County May Ask Cities to Take Over Its Libraries : Cutbacks: Board tells Popejoy to study idea of dissolving the system. City officials are interested.

SANTA ANA —  Seeking new ways to cut costs, Orange County might dissolve its troubled library system and invite cities to take over operation of its 28 branches.

The Board of Supervisors expressed interest in the idea Thursday and directed county Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy to examine it.

“I will just state this right up front,” said board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez. “I think we ought to get out of the library business.”

The notion also drew interest from some city officials, who, dismayed by recent cutbacks in library hours, have discussed forming a city-controlled joint powers authority to run the system.

“It makes a lot of sense for us to seriously consider a public library authority of some kind,” said Laguna Niguel City Manager Tim Casey. “It would get this operation into the hands and under the governance of the people it services.”

Talk of ending county control brings new uncertainty to the Orange County Public Library system, which serves most Orange County cities and all unincorporated areas. Because of reduced state funding, the system has slashed its budget by 28% since 1982 and has dramatically reduced operating hours.

The county bankruptcy worsened the system’s financial problems, forcing library officials to cut the 1995-96 library budget from about $25 million to $20 million. In fiscal year 1992-93, the budget was about $27 million.

Last month, the county announced that six library branches would be closed to cut costs and that some library fees would be increased.

Given the county’s financial crisis, supervisors Thursday expressed support for turning over the libraries to cities.

Vasquez compared the library system to the Orange County Fire Authority, which was recently taken over by a city-controlled joint powers authority.

“If we did it with fire, we can do it with libraries,” Vasquez said.

Supervisor Marian Bergeson agreed the idea should be explored but expressed concern about the library needs of unincorporated areas.

City officials endorsed the comparison between fire departments and the library system: Like the Orange County Fire Authority, the library system provides a traditionally city-run service to a population that lives mostly in incorporated communities.

But city officials stressed that it is far too early to know for certain if a joint powers authority would be effective.

The county has yet to determine the cost savings of dissolving the system and hasn’t stated what it wants from cities in return for control of the libraries.

Irvine City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr. doubted that cities would be willing to form an authority if it meant spending millions of dollars buying library branches from the county.

“We’ve paid for them once through taxes,” he said. “Why should we pay for them again?”

But Brady suggested that cities might consider paying the county for some library assets that came from private donations or grants and not from taxpayer money.

Brady and Casey said forming an authority would be more efficient than having each city take over branches within its boundaries.

Other options include forming several regional library authorities or having cities such as Anaheim and Newport Beach--which now run their own libraries--take over county branches in neighboring communities.

Times staff writer Jodi Wilgoren and correspondent Alan Eyerly contributed to this report.