Panel to Study Ways to Fund City Libraries

Library officials have appointed a 10-member group to search for new ways to fund the city’s impoverished library system.

The 10 civic leaders, including an ex-mayor, a stock broker, an investment banker and a former president of the Pasadena Unified School District, will consider all funding options, including a possible library tax, members of the group said on Tuesday.

“I think maybe the ‘T’ word was a little premature,” said Cathy Brooke, a member of the task force who is also chairwoman of the Pasadena Library Commission. “That’s just one of the options.”

Despite assertions by members of the group that they were open to any funding suggestions, library Director Ed Szynaka said two weeks ago that he favored an $8-million-a-year tax measure to shore up the system. Most of the library’s $6.5 million budget comes from the city’s general fund budget.

The group will report by mid-February to the Library Commission, which advises the City Council on library issues. The council will then have time to reach agreement on a special tax measure to be presented to voters next June, task force members said.

Because of a budget shortfall, the central library and eight branches were recently forced to shut down on some weekdays, to drastically cut the new book budget and to eliminate some popular cultural programs. The prospects are for additional cuts next year, Szynaka said.

Co-chairmen of the task force are John Kennedy, a former president of the Pasadena NAACP and principal consultant of John J. Kennedy & Associates, and Ross Selvidge, a real estate consultant with Kotin, Regan and Mouchly Inc.

They said the group will consider such options as holding rock concert benefits at the Rose Bowl, charging an admission fee to the libraries or charging for each of the 1.6 million books that library patrons borrow each year.

“I have no preconceived notions,” said Kennedy.

But even some of the most ambitious suggestions fall far short of the library system’s needs, Szynaka said. “Even if we charged a quarter a pop for each book, that’s still not enough to operate a library,” he said.

Other members of the task force include Michael Beacham, senior manager of the KPMG Peat Marwick management consultant team; former mayor John Crowley; real estate developer William Galloway; Kathy Padilla, a former chairwoman of the Library Commission and a partner in Padilla Engineering and Design; Ed Shutman, a former Pasadena school administrator; stock broker Anthony Thompson, and former Pasadena Unified School District President Marjorie Wyatt.