Santa Ana Library Trustees Seek to Kill Transfer Proposal : Budget: Plan would turn city facilities over to the county. Another idea is to charge user fees. Both are considered ways to help make up for revenue losses to state.

SANTA ANA —  Even before city and business leaders begin looking for program cuts or fee hikes to make up for revenue losses created by the new state budget, local library board members are hoping to scuttle one budget-balancing idea now being floated--transferring the city’s libraries to Orange County, or charging fees for services.

Under a draft proposal being circulated among library board members, the city could save between $1 million and $2 million a year by shifting the city’s library services to the county, or gain between $300,000 and $535,000 if fees were charged to the 1.2 million residents and non-residents who use the facilities.

The report states, however, that the city would have to withdraw from county and state inter-library cooperatives and would become ineligible for federal library funds if it begins charging for library service.

The issue was brought up Wednesday evening at an informal City Council candidates’ forum, and board members plan to lobby against the proposals when they attend each of the homeowner association meetings in coming weeks.

“If we limit (library services) to those who can afford to pay the price, this is in direct defiance to our slogan of ‘Education First,’ ” board Chairwoman Pat Heike said Thursday.

Vice Chairman Jack S. Spangler said board members wanted to get council candidates on the record in support of continued municipal library services before the November election.

Mayor Daniel H. Young said that while “everything is fair game” as the city restudies its budget, no budget-cutting decisions have been made or will be finalized until the end of December. It is too early, he said, for anyone to push the “panic button.”

“We want to show the community that we know how to manage our way through the problem, unlike the state Legislature,” Young said.

While residents may hear about possible service cuts, he said, “these are just ideas coming to the table as they are developed. The state stole money from us and left us with a shortfall, and what we have to do is say, ‘Everything is fair game’ as we look at all of our options.”

Like other Orange County cities that are still assessing the damage in the wake of the stormy state budget battle, Santa Ana officials said it will be weeks before they know exactly how much money needs to be made up. Early estimates project the revenue loss at between $5 million and $6 million.

City Manager David N. Ream said that as part of a 1991 agreement with the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, the city is required to meet first with the business group to outline budget options before taking a tentative plan to the City Council. The first budget session with the chamber will be held at the end of the month, Ream said.

That arrangement has been criticized by Councilman John Acosta, who said: “I think the council’s more important than the chamber. I don’t know why the chamber became such a major player in all of this.”

The politically influential business group has a longstanding working relationship with a majority of the council members. The current budget, for example, includes an $80,000 allocation to the chamber for its “Santa Ana Proud” program, a public relations tool to help improve the city’s image and economic climate.

But the group also negotiated for itself a key position in the city’s budget deliberations as part of a 1991 compromise on a utility tax increase.

Since then, the Joint Budget Task Force has met about 12 times to help the 13 chamber representatives understand the city budget and help find ways to save money, Chamber President Michael Metzler said.

“We have worked very hard and very diligently to create a situation where we can work with the city to accomplish mutual goals for the private sector and the public sector, to the benefit of the entire city,” Metzler said of the agreement.

“The only reason the city is supportive of that is they recognize that over 70% of the revenues that the city takes in come from the private sector. It’s in the city’s best interest that the private sector fares well,” Metzler said.

Young added that officials would be discussing possible budget cuts with various citizen groups before final decisions are made.