Ojai, Camarillo, Piru Streamline Their Requests

Undaunted by the failure of three bailout measures for libraries in November, library backers in Ojai, Camarillo and Piru are trying to rally voters to pass five similar but leaner homeowner tax initiatives on the March ballot.

Never mind that getting voters these days to agree to tax themselves is never easy. And never mind that three different, $35 annual parcel taxes that proposed to bail out Ojai and Ventura libraries failed at the polls in November when no measure won the 66.7% of the vote needed.

Library supporters say the new tax proposals are more voter-friendly and softer on the pocketbook than the old ones, giving them a better shot at success.

“The [measure sponsors] have analyzed what happened in the last election and are changing the measures to meet the objections that they found in the community,” said Cherie Brant, the campaign coordinator for Ventura’s Measure L that lost in November when it garnered only 52.3% of the vote.

But a top county elections official thinks tax-leery voters might again defeat this latest series of ballot measures designed to shore up cash-poor libraries.

After all, the new initiatives still need the whopping 66.7% of the vote to succeed. “The two-thirds still remains difficult,” said Bruce Bradley, the county’s assistant registrar of voters. “I don’t know if [the measure supporters] have taken care of the voters’ questions or not.”

But unlike the November initiatives, the two Camarillo measures have “sunset clauses” and contain no cost of living adjustments. As written, the measures would allow voters to decide again in five years whether they want to continue taxing themselves.

“Voters in November were afraid that with a cost of living increase every year, costs could spiral and the measures could go berserk,” said Betty Sullivan, a member of Camarillo’s Committee to Protect Our Library attempting its first run at the ballot box. “These measures cannot go berserk. They have a five-year shelf life. People don’t like signing a blank check.”

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Voters will decide the fate of the initiatives as the county Library Services Agency, which operates 16 branches, sinks deeper into financial crisis. Since 1992, cuts in state funding to local governments have devastated the agency, which has slashed its budget from $10 million to $5.8 million.

If no new cash source materializes, the system may continue paring hours at larger branches and close up to seven small branch libraries June 30.

“The library agency is basically starving to death,” said agency Director Dixie Adeniran. “It’s a slow painful death unless something changes.”

Camarillo’s Measure P and Measure V in the unincorporated areas surrounding the city would together generate $550,000 in additional revenues for Camarillo’s library by raising annual property taxes $25. The cash injection would enable the library to stay open a minimum of 48 hours per week; if the measure fails and no other temporary grants are approved it might be open only 28 hours a week. The money would also boost the library’s annual book budget from zero to $170,000.

Piru’s Measure W proposes to increase property taxes by $35, pumping about $30,000 annually into the small library housed at the Piru Elementary School.

If the measure fails to garner the approval of two-thirds of the electorate, the branch might shut for good at the end of June.

Piru is the only community with a library targeted for closure that has a parcel tax initiative on the March ballot.

“They were the community who came forward and said we want to do this,” said Donna Roff, the county library official in charge of neighborhood libraries. “It is really up to the community to decide.”

Ojai library backers will again ask voters to spend $35 a year for expanded library service after a narrow election loss in November. But they no longer plan to save the Meiners Oaks and Oak View branches from closure.

To help achieve Measure U’s success, the Save Our Libraries committee decided to include only the unincorporated areas ringing the city of Ojai. The move drops about 5,000 voters covered under the broader November initiative that would have kept the two branches afloat.

“It was a difficult decision to make, but with a smaller area, it wasn’t really possible to raise enough money to save those [branches],” said George Berg, the campaign’s precinct coordinator.

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Together Measure R in the city of Ojai and Measure U would produce about $120,000 annually for Ojai’s library. The money would keep the library open about 50 hours a week--compared with as few hours as 20 if the measure fails--and add $42,000 to the book-buying budget.

Of all the measures, the city of Ojai’s November initiative came nearest to winning when it lost by less than 100 votes. Measure backers attributed its defeat to a 7% cost of living increase that some voters feared--incorrectly--would have doubled the parcel tax in five years.

This time around, measure supporters have removed that increase. And come Election Tuesday, they plan to make sure that the 500 voters who said over the phone they would vote yes on the measure actually hit the ballot box.

“We are trying to make it clear to everyone that the measure requires two-thirds,” Berg said. “There were a lot of people last time who thought it simply needed a majority, so they stayed home and didn’t vote.”

Some county taxpayer advocates believe it simply is not fair to ask property owners to pay more in taxes for libraries.

“We feel that library services should be considered a high priority for local spending and, as such, any shortfall in library funding should come from local government,” said Mike Saliba, president of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn.

Sullivan believes homeowners should take on the burden because, she said, libraries can affect property values and enhance a community’s quality of life.

“Some people say it is not fair to the property owner,” Sullivan said. “But I think it is just the opposite. We as property owners have to look out for our own best interests, and that is an open library.”

Daniel Robles is considered something of a local guru on library measures because he managed to get a $25 annual parcel tax passed for Santa Paula’s library in 1993.

Robles, the Santa Paula district librarian, predicts Camarillo library supporters will have a tough time passing their initiatives.

Robles cites the fact that Camarillo voters have four times rejected a $55-million bond measure for school improvements in the Pleasant Valley School District. The bond issue would have raised taxes on a $200,000 home by $48 a year.

“I just don’t know how well voters will respond to [the library measures],” Robles said.

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Although a survey of 188 Piru voters last fall revealed 71% supported taxing themselves to keep their library open, Robles said the tiny community is still recovering from the 1994 Northridge earthquake. He said voters there might consider the $35 annual tax too much of a burden.

But Robles said Ojai stands a good chance of passing their initiatives. “They already got awfully close in November.”

With about $5,000 in their campaign coffers, Ojai library backers are still not resting easy. The group in November stuck to calling voters to get out the vote. But now, volunteers have blanketed the city with mailers and are walking precincts to spread the gospel of measures R and U.

“Sometimes going door to door is enough to make the difference between an undecided and a yes vote or to motivate someone who would just stay home,” Berg said.

Camarillo library supporters have put more than $6,000 in their war chest--money they have tapped to send out mailers and purchase voter lists, among other activities.

As March 26 nears, Sullivan said, volunteers will buttonhole potential balloters in front of the library and post office.

“This is a pretty grass roots campaign,” Sullivan said.

Al Gaitan, head of Piru’s neighborhood council, said library supporters have mailed fliers on Measure W to many of the community’s more than 1,100 residents. But Gaitan said locals already know what will happen if the measure fails.

“The community would have to go to the library in Fillmore, which is eight miles away,” Gaitan said. “The hours for public libraries are now already so slim and in-between.”

As campaigns switch into high gear, Supervisor Frank Schillo plans to meet with the county’s 10 city managers and library agency director Thursday to discuss his proposal to establish a library federation. Under the plan, the county would essentially transfer control of the libraries to the cities, which Schillo said would free up money spent on county overhead costs.

But skeptics say the plan needs an infusion of cash to succeed. Schillo said he urges voters to approve the library measures because his plan is still in an embryonic stage.

“The things that we are working on are not in hand,” Schillo said. “The things [the library supporters] are working on are in hand and will provide services.”

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Some library backers said they fear support for public libraries may be lagging because a growing number of people are logging onto computers instead of cracking open books when they need information.

But others disagree, countering that libraries are keeping pace with technological change. “We are still very much a have and have-not society,” Adeniran said. “There are people who can’t have PCs in their home. There needs to be a place where we all have access to information, and the library is that spot.”