Ventura to Join Effort to Restructure Library System

Reversing an earlier decision not to participate in county library negotiations, the Ventura City Council voted Monday night to join six other cities in looking at ways to restructure the county’s troubled library system.

But officials reiterated that Ventura’s participation would be very limited, claiming that property tax from its residents has subsidized the libraries of other communities in the past.

To ensure that Ventura’s interests are looked after in any reorganization of the county’s 15-branch library system, the city will now move toward participation in county library negotiations on two fronts.

The council authorized City Manager Donna Landeros to join other city managers in figuring out how money collected by the county Library Services Agency is currently divided among the group’s seven members and to discuss restructuring options.

The council also directed Councilman Jim Friedman to attend the next meeting of a recently created countywide library committee to make clear that Ventura does not want to pay for other cities’ libraries under any restructuring. But Friedman will participate only as an observer, not as a voting member of the committee.

Under the current system, Ventura is getting far less out of the system than it is putting in, according to a staff report distributed Thursday to council members. That report shows that Ventura collected $790,823 in property taxes in fiscal year 1994-95, but only $411,554 was spent for personnel at libraries within Ventura’s borders.

The remaining money, Ventura officials say, was used to help run libraries in smaller cities that have less money in property taxes to draw upon.

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Ventura proposes that all power and financial responsibility for libraries be transferred from the Board of Supervisors to a joint powers authority made up of representatives from member cities. In such a scenario, larger cities such as Ventura and Simi Valley would be given a weighted vote commensurate with their populations.

Landeros and Friedman will report back to the council after their meetings. City staff has been instructed to evaluate possible ways of restructuring the Library Services Board and report back to the council within 45 days.