Members of the Irvine City Council voted unanimously on July 23 to approve withdrawing from Orange County Public Library (OCPL). The city will establish a locally managed Irvine Public Library System, effective July 1, 2025.
The city will now conclude OCPL’s lease on the Irvine-owned Heritage Park Library property and allow Irvine to lease the county-owned University Park Library. City staff propose to develop a new library managing division within the Community Services Department and hire a main City Librarian to manage $600,000 in consulting funds in the upcoming transition phase, to begin on March 31, 2025.
The terms of the negotiation approved will leave the Katie Wheeler Library in Irvine under the jurisdiction of the county.
“Katie Wheeler is a beloved library which would be sad to lose. A library in this area is essential for the community and the two high schools and many area elementary and middle schools,” Leah Ostashay wrote in an e-comment submitted before the meeting.
The city and county primarily clashed over resource allocation and financial managing authority for Irvine public libraries. OCPL approves the yearly library budget under guidance from the OC Board of Supervisors. The city council previously authorized the forwarding of a letter of intent to withdraw from the OCPL system on Feb. 28, 2023.
Each city in the OCPL, which consists of 34 library branches, makes contributions to the county through property taxes. The city noticed a discrepancy in contributing 28% to OCPL’s 2022-2023 property tax revenue while operating only 11% of OCPL’s operating space, according to the Irvine City Manager’s Office.
Director of Community Services Christopher Slama presented the OCPL withdrawal provisions at the meeting on July 23. According to Slama’s presentation, city officials and OCPL representatives previously signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2012 regarding “set-aside” dollars for Irvine libraries’ benefit. However, they were unable to compromise following the MOU’s expiration in 2022.
“This opportunity to develop this new system will be so largely based on what we’re hearing from the city and the residents as we move forward,” Slama said during his presentation.
Before the vote for approval, several questions were asked by council members.
“Will we still be contributing money to the county library system?” council member Kathleen Treseder asked after expressing concerns over the financial impact on the OCPL system.
Per the agreement, the county has agreed to pay Irvine $9 million for the 2025 to 2026 fiscal year, as the Irvine property tax revenue allotted for library service will be split evenly between the county and city systems. The city will not pull all financial contributions from the county, Slama explained.
“Have we thought about what the plan is for the current existing employees who work at, for example, Heritage Park? They’re actually county employees, so we are giving them the option, right? To become Irvine employees,” council member Tammy Kim asked.
Kim is the Irvine representative on the OCPL Library Advisory Board.
City Manager Oliver Chi stated that the employees would not be unemployed; they could remain with OCPL and be transferred.
“There would be an open, competitive recruitment process to identify the staffing plan for us,” Chi said of employment within the Irvine Public Library System.
During the meeting, both Treseder and Kim asked questions regarding access to OCPL materials for members of the Irvine Library System, which both women stated was of concern to community members.
Chi explained that members of the Irvine Public Library System would have the ability to access materials at all accredited libraries in the state of California.
Following the hearing, agenda item 4.2, “Agreement between the County of Orange and the City of Irvine for Transfer of Library Service and property tax exchange,” was approved 4-0 by the council members present: Vice Mayor Larry Agran and Council Members Mike Carroll, Kim and Treseder.
“Absolutely no expansion of our library, our library is perfect, it needs NO expansions. It was rebuilt less than 10 years ago,” a commenter under the name H G wrote in an e-comment after the meeting ended and the item was approved.
With the approval of the city council, the process of an established Irvine Public Library System is moving forward after over a year of negotiations.
“Initial signs are pointing to a system that would have one main library and up to four to six branches throughout the city,” Slama said in reference to the proposed Great Park Library.
To provide additional feedback, email LibrariesFeedback@cityofirvine.org.
Alyse Billiard is a News Intern for the summer 2024 quarter. She can be reached at abilliar@uci.edu.
