Foes Say Library Breakup Plan Favors Simi, Ventura

Library advocates slammed a proposal Friday that would break up the county library system, arguing that Ventura and Simi Valley want to grab more than their fair share of tax revenue to run their own branches while gutting funding for small and medium-sized branches.

The proposal, laid out Thursday night by Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton and endorsed by Ventura officials, would turn over control and a share of related tax revenue to individual cities so they could begin operating their own branches, perhaps as early as July.

But George Berg, spokesman for a countywide coalition of library supporters called Save Our Libraries, said the plan actually would funnel more money--an estimated $500,000--to Simi Valley and Ventura than they deserve.

As a result, Berg said, library branches in the remaining five cities and the unincorporated areas would be shortchanged and forced to operate with even fewer resources than they now have.

“They don’t seem to be seriously interested in solving the problem as much as they are in setting the stage for leaving the system and cutting the best deal they can before leaving,” Berg said of the two cities. “We think it’s possible to maintain the regional system, fixing it instead of destroying it. But if they must pull out, they should only take their own money and not steal from others, allowing them to starve when they depart.”

But Ventura and Simi Valley officials said they view the proposal as the best way to heal the ailing library agency, while ensuring that services continue to be extended to all patrons who currently use the county system.

“If we were interested in pulling out, we would have already pulled out,” said Stratton, who unveiled his proposal at the second meeting of a newly formed committee searching for ways to salvage the beleaguered system.

“But I believe my city can provide better services than the agency can,” he added. “We just want our fair share of money to be able to do that--nothing more, nothing less.”

At issue is the formula, under Stratton’s plan, for distributing revenue to cities so they can run their own branches.

Under that proposal, each city would receive the property tax generated within its city limits, plus a per capita share of other library money that is ordinarily allocated to the county Library Services Agency. Cities would use the money to set up their own libraries, while remaining members of a loosely knit library system with common library cards and other shared services.

Berg contends, however, that the proposal is skewed in favor of the agency’s largest cities, Simi Valley and Ventura.

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He argued that cities should receive only the property tax revenue generated within their own boundaries. And he cited precedent, recalling that when Thousand Oaks broke from the system in the early 1980s, it took only its own property tax money.

Together, Ventura and Simi Valley would receive $2.1 million under Stratton’s proposal, Berg estimated. Factoring just the property tax revenues the two cities hand over to the library agency, Berg said, they should receive a total of $1.6 million.

“They have devised a formula that provides the maximum amount of money to their two libraries,” Berg said. “What they are doing is taking money that is intended for the central operations of the regional system and skimming that for themselves.”

Other members of the countywide library system said they feared that the proposal--especially the level of funding that Simi Valley and Ventura would receive--would make it more difficult for them to serve library patrons.

“The more funding taken out of the system, the more precarious the situation for those who remain in the system,” Camarillo Councilman Bill Liebmann said. “The primary concern I have is that the goal of the proposal does not seem to be maintaining the system. It seems to be a blueprint for dismantling the system. And that is not a goal we can support.”

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Member cities of the county library system recently formed the Library Services Implementation Committee to devise a plan for restructuring the agency.

The county library system has had its $10 million budget cut in half during the past four years and has been struggling to keep operating.

Stratton said Friday that his proposal is aimed at keeping the countywide system alive. He said cities should receive their share of property tax, plus a per capita share of other library money, because they provide services to library patrons all over the county, not just within the city limits.

Furthermore, he said library supporters are correct in pointing out that Thousand Oaks took only its own property tax money when it broke from the system. But they failed to point out that the county continues to subsidize that city’s library so that residents in adjacent unincorporated communities can use the facility at no cost.

“We are prepared to take whatever it is, whatever’s a fair number,” Stratton said. “The bottom line is we can get enough money to be part of the system or we can detach and go on our own.”

Added Ventura Councilman Jim Friedman: “I would go as far as saying that the smaller cities are fighting so hard because they realize that, without the subsidy that Ventura and Simi Valley provide, library services in the county would really suffer. Well, Ventura and Simi Valley are looking out for their own citizens. We don’t believe we should be subsidizing the county or the other cities. All we’re looking for is fairness.”

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Indeed, the smaller cities enrolled in the library system fear that their costs would soar if Simi Valley and Ventura were to strike out on their own. Those cities generate more library tax revenues than the smaller cities because of their larger populations.

At the same time, representatives of those cities join library supporters in calling for everyone to continue working together to spare the system from collapse.

“I would just hope that all the cities in the county, including Simi Valley and Ventura, would at least try to maintain some cooperation,” Fillmore Councilman Scott Lee said. “If we don’t go in there together, I’m afraid there won’t be enough money to keep any of us operating at the current level.”