Camarillo Council Ends Boycott of Library Committee Meetings

The integrity of the library system needs to be maintained by an entity other than the county, City Council members say.

Ending its boycott, the council voted unanimously Wednesday night to attend the county’s Library Services Implementation Committee meeting today.

Councilman Bill Liebmann was selected to attend as the city’s representative.

“I don’t want it under the control of the county, because I basically don’t trust what would happen in the future,” said Councilwoman Charlotte Craven, adding that the county has not followed through on its past commitments to libraries.

The city boycotted last week’s committee meeting because of what it said were numerous unanswered questions.

The council directed Liebmann to seek answers to several of those unresolved issues at today’s meeting, including whether the county plans to maintain a unified library system or whether its library services would be transferred to a joint powers authority.

The council has recommended that each city in such an authority have weighted voting rights based on population or number of library visitors and that property taxes and other revenue generated by cities be returned to those cities to provide library services.

While Craven said it would likely be necessary for the city to continue contributing funds to the operation of the library system, Liebmann disagrees.

However, both council members, who serve on the city’s ad hoc library committee, concur that if Camarillo provides additional library revenue from its general fund, the county must agree to provide equivalent per capita funding.