable area to the city of Ojai, where I think [the measure] has an excellent chance for passage.”

The redrawn boundaries, however, means the measure would not generate any money to prevent the Oak View library from closing.

Bruce Bradley, the county’s assistant registrar of voters, said he is not sure any of these parcel-tax measures will fare better a second time around.

“It’s like playing the slot machine,” Bradley said. “You have equal chances.”

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Bradley said county voters tend to be pretty conservative and hold uniform views on taxing themselves. Homeowners are particularly reluctant to raise their own taxes, he said, and about 66% of Ventura residents own their homes contrasted with 58% statewide.

Bradley said it may be more difficult to pass a parcel tax in Ventura County for that reason.

But this does not faze Camarillo library backers, who are now recruiting campaign volunteers for their March ballot measure that would raise an additional $617,000 for the Camarillo library.

Betty Sullivan, president of the Friends of the Camarillo Library, predicts that city’s voters will support a measure that asks for only $25 annually from residents, has a five-year sunset clause and no cost-of-living increase.

“There is something about [the cost-of-living increase] that bothers people like writing a blank check,” Sullivan said. “We are trying to present a measure the people will support.”

Library backers, such as Sullivan, blame the county’s shrinking Library Services Agency budget on Proposition 13, the 1978 measure that restricted the amount of property taxes the state could impose. The proposition also set the requirement that any new parcel tax must receive a two-thirds majority vote.

Since 1992, cuts in state funding to local governments have devastated the county’s Library Services Agency, slashing its budget from $10 million to $5.8 million.

Schillo said library backers can forget about attempts to pass parcel-tax measures if he can get the county and cities behind his proposal to transfer control to the cities.

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The supervisor claims his idea would free up nearly $1.4 million the county now uses to cover library costs for building maintenance, custodial work and support services.

“It is an awful lot of money that can otherwise be used for the operation of the libraries,” Schillo said.

Cities would have to fund library operations and maintenance, but could do so more cheaply, Schillo said. The library federation would centralize library services such as book-purchasing.

County Library Services Director Dixie D. Adeniran said Schillo’s plan could result in some savings, but that the cities or some entity would have to pick up the tab for custodial services and other overhead costs.

Some library supporters believe that Schillo’s promised savings are far too optimistic. “I think he kind of turned the scientific process on its head,” Brandt said. “He made a conclusion without gathering all his facts.”

They argue that libraries need to establish an alternative source of money, even if the cash the county collects for overhead costs is returned to libraries. They point to the experience of the county surrounding San Jose.

Santa Clara County transferred control of its libraries to a joint-powers authority made up of cities earlier this year, but coupled the move with a $33 parcel tax. Librarians there said the restructuring would not have worked without the infusion of extra money.

Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton, a software manager for a division of Litton Industries, said Ventura County libraries may have more than just a funding crisis to overcome.

“The viability of libraries is limited given today’s technology,” Stratton said. “They will be phased out in 10 or 20 years because everybody will get data in other ways. Unless they figure out what to do in this new world, they may become museums.”