Plan for County Library Panel Criticized

A proposal for a citizens group to advise the county’s new library commission is drawing fire from Ventura officials, who say it would only add another layer of bureaucracy and duplicate efforts by a local panel.

Instead, Mayor Jim Friedman suggests, each of the seven cities involved in the county system should develop the sort of advisory panel Ventura now uses to gauge the community’s needs.

“There’s just so much more public input by doing it the way Ventura is doing it,” Friedman said. He argued that the countywide proposal--with one representative from each community--”just doesn’t make any sense.”

“You are going to have the advancement of a personal agenda by that one individual,” Friedman said, “and I just don’t think that’s helpful.”

The Ventura City Council will vote tonight whether to formally express disapproval.

The citizens advisory panel was suggested by the city of Ojai. Councilwoman Nina Shelley said Saturday she believes it is still a good idea, because it gives residents another forum for making their voices heard.

Like Ventura, Ojai already has advisory panels involved in library issues--the Friends of the Library and the Ojai Library Foundation. Those groups, however, serve in no official capacity, as does Ventura’s.

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She said a countywide advisory group would increase the amount of information the county Library Commission has when making decisions.

“Ojai is the type of community where we welcome all kinds of public involvement,” Shelley said. “Libraries are for the people. And why shouldn’t they have the opportunity to give as much input as they would like?”

George Berg, a spokesman for the grass-roots library advocacy group Save Our Libraries, commends Ventura’s system for soliciting public discussion.

But the countywide panel has its benefits as well, he said.

“One important thing to remember here is we still have a countywide system,” Berg said. “One problem with seven different city commissions is there won’t be any kind of systemwide consideration. It might get to be ‘each for themselves’ rather than ‘all for one.’ ”

The idea for a citizens advisory group comes as leaders from seven cities and the county begin using a new system that revamps the way the county’s library system does business.

The library reorganization plan, approved in March, was designed to give cities more say in how their branches are operated--keeping most of the property tax dollars within the cities where they are generated while keeping open the smaller branches in unincorporated county areas.

Breaking the county into eight library districts, the new system is being managed by a library advisory panel, with one elected official from the county and each city. Under the proposal, the citizens group would advise that panel of elected officials.

Though the idea for a group has been discussed by the new county Library Commission, no date has been set for a vote on the matter. Members of the panel want to wait until a permanent director of the system is hired, officials said.

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If the Ventura City Council formally opposes the plan tonight, it will suggest that elected officials from the other cities in the library system--Simi Valley, Ojai, Fillmore, Camarillo, Moorpark and Port Hueneme--establish their own citizens advisory groups.

Ventura is the only city in the new system that has such a panel, a seven-member group that holds open meetings before making recommendations to the City Council.

The council then considers the recommendation in another public meeting where community members can also speak.

Friedman then takes the council’s decision to the county Library Commission.