Silverstein wants Malibu to divorce L.A. County library system Play

The L.A. County Library System has come up with plans for expanding the library on Civic Center Way. It's proposing a small two-story building next to the original one.

But it's not a very complete plan, and in the words of Mayor Bruce Silverstein, "it's a joke."

Silverstein says there's almost $29 million in the Malibu property tax fund that the county has collected for Malibu — money that is sitting there waiting to be spent on library services here in Malibu. And that figure grows by about $3.5 million a year.

Malibu, in many opinions, has a fairly crappy library.

At Monday night's city council meeting, Silverstein said Malibu should look into going on its own and divorcing itself from the county: "We need to perform a serious analysis of the pros and cons of remaining in the county library system.

"And whether the Malibu community might benefit from separating from the county library system, which would provide the city with approximately $5 million of additional funds annually to be spent as the city sees fit and not subject to approval by the county library system.

"Under state law, we also would have the right to purchase the existing library facility from the county library system for a price that may be materially less than the city would need to pay to purchase a comparable property.

"That should also be explored."

The city council directed the city staff to start looking into divorcing Malibu out of the L.A. County Library System. It might be costly, though — it could mean leaving $28 million in the Malibu construction fund at the county.

A lot of this, of course, will depend on what the county Board of Supervisors would have to say.