Video Description:
Library Board Meeting – January 25, 2021
For a transcript of the meeting, please read below:
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Note: The following is the output of transcribing from a video recording. Although the transcription, which was done with software, is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or [software] transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the meeting, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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0:00
I’m going to call the meeting to order at seven o’clock then it’s good seeing you all hope you had a nice holiday survived the virus so far and prosperous new year release price, right prospects for this year. So we have nobody from the public for comments. So I’m going to move down the agenda to number three, approval of the meeting minutes from December 14 up. Does anybody have any comments with respect to the minutes from last meeting? Or can we move to approve?
0:47
I’ll move to approve the minutes.
0:50
In a second. That good. All in favor? Aye. Okay, Nana mostly approved. Okay, Nancy, I guess that leaves you up.
1:04
Okay. Um, a couple of my things will be in later in some of our later discussions.
1:09
But
1:11
things are moving along. We worked on Oh, Nicole confirms no public. So we have worked to compile our statistics from last year. Of course, our statistics from last year bear no resemblance to a normal years logistics. So even though we’re going to report them to the State Library like we always do. I don’t think anyone’s ever going to use 2020 as a comparison year, to see how we compared to other years. That said, I think we’ve done pretty admirably it looks like we’ve circulated about 625,000 items this past year, even though we were we had greatly reduced hours and we’re closed entirely for a couple months there and and had very staff intensive delivery of services. So are we hit a record I believe the year before and 2019, we’re about 1,000,001. So it is a little more than half of of normal. But considering the circumstances I’m pleased with that. We also delivered in the, from the advent of closing on March 13. Because of COVID, to the end of 2020, we delivered about 38,000 plus items through curbside delivery. So that’s a lot. And actually, even though some days were slower, or more busy than others, and we had quite a few days where and we continue to know where we deliver more than we serve more than one patron a minute on curbside forever for all of the hours that were open. So I think that’s better than most fast food establishments, we’re really doing a good job. With curbside. We started a new service this week that, to our surprise and delight has been immensely popular. It’s called a pick a topic bag. And that’s exactly what it sounds like we were doing that anyway, but we gave it a name and publicized it and people are really jumping on it. So basically, you can go through our website and click on a button or there are numbers that you can call us a link to the website. And basically, you pick a topic, you know, since we’re not able to let browsers in right this minute, you know, someone can call up and say, hey, I’ve really been into Italian cooking lately, what do you have, and then our library staff will find you five to 10 items on on Italian cooking is immensely popular with parents of young kids who are tired of reading the same things over and over. It’s who pull us up now and say, Oh, please, you know, give me give me six or seven new books that have something to do with a shark or a train, for example. So we are taking suggestions on what people are looking for browsing for them, putting things in kind of a surprise grab bag, and it’s just started on Tuesday. And I don’t know how many we’ve had. But our table that’s set up to put the bags on so that we can take them out and deliver them through curbside is full to bursting. So that’s been a lot of fun and fine to still advance our online programs. We don’t know how long it will be until we’re able to do in person programs. Again, an answer to the question of why we are not reopened yet. This is a very common question we get as the COVID numbers start to go in a positive direction downward. And the answer is that we are awaiting our carpet, our carpet is on order. Things were delayed somewhat in our carpeting project because we discovered as we pulled up a few carpet squares to investigate what was going around some larger cracks on our terrazzo floor. We found that we have a network cracks that look like it looks like we’ve had a small earthquake. So we have a lot of cracks in our floor that have to be filled. So it is not dissimilar from the cracking that was found next door in the Civic Center. Ours are apparently not as bad as in some of the other buildings, but they still have to be filled with an epoxy substance before we put the carpet on top. So we didn’t fling the door open yet, because we didn’t want to open it up, move everything, close it back up, open it back up, because we find that our patrons are. Or at least a while ago, were a little bit confused and frustrated with the open close, open, close. So right now we are we were hoping to have a meeting with the construction folks, the carpet folks and the furniture and book moving people tomorrow. But they will probably not be on site doing what they were going to be doing most of the day because of the snow. So that may be put off till next week. In the meantime, our carpets on order, we can’t wait to get the new carpet. And the most common description of our current old carpet is dirty horse footprints.
6:09
And that’s I thought it sort of looked like amoebas under a microscope but the dirty horse print horse footprints pretty much fits. So we will be really happy to have new carpet and new flooring, new washable flooring in our staff kitchen, and our meeting room kitchen and our children’s craft room. But that is why we are not yet open. We expect to be carpeted within the next couple of weeks and be able to move back in. If you haven’t been around before on any sort of carpeting project in a major building, I can tell you that in a library, it’s a pretty complex thing to do. So we have two professional movers that are used to moving library things that come in and load the library books on to double sided wheeled carts shrinky, wrap them and pick them out. Usually what happens is they put them in the semi load them up so that they’re sitting outside while the areas are recarpeted. And then they bring them back in and put them back on the shelf, hopefully in perfect order. But it does take a while to as you can imagine to take all the books off the shelves and move the shelves. So we’re glad we’re not doing the whole thing at once. I’ve done that before. And we’re just doing the first floor. So you’ll see a nice new carpet in the entries, the staff areas, the children’s and teen’s area in the meeting room. So we’re happy that that project is almost underway. Other than that, staffs doing really well knock on wood, we have we haven’t had any recent COVID cases or even quarantine cases. So we’re knocking on wood that it stays that way until such time as the vaccine is more readily available to to our staff. There is some discussion going on in Colorado in the State Library and among libraries. And depending on where you are library workers are either considered frontline workers or they’re not as far as the vaccine goes. So in some areas, they have fit into the vaccine classification of one B, which is the same as teachers, grocery store workers, etc. And in a lot of areas, we’re just kind of lumped in with all the rest of the municipal workers. So I’ve asked public health I don’t have a response yet about what will happen with with our folks that work with the library. But there is definitely a disparity, we are now considered to be an essential service, but our staff is not considered or not considered to be essential workers. So there seems like there’s a little bit of a of a strange disparity there. So that is pretty much what I know until we get into a couple of our other specific topics in old business. Okay,
8:56
any questions for Nancy on that? information? None. Friends of the Library report?
9:08
I don’t have a report yet. They have not met
9:10
for January. They’ll meet Wednesday. So I’ll have a report at the next meeting.
9:16
Okay, council liaison report.
9:20
You probably wish I had a new report. But I do. Actually, let me just tell you the topics you can tell me if you have any interest in tomorrow night we’re going to approve $877,000 in in grants to nonprofits. Based on recommendations from our housing and human Human Services Advisory Board, we’ve got our short term rental ordinance changes which we talked about I think in the past, there’s a growing interest in concern about air quality and what our options are, or what our limits are in terms of regulation. Or accountability for oil and gas operators who who might be contributing to to diminished or toxic air quality toxic air, what lower quality air. And then I think our our focus is going to continue to gain more energy. Our post pandemic future will gain more energy and what it will take for the city of Longmont to recover quickly with resilience and potentially differentiate long term from other Front Range communities in terms of optimism and opportunities and, and stability in the, in the post pandemic future. And I do think I know, I see you’re gonna, Nancy’s going to talk about the feasibility study, I do think the fiza to feasibility studies become a central part of that discussion. And to that end, crop probed a little bit, or maybe product a little bit with online Economic Development Partnership, just to start to get their attention on what the possibilities are between what happens with the performing arts feasibility study, in the library feasibility study, and in what are the what’s the potential of bringing together some big ideas and a big opportunity that will come along only once for this community. And what that could mean, kind of as a lead opportunity in the post pandemic future. So there aren’t a lot of details until we get feasibility studies. But I just think we need to start getting people primed and excited about what’s coming and see what could be integrated here in a way that gets us more than we might have more than we might enjoy, and more support than we might be able to generate, if we look at these two, just totally independent. So I’ll stop. That’s, you know, if you have questions about any of this stuff, I’m happy to do so.
12:02
I have one or two questions on the other feasibility study. What is the pace of that? When do you expect deliverables from that?
12:15
I wish I could tell you. There have been it’s interesting, we have two to two pretty significant feasibility studies going on. And and for our for the for our locals. Both are this case, Nancy, in the other case, it’s not so much staff, it’s it’s community members. There are some there’s some disappointment in the consultants on both both projects. So that the timeline on that when it’s been affected not only by the virus, it certainly has by the pandemic, but also by concerns with the consultants in what they’re producing. So I got a pretty, pretty detailed update from Bob Bossman, who’s the who’s the lead in the performing arts community on that study?
13:05
My guess is we’ll get that one in advance of the library feasibility study, but I don’t think there’s a date certain. And I know there’s a lot of back and forth on what it is. They’re getting ready to recommend and in what we can do with that, but the what the interested parties are going to be able to do with it. So I wish I wish I could tell you it’s, you know, the end of February or that, to my knowledge, there is no hard deliverable date. To my knowledge.
13:39
Well,
13:40
I don’t think we want to stick our nose in what you’re doing. But do you see a point in their progress and our progress? And we should be talking to one another?
13:56
Yeah, I do. I’ve been trying to signal that for a while. I think. Let me add there’s one more little variable, not one more big variable here. And that is there’s an investor group. I think they’re trying to they’re I think they’re talking about their fun as the Evergreen fund. That is trying to generate interest and investors in a fund to make investments one or more in the opportunity zone, which is all that area north of of this of this, the same brain right from the sugar mill all the way to hoever. All that work we did on the steam project is all in the opportunity zone. So that’s where I’ve started some of this conversation is in if you’re building if you’re building an investment fund, and you’re going to look for opportunities, these two feasibility studies are going to present a pretty interesting, pretty interesting maybe and maybe the biggest opportunity you’ll ever have How well it’s gonna match up with what their interests are, Mark, I don’t know. But I know that the initial response has been to say, well, let’s, we ought to learn more about this and, and see what the possibilities are. And when the time comes absolutely this group, Friends of the Library, the our primary employers in town, I mean, there’s a number of parties that need to be brought together to say, look, let’s explore what’s possible. If you want to, if you want to make a big bold presentation to the community, about how you could get whatever this group might decide at once, whether it’s that’s a Library District, or a dedicated sales tax and keep the library inside the context of the city structure, that’s going to be based on what the feasibility study brings, and what you all decide you want to recommend. And I’ll support whatever you’re going to recommend. But I this is not unlike in my mind, not unlike what we envisioned the possibility with with the pool and ice facility, and putting that together with a with a with a proposed Library District with a tenant like that didn’t come together. In this case, you put the library together with the performing arts a conference center, and you have a great large percentage of the community whose interest you could get, I think, some museum and you can get a twofer you could get two big results with with one proposed tax increase.
16:34
So how does this coalescing occur in your mind, then I think
16:39
we’re gonna have to put together at the time, there’s going to have to be a group brought together to kind of map out possibilities or,
16:48
or well, citizens or will the city do that?
16:52
I don’t think the city will do that. Not and I don’t think the city will do it as a as a government entity I think it’s going to take it’ll take council members, it’s going to take the leadership from this board, it’ll take leadership from the performing arts community and then making a connection with I think, probably through the long line Economic Development Partnership. I think they’re, I think they’ll have a keen interest. I know some of their board members are already interested. But it’ll be it’ll be a group that has to be brought together with opportunities laid out in the mayor can do that. On the leadership of LDP with the mayor with Friends of the Library, and with the leadership of this on this board.
17:38
Okay, so this seems to be in line with some of the thoughts that came out of that envision long month, discussion a couple years ago,
17:51
talking about the routine project or master plan,
17:56
master plan for the growth of long more principally the Main Street corridor, but I think it extended beyond that, and then involved cultural centers and hotels, and yeah, extended library services and what have you. Does that how does that fit in and you think,
18:20
well, everything that everything that we’re talking about right now fits pretty, pretty well with InVision lawn lawn, as well as what we did with the steam project a couple years ago. And there’s nothing that’s there’s a disconnect, or is kind of an unaligned with that and you’re right, the Main Street corridor plan, which is now being translated into actual planning documents. Same thing is going to happen this year with the steam initiative. All that all that is real congruent with, you know, what I’m envisioning as a possibility. And I know others are as well.
18:55
Yeah, I was just probing for below constituents. You know, when when the coalescing occurs, of course, you want to bring in as many people as you can, I think, to make it work. It’s just casting a buy for who that might be? Well, I
19:12
think I think initially, Mark, I think it’ll be leadership from, from this group, from the performing arts group and in business leadership in town, who are going to have to come together, they’ll have Dallas, somebody’s going to have to trigger that. And that’s where the city or the mayor could play a role. Or, you know, are your elected officials could play a role? Yeah, well, it will, it’s gonna have to it might, there’s a variety of ways it could happen. At the very least, it will have to be a confederation of some kind, right? Or a collaboration among the leadership of interested groups, and to see whether or not was the facilitation of planning comes out of that it could be coherent. And, and and I guess I know we’re better we’re popular enough or compelling enough with the community to take it seriously.
20:16
And and you think this might be a actionable item in the second quarter?
20:24
A probable I don’t know. I the second quarter. Yeah. Maybe? By the end of? Yeah. By the end of May. Or June. Yeah.
20:35
Okay, great. Any other questions for the Councilman? Thanks. Thanks for all that. Councilman waters. Okay, that that gets us through our normal list of items. Unless there are any additional comments on any of those. And with that, I’ll move to old business and the biggest item on the under old business courses. where it should be with you, Nancy. So okay, why don’t you help us if
21:10
this fits right in with what Tim was just talking about. So I have spoken with multiple consultants, and one at length, since we last met, I have finished redoing our kind of feasibility study phase two RF q or request for quotes. So that is on its way off through purchasing and through Karen’s office and do other city folks that will, will look through that. So definitely made some some changes on what we want to see as deliverables in this second phase, which is going to consist mostly of the things that we felt weren’t delivered in the first phase, a lot of what we’re really looking for, we have a whole, you know, what we got from the first consultant really amounted to a big giant pile of data. And so what we want going forward is the consultants to come in and extrapolate from this data. And what makes the most sense moving forward for the library. So and we’ve asked them to do basically, you know, what, looked at the data, and what would be a low, a median, and an optimal level of service standard for things like building size, staffing, collection size, you know, all those parameters. So that shouldn’t take too long for the consultants to do. I’ve talked to several who have who I’ve worked with before. And I’ve done that very well. But then, to take the next step, what we really need is what does that mean? So how do we get there? What are the different ways to get there? There’s a district there’s a city, and there’s a hybrid. So we really want them to go off into those territories and say, what type of funding mechanisms are available for those different entities? So you know, is there a dedicated tax? And as a municipal library, is there a district with its financial ramifications and also a difference in governance? And is there a hybrid model, and I know that some exists, for example, where you have a municipal library with a governing board, which gives you more flexibility in policy formation, in some of the decisions that you make moving forward, so we really want them to take all that giant pile of data that we collected a lot of community input and say, Okay, here’s what we’ve heard from the community serving about how people want to see us move forward. But what does it cost? And what are the mechanisms and we’ll break that down into the graphs and charts of this is what it looks like for your average taxpayer moving forward. The original consultant survey pretty much said, you know, that you can’t pay for what you’re going to need in the future with with the city’s general fund budget, which I think Tim, I’ve heard you say it like 37 times. And I agree with you, because I’ve probably said it more often than that. So looking at what funding mechanisms are out there, looking at what the budget is that we need to provide these updates to services, technology, space, etc, that information is pretty readily available. And the consultants that I spoke with, did not think that this process would be nearly as lengthy as the original consultants took to compile data. And so I think then we’re talking only about a couple months for someone else to come in and then put together what we need. So and I have found several consultants who are interested in available So I’m trying to line up our ducks so that when this is ready to win, this is this RFP is ready to go out, we will have a definitive date by which it has to be returned. And we said that I hope to know pretty shortly. So we’re making progress. Ready to move forward? Great.
25:24
Questions.
25:25
Katie,
25:27
do you think that there’s any chain? Given the pandemic? I mean, I know. Yeah. Ideally, we’re coming out of it, but not for
25:38
a little while, at least, there is. And you know, I think that that is a a portion of information that I’ve added to the request for quotes and said, you know, here’s what we envisioned, pre COVID. And, you know, some things. So we have a little agenda of basically, the changes in library service since the advent of COVID. You know, for example, you know, we have a lot of patrons asking us to, even when we are fully reopened, continue some of our on, you know, more of our online services. So, we’ve had some of our online programs and services that have proven, immensely popular. So there’s going to be I think, a sustained demand for those, for example, bilingual storytimes, you know, so many people have said, Can we please have these online, you even when COVID is, is hopefully done. So, and just just kind of the way we do some things, and the fact that, that we’ve been talking about the digital divide in libraries for more than 15 years, and that, that it’s only now really, with the advent of COVID, that people are taking that seriously. And really understanding that people who don’t have internet access really don’t have internet access. And, and even folks who have internet access, you know, maybe they’re doing work at home, and they can’t print, they can’t do things. So, you know, seeing things where they were used to dropping by the library. And so I think the way we use our space, our concept of how we use, our space has changed, and just seeing how many folks have really been just at their wit’s end, during COVID, during this period of unemployment, etc. and recognizing that this is the, you know, this is the first library I’ve worked in 15 years, it doesn’t do computer classes, just about every day of the week, we will do that. Post COVID, you know, we’re already looking at basically how to rearrange the furniture and you know, drop power, so we can make a different computer lab and teach classes. So I think that it has changed our focus moving forward.
27:47
So I have a question. So when these the consultant, whoever that is, is ready to present findings? Well, they Well, let me back up, the first set of consultants, we had had a series of report outs to try and gain acceptance or communicate the findings of the report. How do you see the the new sets of consultants gaining that same communication channel to the community,
28:29
I have expectations of a totally different product. And I guess the product that I am looking for from the second consultant is quite similar to the product and products that we ended up with when I was in Bellingham, Washington. And, you know, the consultants came out, they talked to the board, but they also did the presentation to Council. And, you know, they they did a lot, they had a lot of visuals they had a package of so it was, I think a lot more cohesive and a lot more visual. So you can see graphically, here’s where here’s where our library is, here’s where it should be. Here’s where it is compared to your libraries. Here is what someone who owns a house with this value would pay in taxes to get a low median or optimal level of service. It’s very, it’s not as much just a compilation of, of statistics and community input as it is output. This is what this relates to. So I would thoroughly expect them to do a professional presentation or presentations.
29:35
Let sounds great. I hope they’re they’re able to do all that because I think that’ll really help.
29:44
I think I think I know a couple of them who have told me that they have availability and who are completely capable of doing so.
29:54
Okay, any other questions for Nancy on this one? Good. Nancy, I look forward to, to getting the final final.
30:05
Thank you.
30:06
Yeah, I bet.
30:11
Okay,
30:11
I asked to have this discussion on the Moser in the Epson funds added. I mean, we talked a little bit about this last meeting, of course, I guess I have a couple questions. Before just some general discussion, I assume that $2,000 check was cut loose, and you’re good with your recent reference material. Okay, good. I went back in my notes. And in addition to what we said, was in the Epson fund in September, back in May 2018, there was almost 1,200,000 in the motor fund. So between those two funds, there’s close to $4 million
31:07
different but it’s not all accessible.
31:10
I understand that, but some of it, some of it’s the corpus, and some of it, you can exactly, although some of the information that the Councilman sent out suggested that you can counsel can rewrite the rules so they can dip into the body of the fund as well. It’s it’s there. I mean, they can do that, I think is my interrupt anyway. So my my point and all that was that’s a lot of money. Mm hmm. 4 million bucks. And I’m like, this is the discussion part. Is there a role for our group in in terms of making recommendations to council as to how to broaden or change the equest guidelines so that it’s more practical for use by the library when the library has a appropriate and approved project? For instance, I think the Empson fund is tied to research material I think the most or fund is tied to learning disabilities that may not be the most the
32:28
most your fund was originally tied to tied to visual enhancements, etc. But there is a belief that you know, since it is so old, and no one from the original Mosier family, your most your trust is live from what I have been told, that should be able to use be used for other things. And we had talked about that for some of those. For an electronic sorter, which is automated materials handler, we had talked about doing some of those improvements, like moving some things around creating a computer lab doing some of those types of things, potentially with that money. As far as the Empson funds that originally was for reference material, but I need to do some digging and see what the background is. And if there’s still someone around, that has any kind of say, in how the MC fund is spent. Because I think that usually what my experience has been that when you have these funds that that date way back, that you’re no longer tied to the original purpose of those funds, it’d be really hard to get the money on the audio and visual materials for patrons that, you know, way before patrons could enlarge the font, a font on the screen and see things and you had to have your readers and and devices. But
33:48
my guess is you’re more right than wrong. I mean, I would guess that whatever governance was there through the state is passed, because of the passage of time. And that there are those protocols that are out there that they came from the original request. And it seems to me that if we’re allowed that made, maybe it should be an activity of the advisory board to at least put together some language as to how to suggest that those funds be looked at going forward and what kind of governance goes on. I don’t I don’t think it would be in the library’s best interest of the city’s best interest just to throw it open and say whatever you need. Take Take from time to time. I think there’s there needs to be some oversight there. But there needs to be some rules surrounding that over so
34:53
we’re right now we’re actually rolling
34:54
out to our group.
34:56
We’re actually working on a concrete proposal of how to use At least a good chunk of the measure fund. And we are we have appointments with four different vendors of automated materials handlers, which are sorted electronics orders this month, the beginning of next month. And we also, were getting some estimates on some of the things that we would like to do, as far as changes go with some of the areas in the building, so, so we wanted to come back and and talk to the board about that. And see, I think you’re right, Mark, I think at that point, you know, I’d rather I’d rather come in with a concrete list and say, here’s what we’d like to deal with at least some of it, here’s how much it costs. And that point proposed deviating from the original, you know, visual materials.
35:47
Okay, well, I would just say that in conjunction with that, the board needs to think about, in addition to that request, how it should manage future requests. I mean, it can’t be just a cart blush, it can’t be like the friends where you come in and say, Hey, I need a, you know, an XYZ and they write you a check there, there should be some parameters around what’s suitable and what’s not suitable. That makes sense. Sort of,
36:22
sort of,
36:24
I don’t want to screw with your prerogatives but I just stewardship role here for the board?
36:30
You do. But on the other hand, we never have, you know, we have some large ticket items that this library should have had years ago, that would not fit into a friend’s request or our funding.
36:44
No doubt, no doubt, it would be my hope that the city would step up rather than dip into this money. But that may not be the case. Well, not
36:55
since I mean, my gut feeling is that they’d say, well, you have all this money. Why don’t you spend this on? And
37:05
that’s another reason why I’m proposing that we do what we do. So there is some governance to this so that it doesn’t get raided?
37:16
Well, if we spend it on some things that we need, it won’t it won’t be there to raid.
37:20
That’s right.
37:21
Yeah, that’s right. But you can’t spend it all. So work.
37:29
I see Tim’s hand up.
37:32
The I don’t think there’s any way the city could read this, I guess, the council, I guess the council could, you know, somebody could put an item on the council agenda for council action to change the, the, the limits or the constraints or purposes of the measure fund. In May, when the the first correspondence I had with Jim golden about this, you know, almost three years ago. I think at that time, there was like $573,000 that I had accumulated I’m so it’s north of that, because it’s now several years later. That was that was that was growth over the original, you know, kind of principle that wood was available to be spent. And it was my understanding at the time, that that this board could decide to change to redefine the purposes of those of those funds. And then in the in following up from the last meeting with Jim, then I got them that email looks to me like, well, it would be a council action, but based on the recommendation of this board, but one way or another, right? The the opportunity exists to broaden the purpose, right, or redefine the purpose of the funding. I don’t know, your comment a few minutes ago about about going spending down the principal. I’m not certain where that fits in all the, you know, that language, but certainly broadening the use of the earnings. Right from the time that it was it was the phone was created. And I think probably the most the smartest approach would be to assume that you would formulate a recommendation, I think then the work that Nancy was talking about would be the basis for that recommendation to the council to spend x of the 500 now and 80,000 or 90,000 or 600 or whatever it is, at least of the earnings. If If you want to recommend that you spend down the principal. I think that’s a different conversation with Jim that we got to get clear on whether or not that that’s the prerogative of the Council.
39:49
Yeah. This is just I’m not speaking on behalf of others on on our board but you know, I strongly I agree that the funds should be repurposed because they’re not satisfying much use right now. The reason I asked the other questions was because you sent out an email to Nancy and I, that that was from Jim golden back in May of 2018, it was talking about the Moser fund. And it, it has a bunch of information in it. And it’s it says in Section three, it addresses that it can only be used for the benefit of the library, it can be used pursuant to the advice of the library board. City Council has, has two designated use. Let’s see, the City Council has two designated shoes, it indicates by resolution. And appropriation ordinance would also be required. Notice that it also does allow city council by ordinance to authorize use of the corpus as well for the library. So it has to go to the library, but they could spend it down or you could spend it down if you chose, I would I would argue against that. Because then I think it depletes the asset. And then there’s there’s you know, there’s nothing in reserve for for your rainy day. But that’s with respect to the most or fund I’d like to get something on paper that we recommend is a board as to how counsel should approach the use of this funds. And let’s say cards should be in place so that they they remain there for the use of the library going forward. That’s my recommendation. And I see a lot of blank faces. So
42:01
that’s a recommendation to the board. Right. That’s not a recommendation of the Council.
42:04
Now, that’s, that’s my recommendation to the board is that we put something together as a recommendation to Council. Yeah.
42:17
Like I said, we have multiple things that we have considered. And so you know, I can put that together as a recommendation to the board. And I think going in with a recommendation of how we want to spend some of the spendable part of the fund at the same time, as is, is making sure that we can spend it is probably a good idea. So that it’s not just this loose amount hanging out there. I like your idea of having some structure to that.
42:45
You know, God forbid something, something happens and and you’re no longer director, Nancy, we don’t want the new director coming in and saying, oh, gee, I got this pocket full of cash, I’m gonna spend it all down and then yeah, then we don’t have anything for
43:04
that. So I wouldn’t suggest I wouldn’t suggest spending spending that part of it, I would just, you know, suggest spending a portion of the whatever it’s up to you now close to 600,000. To leave the rest to gain interest in the future.
43:22
Well, I’d like to combine them both.
43:26
Combine emson. And motor.
43:28
Yeah. And then put a put a common purpose to both and then have some sort of fiduciary responsibility in the very loosest of terms where the board is responsible for at least looking at the monies once a year to see what the heck’s there because I know for years and years and years, that are my observation, the board didn’t have a clue as to how much money was there and what it was doing.
44:00
Tim, do you think this is a good conversation to have with Jim golden?
44:05
Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, Jim, ultimately, I suspect Jim’s gonna say to you, well, if you have put together a proposal or recommendation and when in Indian want you know, it’s going to have to come from the board but put it on a council agenda and you know, we’ll go from there as new business and come back as a resolution and and then it would show up as one in the you know, in the in a funding ordinance which we do on a regular basis.
44:35
I just think it might be helpful for us to bring him in on the conversation and he’ll he’ll know he’ll know the specifics of what we actually should be doing and and how things should be termed etc.
44:50
Well, I’m wondering if if we can’t put together a subcommittee of the board to just look at it and make a recommendation to the board overall. And maybe nothing comes of it. But I think there’s a lot of money there. And I think it would, would be fiscally irresponsible for the board not to at least try and put some sort of policy in place to demonstrate that we are trying to manage it in a responsible fashion. So So Can I, can I get a motion to put together a subcommittee to do just what I said? Can I get a motion to do something else?
45:45
I can try to reword it. I move that the Board puts together a subcommittee to look at how the left how how the library, I don’t know, how various funds are utilized by the library in the future. Is that what you’re thinking? Are you What do you want it to be these specific funds?
46:19
Let me try I. I moved that the board puts together a subcommittee to consider a more a more flexible means of managing the monies in Moser and emson fund for the future use of the library. How does that sound?
46:51
Second,
46:52
second, all in favor? For five, four out of four. Okay. So can we get that in the notes, please, Katherine, that we need to subcommittee. We have Any volunteers? We have any financial types out there.
47:22
So we’re actually looking at the funds. I thought this was more of
47:28
a nice use of the monies in the fund the governance for how the monies get used. Mark, can
47:34
I ask a question? Sure. Is the is is when you use the use of the term manage the funds suggest that you you want to have fingerprints on how it gets invested or where it gets invested, as opposed to how it’s utilized. Right. I think what you’re interested in is broadening the potential use of the funds in how the library benefits from the use of those funds, as opposed to how them how the fund is managed. Is that?
48:06
Yes, yes. Yes.
48:09
And then also, I think, if you were going at it the other way, like what Tim said that you’re making suggestions as to how the funds have managed, I think you’d have to be a governing board in order to make that type of recommendation instead of
48:19
that’s, that’s beyond where I wanted to take this exercise. I just, I just wanted to you know, there’s a lot as I said, there’s a lot of money here. We would be irresponsible as a board if we didn’t try to put some broad parameters on the procedures by which that money gets used. And that and that’s what I’m proposing is that that just like we do the bylaws, you know, we put together the bylaws and we said this is how we were going to act as a board. And then we kicked it around and we got concurrence and I would see that is this the same exercise here is we put together some broad statements as to how we think this should be addressed as a board not not as necessarily as how the ANC would use the money but just how we would
49:27
manage the
49:32
the communication that goes to council to say that this is a good idea and that we think they should do it. That makes us
49:48
think you need to be financial to do that. That’s your I mean, financial is like you’re like investing it which
49:55
No, no, okay, that’s that’s the Too far leap? I think. And we don’t we don’t really have that. nor can we envision future boards having that expertise.
50:13
I mean, I can put something together. I think it’s probably like an annual State of the funds, right, like, something along those lines.
50:23
I would say that and like, like when. So Nancy comes up with a great idea. It’s going to take a couple $100,000. And we’re going to dip into the funds. Does that does that carry with majority consent of the board? Do you need supermajority? Do you need unanimous consent of the board? Something like that? Do you? You know, does does? Does it not go forward? Unless it goes to council first and council approves it as well? Yeah, just stuff like that, you know, how do you? How do you demonstrate to the public that yes, we were responsible when how we manage this money?
51:18
Can I ask what happens to the funds? If the library becomes a district and a singular entity?
51:32
Normally nothing. I mean, normally funds that are tied directly to your to a library when a library separates from a municipality and come to district. Go with it. But you know, once again, that’s there’s a lot of stuff involved in looking at looking at those. So
51:49
I’m just wondering for future because if if the library separates, then councils kind of like do they need to approve it still? Does it need to go to council? Probably not. It’s the library’s money at that point, right?
52:04
Well, it probably transfers to the Governing Board of whatever that district becomes. Right? Well, I’m
52:12
just forward thinking if we put together these guidelines, they should probably include some thought into that. Right.
52:23
I think that’s a great idea. That, you know, this is I don’t see this is a, you know, a one and done kind of thing. I think it’ll take a couple iterations to everybody feels comfortable when he feels comfortable. Tim feels comfortable that we put something together that’s both responsible, but also workable, and we don’t want to handcuff the library in this process. But at the same time, we want to, I think we want to be responsible as a board.
53:04
I think it will take some muddling through because there there is that fine line to between the responsibilities of a advisory board versus a governing board. When you handle this, so i think that i think it’s, it will take a few meetings probably.
53:22
Well, no God. And and I think, I think by the way, the the states set it up, they felt that there was a role for the the advisory board because there probably wasn’t anything else to say, you know, sign it, too. So, there it is. I mean, it’s you know, it’s there’s, there’s the lap that it’s in, so
53:51
take a shot at it, Katie, and you know, we’ll kick it around. See if I want to help Katie, do you want help, Katie?
54:01
I mean, I can put the first rough draft together, and then I think we can go from there.
54:07
Okay, that sounds great. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for bearing with me on this. I’m going to move on unless there’s other questions. Number c under old business, little free ride libraries. info. Okay, great.
54:34
And we were talking about looking for some spots to maybe create an indoor space that we would not continue to have the issues that we had with the other ones in the park. And I’m not and I made a delivery this week to the suites, which is a Longmont Housing Authority, affordable housing facility and they had requested to have some books on it. For their residents, and we were withdrawing a whole bunch of stuff. So I, so I put the load over there. And they may be one spot that’s interested in future in having a, they have bookshelves, but it’s a little free library. And we’ve had several other suggestions for some staff that I’m looking into some of our city facilities, some are not and one person had on our staff had been approached with someone from saluted the health care clinics who take care of a lot of our folks that are English second language, and they have had expressed some interest in having some children’s books there, that they could hand out to their patients slash clients. So we are we have been looking into several different possibilities, so far have kind of an indoor Free Library location. There was nothing that we couldn’t put a little free, a cute little free library somewhere. But you know, after the third time, when they were smashed to death, it was a little bit disheartening.
56:03
So maybe they maybe if they didn’t have a meal, that’s all great, but maybe if they didn’t have a meeting, or the friends didn’t have a meeting, we were going to throw something in front of them as to whether they want to take ownership on this. And they still and
56:17
they still could.
56:19
They could. But I mean, what we haven’t broached on the subject of this.
56:23
No, they haven’t had a meeting yet. I’m just gonna bring that up as part of my directors part of the friends meeting on Wednesday. So okay, great. We have been like, we have been looking for some, some indoor locations for both adult and children’s materials. We were able to since the friends have not been able to sell the lion’s share of their materials. This year, we had accumulated quite a few donations, even though we were ostensibly not taking them for a while people still left them on the doorstep, pretty much. And so we passed out, for example, a ton of children’s materials at the free lunch programs that were at both by St. vrain. School District and children, youth and families. So, so definitely looking at some, some maybe different ways, kind of outside the box a little freedom, instead of just the traditional, you know, cute box, I understand a little free libraries, because I think that there are still places that could use some free books.
57:23
Very good. My goal of this was to try and get the library out of the management of it. I’ll pick it in you didn’t, I mean, you didn’t let me try this again. You are not the original recipient of the books, they are the friends. So if they were up to it, then they would be a great source of books, the little libraries that they chose to take on that role. Well,
57:55
it’s all kind of the same pot. I mean, we were taking, we were taking books before to put in the little free libraries that were given as donations or that were discarded library books before they ever hit the friends. You know, people, people donate materials to the library. And also, the friends generally in their book sales don’t tend to sell as many of the ex libris have the x library books as they do some of the books that don’t have the library markings and jackets on them. So the kinds of things that we like to donate, and elsewhere, potentially that end up going to a wholesale hauler after the friends sales, when they don’t sell are the things like like, you know, James Patterson has a new book out and we buy 15 copies, and then after a few months, we might need to keep three of them. And we have multiple copies of these materials. So those are the kinds of books that we tend to we do talk to the friends First, we don’t just you know, take the books, but say hey, can we can we appropriate some of these donations for these other purposes. And this is pretty typical in libraries I’ve given to invite to teach programs to books for Africa, to medical clinics, etc. as we always have more books than we can then then sell it the book sales in the friends.
59:20
Okay, well.
59:22
Yeah, it wasn’t my intent to get in the middle of any of that. I was just hoping that the friends would take a greater role in supporting the little library so you see what they say. Okay, folks, this is what everybody’s been waiting for. election of officers for the coming term. Do we have anybody that wants to make a floor speech? Does anybody have a plan? form that they want to put forth. So anybody have any recommendations?
1:00:09
I would say don’t nominate sit for Cynthia in absentia, because she’s probably busy.
1:00:15
Cynthia did write me. She had indicated that probably in deference to Catherine sufferings that she would take Secretary but she’s not. But but she’s not going to take it till she comes back. Above. By the way, does anybody know if she had her baby?
1:00:34
I sent her a note. And I haven’t heard back from her yet. And there was an away message that said she was going back to work at the beginning of May. I don’t know. I can try and find a, I can rustle up her phone number and text her?
1:00:48
Well, there seems to be a relief for whoever gets the secretarial position
1:00:57
of her.
1:01:00
Hi, I was going I was also going to volunteer to do the secretary. I hated that. I’ve done it. I don’t I nobody should do it twice in a row. But I can’t do the I can’t do the friends. Like I can’t commit to two meetings. So
1:01:22
you go to the friends and take minutes there.
1:01:25
No, but if you’re if you’re the friends liaison, you have to go to their meeting, which right? That’s it’s usually the same week. So it’s just not for that doesn’t necessarily work for me necessarily. So that’s I was going to volunteer to be the secretary again, it is actually a little bit easier, because you can be typing on zoom is a little easier. Yeah.
1:01:53
It’s true. So should we just wait and I’m fine doing it until we hear from Cynthia and kind of you too could decide between you what is preferable and I can I can manage for a while here for sure. I also probably can’t commit to another meeting. Unfortunately, I can still be the I’ll still be the friends liaison. Yeah, good, happy.
1:02:20
Nobody wants to be president,
1:02:23
your person, you’re doing a great doing such a great job.
1:02:28
That presidential air.
1:02:33
Or you could be vice chairman.
1:02:40
I will share that I have decided to go to law school. So my life is going to change dramatically in the fall. So I can take on something maybe until August. But after that I’m probably going to have to scale back. You know, I want to stay on this board. But I don’t want to commit to anything additional timewise.
1:03:03
You should do the vise that Yeah.
1:03:08
That’s the least commitment. What does that say?
1:03:12
Think of vice presidents. What do they usually do?
1:03:17
Takes exception to that.
1:03:19
Usually what happens is the vice chairman steps in when the chairman’s indisposed.
1:03:25
I could probably manage that.
1:03:28
So so let me see if I can sort this out. So Cathy still wants to be with the friends. Katie’s willing to be Secretary until Cynthia shows up. Catherine’s willing to be vice chair. And I guess,
1:03:51
you mark
1:03:53
that leaves me. So we have a motion for that slate of officers.
1:04:03
Are you okay being the chairperson in all seriousness?
1:04:08
Well,
1:04:10
I know you guys back me up. So I’m okay with that.
1:04:18
I will move then to to move forward with the elections of the officers as stated.
1:04:27
Second,
1:04:31
second, all in favor.
1:04:36
Okay.
1:04:39
So that’s the officers. next meeting date is February 22. And I have an announcement for the vice chairman. I’m going to be absent that day. For you to go in there and cut your teeth.
1:05:07
I’ll start doing my homework now.
1:05:15
I’ve done it, you know, it’s not all that tough, so
1:05:18
I wouldn’t see.
1:05:22
Any other comments or questions from the board?
1:05:26
counsel?
1:05:28
Nope, nope.
1:05:30
Yep. See?
1:05:33
Now I’m topped out. It’s been a long day
1:05:36
to leave us by. All right, then,
1:05:39
I did want to mention that we did that craft bag, Nancy. Oh, it’s adorable.
1:05:46
There’s our children’s department and some other library folks, while they’re doing other things put together hundreds of take home pack bags every week. And as many as we put out, we started out with like, 25. And then we went to 50. Then we went to 100. Then we went to 200. And people specifically to pick them up, because people I think, are just really looking for hands on activities that don’t involve our screen time.
1:06:15
We look forward to them.
1:06:17
That was particularly cute.
1:06:19
I know.
1:06:20
Super cute. is cute. It says that emperor penguin punish.
1:06:25
And there have been some of them not as frequently, but there are some that have been aimed at adults as well. So nice. So we’ve had finger knitting and a couple other things. Kids put together for adults, but try to find some things that that aren’t just three time is a good thing. Yeah, absolutely.
1:06:46
Hey, I was wondering if we might want to send a card to Cynthia, do you have an address here? I do. Okay,
1:06:53
I don’t have it right at hand right here, but
1:06:54
I haven’t I can send it around tomorrow.
1:06:57
Okay. Okay, good. You got
1:07:02
my baby details. We want pictures. She was doing the night. So hopefully she hopefully the baby is a few weeks old. Oh, yeah. Let’s
1:07:11
hope so.
1:07:14
Okay, I’d like to move that we adjourn at eight O.
1:07:21
And
1:07:24
with the exception of the of me, we’ll see y’all next month. Yep.
1:07:29
Are you gonna mark
1:07:32
back to Florida? Oh, nice.
1:07:36
Safe travels,
1:07:37
travels.
1:07:38
Yeah, see how much virus I can get done.
1:07:41
I hope you get your vaccine before you go. Go to y
1:07:45
or get tested anyway.
1:07:47
Oh, yeah. Be good. Well have a safe trip.
1:07:50
All right. Take care now. Bye bye. Bye Bye.
1:07:54
Thanks, everyone.