Library Advisors in Ventura Back Effort to Cut 15 Jobs Countywide

A plan to cut 15 library jobs countywide to pay for longer branch hours was endorsed Wednesday by the Ventura Library Advisory Commission.

The five-member citizens committee, appointed by the City Council to oversee the three county library branches operating in Ventura, is the first such group in the county to review the plan, which has been widely criticized by library employees and their union.

The plan could ultimately mean longer lines, slower service and less-qualified library employees, consultants, officials and commissioners acknowledge.

But commissioners agreed that the potential loss in service quality is necessary to keep libraries open more hours and improve book and reference collections without increasing the system’s $5.8-million annual budget. Two positions would be lost in the Ventura branches.

“This is the only way out of a very tough box,” commission Chairman Bill Fulton said. “Clearly, this solves today’s problem, but it does not deliver the libraries that we’re all expecting in Ventura in the long run.”

Only Commissioner David Bianco voted against the plan. He said the proposal is “inadequate and unacceptable,” and would not support it unless it included a position dedicated to full-time fund-raising.

“I am not going to settle for this lack of service without some evidence that [fund-raising] is some recognizable goal,” he said.

Commission approval of the plan amounts to a recommendation to the City Council, which will take up the matter Monday.

The plan calls for the library staff to be reduced from 67 full-time positions to 52. Officials say the reorganization results from a shift of property tax income to education approved by the Legislature in 1992, when the county library system had 133 full-time positions with an annual budget of $11.1 million.

Under the reorganization plan, 34 library employees will be laid off and invited to reapply for 19 lower-paying positions.

In addition to the extended hours, which have increased from 36 a week at the Ventura branches to 120, the move is projected to save the library system $180,000 annually.

The savings will be used to buy new books, reference materials and periodicals across the county’s 15-branch system.

“The bottom line is we need to go forward with this reorganization plan and, if we don’t, we’re not going to be able to maintain the increased hours of operation,” Richard Rowe, interim county library director, told commissioners. “I have agonized over this and explored all the alternatives, but there is a finite amount of dollars.”

The union representing county library employees has threatened to seek a court order to give the workers more time to negotiate.

A union representative was expected to address the commission but did not appear. Union officials were not available for comment prior to the meeting.