Dozens of speakers aired out grievances or support in front of a standing-room-only crowd at Santa Clarita City Hall on Tuesday before city officials voted 4-1 to take over the three local libraries. City Councilman Bob Kellar was the lone dissenting vote.

The move, which will take Valencia, Jo Anne Darcy and Newhall libraries out of the Los Angeles County Library System and bring them under city control, would put an additional $400,000 into local library coffers, according to city staff.

However, several of the speakers, who during public comment were concerned that a potential loss of services would be the bottom-line result, were "flabbergasted" at the council's haste.

"I can't believe it," Newhall resident Lori Rivas said. "They heard so much public outcry and they just passed it. Shame on them. It's unbelievable."

Rivas, a home-schooling mother of four, as well as other opponents of the move, are concerned that their free access to a large collection is in jeopardy.

Jake Acquaviva, 9, stood in a grey pin-striped suit at the podium in Council Chambers and shared his library experience — as well as his fear of the change.

“I have been going to the library since I was a little boy,” Acquaviva said. “I know my way around the library pretty well, and I don’t want the library to change. It’s a good place the way it is.”

The Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents county library employees, set up a booth in the parking lot before the meeting, passing out postcards of Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, cards to request to speak during the council meeting and red T-shirts with the phrase “I love L.A. County Libraries” in protest of the proposed city takeover.

County Librarian Margaret Donnellan Todd said Library Systems & Services LLC, the company Santa Clarita is considering contracting with, is a for-profit company — which means the city will never know what its profit margin is.

“I can see they’ve put together a very slick proposal,” Todd said. “And with no experience running a library system, you’ll never know what is fancy wrapping, and what is substance.”

Some library patrons and volunteers claim the city is trying to fix a system that isn’t broken. Many took issue with the idea of contracting with a Maryland-based library-management firm to operate the libraries.

Some, like Berta Gonzalez-Harper, liked the idea of local control over the three libraries.

The city’s residents delivered a $231,730 surplus to the county library system in 2009; that money, coupled with an efficient operation, would mean the libraries could stay open later on weeknights and open on Sunday afternoons, according to city staff.

Officials with LSS paraded a number of employees and government staff who have worked with the company in California and Oregon and sang the company’s praises.

“I entered this profession with a passion for libraries as a foundational cornerstone of an informed democracy,” Moorpark City Librarian Barbara Wolfe said. Wolfe, an LSS employee, has a master’s degree in library science. “I did not enter this profession because of the promise of a government pension.”

Her remarks were met with exasperated cries from the crowd.

Those cries were met with a scolding from Mayor Laurene Weste.

“I know we’re all library people, so shhhh,” Weste said.   

The council expected three hours of public comment during Tuesday’s meeting.