SIMI FAVORS FULL LIBRARY OVERHAUL : CITIES SAY PROPERTY TAX PLAN MAY HURT SMALL BRANCHES.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Reforming the Ventura County library system by giving cities control over spending and operations has strong support from local leaders, but fears remain that splitting up the system would hurt communities with small branches.

Simi Valley leaders are pushing a plan to virtually dismantle the current system. Their counterparts in cities including Moorpark have urged caution following the first two meetings of a committee formed to find a way to overhaul the 15-branch system hammered by state funding cuts.

City managers and county officials were given the task Thursday of reviewing several proposals before the Library Services Implementation Committee meets again to resume the debate over the library system's fate.

``We're talking about a library system that would stay intact, however it would look different than it does now,'' said Supervisor Frank Schillo, who has led the reform effort and endorses the Simi Valley plan.

The Simi Valley plan, presented by Mayor Greg Stratton at the committee's second meeting in Camarillo on Thursday, calls for turning over property taxes and per capita shares of other funding sources to the seven cities with county library branches. Stratton said each city ultimately could pull out of the system and leave the central administration as essentially an agency for contracting services and staff.

``Basically, every city should be responsible for their libraries,'' Stratton said. ``Whether that's every city for themselves, I guess if you think the ship is sinking, that might be the thing to do.''

Moorpark's committee representative, Councilman John Wozniak, said local control over funding and operations would be a positive effort at reforming the system. ``That's what we're all looking for and that's more local control.''

Yet he and representatives from other small cities fear they won't get a fair deal.

``If we're all on a level playing field, I have no problem. Otherwise, the larger libraries will control it,'' Wozniak contended. ``If we can't make libraries that are workable, then we don't need to be sitting at that table.''

The reform effort began last fall when the county hired a consultant to study the library system's woes in the wake of an overall $5 million cut - about half the $10.1 million budget set aside six years ago - in state funding over the past several years.

The 140-page report recommended that the services district be broken up, administration costs slashed and local governments given more responsibility for their branches.

Library supporters, however, contend the funding cuts are to blame and that reforms should stop short of dismantling the system.

``In order to reform something, you don't have to tear it to the ground,'' said George Berg, president of the group Save Our Libraries.

Berg, who attends the committee meetings, labeled the Simi Valley plan a ``Trojan horse'' to gain more money for Simi Valley and Ventura at the expense of branches serving smaller cities and unincorporated areas. He contended any city leaving the system should do as Thousand Oaks and Santa Paula in the past and rely on a combination of property tax revenue and municipal funding rather than tap the library services agency.

``What this basically does is vandalize the system,'' Berg said.

``That's doom and gloom,'' Schillo said in defending the Simi Valley plan. ``We're all working toward getting a better system.''

Schillo said the Simi Valley plan ``was misunderstood'' and should be constructive for the committee's debate. He contended that while city's would control daily operations, a central agency still would be needed for minimal tasks, such as purchasing books and maintaining a library card system.