The battle over books is getting more heated in Huntington Beach.
A pair of petitions that would overturn two recent controversial decisions surrounding public libraries by the city are currently circulating.
Backers of the petitions are hoping to gather 40-thousand signatures by October. They are fighting the city in what they believe are tactics to censor what books end up on library shelves.
The first library in Huntington Beach opened in 1909. Since then, each of the city’s five libraries has been run by the city and staffed by city librarians.
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The Friends of the Library want to keep things just the way they are, so they are gathering signatures of support on two petitions.
“You can see our sign we have the best story time in Orange County, this library is beloved”, said Dina Chavez of Friends of the Library. “The majority of the people say they do not want the library to be privatized, so it’s really shocking they’re considering such a thing."
At issue here, the City of Huntington Beach is opening up a request for proposals to privatize the library system, which would allow for an outside company to run all city libraries.
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The other petition would repeal an ordinance the city passed in March to create a 21-person review board that would decide which books could end up on library shelves, particularly those that violate community standards, including those that have sexual content or references.
“It definitely is censorship, you have the city government telling us what we are not allowed to read, making decisions for the people, instead of the people making decisions for themselves and their families”, said Chavez.
"That’s where the conspiracy theories come in and that’s not what this is,” said Huntington Beach mayor Gracey Van Der Mark.
Van Der Mark said the review board would allow for more community input, and she says the city opened a request for proposals for privatization simply to get more information on how the city could potentially save money, this after one company suggested the idea late last year.
“When this company approached us and said we can save you guys a significant amount of money and at the same time maintain services and programming, we just said how? How are you going to do that? And that’s exactly where we are now, no decision has been made and we haven’t taken it any further. We are simply asking for a proposal, that’s all we are asking for”, said Van Der Mark.
The operating cost for the city library system is about 5 million dollars.
Outside companies have until June 6 to submit their proposals.
