City Will Join Panel Overseeing Libraries

Hoping to get more say in the way the local library is run, the Simi Valley City Council on Monday is expected to add a city representative to a county libraries oversight panel.

The eight-person Ventura County Library Federation would be made up of one representative from each city served by the county’s library system plus a member of the Board of Supervisors.

The federation would essentially control the budget for the 15-branch library system serving all Ventura County cities except Thousand Oaks, Santa Paula and Oxnard.

The Board of Supervisors--which oversees the library system’s budget--could only overrule the panel on a 4-5 vote.

Once impoverished and top-heavy, the county library system is in the midst of a transformation after the largest member cities threatened to defect from the county and run their own branches.

Now branches are offering longer hours, and big cities such as Simi Valley--whose residents contribute more tax dollars to the library system’s budget--are seeing more services than before.

Creation of the oversight panel is expected to give participating cities even more of a stake in the existing library system.