Supporters of Area Libraries Will Debate Rescue Plan

Library backers from all over Ventura County will meet in Camarillo tonight to debate a rescue package for cash-starved branches that includes a countywide parcel tax.

The proposal is similar to a bailout proposed by Supervisor Frank Schillo, except this one--modeled on a plan that has shored up branches in a San Francisco Bay Area county--calls for a parcel tax to provide libraries with cash.

A group of Ventura library supporters will pitch that plan, adopted in Santa Clara County in 1994, to local Friends of the Library organizations and other library backers at tonight’s invitation-only gathering.

Santa Clara County essentially shifted control of its libraries from the county to a special board made up of council members from nine cities and two county supervisors. After 68.7% of the voters endorsed a $33 parcel tax in concept, the joint powers board set up a special assessment district in 1995 that now generates about $5 million annually for that library system.

Cash is what libraries really need, Ventura library supporters say, citing state cuts that have caused the county Library Services Agency budget to drop from $10 million to $5.8 million since 1992.

“If a plan is modeled on Santa Clara County, I think it could work,” said Cherie Brant, a member of Ventura’s Save Our Library Committee, who campaigned to pass a Ventura library parcel tax measure in November.

Now that similar campaigns to pass money-generating measures for libraries in Ojai, Piru and Camarillo have ended, Brant and other meeting organizers are hoping those who attend tonight will take the countywide plan back to their cities and round up support.

“If the city managers see that this makes [sense] and they get excited about it and sell the concept to the cities and the communities, I think we could succeed countywide,” Brant said.

Schillo said he did not include a parcel tax in his library federation proposal because he believes it should be up to members of the joint powers board to decide whether to set up an assessment district.

“We are all on the same track,” Schillo said.

The county library agency may face another $1.5 million in cuts if temporary money sources dry up and the supervisors decide in June not to dip into the county’s general fund, said county library Director Dixie Adeniran. Adeniran has warned that up to seven small libraries among the county’s 16 branches may have to close at the end of June because of the budget crisis.

Susan Fuller, Santa Clara County librarian, said her budget plummeted from $17 million to $12 million when the state began taking over property tax revenues designated for local governments.

Although that County Board of Supervisors could have established an assessment district without voter approval, Fuller said, officials put the issue on the November 1994 ballot. More than two-thirds of the 126,316 people who cast ballots in that election favored the parcel tax in an advisory vote.

Fuller said that high voter approval level has shielded the joint powers agreement from legal challenges by taxpayer groups and others.

“We gave pretty good service that was taken away by [the state’s property tax transfer],” Fuller said. “People were clear about what they wanted back.”

The fate of recent homeowners’ tax initiatives designed to generate money for libraries in Ventura County send mixed signals to library officials. Two measures in Ojai won more than the two-thirds majority vote required, meaning residents agreed to tax themselves an additional $35 annually for the Ojai library. But similar measures failed in Camarillo and appear to have failed in a close vote in Piru.

Adeniran said Ventura County on the whole is not as urban or affluent as Santa Clara County, which includes cities in the Silicon Valley.

“We are going to have to find the solution that fits our particular set of circumstances,” Adeniran said.

The particulars of a joint powers agreement remain unclear. Thousand Oaks, Santa Paula and Oxnard--which operate their own libraries--have not indicated whether they would join such an agreement.

Ventura City Councilman Jim Friedman said he wants to hear more about the joint powers concept before making up his mind, and that he is concerned that some joint powers members might try to bow out of the agreement if they did not believe it was working for their city.

Friedman is part of a special library task force in Ventura that is considering another run at the ballot box on the parcel tax issue. The group is also talking about recommending that the library agency consolidate services into one Ventura branch.

Ventura’s two main branches--E.P. Foster and Wright--are both open every other day of the week, forcing librarians to commute between the two facilities.

“Ventura has a single main library that is four miles apart,” said task force member Keith Burns, who supports the consolidation.