The Malibu City Council voted to approve the 2019 Malibu Library Set Aside funds to continue and expand existing and new services and programs for the Malibu community during the March 11 Council meeting.
“The Malibu Library is at the heart of Malibu’s cultural and literary life, so I am proud of the incredibly valuable, diverse, and top-quality programs and services we have been able to develop at our beloved Library,” said Mayor Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner, who serves on the City’s Library Subcommittee. “We are making sure that the Library and its services and programs continue to meet the evolving needs of all of the people in the community.”
During the March 11 Council meeting, the Council voted to continue existing funding for 50 service hours a week above regular County Public Library hours, to pay for a dedicated security guard, to pay for the full-time Teen Librarian, to fund the Malibu Library Speaker Series program, to fund the Management Fellow for Education Programs, and to fund the Family Place Programs throughout the County library system.
The Council also approved new allocations for an additional dedicated guard, $25,000 in additional funding for the Speakers Series to cover costs associated with providing Speaker Series programming in western Malibu, enclosing the children’s area in the Library and an Outreach Librarian position.
All of the new funding proposals were based on the results of the Library Needs Assessment which the City conducted in 2017 in order to update the 2005 Needs Assessment. The Needs Assessment established service goals for the set aside funds for the coming years. It was based on extensive community outreach through meetings, public messaging, surveys and analysis of demographic trends and current service levels.
In 2008, the City and the County of Los Angeles Public Library signed a Memorandum of Understanding to set aside the difference between the City’s library portion of the property tax revenue and the Malibu Library expenses in a designated fund every year. The funds, which can only be used for Library services in Malibu, totaled approximately $10 million as of June 30, 2018.
The set aside funds have been used for the major renovation of the Malibu Library in 2012, to fund the Library Speaker Series, now in its seventh season, to increase service hours, establish a deferred maintenance fund, hire additional library staff, hire a full-time security guard, and enhance library collections and materials.
For more information on the 2019 Library Set Aside Funds, see the staff report at https://www.malibucity.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/3607?fileID=7630.
