Ventura to Reconsider Library Study Panel

After snubbing two previous invitations, the City Council on Monday will consider joining six other cities in looking at ways to reorganize the beleaguered county library system.

But Ventura officials, claiming the city has long subsidized libraries for other communities, caution that participation would be very limited.

First, the council will consider giving City Manager Donna Landeros authorization to join with other city managers in sorting out exactly how money collected by the county Library Services Agency is divided among the group’s seven member cities and to explore various restructuring options.

The council is also expected to direct Councilman Jim Friedman to attend the next meeting of a newly formed countywide library committee to restate Ventura’s concerns that it does not want to pay for other cities’ libraries under any restructuring.

A staff report prepared for the Ventura City Council suggests this is occurring under the current system, Friedman said.

The report shows that Ventura collected $790,823 in property taxes for library services in fiscal 1994-95, but had only $411,554 in personnel expenditures.

This left a “surplus,” of $379,269, according to the report, which took its information from a study commissioned by the county last year.

It appears that money, or at least a portion of it, Friedman said, is being used to offset operating costs of libraries in smaller cities, which have less of a property tax base to draw from.

“What it boils down to is, do citizens of Ventura want to subsidize library services in Port Hueneme, Ojai and Fillmore when . . . libraries in our own city are in such bad repair?” Friedman said. “I don’t mind helping other people, but charity begins at home.”

But Alan Langville, director of the county’s community libraries division, said the surplus referred to in Ventura’s report is largely money that was paid at the time for Ventura’s book budget, building maintenance, children’s reading program, county library administration and other services.

“That is money that any city would have to pay to run its own library,” Langville said.

Nonetheless, Friedman said his city still questions whether property tax money for libraries is being distributed equitably.

He said Ventura is especially concerned about this issue because it has added an extra $500,000 from city coffers to supplement the three libraries in Ventura during the past three years.

“Regardless of where the money is going, it appears that the large cities are putting in more money than they are receiving benefit for,” he said.

At the next library committee meeting, Friedman said, he plans to reiterate Ventura’s proposal for reorganizing the county’s 15-branch system that would ensure the city’s interests are protected.

Ventura’s plan calls for transferring all power and financial responsibility for libraries from the Board of Supervisors to a joint powers authority that would include representatives from member cities.

Under the proposal, larger cities such as Ventura, Simi Valley and Camarillo would be given a “weighted vote” on the committee that is commensurate with the populations they serve.

Officials from smaller cities, however, have voiced objections to weighted voting. They say they prefer that the seven cities work together in an equal partnership to streamline management of the current library system to reduce costs and improve services before considering other alternatives.

Because of continuing disputes over the distribution of library money, the Library Services Implementation Committee--made up of county and city officials--recently agreed to ask city managers to conduct their own financial analysis of the county system. Once that analysis is completed, Friedman and Landeros will report back to the council, which will then decide how to proceed.

“If we’re getting the raw deal, then we’re going to find that out very shortly,” Friedman said.