Schillo Cites Support for Library Plan

Supervisor Frank Schillo says he has won support from the area’s key city managers for a plan to dramatically restructure the cash-poor library system and shore it up with a countywide parcel tax.

Schillo’s plan, which he has been advocating for months, involves transferring control of the county’s library system to the cities now served by branches. The cities would run the libraries through a joint powers authority made up of city and county representatives.

“City managers are interested in moving forward on the library federation and also in looking at ways to raise money for the libraries in the form of some benefit assessment,” Schillo said. “I am very pleased with the progress.”

But Schillo’s comments on the depth of his support were challenged by some city managers, who said they are still far from a consensus on the need to break up the county’s Library Services Agency or to enact a special tax to shore up branches.

“We are not opposed to discussing [a special tax] when we look at the financing options,” Simi Valley City Manager Mike Sedell said. “Probably the least palatable option that the City Council would look at would be the citizens providing a greater subsidy than they now provide.”

The majority of the library agency’s projected $6.1-million budget comes from property taxes already earmarked for libraries.

Schillo’s comments in recent days came after the library agency last week released three scenarios to deal with a feared $1.6-million loss in revenues next year. The Board of Supervisors could still alter the scenarios--including closing six small libraries--before it adopts the county’s 1996-97 budget by June 30.

But in preliminary budget talks, the library agency plans to consider shutting down six branches: Ventura’s Avenue library and branches in Oak View, Soliz-El Rio, Meiners Oaks, Piru and Saticoy.

“That is basically what the preliminary budget will be,” said Lin Koester, the county’s chief executive officer, who met with city officials last week to discuss the scenarios. “That doesn’t totally preclude the Board of Supervisors from modifying that to any degree they see fit.”

The library agency has warned about possible closures for months, but the alternatives presented to city representatives last week actually lay out the plan.

While county officials were drawing up closure plans, Schillo has been pushing his own proposal to essentially transfer control to the cities. Schillo says the move would reduce administrative costs and give individual cities more control of libraries now operated by the county.

Although the plan in earlier versions did not call for a special parcel tax, Schillo said it now includes establishment of a countywide benefit assessment district. The district would basically ask cities to levy a library tax on their residents, generating money to keep branches open and boost hours.

Schillo said cities could decide whether to join the special tax district, with more than 50% of the voters in each city required to approve the district before it could go into effect in that city.

“It would only be on the ballot in cities that opted into it,” Schillo said.

Schillo said county and city officials have also talked about hiring a library consultant to study how to set up such a district and how to best restructure the library system.

Santa Clara County transferred control of its libraries to a joint-powers agency made up of cities last year and coupled the move with a $33 annual homeowners’ tax.

Library officials in Ventura County have said even if the county sets up a new structure, the modified library system would need a new source of income to counter a nearly 50% drop in revenues over the past four years.

And facing the possibility of more than $20 million in across-the-board budget cuts, county supervisors have said it is all but certain they will not make an emergency General Fund contribution to the library agency this year. The supervisors last year approved a $984,000 special subsidy to stave off library closures.

Alan Langville, the library agency’s manager of community libraries, said the scenario calling for closing small county branches also involves shuttering either Ventura’s E.P. Foster or H.P. Wright branch.

“It’s very drastic,” Langville said.

Closing these libraries would enable the library agency to operate seven medium and large libraries--Camarillo, Port Hueneme, Simi Valley, Fillmore, Moorpark, Ojai and a Ventura branch--at existing hours. Also, the agency would keep the Oak Park library open by upgrading its status from a small to medium-sized branch.

Langville said four agency staff members, including librarians, would lose their jobs under this proposal.

“It is very disappointing,” Langville said. “The staff has been surprisingly calm about it because we have been going through this for a long time.”

Another alternative involves keeping all libraries open but at reduced hours.

Small libraries would stay open for eight instead of the current 16 hours a week. And large branches would offer 23 hours of service rather than the current minimum of 36.

But Bill Little, Camarillo’s city manager, said he favors using the pot of available money to maximize service at the medium and larger libraries.

“I don’t think it makes any sense at all to continue keeping all libraries open based on the financial situation,” Little said. “To say that we should bring the level of service down to 23 hours a week at the Camarillo library, well, you might as well keep it closed.”