Panel to Recommend New Library Director

After a yearlong search, the Ventura County Library Commission will recommend today appointing Starrett Kreissman as the county’s new library director.

Kreissman, the director of the Stanislaus County library system overseeing 13 branches, was named 1998 California Librarian of the Year.

If the county Board of Supervisors endorses her appointment, Kreissman will begin her $103,515-per-year post March 29. She would oversee a $5.9-million budget and 15 branches in seven cities and several unincorporated communities.

“We are extremely pleased to have found her,” said Richard Rowe, who has acted as interim director since the departure of Dixie Adeniran two years ago. Adeniran, director for 17 years, left to spend more time with her family.

“She’s dynamic; she’s enthusiastic and she has a broad breadth of experience,” Rowe said of Kreissman, who has been the Stanislaus County library system director for six years and has worked in libraries in various capacities for about three decades.

The hunt for a new director has been a struggle, costing the county roughly $35,000, including consultant fees and travel expenses.

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In December, after the fourth finalist for the job turned the position down, the eight-member Library Commission launched a new recruitment campaign. Shifting to “selective recruiting,” county-hired consultants began seeking out specific candidates. Among those they called was Kreissman, who had been recommended by many statewide library officials.

“They called me on my birthday, Jan. 4,” Kreissman recalled Monday. “That was also the same day a friend who lives in Ventura wrote me a holiday card saying, ‘There’s still no director for the library and I sure wish you would consider.’ The simultaneity of the events intrigued me. I thought, ‘I should pursue this. I talked to my husband and he said, ‘Go for it.’ ”

In the past, the Library Commission had placed advertisements and selected finalists from a pool of applicants.

Of the four previous finalists, the top candidate pulled out after being offered a $12,000-a-year raise by her current employer, which ultimately topped Ventura County’s offer, Rowe said.

The next candidate objected to having to report to the Library Commission and five county supervisors. The third made unrealistic salary demands, and the fourth decided against leaving the East Coast, Rowe said.

An upheaval in the library agency early last year might have discouraged some people from applying for the position, Rowe said. In a move that created negative publicity for the library agency, 11 positions were cut in an effort to reduce administrative expenses.

But Kreissman said the previous budget problems in Ventura County did not dissuade her.

In Stanislaus County, where the main library is in Modesto, she developed a plan for a 1/8-cent sales tax increase to aid the financially strapped library system.

In a subsequent election, nearly 70% of Stanislaus County residents voted in favor of the sales tax increase.

“She’s gone through the same kinds of things Ventura County has gone through,” Rowe said. “She was able to keep libraries open with very little resources and build the revenue back.”

Kreissman said the first thing she would do as the new director is meet with individual library employees and commissioners, as well as with supervisors.

“I want to talk to everyone and hear what they have to say,” Kreissman, 53, said. “I want to find out where they want the library to go.”

If appointed, Kreissman said she would move to Ventura County late next month with her husband, David Dolan, an architect, and their 16-year-old daughter, Sonya Dolan.

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The county would pay up to $5,000 for her moving expenses.

Rowe, Chino’s former city manager, said he would most likely leave his post a few weeks after Kreissman’s arrival. Although he has been offered numerous interim positions at city and county governments throughout the state, Rowe said he would return to working as a management consultant. He will also continue teaching public administration at Cal State Long Beach.