Library Board Meeting – July 28, 2021

Video Description:
Library Board Meeting – July 28, 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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0:00
to open up the meeting and started it’s seven o’clock by my computer. Do we have anybody from the public? waiting to be heard tonight for us? No, I take that as a no. So let’s move down the agenda. Approval of the minutes. Do I have any comments concerns questions about last month’s meeting minutes? I see none. Do I have a motion to accept the minutes as written? I’m move that we accept the minutes as written. We have a second. Okay. All in favor? Right. I see nothing but hands. So this meeting minutes are approved. In theory, just to confirm, are you good, okay. Yeah, Katie, I

1:06
said to tell you I’m taking this this month, and I’ll plan to in less time out from now on if that works. Okay. Yep.

1:18
Thanks for covering that detail. I have another detail. More than a detail to report as sadly so one of our longer serving and most distinguished members is leaving the board. Kathy ballon is passing the baton to a new generation, regrettably, one that makes them note of her Distinguished Service over the years, admirably serving several years as chairman, and steering the committee ably during that process. And I personally have been an issue, Cathy, and I wish it wasn’t so but you know, life life is not always pleasant. But thank you, and thank you for your service. And with deep regret. I’m sorry to see you move on. So that that

2:27
is is your last meeting? Yeah, yeah, I think so. Cuz you’ve had the interviews right for

2:34
Yeah, I was I was out of the country wasn’t involved. But we’re, it’s on the agenda for tomorrow night.

2:39
Yeah. All right. Thank you. Okay. Well, I wiped a tear from my eye. Can we move on to the practice report?

2:59
Sure. Um, hello, this is kind of, in my bullet points here. And I will look forward to the day pretty soon when I won’t have a construction update. That’d be awesome. But for now, actually, it may be one of my last construction updates. I’m happy to report that all of the construction is we just lost you. Nancy said host you did me. Okay. All the construction is just about finished. So the east, you hear me now? Yes, yes, East entry has been all sealed back up. That was interesting with the showers of sparks from the welding this past week in a small space. So we all just pray a lot that the library would not catch on fire after all this construction was done. And the last little bits are being completed. We’ve had we have drywall, we have paint. They did need to do some floor repairs upstairs, but it was in a fairly contained area. So there’s more of that carbon stitching repair upstairs. So we believe that most the bulk of our construction will be done possibly as early as the end of this week. So we’ve got some stuff still to put back together. So I gave Karen Maroney a list of all of our our things that need to happen before we open which isn’t all that long. So at this point, we’re still targeting around the middle of July to reopen fully. So pretty exciting stuff. So we’re still attached it we’re set we had to wait to do a few things until the construction folks were out of the way. So our shelving for our new teen area arrives tomorrow. The app we’ll be putting that in will be moving and shifting the whole teen area and we’ve shifted the computer area upstairs and done some some other things. rearranging, but I’m very happy to say that our construction is drawing to a close, you’ll still see a little bit on the outside the outside of the keyhole opening, and some landscaping and some new rails along the east side, the staff that they have the iron railing that’s kind of, you know, rusted through, etc. So you’re gonna see some outside things, but inside is getting ready. And we do need to have a complete cleaning of our buildings that will have a cleaning team made up of city custodians coming in probably next week. Because we’re still even though the staff is cleaning, cleaning, cleaning all the time, we have a thick layer of construction desks over everything in the building, including us probably so that we have some things to do. But we look like that are better just a couple of weeks now, before it will be open. And I will let you know the date for the next within the next couple days. So that’s very exciting. And as I said, budget updates that we have our department budget meeting tomorrow, so we have our requests in and prioritize. So we’ll look forward to seeing how that goes and how we fit into the grand scheme of things. We were asked this year during the budget process to relate our requests back to equity and access. And most of the requests that we make every year for libraries have to do with equity and access. So that was not a difficult thing for us to do. And we look forward to hearing everyone’s budget reports starting tomorrow. So that’s the bulk of my time has been spent lately on construction and budget, we have a few other things going on. We are definitely hiring some folks, we have temporary employees that are very important to us that our 20 our employees that we we had had multiple positions go open during COVID did not do for a while we had a hiring freeze, and then we did not fill those while we were still close to the public. So we are filling those positions as we speak. And I finished with several other folks doing custodian interviews, because we’re down multiple custodians in the city right now, including Rhonda from from the library. So also important for us to have our second custodian in place once we are open for hundreds of people every day coming in using the building. So I feel like knock on wood, things are coming together. So that’s, that’s most of what I had.

7:39
That’s great. Yeah. Do you anticipate a grand opening? Are you going to do a quiet opening? Or

7:45
what do you think is going to be kind of in between? I’m going to get the date solidified, we’re going to let people know and, you know, we’re definitely going to have some flowers and balloons. And we may even have we’ve been offered one of the high schools jazz bands. So we think that would be fun to have that. So kind of in between a grand opening in a, you know not we’re not going to do it silently. Because we’re This is a cause for celebration. So we’re not going to speechify either, but we’re going to make it fun.

8:15
Great. And were you able to identify any one time items

8:23
at gamestop? I know, I am at Tim’s request, I did give him several one time items. And it was one of those things though, where I was told that I should have asked those in our regular budget request, which is probably true. I did not because they’re larger items that normally have not, you know, some of our items that aren’t this large have not been then passed through on budget requests before, but at least I feel like they’ve come to folks attention. So you know, we did mention that the sorter or the automated materials handler but that’s something that we can also do out of motion refund or one of those or you know, one of the other sources. I put a pie in the sky thing there after moving everything out of the way. For the construction project I put in a wish list item for our children’s shelving. Our children’s shelving is at least 28 years old. It is from what the other staff said probably older than that because some of it was in the previous building. It is particleboard with ugly veneer that is peeling off and it some of it was close to collapsing when we moved it moved it back in. So it’s pretty ugly and pretty pretty unsteady. So that’s a big ticket item that will need to be at least added to the to a capital improvement budget in the future. And then I just throw in meeting rooms stackable tables with wheels and stackable chairs which we may do out of the pbf 145 funds which is a capital A small capital fund but is it is something that the tables are extremely unwieldy that we have in the meeting room. Our chairs are extremely uncomfortable, as was noticed by everyone who said came to the city council meetings that were held in the library. Back when they’re they’re difficult to stack. They’re very hefty, and they’re the world’s most uncomfortable chairs. So those were some of the things that that him pretty much off the top of my head on wishlist items, we always have wishlist items that we’re thinking of, and if we don’t, we’re not doing our job. So just.

10:31
Yeah. So the only feedback, Nancy, you’ve received from what I sit, what I submitted, is the dose should have come through a different in a different timeframe. Pretty much you ever have you had any confirmation whether or not they’re on a on a list? Fine. I don’t think they are. Well, I follow I made I made two sets of recommendations. One of those was the three items you shared, I followed up on one one of the others, I guess, Sunday and have had a response in the conversation today with Harold. I might I waited until tonight, I just want to know where we stood to follow up on the library one time expenses, or, you know, expenditures for needs. And I mean, I won’t if you tell me you don’t want me to but otherwise I wouldn’t fall. We have a we have on our agenda tomorrow night. A budget ordinance to authorize $212 million of spending that was not included in the budget we approved in October or November 61 million of that is his new his expenditures with new money. The rest of its carryover. And I raised the question in an email yesterday. How is it that the 61 minute $61 million? authorization? We couldn’t find room for the that, you know, it’s pocket change relative to 61 million? Yeah. So um, I was told that it’s likely we would see one of the other recommendations in the next ordinance I like I my intent would be to follow up to say, Why is this not worthy of some portion of 61 million or whatever the next authorization is going to be? unless you tell me not to?

12:24
know, I just think you know, it was probably my mistake first, you know, it’s one of those things where I always have things in my mind. And when someone says, Hey, is anything on your list? I just answered immediately. Yeah, I probably should have at least gone to Karen and to Harold and said, here’s what I’m considering before I just handed it off. And that was you, I get excited when people say, Hey, we might have some money, we could find we could find something?

12:48
Well, first time we’ve ever been asked as council members, you know, you have any one time expenditures that you’d like to see.

12:56
These are things that are that are more costly than something that I would tend to put in our one time budget expenditures, because normally we can’t, you know, normally our whole list infinity services of one times that are much less costly than this is not funded. So it’s not that we don’t want these to be funded if there’s extra money around. I think we do. But

13:17
like I said, unless you tell me not to my intent is to follow up after this conversation.

13:24
I think that’s probably okay. And I think the horse is out of the barn at this point. All right. But I’m following up tomorrow. Okay. And, you know, it’s one of the it’s one of those protocol things that I tried to be good about every once in a while and just like, Oh, you know, I have to try for a try for what we can get for the library. That’s,

13:45
you are a loyal, you are a loyal member of the crew, I get that. But I am a loyal member of the crew, and I respect hierarchy. But on the other hand, I want to know, I have to advocate for the light advocate for the library, because that’s your job. Absolutely do. And I’m gonna, I’m gonna try to help. No, no, this is the

14:06
is the list close, then you’re not accepting new items that haven’t already popped up. Is that true or not?

14:16
I, the the three items that Nancy just mentioned, were in my email to her with the rationale she provided and the estimated costs.

14:26
So they’ve already been put in front of someone. Yeah. Okay. And is there a sec closes it then you’re the you’re not looking for anything beyond those items at this point. If

14:41
If there were other items that in this meeting or in some cup subsequent conversation, I’d be happy to. I don’t know that that windows closed. I know there were Harold and others when budget discussions today some of that about how to spend revenues that were unanticipated. The city has a Washington cash right now. That’s just the truth. You know, we built a pretty conservative budget for 2021. Not knowing what to assume about what the economy would look like. And and the concern then is that we would be in recession while we’re in anything but a recession right now. And in materion, revenues, I, you know, April over April, April, revenues were up 34% over revenues in April a year ago.

15:30
Yeah, I see it my tax assessment. Most of that’s just sales tax sales use tax. But I think there’s more good stuff coming. So again, this is the second question to that. You had mentioned tonight, Nancy, and you had mentioned last week, this automated catalog processing capability.

15:56
disorder. That’s, that is the first one of the request. That is that’s in the budget, the automated materials handler is disorder. And that is the first thing on the list. That’s about, you know, $250,000 worth. Yeah, that’s an that’s already been submitted.

16:12
Okay. Okay. cuz I’d rather see that come out of the budget, if possible, as opposed to the emson. fund. Yeah, we can put the fund money in reserve.

16:23
I have other ideas for them since been a creative person, I believe you. We do. But you know, I think it’s one of those things where when the budget process started, the way it always starts for department heads. I you know, I I don’t think that we all quite knew that the city was as flush with cash is, as Tim later told us, after we had developed the budget. So I may have been much more, more ingredient. Yes, for. But, you know, it’s always it’s always a balance, we want to ask for what we need. But we also know that there are, you know, normally when we prepare the budget, obviously, we’re looking for what we need, but we’re also looking as the whole. And we’re looking at what the other community services, divisions need. And you don’t not want to we want to be you want to get what we need without, without overstepping and stepping on someone else’s toes. So Oh. But I’ve given my time on the board. This is the first time I’ve heard this spin on the dynamics of the budget process. I tell Karen, I lost my head. Because this never happens. I don’t I’ve been I’ve worked for multiple many, many municipalities. And I’m trying to remember if anybody ever said they had more money than they thought and I don’t think so.

17:42
I don’t think it’s I don’t think it’s time to be reticent about that. And I don’t think it’s greedy. I think it’s time to be clear on what we need and and push for it. So I’m gonna push for it again tomorrow.

17:53
Hey, that’s great. He have anything more for us, Nancy, you on? A couple of things in our other categories, but I think that was it.

18:03
Okay.

18:05
Friends of the Library report.

18:08
Yes, I have two meetings to cover the one the end of May, which is there. Both of these are their normal board meetings and the one that end of June. There were new officers that were elected at the main meeting. Sharon McCaffrey is vice president. Frank says kowski is treasurer. And Paul Mayer is secretary. The April meeting is where they always elect their presidents. And that’s where previous Carter was elected. The new board member, Maria Chiara guianas, she’s Did I get that right? She did. Yeah, she will be taking on the project of working with the Longmont the pie. That’s for the arts and the Friends of the Longmont museum on the messaging to the public concerning funding for the Performing Arts Center. Also the expansion with a museum and whatever results come out of our phase two feasibility study. So she’s agreed to kind of be that voice for the friends. So I was thankful that someone was willing to do that. And also, at the June meeting, Nancy had mentioned that they will be contracting through the friends for all the presenters for all the library programs. And a draft contract was sent to the friends and it’s now in the hands of their attorney being reviewed just to make sure that all their bases are covered. They’re expecting that they should be able to move forward with that final versions probably in July or August. So that will be good for them. There was a funding request for the library in May. It was four $4,115 for renewal of the library discovery passes for 2021. And it was approved, of course. They also discussed a little bit our request to the friends board about providing for the little free libraries. They decided they would rather discuss it in links at their board retreat, which is scheduled for August 29. From 10am to 2pm. at the library, there was some concern brought up that this task may be outside of their purpose and scope for the nonprofit. So they needed to kind of look at that and then discuss it at the retreat. So at this point, that’s still kind of in limbo, then. Membership has reported at 175. Members, they’re still trying to figure out ways to reach out to previous members as well as recruiting new ones. That will be a discussion topic at their retreat. At the June meeting, the bulk of the meeting was focused on a discussion of the independent contract with one of the people that works for them. Charity, she chooses, if she chooses not to renew the contract, she’s going to provide a transition plan. The board did select a subcommittee to get an understanding of what the volunteer duties are, there’s quite a few of them and exactly what they do. They will be reporting their findings at the board retreat, and then there will probably be a discussion on developing a position on the board. That’s a volunteer coordinator position, whether it’s tied to another officer or just a separate board position. But they do need to work on understanding what all the volunteers do. The next regular board meeting will be July 21. And that’s all I have. I will send you a copy of this. Cynthia, I’m sorry, I realized I didn’t do that this morning. And that’s fine. Thanks, Kathy. Any questions? Any questions for Kathy? So, Kathy, what was their concern about the little free libraries? I know you said it was outside of their responsibility, they thought. But it’s it’s not monetary. Right? It’s all charitable. Right? I think it goes back to what their bylaws state their purposes. And one of the

22:37
statements that one of the board members made was that, you know, the purpose of the friends group is to raise money for the library. So they were concerned about handling these little free libraries. So it and then another board member brought up? Well, you know, we’re interested in literacy for the for the people and that come to the library. So I I don’t know, it’s something that they as the board will need to work out what exactly they’re comfortable with doing. They’re probably fine with giving the books but as far as having someone manage little libraries at various places. That might be what the sticky point is. I think

23:25
I believe their attorney is looking at the bylaws as well, though. Yeah, we’re just on hold for that until the attorney looks through it. Okay, councilmen?

23:34
Yeah, Kathy is the or maybe Nancy? Is the is contracting through the friends for outside resources, expertise, talent, for programming through the library, is that a workaround from having to go through the city attorney’s office.

23:53
And somewhat, it’s not so much the city attorney’s office, it’s just the the city’s personal services contract is very unwieldy for the types of contractors that we use. And we have some folks, we’ve lost them. Some folks have not been willing to do this very long contract with a big disclaimer in the middle about their ability to work in this country, etc. And most library contracts, you know, if you’re hiring someone should make balloon animals and read some stories for a couple hours for $200. This this contract is just cute. Yeah.

24:31
So I thought we had resolved that but apparently not Oh,

24:35
not really. So I mean, we we’ve worked on it at various times, but because of contract is pretty much as big as it ever was. But then we had the idea that since the friends really finance all of our library programming, which is highly unusual, but since the friends financed our library programs, I asked Tim, in the city attorney’s office, you know, would it be something that that we could do to Would it be, you know, kosher to, to have the friends who are paying for these programs? Be the, you know, the ghosts of the past through for these contracts with the performers? And he said yes. So at that point, we went around to, you know, probably 2030 different library websites, you know, looked at, looked at other people’s contracts, looked at what their performance and present your contracts looked like and contained, and sent over our best guess compilation of a decent looking contracts that looked typical for libraries for these types of programs. And it is now with the friends attorney. So, yeah, it is a little bit of a workaround. But it’s okay. I mean, if they’re paying for the programs, we should be able to contract through them and the contracts will be a lot simpler.

25:51
So this is the workaround, if we’re going around the city attorney’s office or the procurement process, or both?

25:57
Yes. Both. Alright. Because we looked at doing it, we’ve looked at several ways of doing it, we’ve looked through the personal services contract, we looked at purchasing to see if that was any easier going through that type of a contract. And there are some To my knowledge, some with the purchasing. It looks simpler at first, but there were some some heavier duty insurance regulations that had to do with going through purchasing. And like I said, ours are mostly an honorarium. They’re really small amounts. And so that’s, for us, I think it’s, this is not something that I haven’t seen other libraries do. But through their friends, when they’re friends on their programs. Because many cities and counties have pretty, pretty unwieldy contracts. They’re just, the contracts are just structured for larger, larger or ongoing programs than what we normally have. So that’s what we’re doing. Anything else for Kathy? Okay, Councilman, can we get your thoughts? I’ve dumped all the thoughts I have tonight already. Really, I? Can I ask you

27:10
a couple questions. You can indeed, I hope you will. We just we’re not there’s nothing on the agenda that has big importance. You know, I appreciate Kathy’s reference to the new president of the friends committing to this conversation, brought a conversation with a PI and friends of the museum. There is a meeting scheduled, I think now for July 11, to go back and look at my calendar with Harold and others. And I think the leadership of the pie and to try to bring together leadership of the interests across the community, or at least across the city functions and in programs in and in offices, to get together on messaging. So we can start to think about what a campaign might look like that that gets a gets as much public support as we can generate for the library, the museum and for the Performing Arts Center and groups. Is that an internal meeting on the 11th? It’s not It’s not my meeting. But if your mark, if you want to, if you want to participate, I’ll make that point tomorrow.

28:19
As well, I guess I’d like to know a little bit more about the meeting. Before I say one way or the other. If that’s possible.

28:27
I’m happy to do as much intelligence gathering as I can. I think it really is about getting people around the table who don’t know one another, to meet one another and to agree that there is a shared interest. And we have to be real smart about how we can move forward so that we don’t create winners and losers. We don’t pit one interest against another that we have a coherent, compelling, collective message about what we want to accomplish and what it’s going to take to get it accomplished. So but I’ll follow up and find out exactly or at least as much as I can, about the the expectations for the meeting on the 11th. And in circle back to you. I’m going to follow up with you anyway, on the earlier correspondence today. And I had the 11th It’s a Sunday. Is that right? Well, maybe it’s the 13th I’d have to go back and maybe it’s the 13th it’s the 13th at 10am. Yeah, so there you go. It’s the 13th I think I was in Tanzania when I got that initial message. my calendar was off.

29:35
I know you get a lot of emails. So 13th at 10am Yeah. Very good. Okay, cuz conceptually, I would like to sit in, you know, when, at least you’re on behalf of the board, what, you know what people are thinking, you know, if it’s, if it’s not the right venue, I don’t want to necessarily but in either so

30:00
Listen, I don’t think first of all, it’s not exclusive. And I think the more the more leadership we have, the better informed in terms of all the interests that we share with the library and the museum and the Performing Arts Center, the better off we’re going to be. So I, you ought not to feel reticent about it at all, Mark, and I’ll follow up tomorrow.

30:23
Okay, just let me check something real quick here. Just tried to determine whether it’d be debatable. Okay. So do you have anything on the cultural settle center district that would be newsworthy to pass on? I don’t. And you had mentioned last meeting about some participation with a backstory project on the library.

31:08
Yeah, as soon as we I think it would be ideal when we get the second.

31:15
The second phase, or the second part of the feasibility study, I think that would be the right time to do it to hit a couple of high notes. One is, especially if that were to coincide. And within a month or so of our of the I know, it’s a grand opening, what do we here as an open house or whatever it’s going to be to put those together that we’re, we’re, you know, we’re updated, we’re open, and we’re looking to the future. And here’s what, you know, some of the possibilities are

31:43
on the MC and I exchanged emails, and I know she has to satisfy interest within the city. But if she will, I will so participate. So

31:57
well, it hasn’t been an issue. A bunch of city employees have participated in backstory, those backstory, interviews on a host of topics, from train noise, to budget to recovery to all kinds of topics in which the city has an interest. So there shouldn’t be there should not be concerned just a storytelling. It’s it’s not political. It’s not. It’s really just story.

32:22
I’m just a private citizen. I can I can get away with that. Nancy is, you know,

32:28
I’m comfortable with it. I’m good. Nancy was on my old doctor on one of those backstories.

32:37
Nancy, in the future we deserve series was a was a star, when we talked about the public are common good, I would

32:47
have been. Okay. With that, then I will move on to the old business. Do you have any updates for us, Nancy, on the feasibility Oh,

32:59
it took a while to get started to get the contracts through purchasing. But we are underway with the feasibility study. Right now. We are in a data gathering phase. So I am you’ve set up a SharePoint site. And I am corresponding back and forth with Andy and getting her the piles of data that she’s looking for, which includes some new data from the past year, some areas where we felt there were holes in the previous consultant’s report. So there are some additional things she’s asked for, for example, we compared our library in that records to some peer libraries from across the country. But she was looking for some more depth of data on long lunch and in this library, so we’ve given her a spreadsheet of, you know, 10 years worth of the biggest step. It’s just just ticks from this library. We’re also she was also looking for some more in depth, demographic data that had been provided for. So this is just this past week that this has been completed so that we’re here with the contract was completed so that we have been able to, to start to do our data dump. So that’s what we’re doing right now. We will be scheduling a meeting in July. I’m not sure what the exact date will be. So we will be scheduling a stakeholder meeting in July to get to kind of do a kickoff once we have some of this data and go from there. It he has a very well planned out schedule, but the schedule, everything started about two months later than we had expected to start because it took a while for everything to go through the red tape planned. So I think we’re on the way to doing some things. So as soon as I have anything more concrete, and I’ll let you know and also There will be a meeting setup, then I know Mark, you’ll be involved in.

35:03
No. Okay, thank you. Any questions when a feasibility study? Okay, guidelines for you. So the Moser and emson funds

35:21
is I was trying to figure out where to go with this and look back on the minutes from last meeting. And I noticed that it was requested that there were some original documentation if it existed, and things to help educate the board. Is there such a thing? And most Sure, I

35:51
think I’ve seen one document on so I can probably come up with that. So I think I got that right after the meeting, and then promptly forgot about it. So I can send that around.

36:03
Okay, well, I guess as we try and put this together, we’ll take whatever education around,

36:10
it looks like it was typed on where those, you know, old libraries, old typewriters with a little brown keys. Hey, it’s an oldie. No, I have that also, never, I’m

36:21
sure. And with that, I think another thing that we challenged the board with was if there were other concerns, issues, thoughts that we wanted to note, as part of the construction of the language that would go into revise bylaws, if you will, for the board for this activity. Has anybody come up with anything new that wasn’t discussed? At last month’s meeting?

37:06
I do not see any hands. So I would assume not. So then let me ask you, Katie, do you think you have enough information to to rough draft some bylaws with respect to both of these fun so that we can start to try and frame this and you know, get it in a form where we, we think we understand it and connect according to whatever those agreed upon bylaws are?

37:45
So are we doing? Are these like, part of our bylaws? Are they? They? They’re separate bylaws that well, calling the bylaws? Let? It’s an interesting question. Are they feeling bylaws or like,

38:08
there’s there’s board bylaws. And these would, I mean, these would be bylaws for the board. Whether they’re within the original body of our current bylaws, or we set them up as a separate set of bylaws at all. It doesn’t, you know, Whatever’s easiest, as far as I’m concerned. Does anybody have any thoughts?

38:36
Are we probably should have them be separate? Because maybe one day the funds won’t exist at all. And so then it would have to be taken removed from the by, you know, I yeah. So I think they would probably need to be treated as is, unless we make it like very, very, which we can do generalized. And there’s no mention of Moser EMS, or anything like that. And it’s really just like, this is how the life the board treats, funds that are outside the scope of the budget or, you know, year over year numbers for the law. I don’t know. I mean, we can do that. And so it’s, so it’s kind of an umbrella. language.

39:28
I do wonder though, if we ever do move to a district format, or like the format of this board shifts in that sense, would it be better to have them as separate?

39:43
That’s what I was thinking. Cynthia, I think that makes sense. To have it separate. I would agree. I think it does need to be separate. Okay, so if if you take the approach of just creating some sort A global document for funds. How? How do you propose addressing fund specific requirements? It has to go it

40:18
has to go to different than it can really be it I don’t think it needs to be global because it can really be bylaws for the oversight of the Mosher and emson funds, right? Because that’s just it’s it’s its own entity, then. It was, if we were going to include them in the board’s bylaws, I was gonna say that, that’s what I would need to be, I would think more generalized, but since they’re separate, I think it can really just be specific to Mosher Ensign, since we kind of sorta know, I’m not we haven’t gotten we really didn’t get an answer on the question, the big question, which was, you know, are there any constraints? But we’re operating right now that there really aren’t any constraints? Ask for forgiveness, I feel like is how we’re as we’re operating right now. So I think we can I think we can do bylaws specific to these two funds, assuming that, you know, we don’t buy a boat for the library, we can pretty much use them for anything.

41:28
I think you want to do that. I think what Cynthia mentioned is something that I had had a concern about to you know, if the library were to go to a district, you know, it may be a moot point anyway, because you may have to draft something entirely different if we moved to a governing board as opposed to an advisory board. Because you know, how you handle funds and recommendations to the library about how to spend the funds are different. Your powers are different if you’re an advisory versus a governing board, for example. So I would typically

42:03
see you would or you would not, I would, yeah, specific to these two funds. Really? Yeah, I wouldn’t make probably a blanket statement, because that could change.

42:12
But you’d also be better to refer to these more as a board policy, as opposed to board by last.

42:19
Yeah, I think that’s where I’m, I’m really getting I mean, I feel like now like I need to be an attorney and I am not an attorney. And like I feel like I’m not I don’t want to put together this document that in any way is like bias, you know, it can be Yeah, I like the idea of board policy of policy versus bylaws.

42:45
And policies are enforced until the board changes the policy. Did we ever determine that it? Was there a question about who has the authority to authorize the funds? Was that it? Was that ever answered? And then I put together and more guidelines, I suppose.

43:29
I think we need to find that out before we make a policy about it. I’m not sure who if that’s a finance, city finance question or a city attorney’s question. But I think that’s an important thing to find out. I think that was what the original idea of trying to find the original documents, to find out the document is fairly simple. I will forward the document that I’ve seen back when is is fairly simple and you know, has x amount of funds that you can spend X amount, you know, x percentage of this fund. And at that point it was on materials, I think that’s a trend getting mixed up between motion and Empson materials for the visually impaired. So if that was when it was a small amount and 30 years ago

44:23
yeah, I think that was the motor cuz we were we by the the encyclopedia is the FMS coming from emson. Right? Yeah, this is Moser.

44:33
And I know what the time when when it was unearthed, which is shortly after I got here. I remember, I think it was Jim gold. And it was someone at the city. I know that that, you know, they opined that, that was so long ago, and that the folks that had donated this word, were not no longer with us, that it could be used for other purposes.

44:56
But I think the main question that the biggest question that came out of last month’s meeting was? Do we need to get approval from city council? Or can we as the board? Say, yes, we feel this is a something that we are able to spend the money on? Or do we need to bring it to the city cap? Because, you know, in the past, I think there was confusion, because in the past, we were able to approve the request. But we had to basically say, to the mayor, please write a check for this money. So ultimately, city council was involved in some capacity. And so that was the my original document that I put together, had like a whole section on where the library is going to tell us what they want, we’re going to look at the list, we’re going to come up with agree with what we want, and then we’re going to propose that this be done to city council and and that was meant that was met with a little like, well, we don’t need to ask the council let’s not sorry, one second. is the best part about online meetings. Sorry about that. Small children in their underwear. So anyway, I think that was the big question. Do we need to ask for approval from city council? Or is the board in a position to approve it and use the funds?

46:53
Would you like me to ask the city attorney? I can ask Kimbo mark, you’re muted. As that, you know, I don’t know if that’s for the better or not. But

47:19
the point that I was trying to follow on from Katie’s discussion, as long as the city has the money and has to write the check. They’re the ultimate arbiter of what gets done. And so unless they relinquish that power and say that it’s just solely on our authority, that that we can disburse money from from either fund, I’m not sure how that gets solved. No, I’m

47:59
willing to ask Tim Hill and our attorney and or Jim golden, if they have some theories about this, if that will be helpful, because, you know, the attorney or the head of finance seems like the ones that would probably know the answer to this.

48:15
Cuz I think we can say as part of like the preamble to our policy, that it’s bits based on the passage of time, and our understanding that the original restrictions associated with either fund are no longer relevant. And based on that the, the board feels that it can entertain expenditures in just about any area related to the library’s benefit, or something to that effect.

48:49
Councilman.

48:51
Yeah. Is that recall, it was Jim Golden’s opinion, that the was your prerogative to determine how to spend those dollars. But I think Nancy’s thought about directing your question, I think you ought to send it to both Tim and Jim. And if you’re willing to copy me on it, yeah. I’d be happy to press the case. To get an answer. I think go to the I mean, questions. And I’ve used go to the city, city attorney’s office to die, right. So rather than ticket system now, so Oh, really? That’s good. That’s they do, but I would sure, be happy to press the issue or to say we need a timely response here. But I do think to include what you what you understood Jim to say, Sure, to both and say he will like we would enjoy a definitive response from either of you. But this is our understanding as market suggested, but we don’t want to proceed without confirming that we’re on solid ground from the perspective of the attorney’s office as well as the financial office, so you don’t get any surprises.

49:58
I think that’s the way to go. Jim is great about getting back. But I know we’re right in the middle of budget right now. So we might, you know, might take a little bit out, go ahead and drop that.

50:12
Okay, so I guess we have to defer this one then another month till we get some feedback. And

50:24
I mean, if we get feedback sooner, and Nancy can email it out, then I can proceed. So it can be, you know, it can, I will keep an eye on my email. And if we see something come through, I can work on it otherwise, yeah, I think that I think that’s the main question. So without that, it’s hard to proceed.

50:49
Okay. Anybody have a problem with that? Okay, let’s go forward on that basis. And feel free to feel free to wordsmith however you wish to wordsmith, Katie, and we’ll take a look at it. Yea, or nay it based on the group’s decision. Okay, we talked about the little free libraries in the comments from the Friends of the Library. Nancy, last time, you mentioned there was like an all library directors meeting that you attend that might allow you to gain additional insight on folders, Library District did such a thing happen? And was there any insight there,

51:42
this is this is the one month of the year that we do not meet. So I do not have further insight into that as of yet.

51:50
Okay, so we’ll await any new findings that come out of your disk

51:54
I haven’t seen I haven’t seen much in the media, but I can always contact folders director directly to and see if there’s anything new. Okay, very good. Either way, I’m gonna move on to new off or new business unless there’s any other questions with some of the items we’ve just covered. So with Kathy’s leaving, there’s, of course, a gaping hole in our coverage of officer responsibility. With her being the Friends of the Library liaison. Um, do we have any thoughts? I

52:50
was wondering, this is not it’s not something that I could do every month, like I couldn’t go to two meetings in the same week, every month. But I’m wondering, my thought was me excluding you, Mark, because your duties are well above and beyond any other officers as if we each took a turn. Like that’s, I feel like more palatable than, like, you know, I could I could do two meetings in one week, every three months, or every you know, as but is that something we could entertain?

53:28
How do you think the French would react to that? You think that care or not? Having been a liaison, I don’t think they would care.

53:39
Well, and also if you don’t, you know, if you don’t even want to do that, if you’re just going to wait, just in see, you know, on our new board, appoint IE, you want to wait until that time I can I go to all of them so I can report back from the Friends Meeting in the interim as well.

53:56
And the timing on the new appointee is tomorrow night. Yes.

54:04
Okay.

54:08
Katie, I like that idea, though. I mean, I guess depending on what the new board members desires are, because I’m also interested in in learning about more about the Friends of the Library, but I don’t have time to take it solely on.

54:25
Yeah, I mean, when I used to do it, I found it. What are you doing? I found it very helpful to go like I I learned a lot there. Yes, I do think it’s beneficial. You got a stack you guys that I do think it’s beneficial for the board members to be involved. I actually think it might be beneficial to the friends to kind of know more of us and get different perspectives. So just I just thought I’d throw that out there because I know that Kathryn said She’s also starting law school in the fall. So she’s definitely not gonna do it every month. So, I mean, there’s three of us who are like, I can’t do it every month.

55:16
Okay, so I’m okay with pushing this thing out till next meeting to try and hash it out and figure out what we want to do. If you’re willing to what is the the July? You’re in many at the first meeting, I guess if you’re willing to let us know if anything comes out of that. That’s fine. You’re very okay with that.

55:53
Okay.

55:59
In light of the city council, moving back to in person meetings, I thought it would be an interesting discussion to have amongst our board as to when we thought we would want to return to in person meetings.

56:16
And we have any thoughts or concerns one way or the other on that?

56:25
You have a cleaned up word room and cleaned up conference room and places for people to meet if you’re if you’re willing? No, it’s up to you. I mean, I’m ready to go in person carbs out there in our group. What’s that?

56:44
Are there any major COVID concerns about getting bigger? Is everybody been vaccinated? Are you Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. So is, is there a reticence to get getting back together because of the convenience of online meetings.

57:14
I do like the convenience of the online meetings, but I think the benefits gained from meeting in person outweigh those. So I am ready to go back next month, or really anytime.

57:27
I personally would prefer to go back to in person I, I do so many zooms all day, every day. Get me out of here.

57:38
I’m in line with both you because I think you miss a lot on these online meetings, I think the interaction is has less quality to it. And the given takers is a little more constrained.

57:56
And we would also like to show you the new stuff in the library. So some things look different. You haven’t been back for a while. There are some areas that look quite a bit better. So could we make a resolution that next meeting forward that we plan on going back to the old format of meeting at the library? As we historically have? Do I have a second? Second? All in favor? Okay.

58:36
Did you have a question? or request? Can we put a tour on the agenda of an upcoming meeting for the new construction, but also for? I haven’t seen the kind of the inner workings of the library as a whole?

58:50
Yep. Sure. Did you just mute yourself, Cynthia? And because it was answered, okay. Can I show you me muted yourself? Tim, do you have any concerns with going back to meeting in person?

59:12
None whatsoever, I can hardly wait to get back to see it real, real people and real faces and real conversation. So no, I have no constraints at all. I’m looking forward to it.

59:23
I would also like, Mark, I would also like to get back to not necessarily every meeting but bringing some staff members that have something big going on in their department. Did you report from their department at your meeting? I’d love it. I would like I would like the staff to know you better and vice versa, though.

59:41
Like I should add, by the way, I am going to the only other week. In the next day, no foreseeable number of years that I’m going to be out of town is the last week in July. And assuming that board is going to meet the last week in July, I will be out of town other than that I’m I’m here for the year. By this, there’s a family reunion that I’m, I’m not going to miss that in Sun river, Oregon. So if the board is going to meet that, that week, then then I will be absent, but not because I don’t want to meet with your person. Because I’m going to meet with my siblings and nieces and nephews.

1:00:19
Well, that sounds like fun. And that’s an interesting segue because I personally do not think I’ll be in town on July 26th, either. So I guess if the board is interested, we could be a week earlier than the previous Monday.

1:00:47
That may be the day we open to the public. And so that sounds like a good idea what it is meeting me is probably going to be fried 19. Well, I don’t know. That whole week mark. Potentially, I could be out till Thursday. What about August 2, pushing out a week? Well, I’m out of town that week.

1:01:27
What about the let’s see the 23rd. Bear with me a second. Summers are such such great times to try and schedule meetings.

1:01:44
Yeah, I got problems in August, too. Anybody want to suggest the day? You want to carry forward with the 26th and see if there’s a quorum?

1:02:05
My preference would be if mark and Tom are you’re both out to find it another date.

1:02:14
If there’s going to be a new board member, yeah. It would be nice.

1:02:23
I am most likely out on vacation that night, but that’s tentative that that’s pushing us further in to August, but that we could work? How about

1:02:34
how about non Monday the week of the 19? Other than the 19? What is what are people’s schedules look like? I can do any any day of the week of the 19th.

1:02:54
But the Tuesday the July 20 is an open forum for the council. And I regard it’s I’d be tied up on Tuesday night. But other than that be available?

1:03:06
Well, the 21st is bad for Nancy, because that’s the Friends of the Library Media. Yeah. How about the 22nd?

1:03:14
The friends meet the third Monday of them. I mean, Wednesday, sorry, third, third Wednesday? Yeah. Why don’t we all go to that meeting? Okay,

1:03:31
I’ll need to check for myself. I can’t remember off the top of my head and I don’t have my calendar in front of me. That would be that would be a scheduled in GLA meeting the third Thursday of a month, and I’m a liaison to that group.

1:03:46
Well, so the third Thursday, Tim is actually the 15th Oh, okay. Well, there you go. That would work perfectly then. 20/22 may make sense. Yeah. f works for me. Me too.

1:04:02
Okay, so I’ll nominate moving the meeting to July 22. At 7pm. at the library. Do I have a second? Second? All in favor? Okay, we’ll just have to make sure that Cynthia and or not Cynthia, but Katherine, and the new board member catches wind of that. Are we good? If that point, is anybody from the board have a comment to make? Yes, I do.

1:04:45
Mark? Yes. Um, I just wanted to say thank you to everybody. I really enjoyed working on this board. I just, it’s gotten to the point now where I do need to step back just to kind of take stock where I’m at health wise and so forth like that. So that’s my reason for stepping back. But it’s been a joy. And I will keep my eye on things that are happening with the library. And I wish you the best Nancy on getting it open and looking forward to being able to go inside. And thank you. So I just thank you all. It’s been a pleasure working with all of you that I’m going to miss you.

1:05:27
Thank you. It’s been great, great tour of duty. And we’re going to Misha, and you know, who knows what the future will hold. Maybe you’ll throw your name back, back in the hat again, and it’s possible, come back to us. So thank you. Thanks. Thanks for all your effort. Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Kathy. We’re gonna knit feel. Yeah.

1:05:58
No, it’s true for everybody on this screen right here. But, Kathy, since you’re going to, you’re going to transition. I can’t tell you from from a council perspective, how much I and we appreciate the willingness of people like you and the others of this board and the others who serve to step up and serve the way you have. It is it is one of the I know it’s unique. But one of the great assets in this city, is the willingness of people like you to volunteer in ways that you volunteered, it makes a really significant difference in in it’s deeply, deeply appreciated. So thank you,

1:06:40
here. Okay, with that, I will move to adjourn at 806. And we’ll see all one another on July 22. at the library,

1:07:00
and hopefully it’ll be all open to everybody by then. So keep a peek waiting for one more disaster to happen. Hopefully Take care. Bye bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai