Ventura Urged to Check Out From Struggling County Library System

Citing a lack of space, out-of-date materials and a limited schedule under the county library system, a library consultant told members of the city’s library steering committee Tuesday to secede from the system “as soon as possible.”

But San Francisco-based library consultant Beverley Simmons, author of a 66-page report on the library system, said she may back off a second recommendation: that the city should consider joining a limited regional library partnership with other cities in western Ventura County.

She said errors in the report made a regional partnership appear more attractive than it really is. She had estimated current costs to be only $175,000--or 4%--short of current revenues, when actually they are $775,000 short--or 14%.

“I want to recommend forming an independent library system as soon as possible,” Simmons said. “But I’m going to go back and take a look at the multijurisdictional library. I may change that recommendation.”

Proponents of a multijurisdictional library system argue that it offers local control of an independent library system--in terms of hours, number of libraries, programming and collections.

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She said the Ventura libraries have only half the space needed to accommodate a community of this size. Currently all three libraries--Wright, E.P. Foster and the Avenue branch--have a total of less than 30,000 square feet. A city with a population of 92,000 should have 60,000 to 90,000 square feet, she said.

Simmons also fielded questions from some of the city’s most avid library supporters about what the city will gain and lose, should they choose to go it on their own.

Some voiced concern about whether Ventura could depend on retaining local property taxes for their libraries, should they decide to withdraw. Currently property taxes go to funding the county library.

But Simmons said a precedent had already been set by Thousand Oaks and Oxnard, which operate their libraries independently and retain local property taxes.

The steering committee uncovered a few other arithmetic flaws in the report. Simmons said she will fix them in the final draft, which will come out by the end of year, but she said they will not alter her basic recommendations.

For example, the city of Ventura put $270,000 into city libraries to boost hours and keep the tiny Avenue library open. That was a one-time expenditure, but Simmons calculated the money as part of the city’s ongoing library budget.

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Simmons also pointed out that the report does not take into account one-time costs, such as setting up an independent collection system or updating the new media system to include resources of the ‘90s such as CDs, books on tape or CD-ROMS. The cost of hiring a new city librarian also is not included.

Nevertheless, Simmons said the city can offer the same level of library services for less.

“When I looked at the figures, there were $616,000 in direct costs, and $615,000 in indirect costs,” Simmons said. “That was the first thing that raised the question for me--’Could there be another way to deal with this?’ ”

Most committee members praised the report, using words like “terrific” and “clear” to describe it.

Committee member Kevin Corse worried that residents could lose library exchange possibilities if they bow out of the county system, and was skeptical about working with Oxnard in the future in a regional partnership. But he supported the recommendation to withdraw from the county.

“It’s not going to get better if we stay in the county. The consultant’s report for the county said we must pay more in taxes,” he said. “That’ll go over real well.”

For Ventura Councilman Jim Friedman, the only politician on the steering committee, the issue was one of regaining local control.

“We get all the complaints, the letters and have to answer them as if we did run the libraries,” Friedman said.

Simmons also recommended hiring a city librarian by December 1997 to oversee the withdrawal from the county, and consolidating the resources of E.P. Foster and Wright libraries into one temporary central library.

Simmons will complete the revised report by Dec. 31. It is scheduled to go before the City Council on Jan. 13.