New Agency and Tax for Libraries

* While Supervisor Frank Schillo took an admirable leadership role by calling for a change in the way Ventura County libraries are run, it would be wrong to refer to the outcome as “Mr. Schillo’s plan,” as one of your letter writers recently did May 19. The final plan will be the result of negotiation and agreement by city managers, city council members, library staff, county administrators, county supervisors and people like me--concerned citizens.

The details of the plan are still being worked out. But broadly speaking, it will establish a joint powers agency (JPA) made up of the cities now served by the county library system and the county itself. The JPA is a good move because it maintains a unified library system that will have more books, magazines and computer resources than any single library can offer. It helps save some administrative costs. It also ensures that cities and citizens will have more control over how their local libraries are run.

The county is hiring a consultant to help iron out the complex details of the JPA. The consultant will help make sure everyone’s concerns are addressed. Quite frankly, an objective outsider’s voice will cut through years of distrust between the county and the cities and make sure a JPA that really works is the outcome.

CHERIE BRANT

Ventura

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Recently, the Board of Supervisors took a courageous step by moving toward placing on the November ballot an advisory vote on a tax measure to benefit libraries that have been part of the county library system. It will be up to each city in the proposed joint powers agency to decide whether to participate in the tax measure. It is certain that Ojai, which two months ago voted itself a library tax, will opt out of this measure.

The rest of us in the other cities in the library system--Ventura, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Camarillo, Port Hueneme, Fillmore--and in the unincorporated areas need to support the tax measure if we want to make our libraries work again. Nothing short of more money can save our public libraries.

A letter to The Times on May 19 suggested other solutions to the library crisis. Those proposals are not new; they have been considered and reconsidered many times. The bottom line is they won’t work. School libraries are already strapped for cash and won’t serve the needs of adult library users. County and city budgets are stretched and stressed by other funding demands, so we can’t rely on adequate annual contributions from general funds.

Our public libraries need stable, full funding. The assessment will provide that.

JUDITH ALLEN

Ventura