WITH LITTLE DISCUSSION, the Ventura City Council tonight pulled the plug on the very successful Medic Engine 10 and the Downtown foot patrol.

The two programs were cut in the city's Budgeting for Outcomes process earlier this year, but were subject to temporary bridge funding from reserves pending the outcome of Measure A and the receipt of possible federal stimulus money from a COPS grant. More than $11 million was trimmed from the city's budget and all employees took pay or benefit cuts.

As we all know, Measure A, the 1/2-percent sales tax increase, did not pass and the city did not receive the anticipated federal funds, either.

Full-time annual funding was estimated to be $180,000 for Medic Engine 10 and $600,000 for the foot patrol.

Despite all the public speakers and heated campaign rhetoric before the election, firefighter Ben Davis was the lone person to fill out a speaker card on the demise of these two successful programs. Even Council candidate Brian Lee Rencher, who spoke out so loudly and forcefully against the sales tax measure and put up a great majority of the No on A signs, was noticeably absent tonight after nearly perfect attendance in recent weeks.

The innovative roving Medic Engine 10 program ran at about a third of the cost of a fully staffed, built and equipped facility, Davis said, and reduced the city's response times by about 10 percent. "It proved to be very effective and will be missed," he said.

"When we lose four police officers and three firefighters that means people [won't be] on the street helping your citizens out," Davis said.

"It literally means that lives will be lost in the city."

I RECEIVED WORD TODAY that with the failure of Measure A on Tuesday, the San Buenaventura Friends of the Library have given up their valiant but unsustainable private fundraising efforts to keep Wright Library afloat.

"We can no longer keep the staff at Wright on tenterhooks wondering if this month will be the last," said Berta Steele of San Buenaventura Friends of the Library. "The Save Wright Library Campaign raised over $100,000 and was able to forestall the closing of Wright until the end of this month. However, the electorate has spoken and the library will close."

The Wright, which is operated by the Ventura County Library System, was targeted for closure by the county in an effort to consolidate and save money it doesn't have any more. A smaller facility than the E.P. Foster Library Downtown, it's unable to house the collections of both libraries and does not have a meeting room or computer center. The much smaller Avenue Library receives money from federal sources.

In flusher times, the City of Ventura has been able to step in to rescue library services. But after trimming $11 million out of the current two-year budget and asking employees to take salary and benefit cuts, the money is not there.

There was some question as to whether the hours at both libraries could be cut back even more to save both, but that is apparently not an option any more. The Wright is the most popular library in the city, with a circulation of 210,556.

Part of the revenues from Measure A were earmarked for the library and the Friends were pinning their hopes on the ballot measure's passage to save it.

The group put up a commendable fight to save their beloved library and I really feel for the patrons, both young and old, who consider it a home away from home. It will be missed.

I CAN'T HELP BUT WONDER exactly what we gained after that municipal election we just had. For my part it was just a sore throat from too much time on the phone reminding folks to vote. With county turnout at just 27 percent, I am underwhelmed by the sense of civic responsibility.

Yes, after all that money spent by 15 candidates and three measures and their matching opposition groups, we got squat.

For those calling for change on the City Council, you gained a likable former police chief and lost a business and financial expert. I don't expect the votes while on the Council to be very different between the two men.

For Wright Library supporters, you lost a chance to keep your facility open through the revenue Measure A would've brought. And our city's innovative Medic Engine 10 and Downtown foot patrols could go away as well. But the no voters will get to keep their roughly 18 cents a day.

For Measure B supporters, your activism forced the city's hand to form its own View Protection Task Force, which likely helped kill your measure but saved the city from probable legal action if B had passed.

To our Measure C folks: the city's own General Plan guidelines for that area as implemented through our new Victoria Corridor code will prevent Wal-Mart from super-sizing its planned smaller store in the former K-Mart site. But I still won't shop there.

And to my friends on the school board: you worked hard and deserved to retain your seats.

IT'S BEEN MY OBSERVATION that most citizens aren't too dialed into municipal matters and generally dislike ballot initiatives. This election reflected that. The sheer number of candidates and measures required more study than most folks had patience for. When this happens, newspaper endorsements do matter.

Ventura's campaign finance laws keep special interests from controlling elections, unlike our neighbors to the north in Santa Barbara where one well-heeled Texas millionaire threw more than half a million dollars into the pot.

So in this environment it becomes more about established networks and word-of-mouth rather than glossy mailers. Look for a push to change the city's charter regarding Council elections very soon.

And take down those signs.

I HAVE BEEN a big supporter of San Buenaventura Friends of the Library's dogged efforts to save their beloved Wright Library from closure due to cutbacks in the Ventura County Library System. They've done event after event and even invited science fiction legend Ray Bradbury to be the featured speaker at a fundraiser. So far they've raised $92,000.

But there comes a time when even the most devoted volunteers get tired. Volunteer-driven fundraising efforts cannot always be sustained. I've been there, done that myself when in 2003 as part of an equally determined group of moms we raised $84,000 to save the School Resource Officer program in Ventura's middle schools for just one year. We couldn't do it again the next.

So the Friends are pinning their hopes on the passage of Ventura's Measure A, the 1/2-percent sales tax measure on November's ballot. The estimated $8 million raised locally by the measure would stay in Ventura and wouldn't be subject to a raid from Sacramento. The state is taking $4 million from the city's now balanced budget to solve the state's budget crisis -- "borrowing" $2.8 million in property taxes and taking an additional $1.2 million from the city's Redevelopment Agency.

The spending plan for the revenue measure, which sunsets in four years, would do much to restore some of the service cuts our older, full-service city has had to make in the last few years to balance the budget. Supplementing the county's funding for our libraries would keep Wright open and maintain hours at our other library facilities.

Today the Friends and other community leaders and local families officially kicked off the campaign for Measure A in front of the Wright Library. The measure has broad community support if the endorsement list is any indication. On the growing list is the Ventura Auto Center Dealers Association and other local business leaders. 

SBFOL President Will Thompson put an impassioned plea in the group's latest newsletter: "So, it will be up to us voters to save Wright Library. ... We are, in the face of so many voters in previous elections who just said "NO," the voters who now have the opportunity and the privilege to say "YES." We love Ventura and are eager to save our Wright Library!"