Financial Figures on Libraries Disputed

Ventura’s final library report is not due to be publicly released until Jan. 3, but at least one local library supporter is already disputing the numbers.

After perusing the draft of a consultant’s library study, George Berg, a member of Save Our Libraries, a countywide organization of library supporters, said that financial information in the consultant’s report is incorrect--and that if the city withdraws, it will operate at a $318,000 annual deficit.

After four months of interviews with hundreds of Ventura library-goers and analysis of the city and county library budget, San Francisco-based library consultant Beverley Simmons recommended that Ventura withdraw from the county library system and form an independent city library. By seceding from the county, she estimated, the city could offer the same library services for about $300,000 less a year.

But Berg said Simmons overestimates the amount Ventura will make in miscellaneous revenues--money generated from overdue fines and copier fees--and factors in Ventura’s one-time $270,000 emergency cash infusion as an annual source of revenue.

Simmons calculated that the city would make about $200,000 in miscellaneous revenues.

But according to county library figures, Berg said, the three Ventura libraries--E.P. Foster, H.P. Wright and the Avenue libraries--together draw only $34,140 in overdue fines and copier fees. On Monday, Simmons, who was still number-crunching for the final report, said she did not think her numbers were substantially off, and she did not think she would change her recommendation.

“The city of Sunnyvale, with a population of 120,000, took in $346,000 in miscellaneous revenues in 1995,” Simmons said. “The numbers do not look out of line to me.”

Berg said he does not wish to see Ventura withdraw from the county system because it could spark a rash of defections. Simi Valley officials are watching Ventura’s decision closely as they, too, consider what to do with their library system.

“What we’re concerned with is a domino effect--a disintegration of the system,” Berg said. “Not if it’s just Ventura, but if Ventura and Simi pull out, it will really shake the underpinnings of the system. It will leave the remaining cities kind of in a shambles.”

Councilman Jim Friedman said he will reserve judgment until he sees the final report, but for the moment he sees no incentive to stay in the county system.

“The current state of the county-run city libraries is shameful,” Friedman said. “Why anyone would want to stay in such an antiquated system at this point is beyond me.”