Keep Libraries Open, Panel Urges

A task force agreed Wednesday to recommend that the city keep all three of its financially struggling libraries on life support before pulling the plug on one or two branches to consolidate resources.

But to keep Ventura’s libraries operating at the existing 72 hours a week, the group could ask the city to help bail out the libraries with up to $700,000--a tab many conceded the City Council might not be willing to pick up.

“I don’t see that happening,” said task force member Jim Friedman, who is also a City Council member.

So the group also prepared a list of four cheaper alternatives that include closing up to two branches to preserve library service in the city.

The 15-member Ventura Library Task Force--made up of community members and city and library officials--developed the proposals to give the City Council options before it begins looking for longer-term solutions later this year.

“The task force wanted to bring [the library budget crisis] into focus today and deal with it before it’s too late,” Friedman said.

The budget for the three branches could shrink from about $1.5 million to as little as $840,000 by the end of June if temporary funding sources fail to materialize. If that happens, the Avenue Library might have to close and the E.P. Foster and H.P. Wright branches might collectively open a mere 20 hours a week without the $700,000 bailout from the city.

The county’s Library Services Agency now operates Ventura’s three branches.

Some task force members favored shutting down one or two branches to maximize available cash if the “worst-case scenario” materializes. But others said a survey of city residents regarding solutions to library problems should be conducted before backing more radical options.

“If you are going to do that, I think the community should have a say,” said task force member Cherie Brant.

The task force’s recommendations will go to the city’s Community Affairs Commission, which will hold a public hearing on the suggestions and deliver a report to City Council.

Although the City Council cannot make the final ruling on the fate of the county-operated branches, the panel is set to talk about the library budget problems May 13.

The volunteer task force was formed to tackle issues such as what to do if the county does not make an emergency General Fund contribution to the library agency.

Supervisor Frank Schillo said the chance of the county making the subsidy--$984,000 was received last year--is “between 0 and 1%” because the county may have to slash its budget by more than $20 million.

Dixie Adeniran, director of the county library agency, said her $5.8 million budget could drop by $1.6 million if the county subsidy and other temporary revenue sources fall through.

In Ventura, the cut could mean that branches would have to rely solely on money from property taxes earmarked for libraries that amounts to $840,000.

That would hurt, library supporters say, because cuts in state funding to local governments have already caused the operating budget for the city’s three libraries to drop from about $3 million to about $1.5 million since 1992.

Since 1993, librarians have been shuttling between Ventura’s Wright and Foster branches, which are now basically open every other day of the week.

Task force member Keith Burns said he would rather see the branches consolidate than maintain the status quo.

One option calls for closing the Foster library and keeping the Wright and Avenue libraries open at a cost to the city of $765,000 in the first year. Under that proposal, service hours at Wright would jump from 27 to 39 and the library would undergo a 4,800-square-foot expansion. The Avenue Library would remain open at its present level of 19 hours a week.

Other alternatives include keeping the Foster Library open and shutting the other two branches, a move that would cost the city $120,000 a year..

The group also plans to ask City Manager Donna Landeros to continue talking with other city managers and officials about setting up a joint powers authority that would essentially transfer control of libraries from the county to the cities.