Survey Finds Huntington Beach Voters Oppose Library Privatization

In March, the Huntington Beach City Council voted 4-3 to request proposals for outsourcing its public library system to a private company, other county governments, or another third party.

Results of a survey of around 400 Huntington Beach voters released Wednesday found that 67% of them opposed a move to privatize the city’s public library system, with only 17% of those surveyed supporting the move. At a council meeting earlier in May, council members debated whether the issue should be on November’s ballot so residents could decide on it — with the majority voting against putting it on the ballot.

The survey was paid for by labor unions, whose members could be affected by the move. This includes the Orange County Employees Association, which represents municipal workers in Orange County.

Just over 40% of those surveyed visit the library a few times a year, with 87% of respondents rating the library positively.

“At this time, the city of Huntington Beach is still preparing a formal Request for Proposal, which will eventually allow the city to examine the feasibility of managed library services in Huntington Beach. Upon completion of that process, staff will present this information to the City Council for further direction,” a city spokesperson said in a statement. “A timeline for issuing an RFP and presenting that information has not been set yet. A decision by the City Council has not yet been reached as to whether or not to proceed with managed library services in the City.”

Dina Chavez, president of the nonprofit Friends of the Huntington Beach Public Library, said there has been a petition filed with the Huntington Beach city attorney’s office, which will require a vote by the residents as well as the majority of the council to weigh in before the library management can be privatized.

How the issue came about

In January, Library Systems & Services (LS&S) approached the city of Huntington Beach with a proposal to run the city’s four-branch library system. Their proposal said they could cut costs by around $1 million annually.

Michael Posey, a former Huntington Beach mayor and city council member who currently works for LS&S, said the company does not privatize public libraries, but rather manages the operations.

“The assets, the building, the books, the materials, the intellectual property, all remain the property of the taxpayers,” he said. “Collection management, human resources, accounting, finance, marketing, website development, all of those operations are handled by our corporate headquarters so with that we bring economies of scale and best practices to public libraries and relieve the staff of those back office duties so they have more time for patron engagement.”

Some employees of the Huntington Beach public library system are against the privatization of operations, stating that it can result in the loss of institutional knowledge as well as in the loss of collections specifically curated for the city’s residents.

Item on the ballot

At a council meeting earlier in May, the majority of the council voted against putting the issue on the November ballot.

Councilmembers Rhonda Bolton, Dan Kalmick and Natalie Moses recommended a charter amendment that would require the majority of the city council as well as the electorate to approve any plans to change how the library was managed. They also wanted to ask Huntington Beach voters in November whether they want the library managed by an outside contractor.

The three council members wrote that they have received “more than a thousand pieces of correspondence from residents, and have had dozens, if not hundreds, of other conversations with concerned parents and library patrons about the future of our public library.”

“I think the arguments for and against could be made pretty easily for the voters, it's do you think your library is broken or do you think your library is OK,” said Kalmick at the meeting.

He said putting the issue in front of voters would mean that council members would not leave an “an indelible mark without I think a lot of information” on a city institution and “harm” the library.

But Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark, who voted against the motion for the charter amendment, said it is in the city’s best interest to move forward with the request for proposal process and that “the fear-mongering” should stop.