Supervisors, Libraries on Same Page

Facing a proposed $8.8-million cut in her department, Los Angeles County Librarian Margaret Donnellan Todd exudes a confidence rare in these lean budgetary times.

The loss of funding could mean the closure of 16 branch libraries. But even before she made her case to the five county supervisors during budget hearings last week, Todd declared that they were on her side.

Consider the history: Last year, supervisors rejected Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen’s proposal to reduce the library’s $92-million budget, even as the Sheriff’s Department and others sustained cuts. The same thing happened the year before.

“The board’s converted,” Todd said. “If it were just a county issue, I think we know that the board would find a way to help us. But this year it really depends on the state.”

The libraries indeed seem to enjoy a unique brand of political immunity during budget season in Los Angeles County. When Sheriff Lee Baca pleaded for more money, supervisors first suggested raising prices that the county charges cities for police services -- and then assailed the sheriff for a series of jailhouse killings.

When it was Parks and Recreation Director Timothy Gallagher’s turn, Supervisor Gloria Molina chided him for not posting more signs inviting people to swim at an under-used pool.

But after Todd made her brief appeal, Molina praised the libraries as “very important,” particularly to poor children. “When you look at our budget, big as it is, it is a drop in the bucket to restore this money back into libraries,” she said, “and we need to find a way to do that.”

“I totally agree,” chimed in Supervisor Don Knabe.

With 84 branches serving neighborhoods rich and poor, from the suburban cul-de-sacs of Santa Clarita to the urban thoroughfares of South Los Angeles, the libraries command loyalty from a broad constituency. Libraries are educational and child-friendly, free from the controversy that often clings to county hospitals and jails.

And unlike most government agencies, they have hundreds of volunteers from more than 70 Friends of the Library groups that power a grass-roots fund-raising machine that pulls in about $500,000 a year.

“Whenever we start talking about cutting library hours, people get very, very upset,” Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said.

For decades, the libraries enjoyed a relatively secure source of funding: the county’s property tax. But abrupt changes in that revenue stream can wreak havoc on libraries.

This year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed shifting $1.3 billion in property taxes away from counties, cities and other local agencies and channeling it to schools. The last time California made a similar move, in fiscal year 1992-93, Los Angeles County libraries lost half their funding, closed 10 branches and slashed hours at the rest.

Gail Tierney, a deputy to Knabe, recalls trying to explain to Lakewood parents why the county was closing their library. Many of them worked full time and relied on the library as a sheltering spot for their children after school.

“It was a real eye-opener,” Tierney said. “The libraries were truly being used as a safe haven.”

The situation is much the same today. At the county’s East Rancho Dominguez library in Compton, a leased storefront across the street from a liquor store, children pour through the doors the moment school ends. Most head straight to computers and log onto the Internet, but a few wander through the stacks.

“We need the computers because some people don’t have none at their houses,” said Jose Gomez, 11, who said he had neither computers nor books at his nearby home. “Tell them not to close the library, because we do need it.”

Over the last decade, the county library system has slowly recovered from the massive hit it took in the early 1990s, though it never reopened nine of the closed libraries. To make up for property tax revenue lost to the state, the Board of Supervisors began giving libraries about $14 million per year from the county’s general fund.

Voters in eleven cities and all of the unincorporated county areas approved parcel taxes that now generate about $11 million per year for county libraries.

The county has also turned to corporate sponsors for financial help. Companies such as Sony, Honda, Kaiser Permanente and SBC Communications have contributed $50,000 apiece to sponsor “homework centers,” where extra computers and staff cater to the after-school crowd in 33 libraries.

But the library system’s revenue has not kept pace with the cost of employee salaries and benefits, books and other supplies. The county spends about $23 million per year to keep libraries afloat.

In March, 12 cities throughout the county asked voters to approve a parcel tax to help fund libraries. All 12 measures failed, and Janssen advised supervisors to trim library funding by $8.8 million to help balance the county budget.

“You’d think I would learn,” he joked, noting that the board has repeatedly rebuffed his suggestions to cut funds for libraries. This year, Janssen has also proposed cuts in the Sheriff’s Department, mental health programs for the uninsured, children and family services and other county programs to close a $269-million shortfall.

The county would lose another $103 million in annual property tax revenue under Schwarzenegger’s plan -- but only for two years. Because the cuts would be temporary, Janssen said he hoped to absorb them without further slicing into libraries and other local services.

The county board is holding public hearings to consider its 2004-05 budget. The supervisors plan to finalize the $17-billion budget next month.

Molina has said she is particularly concerned about libraries and parks, which she sees as oases of education and recreation for poor, crowded neighborhoods running short on both.

“At the turn of the century, public libraries were the place people could go pick up a book that they couldn’t afford to buy. Today, the same is true for access to the Internet,” she said.

“I know how valued libraries are in the inner city,” Molina said. “We need to find a way to save them, but it’s tough.”