Malibu will start receiving as much in library services as it pays in tax dollars, and the county will pay tens of thousands to find out how residents want to spend the money.
By Susan Reines/Special to The Malibu Times
The city’s investigation into library finances is proving fruitful. Just months after city officials realized Malibu was paying far more tax dollars into the county library system than it received in services, county officials said they would be changing the policy for spending taxes and be spending thousands of dollars on community outreach, on the county’s tab.
County Librarian Margaret Donnellan Todd and Susan Nissman, Senior Field Deputy for County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, announced the county’s intentions at Monday night’s City Council meeting.
Both nodded vigorously when asked whether the county would definitely be changing its financial policy to begin spending each city’s tax dollars on its own library. “Zev Yaroslavsky fully supports the concept that we need to equalize the library service given to the city in comparison to what it pays,” Todd said. “And that will take place.”
Todd said there had not yet been a formal motion made to the County Library Board of Supervisors, “but Zev has said he is in support-I don’t think it’s going to be a difficult issue.” The new policy will go into effect this fiscal year, she said.
The county’s current policy allows it to spend any city’s tax dollars anywhere in the county, a policy that resulted in almost half a million Malibu tax dollars being spent elsewhere in the county last year.
Todd and Nissman met with the Malibu Friends of the Library and made a presentation to the City Council Monday about what Malibu could do with the increased funds it will have when all of its tax dollars begin staying within the city.
Todd said she would spend between $20,000 and $40,000 of her administrative budget to hire a consultant who will hold public meetings and conduct surveys in Malibu to find out how residents want to spend the surplus. She said she hoped to have a consultant on board by January, after the county and city interview applicants, and then have public input collected by about April.
The consultant will hold at least three public meetings, one in East Malibu, one in West Malibu and one at the library during the needs assessment process this spring, according to a draft plan distributed by the county.
It is possible that a new library could eventually result from the process.
After the consultant collects public input, a building program will begin, in which the consultant will decide whether Malibu requires an entirely new facility to meet its needs.
“What they do is they take the needs identified in the needs assessment and say, ‘OK, what kind of a building does this have to be? What features does it need to have to meet these needs?'” Todd said. “We always plan for about 20 years to make sure we’re planning for the future.”
If Malibu did decide to replace its library, which dates to the 1970s (“That’s old for a library that hasn’t had a major refurbishing,” Todd said), the county would likely apply for a state bond to fund its construction.
Right now competition for state library bonds is extremely competitive, Nissman said, but if voters approve a larger state bond cycle in June 2006, more money will be available.
Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich, who began investigating the library’s finances last spring after she noticed that the Agoura Hills Library seemed to have better services than Malibu’s, urged the public to get involved in the process of deciding the library’s future in the next few months.
“I think that our library is adequate, but I think that we can do better and we will do better,” Conley Ulich said at Monday’s meeting. “But we won’t do better without every single person getting involved. You have a responsibility to tell us what you need and what you want.”