Video Description:
Library Board Meeting – March 22, 2021
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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Unknown Speaker 0:00
Okay, I have seven o’clock, so I will call the meeting. And according to dawn, we have no one from the public other than Monty. So there will be no public comments tonight.
Unknown Speaker 0:15
Might be Can I just have your last name?
Unknown Speaker 0:18
Wally WH a LEY?
Unknown Speaker 0:24
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 0:28
Okay. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes from our January 25? meeting, please.
Unknown Speaker 0:35
Mark?
Unknown Speaker 0:37
Kathy? Okay.
Unknown Speaker 0:38
I Well, I there was a couple of things that were typos that need to probably be corrected.
Unknown Speaker 0:45
All right. You want to put those into the record?
Unknown Speaker 0:49
Okay. Yes. It’s in the city council liaison report. item five. It reads connecting the two feasibility students in the post. It should be studies. And in the under old business, Part B discussion of the motion emson funds in point i or point one, there’s a phrase in parentheses, it says, although not all, if available. I think that should be is.
Unknown Speaker 1:26
Is is correct.
Unknown Speaker 1:28
Yeah. And then in item four, where we did the motion to put together a subcommittee, do we need to list the names of the people on the committee? There’s no names in there. And I was just,
Unknown Speaker 1:44
I don’t think there actually is a subcommittee yet.
Unknown Speaker 1:48
Okay.
Unknown Speaker 1:49
What was the subcommittee, it was a subcommittee of one.
Unknown Speaker 1:55
And that number has not been doing?
Unknown Speaker 1:59
Well, we can talk. When that agenda item? That would
Unknown Speaker 2:03
be my only question. If we need to list the name or if we don’t need to, then it’s theirs. It then it’s fine.
Unknown Speaker 2:12
Leave it nameless. At this point, that would be my recommendation.
Unknown Speaker 2:17
Those were the only corrections I had
Unknown Speaker 2:20
to say buddy else have any other corrections? Do we have a motion to approve as amended.
Unknown Speaker 2:32
I move that we approve the minutes as amended.
Unknown Speaker 2:35
Do I have a second?
Unknown Speaker 2:37
Second?
Unknown Speaker 2:39
All in favor?
Unknown Speaker 2:43
approved?
Unknown Speaker 2:51
Okay.
Unknown Speaker 2:53
Nancy, you have the floor reports from the director’s office.
Unknown Speaker 3:01
All right. Well, um, directors actually back in her office. So I’m not sitting in the middle of the of the upstairs behind a pillar anymore. So we are making some progress. And our construction slash carpet project continues. It’s still pretty chaotic in the library. And I think I’ve moved more furniture in the last month than I’ve moved in my entire life. So we are moving things back and forth to accommodate both the floor repairs of all the cracks, and then put a ticking basically, it’s the process of going into an area, removing all the furniture, removing all the carpet, seeing what damage there may or may not be underneath the carpet, doing all the repairs, and then moving everything back the other direction. So in the meantime, depending on what area we’re working on, we are relocating staff, to different parts of the library upstairs, other areas, etc. And we’re almost running out of places to put things because we keep trying to put things out of the way. But good progress, the staff areas downstairs will be pretty much repaired and completed by the end of this week. So we are moving some stuff back in. We continue to find some cracks in the floor. This was all part of, you know, a project that was forecast, you know, several years ago, and we didn’t know that we would find or there was a distinct possibility that we would find cracks in the library building because of the cracks that were found in the Civic Center and some other buildings built similar vintage and we have five different foundations, four or five different foundations in our building, and one of them is part of the old library structure from the 70s. So we seem to be getting most of the problems where one foundation abuts another. So that in the Colorado weather you know the rapid changes in temperature this happens in the Chicago area too. We have a lot of rapid expansion construct and contractions in the building. So we did end up with far more cracks in the newer part of the building. And also more severe cracks than earlier expected but they’re all being addressed we have most days we have our whole library curbside crew, plus the rest of us that are already in the building plus a crew of movers plus a crew of carpet folks plus a construction crew sometimes too. So it is pretty noisy and crowded in the building. But staffs doing an amazing job of working around it. We have everything from the back and the front, we today had to turn the circulation desk folks and around and stick them on the other side of the desk we could handle the area behind the desk and we just kind of move things around and go about our business. So I can’t tell you exactly how long this is going to take. You know it depends on what we and what not we but the construction folks who know what they’re doing. Find as they go along. We hope to be reopened by summertime. So construction still continues. So in the meantime, we are still doing approximately one curbside delivery per minute of all the times were open so we are hard at work with books and materials delivering tax forms via curbside printouts. Our seed library has gone virtual this year. So we are delivering packets of seeds that you can order what ones you want online and pick them up. There’s a lot of folks that are hopeful for spring because a lot of seeds are just flying off the of our shelf. Right now we still have the pick a topic bags, where people can call in and or sign up online to request a bag full of materials and a specific topic. We are still doing the take home craft kits for kids and teens every week.
Unknown Speaker 7:10
Just wound up submissions for our seven annual seventh annual peeps diorama contest. So those are always fun to see. We have to do it online this time. We don’t have all the sugar in the lobby, but that’s going well. And we have an author’s we love evening. That’s the author events that we normally have at the museum. In this case it will be virtual, but it’s with Jamie Ford on the 31st Jamie Ford is the author of the best selling hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet and a couple other novels. He’s in New York Times bestselling author. And let’s see, I think we’re on our fourth book chatter podcasts or adult services staff have been busy doing podcasts. We’re still doing the play most let’s talk Spanish conversation program a couple times a week, three or four storytimes during the week, teen writers group Spring Break book clubs. So there’s a lot going on. It’s just not going on in the library yet. So we are keeping busy. Our hotspots are still going out like crazy. The other day it was a fewest I’d seen on the shelf, I think we had four out of our 89 Wi Fi hotspots available so they are going out especially around the snowstorm time we looked like we had a rush of folks checking them out in case their their internet service happened to go out. So those are doing really well. Our texted librarian new program is going well too. We’re receiving lots of texts requests from patrons and lots of text questions. And let’s see, we should have all those Chromebooks that we got from the care of that funding available pretty soon for checkout as well. So little chaotic in the library stepping around instruction and movers materials, but we’re all doing well.
Unknown Speaker 9:02
So any questions for Nancy on her report? A couple Nancy. Um with respect to the repairs and net when you get done with the repairs, will you be structurally solid sound.
Unknown Speaker 9:26
We are you know our building is not unsound. Now it has areas that need repairs so that the building will last for a long time. So the goal here is to do the type of repairs that will make the building sound for another 50 years. So they’re doing a really thorough job of making sure that everything is going to last a lot longer. And I’ve learned lots about different types of repairs throughout this process. So yes, the building will be in good shape.
Unknown Speaker 9:55
And all the repairs are the repairs coming from your budget. The moneys for the repeal,
Unknown Speaker 10:00
the repairs are coming from two bond measures, one in 2015. And one in 2018. There was money set aside for library infrastructure repairs.
Unknown Speaker 10:11
So. So that was accelerated, so to speak.
Unknown Speaker 10:15
Not really, I mean, it’s just it’s a video that they knew from, from my knowledge anyway. No, it was get the Civic Center done first. And that seems to be the area, which was the probably in the most dire need of repairs, and then move on to the library. And then my understanding is that after the library, though, there will be some similar inspections and repairs done at the Safety and Justice Center. And I think the Rec Center as well. So it’s just yeah, this is not unusual in cities to really put a concerted effort toward looking looking after the infrastructure of the buildings. So that’s what this is.
Unknown Speaker 10:52
Okay, why remember the bond issue? I for some reason, I thought that the library on there were a number of beneficiaries of that bond. Initially were in the library was, at that time did not grayed out is the one of the earlier beneficiaries.
Unknown Speaker 11:13
Haven’t you got it? So I haven’t looked too much at the 2015. But definitely, I’d have definitely seen that. Yeah, there was money dedicated to library infrastructure repairs in the 2018.
Unknown Speaker 11:25
But I agree. I agree. Okay, anything else, Nancy?
Unknown Speaker 11:31
No, we’re, like I said, we’re just kind of swamped with business, which is good. Our patrons are awesome. We did receive a quite a bit of correspondence from our patrons on the one year anniversary of our closing, one of COVID arrival. We’ve had lots of really nice, thank you notes and a little bit of chocolate coming in from patrons who have appreciated our services over the years. So that’s been really nice. We miss our patrons.
Unknown Speaker 12:00
I know they do too. Okay. With that. I’ll move on to the next bullet the Friends of the Library report. Kathy, do you have something for sir?
Unknown Speaker 12:14
Yes, I do. Excuse me. Since we did not meet last month, I’m reporting for both January and February. The Friends of the board meet via zoom and in January they moved to subscribe to wild apricot for one year. This is a program that will help them manage their membership donors think you can create a website with it and it also provides an online store so they’re giving it a try for one year. The bookshop sales for December were $73.80 and there were no sales in January. online sales for December and January totaled $1,404.35. The Gift Shop sales for December were $498.56. Obviously some people did some Christmas shopping. There were no sales in January. They also started selling to a company called Dreamworld books, and the sales for December in January totaled $417.23. The dream world books is a it’s a new company they contracted with who buys books that the friends consider not sellable. Treasure, Lynn Newberry reported they raised about $5,000 on Colorado gifts day, which is the most they have ever raised. They also received some additional donations before the end of the year for a total of $6,100.59. So they had a good end of the year. donation. The friends board, it was brought to them request about helping with the little free libraries and they are willing to assist us in keeping them stocked with the books at whatever location is chosen by by the library staff or by the library advisory board that will be serving underserved populations. All we need to do is once we’ve identified the locations is let the friends board know and they will recruit the volunteers necessary to keep them stocked.
Unknown Speaker 14:25
So they’ve agreed Yeah, well, we have to erect a little library for them or while they do that.
Unknown Speaker 14:35
We didn’t discuss erecting a library It sounded like it would be more of using what we already have or like a space. If we redo it. Say for example with salud clinic it might be just a bookshelf that’s already there in the waiting room. So something like that. All the members of friends are required to renew at the end of December. renewed membership is currently at 144. And the committee is going to continue to follow up with the 357 remaining members that need to renew. The library had some funding requests at both meetings in January, there was one request for $1,080, which was renewing the nine hotspots that are part of the library of things for checkout. This was approved. In February there were three requests. Donald Pro, it’s on didn’t ask for funds to provide a G Suite account with the chrome enterprise solution for the 30 Chromebooks. Essentially, the library will partner with the friends to create a Google workspace G Suite account for nonprofits using the friends nonprofit ID which will be at no cost. The cost that for the money that was requested is to pay for the one time purchase of the chrome enterprise solution at $900. This will cover the all of the Chromebooks. The Board approved this request. Penny Burris from adult services and the Longmont museum are pursuing a grant to digitize some of the Longmont newspapers.
Unknown Speaker 16:18
The graduates see that Kathy, what they just found out they did receive that grant
Unknown Speaker 16:22
Oh, good, good, good. The grant requires a 25% match from the institution, the maximum amount of the grant is $3,000. So the board approved the matching funding of up to $750. There was also a request for expanding the library of things but the board the friends board, defer that to the next meeting in March. The board selected nominating committee, it’s getting to that time of the year for them. It’s Sharon McCaffrey, and Conrad Newton and they will identify a third member, they will begin finding an interviewing board candidates for the two board positions that are open for next year. And the next meeting is this Wednesday on March 24.
Unknown Speaker 17:11
Questions for Kathy? Can I circle back on the on the little libraries? Cuz I’m not sure how we stand in this. So so the libraries that we erected that were vandalized. What do we do with those? Do we move on? Do we try and redirect them? Do we look for different locations?
Unknown Speaker 17:42
America one of them has been removed entirely from the park where so it doesn’t exist at all. And the other one was pretty much smashed beyond repair.
Unknown Speaker 17:54
Like we did, are we writing them off?
Unknown Speaker 17:57
I think in those locations, at least, but I think that there are multiple spots where we could fit something like we talked about earlier, you know, inside of a location, whether it’s saloon, the our center, housing authority sites, etc. Or there are bookshelves within those centers. That would be a little Silvia little free library, but not necessarily the coupon on the stick that sticks in the park.
Unknown Speaker 18:22
Okay, so how do those get identified? Do they How do they come to us? Or do we do that?
Unknown Speaker 18:29
If we have to contact that organizations, obviously, and you know, set up a schedule for for taking materials to those locations. And then I would assume that we would provide signage for those bookshelves or shelving units that say that they are a little free library and that they are provided by whoever they’re provided by Friends of the Library, library board, etc.
Unknown Speaker 18:59
Well, okay, but so So did we do that? Is the board? do they do that? Is their board? Or do you do that as the library
Unknown Speaker 19:10
tend to do it as a library. But that was a discussion with this board before of looking to see if the friends had had interest in taking over that task of supply of supplying those libraries. And they said that they did?
Unknown Speaker 19:23
Oh, well. Yeah, I understand that. And I’m okay. And I think that’s great that they’ll do that. But then if if we’re not going back to where we were, which is from a process standpoint, this this is just a question to the board. How do we want to work to create those new locations in the community? That makes sense.
Unknown Speaker 19:54
What’s the process that makes that happen? I saw, I’d love. I wish I could show your walks back to you. Because
Unknown Speaker 20:05
I think I think that’s, you know that that’s something. It’s just just what Kathy said that the friends discussed it and they said, you know, we can suggest locations for them. Or, you know, the library can certainly do the do the footwork if we need to to find those locations, and then they will, they will be in charge of gathering materials and going to stop them.
Unknown Speaker 20:27
Has anyone approached any of those organizations approached you, or anyone at the library to say,
Unknown Speaker 20:34
I am taken, I have taken some materials over myself to one of the housing authority sites before but I didn’t seem they seemed interested in more of at least at that point and more of a one time donation of materials, not on a rotating basis. I believe I’ll have to check on this, though, because I believe one of our staff members has tapped to sell food. So I will check with her and see what kind of conversations he’s had. And then someone else suggested, potentially that our center, we have not talked to them yet.
Unknown Speaker 21:08
Okay, I thought there was a organization within the city government that was sensitive to those communities that could recommend locations, am I wrong?
Unknown Speaker 21:22
I mean, that’s community services of which we are a part in, you know, those are some of the locations that were recommended. And there may be others as well.
Unknown Speaker 21:33
That I’m okay with all that I’m just, I’m just more into the process here as to how it gets done and how our board can facilitate that process. Make sure that the friend sport has the information they need to get the book soccer the community.
Unknown Speaker 21:55
Let me Why don’t I pose the question on Wednesday, which is the next Friends Meeting and see whether they want to, to have this board do any of the work on this or whether they’d like to just take over and run with it?
Unknown Speaker 22:09
That’s great. That would be great.
Unknown Speaker 22:11
I will do that.
Unknown Speaker 22:15
Then I then I had a second question is I listened to you talk Kathy, what’s the fair financial wherewithal of the friends nowadays? Because with the virus, they must have taken a financial hit.
Unknown Speaker 22:29
Yeah, they they their income? And when the budget was prepared for this fiscal year, because their fiscal year? Correct me Katie, if I’m wrong, it’s isn’t it? May or April, two men, okay. So, we, they’ve already gone through this year of the pandemic. And when Lynn did the budget for it, she was prepared for them not to have any book sales. So she paired the budget down and but she assured the organization that there there’s they have money in us, you know, CDs or special investment accounts that she says we there is plenty of money to loan to give to the library. We could there’s not an issue there. You know, we can’t do it for many years, but so they’re just looking for this initial time with a pandemic and not being able to do a book sale, that that they will still be able to fund the library and then once things open back up, and they can do book sales again, then they’ll have the money coming back in.
Unknown Speaker 23:38
That’s great. That’s great. Okay, thank you. Any other questions on the friend? Councilman waters?
Unknown Speaker 23:54
Mark?
Unknown Speaker 23:54
Yes.
Unknown Speaker 23:55
Welcome back to Longmont.
Unknown Speaker 23:58
Thank you very being back.
Unknown Speaker 24:00
Yeah. When did you get back?
Unknown Speaker 24:02
Um 24th. A couple days after the last board meeting. I had a tan at that time I don’t have
Unknown Speaker 24:14
from Florida to the big snows.
Unknown Speaker 24:17
yet. The night that we came back there was five inches. net. Of course we’ve done better than that since then.
Unknown Speaker 24:25
Alright, real quick. I’m Nancy, and she gave a report earlier in this meeting was kind of the featured program last week in GLA and you should know that you would have been real proud of Nancy. Always logged into that meeting and had a chance to hear her presentation and feel the the number and the nature of the questions that she got. I can guarantee you there’s a lot of interest in getting a library You know having access to the library and in you handle those questions while she I was proud of her and I know you would have been as well unrelated to this agenda, but but related to Nancy’s contributions, she also last week participated in a program the future we deserve, which is aired on long Public Media’s website, YouTube, channel eight, Nancy, along with a couple of others who are seriously involved in creating and managing public comment or public good right assets. She was part of that conversation because of her role as the director of the library in the library being one of the great public goods in this and in every community. And so if you haven’t watched it, you want to go to the Longmont public media, go to YouTube lumma public media channel and do a search for the future we deserve. Episode Number five. And it was a fun conversation, Nancy was a serious contributor. I have beyond that, in terms of things the council has topics or issues that councils working on, I have a list of seven that I can rattle off that may be interesting to you. Probably the one on the list that would be of most interest is the fact that on April sixth, we have a study session. And in that study session, we’re going to get a report on the performing arts in conference center a feasibility study. And I know you have an interest in it for a whole bunch of reasons. But it might be good just to listen in to see how that one goes. How it gets teed up the kinds of what gets highlighted the kind of questions that get asked in anticipation of what we know will become in the relatively near future. I’m not certain when but but there’ll be obviously a presentation to the to the council when you get the library feasibility study and probably a good way to you know, make some notes and decide what worked and what didn’t. And, you know, how would you improve on what we’ll hear on April 6, so great, great. Yeah, now I can if you’re if you care about, you know, auxilary dwelling units or electric vehicle charging stations or the equitable carbon free roadmap, or the Urban Land Institute and what they’re doing with their planning efforts in southeast Longmont or the annexation of Macintosh, like all topics that, you know, are kind of coming up that, you know, are more than just kind of perfunctory. And I’m happy to you know, spend as much time as you want on any of those, but I’m guessing, you know, you don’t want me to spend time on any of
Unknown Speaker 27:52
them. Well, I think everybody has a voice here, Nancy.
Unknown Speaker 27:58
Oh, I just Kim, did I hear that there was gonna be some kind of charge in the future for the electric charging station, some kind of fee?
Unknown Speaker 28:05
Yeah, the item on April
Unknown Speaker 28:07
in our library garage? So
Unknown Speaker 28:09
yes, I know. On April 13, this this item is on the April 13 agenda. And it’s basically an update on number one, it’s an update on on increased use of what’s been the trend in terms of use of the five charging stations that the city provides. And and the follow on to that is given the increased level of use. other municipalities do charge to use the charging stations, we haven’t as we’ve tried to make it easy for people and obviously at no cost no charge for people to use. But the level of use is now such that at least what’s going to be presented is a question about whether or not it’s time to start charging for use of the of the Eevee charging stations. So we’ll see where it ends up. But that is that’s the question and and I’m certain we’ll get data on you know, the benefits the cost and benefits of switching from a free resource to one for which people are charged.
Unknown Speaker 29:18
Anybody else for our customer liaison? I’d love to hear about Macintosh late, but it’s not a library issue. So I’ll push on but I did have a question that came to mind from rereading January’s notes. And it’s more like planting a seed kind of thing for these economic development meetings. They come about from time to time, but there was an item that you had talked about last time the private investment group slugging it in opportunity zones. Yeah. And one of the things concepts that was kicked around either by the the community group that was involved with the library or, or with the board through Nancy, because I think this was a strategy that they used in Finland with their library, but they had a retail floor underneath the library, and then they had the library on top of it, and then they, I think they had a maker space in there as well. And if if we get into this wrestling match on if financial support for the library, and how we can best see that it does well, in the future, maybe that’s something that an investment group might be interested in, trying to piggyback on to say, Hey, you know, we’ll, we’ll put up whatever we’re going to put up, but maybe we would would benefit by having a library on site or something like that, then with the retail shops underneath that helps pay for the upkeep of the library and takes some of the burden off the city. So it’s just, you know, just trying to plant a seed for something that that might make sense down the road?
Unknown Speaker 31:20
Well, Mark, I I’ll say, again, I think I think there needs to, we need to be very thoughtful and strategic about bringing together the Friends of the Library, the library advisory board, Friends of the Library, those those in town who care about the library, and it’s our investment in the library. So it, it becomes not definitely meet standards. Right. But we would be best in class or we would exceed average. Right. Um, I just think there is a potential to bring together what comes out of this feasibility study. And what’s what’s coming with the performing arts conference that are feasibility study. Especially as I think about the opportunity zone and and where people might be interested in making investments. I just think there’s a it may not you may not be it may be too complicated or complex to put together what what I think, at least out of your consideration, and what you’re talking about right now, rd in that conversation, I just think there’s some pretty exciting possibilities for a pretty grand proposal to the community. And whether or not anybody will be interested in what I think about it is, you know, irrelevant to what, what you would think about it or what, what others might think about it. But But this opportunity will only come along in our lifetimes, once I think we have this feasibility study, the performing arts conference, usability study, conference, in a feasibility study, the work that was done in the steam initiative, an opportunity zone, and, and an aspiration, to do something bold, big and bold coming out of a pandemic, that kind of sets the mark for the recovery of this community that differentiates it from other communities, I just think it’s going to be a pretty interesting, exciting opportunity for us. And we got to be we really got to be up to it.
Unknown Speaker 33:25
I think that perspective is right. And I don’t, I don’t want to get ahead of Nancy on this, because she’s going to talk about the feasibility studies. But you know, there’s thoughts on a district and there’s thoughts on some sort of hybrid model. And I don’t know which one of those is going to carry the day or whether it’s, you know, the leverage can stay as part of the city. But I mean, it if you’ve got a third party that’s also interested in seeing that happen. Now, you’ve got some additional wind at your back to, to, you know, create the momentum to make those sorts of things happen. So
Unknown Speaker 34:08
I’m thinking about ways to put more wind at our back. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 34:14
Yeah. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 34:17
That’s all I had it. If we’re okay, we can move on. And we’ll look at the feasibility study, update and see.
Unknown Speaker 34:26
Okay, we’ve made some progress since last time, we did finalize an issue an RF q or a request for quotes. And it didn’t have to be an RFP because it’s under that $50,000 amount. We did receive three responses from to our RFP all look pretty good to me so far. And we have a committee of folks that will be interviewing, the hardest part has been we have 12 people that I’m really interested in that that they talk to these folks and trying to get 12 people’s schedules together has Especially during spring break time has been fun. So it looks like we probably will be delaying that until the week of eight until April 7, I will be sending out another schedule to folks who are involved in the interviews. And we have three different proposals. One is from a local company who which is actually an owner’s Rep. And for those of you who don’t know, the owners reps are usually thought of as kind of the go between an architect and a construction firm. But these folks are out of Fort Collins and they have done a lot of these projects these similar projects with other libraries in the area they’ve worked with Loveland, they work with municipalities, they’re working currently with Fort Collins. So they have a little interest, they have interesting ideas about spaces with so that’s I would say that that may be one of their specialties is thinking outside the box about joint use spaces and different kinds of spaces that libraries can occupy the community. One is from a consulting firm that I have worked with before that’s out of Washington. And I would say that their specialty is is financial modeling. So so looking at different ways, and creative hybrids, like you were kind of talking about mark of different ways to, from outside financing from inside financing different ways to establish level of service, they all went all the respondents, you start with establishing level of service standards, which means, you know, where, what is the norm, which a lot of that was, was provided by our our first consultant group, gathering that data and seeing what is the norm and funding for libraries across the state and across the country. And then comparing our inputs and outputs to those norms and seeing, you know, where are we at a low level, a medium level, or an optimal level. So I would say the second consultants, field of expertise looks like you know, what type of what type of programs and services that your committee desires, and then putting a cost to them and, and talking about different funding models and how those work to accomplish the funding that you need to make your goals possible. And I think Tim and I talked about this, and you know, whoever wants to whoever you know, wants to get up and say, you know, I really want to someday achieve a medium level of funding. And you really want something that’s more aspirational than that, I hope for your community. And the third proposal is by a library strategies company that’s out of the Minneapolis area. And they have kind of a fascinating history, which I won’t go into now, we’ll go into that more when we interview them, but they are kind of an offshoot originally of their Friends of the Library organization, but now they employ consultants that have different fields of expertise from libraries across the country. And they seem to have a really unique approach to this kind of issue as well. So I don’t know if mark mark is going to be in on this. I don’t know if you’ve had any chance to look at these proposals yet. But they’re very there, they all respond to all of our questions, but they’re very different. So I think it’ll be an interesting opportunity. So we’re going to try and spend some time getting our questions together on those and choosing a consultant to move forward. So we did ask in the RF Q, and I think they’ve all responded to it in different ways for people to look outside the box and look at some hybrid models or some unconventional models of how to achieve what we want to achieve. And, you know, it used to be that, you know, your two options were municipal library with it with the funding that goes with that, or Library District. And there are lots of in betweens now. And, and outside of the box options for libraries. So it’s pretty exciting. We have that giant stack of data from the first consultants. And normally we’d have to update all of that since we took a break for COVID here, but the 2020s stats, even though I just did the state report, 2020 stats, I’m not gonna be compared to anything ever. So we will be looking into it primarily, it is still comparing those 2019 data points, because the 2020 ones, I mean, they don’t resemble anything. So
Unknown Speaker 39:22
and we’re hoping that that, you know, we get out of this in enough time for 21 2021 stats to not look like 2020 stats. So Lucas, I really I’m excited to move forward. And I think we have a good group that’s going to be looking at these applications. Do you have questions for me on this process?
Unknown Speaker 39:44
Can I normal? One or two questions? Once actually a comment once a question. I just thought it was really creative for the friends group to come up with a consulting work. It’s
Unknown Speaker 40:00
it’s a big system, but that’s it’s really cool.
Unknown Speaker 40:03
I mean, that’s that’s really outside of the box. And that is supports their library and everything else. Yeah. The the outfit from Washington. Yeah. Are they is that
Unknown Speaker 40:18
precious? That’s one person. So she was with someone that she was a member of a larger firm when I worked with her called Burke consulting. It’s a very large consulting firm in the Chicago area. But she’s since then struck out on her own. So, but she’s done a lot of work in Colorado recently, I think mostly with the healthcare industry. So, so I was very specific in asking her about her workload. And whether she could take this on.
Unknown Speaker 40:46
Short. That’s That’s all I got. Does anybody else have anything for Nancy? I’m sure. There’ll be a lot more discussed as we move down the road here.
Unknown Speaker 40:58
Katie pan. Yeah. So I guess the goal is then to interview. You’re saying the week,
Unknown Speaker 41:08
next week or the following week. Looks like we’ll be Karen Maroney is going to be part of the interviews, and she is going to be out of town and returning on April 6, that we should be interviewing pretty much as soon as she gets back. Okay, and then making a decision fairly quickly thereafter. Yes. Okay. Have they have the three candidates indicated? how quickly they could start? Sure. Yes, they could start, they could all start pretty much immediately. And they all have a really detailed timeline. that’s included in their proposals of what would happen when? Okay.
Unknown Speaker 41:54
Anybody else? Okay. Thank you. Okay. The subcommittee report on guidelines for use of our two grant funds.
Unknown Speaker 42:15
I don’t I I’ve had two months to work on this. And I have not at network done it.
Unknown Speaker 42:23
I will do it before the end of the day. Yeah. I’ll do it for the next week. I have not, I have no excuses. Other than I’ve just been very busy. It’s tax season at work. And so
Unknown Speaker 42:40
taxes are what I’m.
Unknown Speaker 42:46
So hopefully I will have something for the April meeting.
Unknown Speaker 42:49
Are you okay with what you’re being asked? Or do you want to talk about it some more or?
Unknown Speaker 42:57
No, I mean, I’m supposed to.
Unknown Speaker 43:01
I had my notes. Somewhere amongst my 5000 pieces of paper. I’m just supposed to come up with like a general
Unknown Speaker 43:12
I don’t even know where that note went but
Unknown Speaker 43:17
outline of kind of how we want to operate going forward, right for everyone to review.
Unknown Speaker 43:23
In my mind, I hit I had two issues. One was how do we redefine the uses of the funds to make them more flexible and more meaningful? For the library going? That was one and the other one was how to how do we as a board approach the recommending of this money in a fiscally responsible fashion. That were that was my takeaway there. Others may have other takeaways that they want to pass on you as well.
Unknown Speaker 44:08
Yeah, I had I had I had notes from our prior meetings. I they are somewhere I am not currently locating them, but they are somewhere and I yeah, they were fairly extensive. So I think those made sense to me when I when I had them, so I I feel I feel pretty good that I can do it. I just need to do it.
Unknown Speaker 44:29
Okay, well, you’ve got a track record of doing it. So you know, we’re we’re not worried.
Unknown Speaker 44:38
It will get done for April. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 44:43
With that, oh, I think we covered the item see under the little laboratory involvement by the friends. Unless there’s something else needs to be said on that. I’m ready to move on to new business and the first item, I believe This is your CNC electronic participation off.
Unknown Speaker 45:04
I stuck it on there. And because I remembered it from last month, and then I promptly forgot to send it to you. But let me give you the gist of it, and then we can approve it next month that basically, is to approve what we’re already doing. So there have been, there’s always been an electronic participation policy to my knowledge, but it’s been expanded a bit to cover the current situation. So basically, what we’ll be putting on the agenda next month to approve is this policy. And for example, your meetings can be held electronically or by phone or by other means of communication only when certain conditions are met. And the first one is, the city manager determines that meeting in person is not practical or prudent because of a health pandemic or declaration of emergency affecting the city. So obviously, the number one item is the one that is the most applicable and is the one that has been added. You know, it specifies that all members of the board or commission can hear one hear one another or otherwise communicate and can hear and read or discuss all testimony in a manner designed to provide maximum notice and participation that members of the public can hear and read all discussion that at least one member of the board or commission is present at the at the regular meeting location less not feasible, you don’t have to do that in case of a pandemic, if it wasn’t a pandemic, or emergency declaration, you would have to have at least one person at the library. So all boats would be conducted by roll call, minutes of the meeting are taken and properly recorded. Timely notice is given to the public, we have the same rules about that, except now we use a new system called prime Gov through the city. So once again, the parts that have been added are the pandemic parts if meeting in person is not practical or prudent due to a health pandemic or emergency affecting the city, the city shall use best best efforts to provide the public a reasonable opportunity to be heard electronically. And so that’s why we do the the work ahead of time and make sure that we set these meetings up with information on the agenda of who to contact so that people would be able to attend the meetings. So there is a signature spot, arranging for electronic participation. So we’ll have to, at some point, vote and sign on this. So I will remember to send it to you promptly before the next meeting. But it’s basically to officially authorize what we’re already doing. And we and all the other the other organizations in the city.
Unknown Speaker 47:24
This is how we communicate amongst ourselves between meetings.
Unknown Speaker 47:29
And no, it’s that those rules are always are still the same, you know, you still can’t reply all and have discussions outside of your meeting. It doesn’t matter if they’re electronic or in person. So those rules are still the same. And if you see something from me where I need a response from you, I will probably still be reminding you to not reply all. So we don’t violate any Open Meetings regulations. So the rules on that don’t change. This just allows us to hold a meeting electronically, and has provisions for the public to participate as well. On that at the next meeting.
Unknown Speaker 48:08
Okay. Any other items under new business that anybody else wants to bring up? I don’t see any hands up. next meeting date would be April 26. marked out on your calendar. Any comments from the board? on any other items? I see none. Councilman, you have anything. Additionally, nope. I see none. Okay, with that I move to adjourn at 749. All in favor. There we go.
Unknown Speaker 48:55
Hey, I just want to mention casually This is not a part of the meeting. But if any of you as board members, have a yen to stop by and see some of our our construction project in progress. Feel free to do so. I would be happy to give you a little tour.
Unknown Speaker 49:11
I’d be great.
Unknown Speaker 49:12
Monty Have you been in the building? No.
Unknown Speaker 49:18
I have not. Okay,
Unknown Speaker 49:20
I have not I’d love to go in.
Unknown Speaker 49:23
But they give us helmets and stuff to where
Unknown Speaker 49:26
you don’t need a helmet because the repairs are underneath your feet.
Unknown Speaker 49:29
Oh, gotcha.
Unknown Speaker 49:30
Okay, I got
Unknown Speaker 49:32
up okay without a helmet. Alright, sounds
Unknown Speaker 49:34
good.
Unknown Speaker 49:35
I can give you an extra mask. So you do
Unknown Speaker 49:38
need to have Nancy meet you at the door. You do okay, because her staff, her staff will not let you pass the tables out there.
Unknown Speaker 49:46
They won’t
Unknown Speaker 49:47
gotcha. They follow orders pretty well.
Unknown Speaker 49:49
They’re pretty they’re pretty loyal.
Unknown Speaker 49:53
good they are. But no, I
Unknown Speaker 49:55
may take you up on that. I wouldn’t mind. If you
Unknown Speaker 49:57
want to go ahead and shoot me an email or call me then I I’d be happy to do that. Okay,
Unknown Speaker 50:01
that sounds good.
Unknown Speaker 50:02
I’ll do so.
Unknown Speaker 50:06
Thanks, everybody. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 50:08
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 50:10
I.
Unknown Speaker 50:11
Thanks,
Unknown Speaker 50:11
Don.
Unknown Speaker 50:12
You’re welcome. I’ll talk to you more about it later this week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai