Video Description:
Library Advisory Board Meeting – March 2023
Read along below:
Unknown Speaker 0:00
So we’ll go ahead and get started all the way to order.
Unknown Speaker 0:05
And
Unknown Speaker 0:07
there’s not any public comments so we can check in next item approval minutes. Anyone wants to make a motion to approve? Me second? A second. And all in favor
Unknown Speaker 0:30
All right, that passes. Next step, we’re gonna go through their personal information items
Unknown Speaker 0:53
for the restaurant, oh, I’m going off the folder when? Oh, yeah, because this was a new one that
Unknown Speaker 1:00
was redone.
Unknown Speaker 1:01
Excuse me. Get the right one. I was thinking to myself, I know that order rearranged.
Unknown Speaker 1:11
And that
Unknown Speaker 1:26
right, here we go.
Unknown Speaker 1:31
Please, sorry, y’all, we’re gonna back up a little bit. As you all can tell, right, do in a slightly different order of our agenda. So looks like everyone’s present. Tracy. I’m sure if you got that down, approve the minutes. Public invited to be heard no comments. So now we’re moving on to new business director, sorry, directors report and other reports at the end. There are three new business agenda items I put on here. I don’t think any of them are going to take a lot of time. The first one is updating the bylaws. And the first question I had Jeff was, Do you is there any guidance from the city on the process of what that looks like?
Unknown Speaker 2:11
Generally, when I’ve done this with other boards, boards, give us comments on anything that they may want to have us revisit or to look at. And then after that, we send it to legal, and they made their comments, you know, we present it back to the board. Right.
Unknown Speaker 2:39
Alright, so thanks, Tracy, for sending me a copy of the most recent bylaws, the 2016 ones, it took a brief look, I didn’t bring anything to this meeting, because I wanted to make sure I understood the process first. It looks like there’s just a few updates, really that need to be done. So what I’ll do is I will email everyone, current copy of the bylaws. And then next meeting, I’ll come in with a few changes myself, what I see that needs to be done. And I’ll ask you, it’s already covered Jana. Mark, if you will also want to make any comments that you see bring those to next week’s meeting. And then we can just spend a little time in the meeting, making sure we’re all on the same page going over those
Unknown Speaker 3:27
juicy, next week’s next month’s meeting.
Unknown Speaker 3:30
Okay. Do you know there’s there were copies of the product launch center the other package? There was? No there was not.
Unknown Speaker 3:40
The slide was were sent to everybody. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 3:44
Oh, okay. So that’s awesome. Great. Perfect. Well, let’s continue on the next meeting. If we can all come with any suggested edits. We’ll just combine those, given them to Jeff, next month’s meeting. Does that work for everyone? The next steps on that. The other option would be to to work within Google Docs. But I know that can get a little
Unknown Speaker 4:11
impatient,
Unknown Speaker 4:12
essentially, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 4:16
We’ll just bring them up for any edits to next week. As you can tell, I’ve had a very long time getting things out of order, but I know we all have. I’m assuming we all have.
Unknown Speaker 4:31
Great, right. So next agenda item that I was hoping to talk about.
Unknown Speaker 4:44
I was hoping to review the board’s core functions and I really pulled this from the city website directly. And I’ll pass this around. This was just a print off of that page. And I thought this would be a good time to do so because so As you know, we’re to take the chair position. And we’ve also really been focused on the feasibility study and next steps with that that’s feasibility study is finally wrapped. We’re waiting for information from the city. So the city shares the see website says that there are five primary functions. One to prepare a long range plan for library services to review the library’s annual budget request. Consider a policy matters pertaining to the public library and make recommendations to city council advisory councils to the expenditure of funds or securities device were given to the board for library purposes, and does not necessarily pertain right now and prepare an annual written report to the city council. So the two that really stood out to me, were the budget one, as well as the annual report and I know, pre COVID, we were doing that. And so I thought it would be a good time to pick that back up. And also budget requests coming up. For that process starting, I’m assuming that we’re going to want to give advice to the city, hopefully, the support of the budget requests put forth by the library. And so I guess I’m interested, Mark, if you have any information or knowledge surrounding how we’ve done it in reports in the past, and then, Jeff, I’d also be interested, if you’re Suzy, if y’all have examples of how other boards are communicating to the city council, that’s been a part that I’m somewhat unsure of, I believe that we can send information or advice through our staff liaison, which I believe would be time or directly through me to the city, but I wasn’t sure if other courts are approaching that differently.
Unknown Speaker 6:54
They didn’t do it. Both those ways in there are times where they make motions. And the council liaison carries that for for them. Right. I think the and Suze please jump in when getting the information to all the council members. And I think what we would do is send it to the clerk. The clerk would make it available and then everybody, all the council members have the opportunity to see the same thing. And then in this case, Susie could reemphasize some of those things.
Unknown Speaker 7:31
Yeah, I think he went to the museum board. Because I haven’t served on Parks and Rec or it’s all kind of think of other city. City boards, you know, us Council, I’m on that. But that’s the structure is totally different. In GLA doesn’t have a funding mechanism. The library or the museum board, sorry, mana think Cree cre COVID. When we got together, there was more of an active engagement as far as looking at the budget approving requests or are making comments. I’ve not seen it lately with this board. And I think, you know, we’re just kind of shifting out of COVID into regular realm. So I’m hoping that as we move forward that we’ll have more of a voice. I think this is kind of ahead of what I see so far, as far as being really active and attentive to
Unknown Speaker 8:40
their needs. So historically, historically. Our board has tried to do in several different ways with the system. And originally when I first got on here, the only thing that happened was that the library staff report, they presented it to the Advisory Board and the advisory board was okay with it. They sent it on to the City Council staff and council. And that was in Council’s packet of information to review. They chose to review it. Somewhere along that continuum, it was felt that there wasn’t enough function in the way that the message was being delivered to council because we weren’t seeing any of the benefits of a lot of the initiatives that the library had going on. reflected back in how the library was treated by the city is probably the beginning of this whole building. And so as an alternative to that. We tried two different things. We tried physical presentations taking Taking time on the agenda for counsel. And one of us would go and talk and we will have a series of slides to talk about all the good things that the library is doing, to try and drive home that message. Sometimes at work, sometimes it was just buried in the Washington information that was presented to council they stepped in. And then another and other approach was to actually invite counsel for a pre meeting of the library, to hear, hear some of the grievances and opportunities that were in front of the library to present that personally to staff in the setting, outside of the council meeting where we get more attention on that. And I think that didn’t work a little better, because there were issues with audio visual equipment, and wiring and things like that. But I think the city moved on, and found monies and staff time to address. And then unfortunately, when COVID hit, that a lot of that stuff went away. And you know, with with the raw meetings and the the tech the challenges of just managing the city, in a remote fashion, a lot of that stuff just fell apart. A lot of the tasks that this group was responsible for, I would also want to jump in along with the list of things that the Board should focus on, somehow and all that we once this whole initiative with the city and how it’s going to affect the funding tax the library is result, I think we are resurrected process and strategic. Because at that point, you’ll have an understanding of what your future may look like. And I’ve always thought it was overly difficult for the library to move forward to get exactly what which direction to go. And I and I don’t think the library really hit was a fault. That’s just
Unknown Speaker 12:28
completely, I don’t think there’s been a strategic plan for this is 2018.
Unknown Speaker 12:35
Sounds like she’s having Catherine Are you having trouble hearing? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 12:41
I was before they said we should revisit the process of something. But
Unknown Speaker 12:46
notice when he turned his head,
Unknown Speaker 12:47
that’s when you’re Yeah, this could you angle maybe a little bit
Unknown Speaker 12:54
more could be the speaker’s broken. But the point I was making Jefferson was What’s that I think the board needs to revisit. And it sounds like the library’s in agreement. Revisit once all the funding and tax initiative things have been resolved, at least in terms of where the city thinks the library’s you go to put together a strategic plan. Because I don’t know if we’ve ever had one while you were on the board. And I don’t know whether we ever have them. Cynthia was looking for ways to do that. And then we will be able to refer to that in our discussions on the budget. And all our discussions with, you know, what message will we communicate to council? You know, are we on track with the strategic plan, this is what we agreed to do, or we in line with that. And somehow that all got lost in COVID.
Unknown Speaker 13:57
So I guess this is kind of like going into a couple of different directions that we need to follow up on. To continue with this strategic clear piece. Is there currently a strategic plan even an older one? For the library?
Unknown Speaker 14:12
Well, it’s the last one I found was written for a period, I believe, and I have to check on this. I think it went through 2018. And I just don’t know, you know, I would guess that the goals and everything that was established during that period, even if they weren’t that, I don’t know if it’s relevant anymore. So I haven’t really read it thoroughly, but I can look back on it and see. But, you know, in general, with each one, I mean, that was something I feel like I noticed early on, you know, I mean in the interim medica full strategic planning and, you know, even kind of consider more of a of an action plan. I mean, it’s still sort of the beginning of the year, and maybe establish which could be sort of something along the lines So, the tax initiative, I don’t really know how that would work, but kind of just set some goals for the year. You know, so that the board is in line with that staffer line with that. I mean, some of them seem there with that initiative, but but a full of real strategic plans. Right.
Unknown Speaker 15:18
We’ll have to ask for budget. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 15:24
So that sounds like something that we need to be considering and how we advise counsel in terms of budget plans. In terms of John, what you’re what we’re talking about an action plan, which would be quicker and easier. How could this group support that? Took
Unknown Speaker 15:50
me a few. There’s, there’s a few ways. I mean, I can speak to how I did in a previous role. I mean, I, I started by speaking with my leadership team within the library and established some of those and then bringing it to the board. And reviewing those kind of see if they’re really additions or any other contributions from the board, or are disagreements, like that’s a really bad idea, you should take that off, never happened. But you could, you know, some getting that that true value from the board, which is advice on something like that, and kind of some input on whether that seems like the right goals and direction.
Unknown Speaker 16:30
So you’re saying that we’ll be staff driven? That’s how I’ve
Unknown Speaker 16:33
done it before. That doesn’t mean that has to be, but that’s what I’m promoting.
Unknown Speaker 16:37
It could at least get us through this year until we see if we get funding for the full plan.
Unknown Speaker 16:44
Right. Yeah, I mean, like you say, they’re fairly simple. I mean, I think we established maybe three to five overall goals. And within there, some specifics, were eight to help measure those things. And then, and actually, then, our monthly board meetings, I would report on that action plan every month. And what did we do to meet a goal within here? Not every one had every aspect, but hopefully something within your mind to do that. So.
Unknown Speaker 17:14
So it seems to me that once once you understand where the city is going on your branch library, that would be one of your action items, I would think. But beyond that, there’s a whole host of other things that I think we talked about last time that you didn’t think were in overall tax initiative, like a storefront library, like upgrades for the main library, staffing, I would throw in programming of policy on programming, and those things I would would request would be in as part of an action plan going
Unknown Speaker 17:57
forward. So I’m sorry, it might be good for us to include, as part of this conversation, the budget update, John is I have had some initial conversations with the library department heads in trying to hear kind of some of what they have in mind. And some of the things that John and I and and do you have that list? Or do you want to write? Yeah, because I’ve written some of it down to sort
Unknown Speaker 18:32
of good stuff.
Unknown Speaker 18:35
So the regardless of what happens in November, we still have a goal of still doing a store, storefront branch, which will be one of the things that we would request. We also want to request that all the programming that is currently funded by the friends be funded by the city. We’ve talked about the possibility of creating a fifth department within the library, which would be outreach and putting more resources to be able to do that. And a rather than just Lilian doing that by herself, but being able to do more of a formal process, that we would also want to partner with the museum and recreation as a way to for our new department to be able to reach out in in rather than the library having to send out multiple staff all the time, that maybe the museum could at one time send people out as well as recreation to kind of spread the wealth of what what all three of us are doing Do we really feel that temp staff, additional temp staff, we would like to have funded. Often when we have staff that are sick or on vacation, there’s a scurry of, of activity of trying to figure out how to backfill some of that. coverage. And so we feel like having temps do that is important. John has a great idea about rolling shelving that would allow us to do some things in the children’s area where which would possibly free up the meeting rooms a little bit. We we also at least I’m interested in doing some some work with lighting in the library. Like it’s way too dark, some places and John is actually starting to get some pricing on that as well. Did you remember did I forget that those are kind of the bigger
Unknown Speaker 21:04
Those are, those are some of the big ones that we cover, in other one in there is a bunch of requests for that I also want is a pretty significant increase to our collection budget primarily in the form of digital collections where we’re really far behind. In what we offer electronically, we pretty much just happen to be in ebooks, and there’s so much more content out there. And you know, for a city the size, we should be offering a lot more. And in general, the collection budget needs to go up a little bit, but part of that has to cover the way we’re starting to get a collection scan, which is which is pre processed. So they’re shelf ready. So we’re we’re minimizing the time it takes to get something in and on the shelf right now sometimes it can take way too long, because we’re manually preparing those. But that has a cost. So the collection budget needs to go up in order to cover that cost, which isn’t significant. But we need more. But the real increase will be in digital collections in my mind.
Unknown Speaker 22:13
And then we also talked about the strategic plan.
Unknown Speaker 22:16
We didn’t talk about that yet.
Unknown Speaker 22:18
Is there any question? I might have missed it if you said but was stopping anything on your list there?
Unknown Speaker 22:26
Yes. Jeff brought it up in the form of outreach. So we have Liliana who you may have met or no and she’s she’s a solo operation who does way more than any one person can really do. And it’s really a becoming a department in its own right. And so we really need resources, they’re also in our temp budget in order to have more flexibility for increased staffing as needed, whether it’s from absences or we want to better support outreach or be at events, we have the capacity to staff that within our budget that right now is a real stretch. So those are two of some of the staffing that are right up front.
Unknown Speaker 23:15
Okay, thank you. I think I heard parts of that but intentional Sure. Whenever this is a smaller piece that
Unknown Speaker 23:21
What about professional development?
Unknown Speaker 23:23
Oh that sounds to me that’s a not a small piece it’s I mean it’s just one of many areas but there’s just not enough there to truly support staff professional development that the level that I think it needs to be I mean you know brackets and stuff to every training every conference possible but right now no one is going anywhere
Unknown Speaker 23:49
ala conference, I
Unknown Speaker 23:50
think they’re saying what a cow? Well, you will be oh this year but and part of that was you know, the COVID that messed a lot of that stuff up and you know, they did some of that virtually and then I think some staff land but there’s been a little bit of a hiatus from going but I already have staff expressing interest in cow that’s much easier to send people to I can do that with the budget I have at least for a few people but that’s one of the best things to do that at least on a local level. But some of those bigger shows ala i I’m a real advocate of PLA more so for a public library. It’s extremely beneficial and it’s only every other year and you get a lot I feel like you get a lot of value for that and right now I don’t know how to send anybody if it were this year, but it still happens it’s not till 2024
Unknown Speaker 24:45
You should have a training budget but I offhand I don’t
Unknown Speaker 24:49
know what the rate is and I don’t offhand remember either but it’s it’s just it’s much below it’s 70
Unknown Speaker 24:55
employees
Unknown Speaker 24:56
know I think, you know in the case of like a PLA doesn’t generally out of state, I could probably send one person. And I just think more than that should go to something like that. There’s tremendous value in that.
Unknown Speaker 25:11
I’m a big fan. Libraries, how do you professional development, I mean, so I’m so that the hearing Oh
Unknown Speaker 25:19
yeah. Even just for some smaller trainings to that, they may not have a high price tag. But if you can get more staff involved, and then at that level, you can really start including a lot of staff where everyone feels like they’re getting the benefit of some type of development, you know, not just a professional stuff.
Unknown Speaker 25:38
And I would say that maybe as a byproduct of COVID, there’s so much more that seems to be available virtually, and sort of like ala carte, around different topics and different aspects of libraries. That for very, very low cost. I would agree that to make that accessible to staff would be there’s so much going on in libraries across the country, that that would be a priority
Unknown Speaker 26:12
to me. So I’m just kind of going back to where we started this conversation, because I know we’re jumping a little bit. It sounds like strategic plan is in the budget. So Chris will be hearing about that and come back to that later. I really
Unknown Speaker 26:30
would like it to be in Yes. Oh, just to clarify. Yes. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 26:36
Yeah. Okay. And I am used to running on it June through July, year or July through junior. So you’re gonna have to constantly remind me, I think, like a lot of us at this table. That we don’t do that here. And but I also really liked that they even action plan just for this year moving forward. That pared down version, you were talking about time? Is that something that the rest of the board would be interested in in John, is that something that you think you could you could bring to us?
Unknown Speaker 27:12
Yeah, I would not. I’ll second that. And I think if you’re if you’re smart for ideas, which I don’t think you are, you know, a lot of the things that that were put on the table, were just items that were identified the feasibility study, right. It’s like, part of the shopping list of deficiencies. And yeah, just
Unknown Speaker 27:33
Yeah, I think it’s not, to your point that it’s, it doesn’t have to be an exercise of something that takes us to where we don’t have an action plan until like September. I mean, this can be done pretty quickly. I could write it right now myself, but I don’t want to approach it that way. I want. I’m a big proponent of staff, like if this is your action plan, you know, you tell me what your priorities are. I will have some budgeting the budget is one of the simplest things on there, that and we’ve started that conversation. So it’s like some of the goals I can come to you with and checked off with, you know, so I think it’s, I have no issue, put it back together. Even I probably can have some sense of a draft.
Unknown Speaker 28:21
That’d be wonderful. Catherine,
Unknown Speaker 28:25
Rihanna, any
Unknown Speaker 28:27
comments on that? Yeah, I’d agree. That’d be really helpful. I think for putting together a shorter plan to I’ve seen other organizations do either like a urine review, or kind of do a pass to develop the future kind of a technique to go about it. I agree with what John was saying about going to staff and getting their priorities. Nice as well. I think that makes a lot of sense. So yeah, I think it’d be good to see a draft. Sorry, my Google’s talking. Yeah, the only other thought I agree. LSU friends also, but I just wonder if there’s gonna have to be like a little bit of a choose your own adventure model where, because there’s some things in flux with regard to like, you know, how is the library going to be funded? And is there going to be a storefront or another branch, like, you know, obviously, something can be done for this year. But looking forward, there’s gonna have to be something that encompasses different models for the future. And I’m just wondering if the board can be helpful with that, or some kind of like a retreat model, cafe or something like that, but give us more time to help in any regard.
Unknown Speaker 29:38
I think, well, for some of those, in my mind, those might fit more in when we get into strategic planning for in my mind for Action Plan, like, like, for example, something that might be in there is just something along the lines of what kind of programming we’re providing and what kind of measurements are I need to hit for that. Like, let’s say we like we want to just, it could be as simple as we want to increase our circulation this year, you know, so what are we going to do to do that? And and that’s, you know, it’s something that takes staff effort and what are we doing? Or what are we that means? What are we doing with our displays? What are we doing, to get people to check out more items? It’s very local, but it’s meaningful, because it’s it’s library advocacy, the more people use the library, the better, you know. So it may not be a large topic in the sense of buildings. But I think some aspect maybe needs to be in there, at least as far as you know, if that day comes, or are we clear as staff and as a board of what could a storefront library contain? What would that look like? And that’s worth an effort of maybe putting into an action plan. But like, I want to give that a little thought. Because if it gets too big, it gets, you know, you don’t want to find yourself where you’re just lost.
Unknown Speaker 31:00
I think letting John come back next month, with something for for you all to react to. And then if he missed the mark, then we can maybe talk about the retreat. But let’s, let’s give him a chance to take a look at that. Come back with something.
Unknown Speaker 31:22
Great. All right. Thanks, Stan.
Unknown Speaker 31:26
I thought you could happen to us by nine, but beautiful.
Unknown Speaker 31:39
And then just circling
Unknown Speaker 31:40
back to the other core functions, we discussed it, to me the most pressing is really to make sure that we communicate our support, and his budget needs to cancel. And so I’m just curious in this could be the director’s report. But can you just remind us both of y’all have the timing of the budget process?
Unknown Speaker 32:00
Yep. The CIP the capital projects kicked off last week, we have until the end of April to submit those, the budget will kick off mid to late April. And we’ll have until the end of May, usually to make our request. My suggestion would be that no later than May, that you either send a letter or pocket public invited to be heard. Because once the system gets shut down, and and those that are working on the budget. In fact, I’ve had other liaisons and another board say that counsel really doesn’t get lost say until later in the process. So the sooner you can start planting those seeds with counsel, which then gives counsel, the operator the opportunity to direct the budget staff, I think you’re better off if you wait until July or August. I think you’re too late for the 24 budget.
Unknown Speaker 33:12
I would have done that, because we’ve been played both ways. There’s been attempts to get in early in the conversations, but will it’s too early to talk to a slider. And then when we try to address it later, is too late. It’s already a bait that we can’t make the change and you make the field of counseling, it’s already a done deal. So whatever guidance I wouldn’t say the city could offer this group in that regard would be super. And then you had mentioned the capital plan. Will that be something the board can understand? I mean, will you have something next meeting since it’s due at the end of April?
Unknown Speaker 33:56
If it right now, we don’t have any proposals,
Unknown Speaker 34:00
no proposed cap number.
Unknown Speaker 34:03
But, and part of that is is with the library, the facility maintenance takes care of a lot of things that happen in in the library, whether it’s HVAC or heating, plumbing, electrical, all the carpeting, they all deal with what we would it would be premature to do a branch library like we’re going to an election for. But we could certainly talk about that that we start putting that in now. In case Council chooses not to move forward with with that tomorrow night, or that the ballot would happen to fail. Now we it’s already the least we’ve started to let the budget folks and council know what what our needs are
Unknown Speaker 35:00
The the I’m not sure where you stack the beans on some of these initiatives. But going back to the feasibility study there were well, first of all, the feasibility study was essentially absent kept Capital One. So I understand why. Or that can be somewhat murky right now. But there were initiatives that I felt were in feasibility and probably had a capital component to them. For instance, it expanded space for programs, or initiatives or additional AV equipment. And I love that comes in under your maintenance budget, or that’s a separate, but I would ask you, if it’s separate, I would ask you to start then.
Unknown Speaker 35:47
So one of the other things that the library has the opportunity is capital replacement program, that’s pbf 145. And it is all of what was Community Services, and it replaces equipment, that is jerk provides direct service to our patrons. So the TV in this room table in this room could be on that replacement list. John’s a new desk for John could not be on
Unknown Speaker 36:21
there. Sorry, about the rolling, shuffling.
Unknown Speaker 36:26
We’d have some money already for this year. In that CIP.
Unknown Speaker 36:31
What about items like bulk sorter that kind of fell through the budgetary cracks for a
Unknown Speaker 36:37
couple of years. So for new items, we have to do separate requests in the capital project I just described this for replacement, only John in the operating budget can make risk request for large items like disorder. One of the other things you might be looking at for this next year, is trying to have a drop off on the west side, if we can figure out a way to make that work, and that could be general fund request.
Unknown Speaker 37:15
So how do you count the beans for things like that? Light disorder versus something like reconfiguration, reconfiguring the release for expanded attendance of programs, this? Is that all capital or does it that doesn’t mean capital is lost to the process, or you pick it up under your general operating costs?
Unknown Speaker 37:55
It can be. So there’s two ways that capital projects are generally construction type of things. So if we wanted to now know if we can even do this with add another part of the building that would go out closer to the street, that would be a capital project, the purchase of equipment can be done as a replacement on the other CIP, or as one time requests in the general operating budget. So if, if John chose to do all new shelving in the library, he could he could make that request as a one time request in the operating budget. Did that answer your
Unknown Speaker 38:46
question? Well, yeah, yes. But it probably doesn’t solve my ultimate goal here. Which, you know, I, I don’t want to limit John’s opportunities by my lack of creativity and giving examples. But you know, I think there’s probably things that in the past would have never bubbled up. Right, because of the way the system worked in the past. And if it’s if it’s a more open channel to communicate those types of desires and initiatives, I would just say now’s the time to put it in. As that, as
Unknown Speaker 39:23
that process. And John and I have had some of those conversations that I think we got the message pretty loud and clear from Council last year that they didn’t always know that we had requests. I think the mayor said that and they will know that we are made
Unknown Speaker 39:44
to prove her wrong.
Unknown Speaker 39:46
So we may not get it all, but it won’t be better. If you don’t say
Unknown Speaker 39:51
we’re definitely not going to Yeah, exactly.
Unknown Speaker 39:54
So one clarifying question at this. As you mentioned, there’s no purpose capital request. So is the Bf 145 I got that right, the capital replacement program is that a separate, no normal capital request, but there’s still maybe requests for the for the replacement for room maybe incorrectly
Unknown Speaker 40:14
to capital. So the PDF 145 is a unique capital project, because really what it’s about is ongoing replacement, which is truly a general fund thing. But because we, as a department wasn’t having a lot of success, even when we submitted our own budget, some of those items didn’t fall high on our list, that this was an opportunity that the past city manager allowed us to do, because our facilities can operate if we got crap. And, and so whether it’s here at the library, your your tables, and chairs, and all of that, or at the Rec Center, you know, fitness equipment, if, if we can’t replace those things we can truly serve our customers. I would encourage John, to think historically that libraries only ask for 30 or $40,000 a year, I think it would be good if that number got bumped up to 75 to $100,000 a year recreation.
Unknown Speaker 41:32
Three and 400. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 41:33
it’s Hey, that’s the personnel
Unknown Speaker 41:35
what I first don’t can’t go in there. I’m talking just the capital. Oh, the cap. Yeah, sorry. So trying to get that up closer to 100,000. I think that’d be good. Recreation historically is over 200,000, the museum is starting to ask for more. And, you know, what we as staff need to do is create what I would call a fixed asset list that will cover these items, so that for the next 20 years, we know what we need to replace, and generally how much life all of those items have on them. So that one of the things that happens is it gets to be budget time, and everybody’s like, Oh, God, I gotta get things from my list. And if we spend time to do a better job of planning ahead, we’ll have more success in the budget process.
Unknown Speaker 42:32
The strategic drive
Unknown Speaker 42:39
certainly would help. Yeah, because you’re looking at.
Unknown Speaker 42:46
Right. So let’s move on, because we can come back to the budget again, later. But is there any other comments for this discussing our primary functions as a board?
Unknown Speaker 42:59
I have a question. And not knowing much about the history of that documentary. Well, I have notes, but yeah, wondering about adding some more clarifying language to the verbs listed here. So when I read this, the purpose of the library board is to prepare a long range. Review, consider, especially with that first bullet, I know that we’re not preparing a long range plan for library services in a vacuum, disconnected from staff and, and others. So you know, whether it’s adding assist or in conjunction with these entities or that were partnering with these entities supporting the library director or library staff and doing these things. I don’t know
Unknown Speaker 44:04
if that’s kind of implied. I believe you said you got that. In general, generally, if you look at all the boards, they’re all written kind of that way, which at times make it very difficult for the board and for staff because we don’t always understand where that line is. And what what I think would be good is that maybe you as a board along with John and I come up with an understanding of what that means to you, which then can be a working document for us for years to come as the board changes over. That can be one of the things that in our kickoff meeting that we can share with future board members and we’re all have had the same thing because I bet if If everybody really took the time to read that, we might get five different board opinions on what that means,
Unknown Speaker 45:06
right. That’s why I’m suggesting a little bit more clarity of what the board’s role is in relation to the roles held by other entities because in addition for making it easier for the board members, this is a public facing document. And so the public will be nice for the public to be able to have a clear understanding of where the board’s purview ends, perhaps. And
Unknown Speaker 45:35
I agree with what you’re saying, I don’t know if it’s just that easy to make changes, because I thought we had an open opportunity that is no, because I think that that information actually comes from the city municipal code as a starting point. And so it is gonna be harder to change. But that’s why I said, if we could come up with a working understanding within our group here, that at least we all are on the same page,
Unknown Speaker 46:09
I really liked the idea of a working internal document, especially as we onboard new members, what does everyone else think about that? I don’t see this as very, I don’t see that as pressing, but maybe something that we can work on in bits over the next few months.
Unknown Speaker 46:33
Now, that can be helpful. And then this might just be kind of like expanding it a little too much. But I’d be curious if there’s like one or two cities similar to ours, and seeing if there’s any other responsibilities that like their equivalent of their city, or library board is doing as well, that we might also consider adding on I know, we’ll still need to kind of come back up to speed with anything that was dropped during COVID, like the strategic planner. But if we’re considering additions, maybe we can kind of see what other folks are doing as well.
Unknown Speaker 47:05
Is that something you could check on John, during one of your library director meetings?
Unknown Speaker 47:11
Yeah. If I could just throw in two cents on that.
Unknown Speaker 47:20
If you think back to what the purpose of the board is supposed to be, it’s supposed to be advisory and naked date for source and posting communicate information to council that council doesn’t have the time to find on their own or to or to generate opinions that the council doesn’t have the opportunity to pull together a consensus on. So as you approach those from from that perspective, I would just suggest that the overall product that’s likely to come out of this committee is one of communication and advice. So to the degree that these things support that initiative, I think I think we’re on solid ground.
Unknown Speaker 48:08
Right, but I will start to get a fair amount of like working documents that we’ve discussed already. So I’ll start to add that as an agenda item. But like I said, I think it’s something that we can we can take more slowly, especially as we had two new members, and we won’t be onboarding for a little while. That’s right.
Unknown Speaker 48:34
Oh, it’s too big.
Unknown Speaker 48:39
So just quickly, I just wanted to check this is thanks, Tracy. This is the updated contact list for this group with our new members. Personally, I don’t have I can’t show you all over zoom. But obviously, I’ll email it or Tuesday. I don’t know if that went out as well. Did I miss it? No, but I can share. If you don’t mind sharing that. That’d be great. And then I guess Katherine, or either you all have any corrections just to let us know.
Unknown Speaker 49:17
Well, let’s move on to old business and updates. I know we got a little bit at the very beginning of the meeting or before the meeting started but updates about the city initiative. I’m looking towards you want to
Unknown Speaker 49:31
talk or hear and listen.
Unknown Speaker 49:32
Well, I mean, as far as well as okay.
Unknown Speaker 49:40
So, tomorrow night is is a big night. I think the survey results are going to be presented to council and at least staff hopes that council will give us direction on See which projects if not all of them, some of them or none of them will move forward to be further reviewed on whether to be placed on the ballot in August for November. We’re hoping that that happens tomorrow night. The survey results are now public. And they are on the city website under the agenda management system. And you can see PowerPoints and all of the survey results on on there. I will share that of all of the items put on there, library was the highest in support at 60%. And, again, there’s a lot of good information, a lot of good comments in there as well, that could be pro or con, depending on where you are in, in the public in these potential projects. But if you have time, tomorrow evening, and that’s the last thing on the agenda, so I apologize for that. But if you have time to if you can’t watch it live, by the end of the day Wednesday, you’ll be able to go in and watch and see for yourself the conversation, and ultimately what councils direction.
Unknown Speaker 51:40
So I have this staff. And I guess I’m probing. How would you guess this is gonna go tomorrow?
Unknown Speaker 51:53
Our car meeting
Unknown Speaker 51:55
this topic? How do you think it will roll out? Or do you think counsel will make decisions tomorrow?
Unknown Speaker 52:01
Hey, Mark, when you lean back, we can’t hear you.
Unknown Speaker 52:06
Say the savings tomorrow on the direction of this? Or do you think they’ll want to think about it or
Unknown Speaker 52:15
I thought the plan was because I mean, for me, I want to I want to hurry up and make a decision, I want to make sure that we get the you all all the communications want to make sure we get all the communications out there in a timely manner. So I think for us to sit on it and think about it, it’s not going to do you know, it’s not going to be in the best interest of getting this initiative passed. So, you know, I imagine that it will be a long meeting a lot of questions that are before. But I, my feeling is that the majority of Council, if not all this Council supports this passing.
Unknown Speaker 53:02
So you think I mean, there’s the way the way the initiative or the way the survey was put together? Yeah, each initiative had was kind of like an encapsulation of what was suggested for that particular city service. And some were favored to a larger degree than others. So do you think cops will go down through those 10 or 12 initiatives and pick winners and losers? Or do you think they’re gonna say we’re gonna go for all of it? Or do you think there’s not going to be enough information for you to put something together to take it to the ballot?
Unknown Speaker 53:48
I think the biggest when I was looking at it, the biggest ones that were red flags to me was and I understand why Centennial pool I mean that pool is is fractured, it cannot be upgraded. It’s gotta go. And you know, just to hear that 20% of people participants 20% of the participant who supported changing Centennial pool facility to remove the pool and put in the basketball courts and fitness space. Only 20% said that they would either definitely vote yes or probably Oh yes. That 55% said now, so you know, we had to think about okay by adding some of these more not controversial but just you I guess they are controversial because people want a under the centennial pools knowing that there’s a pool on the side. Think, you know, having those tagged on it could be a liability as far as the passing see initiative. The other one was Montgomery Park. And I think a lot of people didn’t even know where that could be located where that space is. So there’s a lot of less investment in those. And I worry that because the according to the survey, they’re turned off by that they don’t want to support that, if we tap upon would have been create a scenario where people just
Unknown Speaker 55:26
and it doesn’t mean that initiatives like sentence school don’t get addressed. It just wouldn’t be part of this package. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 55:34
So so the reason behind all those questions, other than just curiosity was, Do you feel that the library’s cases strong enough as it came in from the survey? Or the somebody from the board need to get the public to be heard to make the case?
Unknown Speaker 55:57
I mean, I’m not going to tell you to Don’t worry. Meeting No, no longer? No, quite frankly, I’d rather hear from you than some of the other weekend. No, it’s always nice to see here.
Unknown Speaker 56:16
You really can’t hear Susie Oh, God see her?
Unknown Speaker 56:20
It’s not facing me. Okay. So, you know, I’m not going to discourage anyone from coming to counsel, I think that’s always a good idea to share your perspective and share with what’s being discussed on the board as well. And our priorities. I just based on what I was reading in the, in my packet, the library of all the items that was the most favorable is, you know, I think the community really wants to support and fund adequately fund the library. So I’m not worried that that would be one of the items that would be pulled off. Okay, I’m only speaking to Centennial pool Park. And though I understand you might want
Unknown Speaker 57:05
to step on, I just asked whether somebody from the board needed to talk to Mark and support the Whopper.
Unknown Speaker 57:13
Nice, good question. Real quick about the survey itself. I did take it. But I should have taken notes. What I don’t remember was, were any of the questions about the library and boarded that actually said it would be adequately funded? Because I don’t remember that. I just remember talking about building branch library.
Unknown Speaker 57:31
Yeah, no,
Unknown Speaker 57:32
no, it was not anything. It was all about capital investment and new, a new library or new facilities with the funding that will go along with it, nothing to do with current funding levels.
Unknown Speaker 57:49
So there’s nothing in this tax that would guarantee that either the existing library or a new branch library would be funded at any of the levels listed in the feasibility study that we want.
Unknown Speaker 58:01
No, it is, is funded, based on our estimates of what it would cost to open a branch library and operate it.
Unknown Speaker 58:14
Okay, so would counsel be aware of them that that would still be another issue that would have to be resolved, even if this goes through? Or simply Yeah, everything? Yes, yes.
Unknown Speaker 58:24
It is a concern. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 58:26
But again, that that was the budget thing we were just talking about. And we would be bringing those items back to you in April, for you to give comment as we prepare for 2024 to two completely different things.
Unknown Speaker 58:47
But I think your perspective is right on because a half of the feasibility study is not addressed by this initiative, the upgrade of the main library, the storefront library, and staffing, the targeted funding, none of that is going to be part of of the monies that are allocated if this initiative passes.
Unknown Speaker 59:14
Right. So my concern is if this initiative does pass, then we’re left again to continue begging for money. And people are gonna say, well, we just gave you all this great stuff. But I just want to make sure that the conversation about how is it all gonna continue to work continues,
Unknown Speaker 59:31
which is, again, what the budget conversation we just have, trying to implement those things that were identified in the feasibility study, including the storefront branch.
Unknown Speaker 59:48
So I’m not denying that I think I’m just saying like, I show me the money, I guess, right, like the proof is in the pudding. We’ll see if it actually happens. I would love that. That’d be wonderful, but it has moved on. a lot that hasn’t happened. So
Unknown Speaker 1:00:02
I think that’s something that we’re gonna want to really think. Refer back to the feasibility. I think it’s something we’re gonna want to consider to refer back to the feasibility study when we do share our support for for the budget. And I think that there are gonna be a number of opportunities to share those concerns. As long as we continue to read them for in terms of tomorrow night, Mark, thanks for catching me up. What was the answer if it would be advantageous? So surfing
Unknown Speaker 1:00:37
culture was always interested in? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:43
And then Susie, do you have any idea is maybe an impossible question. If anyone, I’d be able to stream part of the media tomorrow night. Do you have any idea when you think we should tune in? Oh, gosh, I’m
Unknown Speaker 1:00:57
looking at the agenda right now. And it is the last. It’s the last item. So it also it’s hard to gauge because in the event, nobody pulls items ordinances on first screen, then, you know, we just pass it all in bulk, and move to the next section. If people pull out items, then that could carry out the conversation.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:27
Plus the number of people talking under public
Unknown Speaker 1:01:30
and public invited to be heard there have been nights where
Unknown Speaker 1:01:33
it gets to be nine o’clock I’m shorting there has been any business conducted? You
Unknown Speaker 1:01:38
know? Yeah. So I think given the nature of the importance of what you guys are going to talk about tomorrow night, I can see that going away. It’s don’t you?
Unknown Speaker 1:01:49
Yes, yeah. I know for sure. We will, it will be eight o’clock. But then watch. I totally. Yeah, we’re like halfway through the presentation that eight. But you know, I, I can safely say that. Eight o’clock? You know, if you tune in after eight, you should be okay.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:12
So, I’m sorry.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:14
Oh, it’s just gonna follow up with the question of would it be advantageous for someone from the board to be there? I am not able to. I know that right away. But I don’t know if anyone else would want to be.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:30
Or, or the other thing is, John, and I will both be there. In the Wednesday morning, we could send out an email that summarized what what council decided
Unknown Speaker 1:02:43
you need too much, that’d be wonderful.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:49
Well, what I thought, well, you guys shouldn’t be there. But maybe it’s not the right timing on it, given the budget initiative. And I was wondering whether we should pass a resolution indicating that, while we’re happy that the city is is starting to focus on the library’s funding, that it’s only part of the battle as we see it. And there also needs reconsideration for the funding for upgrades to the main library and for a similar kind of library, as we have identified in the feasibility study. And you just send that off to I guess, Harold and the mayor, city council,
Unknown Speaker 1:03:42
I am curious if this is if this would be an advantageous time to do that, or if it would make more sense after that discussion. And as we learn more about the budget requests for this year, but I’m curious, right, what you think in response to that, and then when the rest of the board members think about this, as well. And hopefully you all heard me
Unknown Speaker 1:04:07
do you think there is a strategic aspect to what you’re suggesting to pay very close attention to how a conversation plays out? Tomorrow night, what other items are brought and see, like exciting or sensitive issues? And then, you know, we can figure out how to tailor our next communication accordingly. Because there’s no decisions that are being made tomorrow in regard to the library. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:49
There could be seems like
Unknown Speaker 1:04:52
so you didn’t ask my opinion? Yeah. So there is a potential that tomorrow night Council could move to move the branch library for that’s almost $23 million for the construction and another 3 million for operation. I think it would look bad if we did set. And that’s not enough. I think your point mark is important. But I don’t think it should come tomorrow night. Because it isn’t. With all due respect, it isn’t counsel, who you have to worry about. It’s the public’s going to be hearing that too. And, and they’re going to hear oh, my goodness, they just got that much in there telling us it’s not enough. So just just my two cents. I think it could come later, I think, since you said yeah, come come after that. So it’s clearly two separate things.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:01
Well, if it’s my turn, I respect your sensitivity, I could see that, I could see that kind of reaction. At the same time, I guess I’ve found myself. Many times being behind the ball on one of these initiatives where you think you’re, you jump in at a certain time, when you find that, well, that’s too late. By the time you get the events have already passed you by and then the opportunity to influence the discussion as has been lessened. And I understand the argument of waiting and being more strategic, I guess, in terms of the timing of this, but I would just from my perspective, Council Report, you got to really stay on top of this, because it’s real easy for the city to move forward on this. And you think you’re okay, and you’re not okay.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:04
I would agree. I think that in my short time of being involved with the library, that the board has been very clear on what your goals are and what your interests are. And I think that when you see the full list in April, at the meeting of what we’re going to request, the that gives you the ability to say, and when you go to council, and staff is asking for X, Y, and Z for the 24 budget, and you can support that piece that way. I think it it just, this is a better look for voters, we don’t want to turn anybody off. Because even at 60%, once you get your ballot, you know that 60% may actually be some different numbers. So we certainly don’t want to do anything to burn a bridge. Again, just my two cents.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:14
So let me turn to our members on may turn our members on Zoom, just to see if there are any comments that you all have. And I think the main discussion we’re having is would now be an appropriate time to weigh in as a board. I’m my thought is to wait. But we also have some some other thoughts and reasoning why.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:43
Mark, your resolution idea would just be to, to put in front of Council, the idea, kind of that I was saying that, like these other pieces of the puzzle still need to be taken into consideration simultaneous to this tax measure.
Unknown Speaker 1:09:00
Right, great, Catherine. And I mean, I’m okay. If the board wants to wait till after tomorrow’s meeting and decide whether they want to send the resolution, I just think there should be a communication of the sentiment of the group as to the general direction of where the funding for the library is.
Unknown Speaker 1:09:26
Now, that’s why I brought it up. I 100% agree with you. And I’d be inclined to just say it too, because I don’t think it’s going to surprise anybody.
Unknown Speaker 1:09:34
Yeah, I think when the other shoe drops, either one when you put it in the budget, or if it doesn’t get highly identified at that point at some future point down the road. People are going to say hey, what gives me just, you know, just voted for this environment being asked for more. And I think that’s just natural
Unknown Speaker 1:10:01
Yeah, my concern would be, then they would say, well, we can’t pay for that. Right? We already paid for this other thing. I think it’s personally I’d rather know up front, and what is the combined cost of actually running a high quality library? And yet, do I want to pay for that or not? versus, you know, Oh, I agree the concept of the building. And I don’t even think about how to run it.
Unknown Speaker 1:10:23
I guess an example that I will use is Rec Center is a new rec center is another item that’s on there. Just because there’s a new rec center on there doesn’t mean recreation won’t also asked for additional things as well. There too, in in my world of looking at the budget, there are two different things. And we will push for the library just as hard for these items that are going in, in the operating budget as we would for things in the election.
Unknown Speaker 1:10:59
I apologize if this is a rookie question. But is this like a just a simple matter of somebody who is presenting to just say a sentence? Like, keep in mind, what we’re discussing now is separate, separate from any of the potential requests and operating costs. I thought that that presentation of the feasibility study was so informative. There was so much information there that you know, and of course, not everybody saw, watched or read that report. But you would have that if you did, if you were at that meeting in November, you would have that memory and know like, Yeah, this is not the whole picture. This is just one thing that we’re talking about. But like, can somebody just say that, like, remind everyone listening like this is separate from operating?
Unknown Speaker 1:11:57
I don’t know. I don’t know, Suzy, what what your thoughts would be on that question?
Unknown Speaker 1:12:04
So yeah, so I guess we’re talking about, you know, two separate, so if somebody’s coming to speak to, you know, please get this on the ballot, you know, we support the idea of a branch library and the funding being used for that. But then it also sounds like there’s another item, which is the ongoing expenses for, you know, to attain that preferred level of service, and advocating for that as a change in our budget, not necessarily an additional tax, you know, tax increase to make that happen. Uh, you know, I, my thought is that it might kind of convoluted the two. So if we’re talking about two separate source getting acquiring money from the city, through the budgeting process, people might mistake it for what’s supposed to be on the ballot. So that would be the only thing that I would be concerned about. But again, in public invited to be heard, it’s what you will decide to record? Hey,
Unknown Speaker 1:13:12
I think we need to, to wrap this one up and move on. So I would like to propose that we hold off on making the statement. But if there is a majority of us as the board who disagrees with that, that doesn’t have to be you know, that can change. So is everyone. Would anyone like to make a strong case that we want to make some that one of us goes to public and ready to be heard tomorrow night? Are you all okay, after this discussion with making sure that we have a strong communication? Once we have the full budget list, then make sure to include information about the preferred level of funding from the feasibility study that?
Unknown Speaker 1:14:07
I can wait, that’s how you want it.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:11
Yeah, I’m not good at this. I think it’s important that we get out there. I can’t go tomorrow. So yeah, it’s hard for me to push it.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:21
For we got it,
Unknown Speaker 1:14:23
you know, I was just gonna say, you know, when you get up, there’s a Windows pretty shortage. So as far as when it opens, and then when you have to submit your proposals, is there a way that the board can acquire your list prior to having to finalize it so they can weigh in on it or
Unknown Speaker 1:14:45
it would be our hope that we can present that to the board in April, so that if you have other suggestions, we still have time and made to make other requests?
Unknown Speaker 1:14:57
And then I think you know, the time also means following those, that would be the time for you all to come in. Before everything is
Unknown Speaker 1:15:07
closed, that feels so much more like a natural flow. Because then if we if we see something in April, we can also talk about, we have more time to prepare that message and get it right. Rather than who can be there tomorrow night. And what are we gonna say?
Unknown Speaker 1:15:29
So, I’m okay with all that. I guess my question is the city ever figured out what the center the other component represents in terms of money? So you’ve got 23 million for branch law. But there’s another component to the feasibility study to get up to the preferred level, which includes upgrades here in the storefront plus staffing Plus Program. has a number of ever been put on that second piece?
Unknown Speaker 1:16:02
No, but that’s what we’ll be working towards. For the 24 budget.
Unknown Speaker 1:16:08
Yeah, but you’re not going to put it all in a 24 budget, right?
Unknown Speaker 1:16:12
will cry?
Unknown Speaker 1:16:14
Yeah. Well, you’re not going to put it all in the 24 budget, are you
Unknown Speaker 1:16:18
I can hear you.
Unknown Speaker 1:16:22
My thought would be that we would look at a phase of that phasing where we do it in one one to three years, and present that to you as a board. Give comment on that’s too, too, too long and time too short a time. But to get your feedback on. On what what we’re thinking.
Unknown Speaker 1:16:45
Okay, well, yeah, I liked the, you know, the, the point that was trying to put on the table is that if you don’t know what that second component is, you don’t know how disruptive it might be to a conversation on funding overall for the library. So if you identified it is like a million bucks a year, which I don’t think it is, you would know that then that’s not going to be as disruptive to the voters as if it was $50 million, for instance. So it would be good, I think, for the board and the city and everybody concerned to know what that second piece is. Because we’re going to, hopefully, we’re going to still push as a board for some kind of commitment from the city to the library to achieve that.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:39
Goal, the lower number was 880,000.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:44
Simple back to the feasibility. Yeah. You’re just taking the 23 out of the feasibility studies money, and we’re,
Unknown Speaker 1:17:51
we are going to come up with our own numbers. But just based on your question, that was like 180,000 to 2 million or something upper? I can’t remember the upper number. It was a big number. Yeah. But and they’re like you said, there’s no way we’re going to be able to get that in in one year. But we certainly need to have a plan for
Unknown Speaker 1:18:14
that. Yeah, well, they actually build it in a feasibility study. Yes. 10 years. So yeah, I mean, that that’s reasonable for an organization to challenge itself to do it’s just how you do it, whether you up front load debt, and what what that’s gonna mean to the community.
Unknown Speaker 1:18:33
And I think the other part of it is, what can the library really do with its existing space right now? You know, I think we could expand some hours. You know, but, but the, or the library is gonna have to do programming outside of the library. And that’s certainly an option. But there just is only so much space, and so much programming that can be done here. And, and doing doing programming in other areas of town will help us know, how successful the branches might be, you know, there’s Lashley Street Station, we could be doing some things on. And I think, well, it has some time available there. So there are other locations that the library could be doing things.
Unknown Speaker 1:19:29
That I mean, to me, it’s an interesting programming dynamic, because if you say, well, by the time the the voter initiative would pass, if it passes, and that you get your ducks in a row, in order to start picking a site, construe constructing the site and putting the library that could be two, three years down the road. So I would argue that you’ve got two three years where you don’t have a majority of City staff or library staff devoted necessarily to that, that you could spend doing some of these other initiatives. Or you may find that in putting all that together, the library staff is fully engaged and you can’t get to it to your mind. So it’s an issue.
Unknown Speaker 1:20:20
I hope it’s not three years, because I think if the voters want another branch, which it seems like they do, we need to be moving quicker than that. Because costs only go up as well.
Unknown Speaker 1:20:39
Right? Sorry.
Unknown Speaker 1:20:43
No, this is it’s kind of weird passing a mic. Well, I wasn’t around, but 20 minutes ago, I’m rambling. I’m sorry. There’ll be sorry, I have an eye on the time. I’ll cut. I’ll cut us off if we need.
Unknown Speaker 1:20:58
But let’s move on to the reports and information items. We’ve already discussed a fair amount of the budget that if there’s anything we missed, otherwise, John Europe, monthly highlights,
Unknown Speaker 1:21:07
yep. So yeah, nothing, nothing else.
Unknown Speaker 1:21:10
Yeah, to pass in the night.
Unknown Speaker 1:21:16
Shoot. So nothing else on the budget, as far as that’s concerned, the monthly highlights topic. And I can, more or less talk about this. And I’ll show you kind of what I have, it was in the packet that you saw, there was a PDF of kind of some slides from a PowerPoint of some highlights, but what I would like to start doing, starting this lesson going forward is is bringing some of these things back, which I think existed in previous board meetings, you know, some data, some information on library performance, I mean, you know, just, I think you brought it up even in your email before the meeting about that. So for for those of you on love for those who say, for everyone on Zoom, but let me let me just show you what I have. Here, without you guys see that, okay. So I don’t know, you know, don’t get too hung up on the format here, I I wanted to put something together, you know, other ones that might look different. I like to get something uniform, though. And one of my tech staff has some kind of platform where I can actually just kind of put some stuff in and it’ll kind of make these dashboards, which I do, I like the idea. But for now, I pieced together her put through various staff to, to give you some idea. And really what I want to try to do is show you what we’re doing in a month, not every single detail, but just some highlights of what happened in the previous months and see what library activity that you may or may not really know about. So that’s what this is. This is just I just put the PDF version up here, but kind of going through really our departments, right, so children and teen. You know, this is kind of some of the stuff that went on this month, or what not this month, but in February, show you some of the programs. It’s in your packet. So you can look through this in more detail. I don’t want to go through everything in the interest of time for now. But I’ll point out a couple of things where I think it’s relevant. But as usual, with children’s in many public libraries are usually the business department. Storytime alone carries that, but then there’s always other stuff going on.
Unknown Speaker 1:23:49
So lots of stuff here. Some really good team programming going on, by the way,
Unknown Speaker 1:23:58
there and then just getting into some some of the numbers you kind of see. You know, like the total number of programs that were done all over and then the total attendance of being so that those are pretty good as far as participation in library programs. And what we’re doing outreach, you know, of course, we have outreach, but but children’s always does outreach, right, because they do classroom visits and things and that’s a little bit different from what Lillian does with her outreach. She also goes to schools those, but furthermore for that. So you’re going to see outreach numbers always in different areas. But that’s really what this is here for the school so or for children’s as it relates to schools. Generally that’s what that is in adult programs. The February is a good month as far as adult programming and attendance are two big programs in February one was the film that was done earlier in the month. Are those Dublin City Council Chambers actually planning compasses? Not we are then there was a q&a with the director and Carmen. Sorry, with it was really kind of cool. Like a one movie film fest, right. And there was like the shows here, almost 150 came to that many more registers. So that’s really good attendance that often happens. And then the other big thing was the garden fair. So you see in the lobby, the seed library, we have fully funded by the friends, for free seeds, you can come in and just get what you want. That starts off with an annual gardening fair. And that was huge. Over 300 people were there, there were bullets where there was a line out the door. It’s a good problem to have. But it’s also a learning experience to see how can we do this? Maybe differently, whether it’s here, or he may be somewhere else, but sort of manage that a little bit better. I think there were still complaints about it. But I don’t like the idea of people kind of having to wait to get in, necessarily. Although maybe that’s okay. Because then people see like what’s going on. So there’s that all the other programming here that went on and adults, and you see the column and one of the things I’ve asked my department heads to do just because so many things. Well, pretty much 100% of anything we do with programming that needs money comes from the friends, which is something I think needs to change. But for the moment, I want to capture that. And I also will report this to the friends because they’re interested to know, what is our money going towards? I mean, I think they know but this is a much better picture for that. So there’s that outreach. There’s, there’s a million things I don’t want to I don’t really know how Billy does it. She’s out there all the time. Somehow she’s in two places at once. I think that she’s she’s got a lot of study programs going of outreach, like recurring things, she goes to a Mexican market and just stands there and people come, she issues memory cards on the spot. Most people don’t know anything that’s going on here. It’s like a brilliant idea to me. She sends me Lillian’s his picture here if you don’t know her. And what you’re seeing here is actually how she sends me her monthly reports, which are usually no less than, like 25 or 30 slides, because she includes a lot of pictures. And I think that’s really meaningful data for report that I didn’t put here. Also, she has a comment cards. And there’s really good feedback on some of that. And it was a little hard to kind of render here. But so that’s what you have. And then you can see just the sheer amount of stuff that she’s doing in this as in the winter. But the outreach is a little slower right now, believe it or not. So this will lead to get busier. And there’s you know, Lillian does a lot of this but
Unknown Speaker 1:28:13
volunteering their time, but they’re they’re going to help her volunteering in a way for William. They’re coming to work and arranging schedules and everything they everyone makes it happen. So Lillian can get support when she needs it. In case you didn’t know that. So that’s, that’s what I prepare for this month. Like I said, I want to kind of start doing this. And as I do more, you can kind of tell me what’s meaningful or not I, I happen to think numbers are good, but also, you know, feedback, whether it’s anecdotal or pictures, you can really just see how people are interacting with this library. It’s it’s one thing to see it and it’s one thing to just sit here and talk. So that’s my update there
Unknown Speaker 1:28:57
so one of the first things that comes to my mind is I’m so glad that one of the budget requests is to expand that partment because I would hate for that staff member to be burned out. Yep. So I think that’s maybe important for this board to keep in mind that we also want to work to prevent burnout as well. Is Lillian Posadas. A storytime in the parks in the summer. Yes, she’s amazing. I’ve only seen her justice and butterfly for the children’s three times. Any questions for John?
Unknown Speaker 1:29:31
I’m just guessing at this point, there’s no baseline data in switch to actually compare these numbers. Are you sort of starting to create your baseline here now with this work here?
Unknown Speaker 1:29:48
Well, I’m not sure. The web understanding like
Unknown Speaker 1:29:53
I guess it just sounds like she’s doing so much great work. It would be awesome to say like we have 30% more you know Spanish speaking The participants in our storytime now are, you know, to try and help maybe get the funding for this or even expand that department? You know, is there? Is this the data you need for the base review? Is there a way to compare this to something we already have? I guess,
Unknown Speaker 1:30:15
I think with with, with whole being still new with just barely a year in, I mean, but I think we can reach. Now I understand what you’re asking. Yeah. To see, like, are we seeing an increase in? And we have, so we need to track that. Right? Because what she’s doing is having, at least in one case, a direct impact, at least on attendance in storytimes that are in the library. Right? You know, so we’re attempts was one thing you can really say like, well, because of our outreach and storytime in the park, now we’re getting, you know, five more kids every week. So yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:30:52
Yeah, just be great to highlight some of the successes to help funding.
Unknown Speaker 1:30:57
I’m someone who loves metrics, and I love stories more than the numbers. I love the zoo. Sorry. Go ahead.
Unknown Speaker 1:31:07
I’m just gonna try and summarize.
Unknown Speaker 1:31:13
Okay. I was just saying, I love this. And I love that this dashboard idea of being able to measure progress and change over time, I’m most interested in the stories behind the numbers and how these different pieces interconnect. It would be really interesting to see over time, you know, is there a connection or a relationship between outreach efforts and circulation in those different departments? So, you know, it’s great to hear that it’s already noticeably impacting attendance at our in house programs. But are those individuals then checking out materials or engaging with other services in the library? I’m, I’m so appreciative. I did like a happy dance when I opened that PDF. I just love seeing that glimpse inside the activities for the past month. Thank you for giving that.
Unknown Speaker 1:32:17
How did your kids react to that? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:32:21
My Catholic kids react to anything, they’re mortified to exist. And
Unknown Speaker 1:32:27
so yeah, that Thank you. Thank you, Jan, I think that’s great. And one thing that we had discussed briefly is possibly bringing back staff visits as well. So for all of us, stay tuned for that. And also, just to share opinion, I love both the quantitative and the qualitative measures, because I think with libraries, of course, we need user sets and so on, but so much of the value is beyond the numbers. So I really appreciate the pictures also.
Unknown Speaker 1:32:57
Yeah, and I’ll just, I mean, I want to echo that, because while well, numbers are important to show, you know, what we, as labor professionals are always trying to get across and that we firmly believe is that we impact lives. And numbers don’t show that story showing. And getting the real actual feedback. And, you know, it can be it can be something just, you know, someone really enjoyed something, and they were just entertained or whatever. And it could be another person that because they came to the library, their lives were saved, because they got a job because someone helped them. That’s what’s meaningful. And I think that’s what gets votes, honestly.
Unknown Speaker 1:33:40
Yeah, and I think that a successful program could be based on a high attendance, but also it could be to people with the interaction and the connections. So I just want to make sure we don’t ever fall into the fallacy of thinking that attendance is the only measure. Any other comments or questions? Jimmy shake because he was to you for the Friends of the Library leaves and update.
Unknown Speaker 1:34:08
I don’t have a whole lot to say the friends meet on Wednesday. I did. We had a very successful sale. I don’t know how much I need to report on that or what?
Unknown Speaker 1:34:23
What you already maybe just the big numbers
Unknown Speaker 1:34:26
was about 10,000 that we bought it, which I want to say was a record amount of money, especially our opening day. We shifted our timing a little bit. So normally we did the Thursday through Sunday. And this time we did the Wednesday through Saturday and then did a breakdown on Sunday morning. And just that shift, I don’t know it just kind of shook things up. Our opening day, which was friends, man burgers only. That was our biggest moneymaker for the sale. And then I think it just made it easier for volunteers to break the setup down, not after having the sale all day to come and fetch the next morning. What else do I have to teach?
Unknown Speaker 1:35:24
Okay, yes.
Unknown Speaker 1:35:26
We had one resignation from the friends board. So we are looking for a mother board
Unknown Speaker 1:35:32
member.
Unknown Speaker 1:35:36
And then hopefully, you have shared these slides with prudence or
Unknown Speaker 1:35:43
not yet. Well, so Well, if nothing. I won’t be able to be that friend to me, because I had a previous commitment for the state a while ago, but I told put in stuff that I didn’t think to send the PDF. So I will send that. Okay. I just, I actually wasn’t sure that now with your hair, you can kind of share what I said. Maybe I just
Unknown Speaker 1:36:09
thought I should wanted to ask. Yeah, we weren’t going to be presenting it, though. I think I was actually the kind of information that they’ve been asking for.
Unknown Speaker 1:36:22
So they told me, so I’ll send that to you.
Unknown Speaker 1:36:25
Yes. That’s all I’ve got. Is there any questions or specific things that you want to know?
Unknown Speaker 1:36:40
No question that Mike has in front of you. And we still can’t hear you.
Unknown Speaker 1:36:44
I said I don’t have more to report. But if you have any specific questions, either about the sale or other friends activities, I know they’re planning a their annual meeting members meeting for later in the spring and combining it with a volunteer. Thank you. Volunteer acknowledgement, appreciation. Peace. So after Wednesday, might have a more robust report for next for April.
Unknown Speaker 1:37:18
Okay. Can you hear me? Okay. Okay. All speech lab. So I will I was going to update Council tomorrow we have our we’re going to be hearing the survey, but we already discussed that. At length, we did have our our retreat, the 10th of the 11. And, and that was very productive. We were able to, to have in depth conversations around what our work plan our goals and objectives and just making sure that our you know, we’re getting through that and just the work plan that was created before I got on council, I think it was 2018. And just looking at how they progressed, or how we evolved progressing during the years, but the big focus, you know, of course, it’s the operational, that’s the big overarching, every, you know, with all of our departments, but key things that we wanted to give attention to housing, you know, getting that attainable and affordable housing for so residents or people who work in Longmont can afford to live in Longmont and and you know, people who have kids and their kids grow up to have a secure place to stay. You see early childhood education, that’s that was another one that was on that 2018 work plan. And we’re looking at how we can incorporate that you’re just philosophy of birth to five having that strong foundation and how we can offer as a city support for employees specifically is looking at employees. And we’ve heard a little bit of presentation from the not at our retreat but as another council session from the Early Childhood coalition and ideas they have to to create like a universal Early Childhood initiative for over County and surrounding counties. Transportation of course, there’s a lot of changes coming in with multimodal, we’re doing Vision Zero, that that whole use is not a program. It’s kind of a philosophy or just a way of doing business where the focus is zero deaths, through car accidents or through any kind of transportation accident. So a lot of it is how we do our infrastructure in the city where it’s more pedestrian friendly, and then bicycle list and then drivers. So it’s really putting the safety measures around the pedestrians. On the other one, you know, 100% renewable energy by 20. I think the long term one was 2050, you’re gonna get as close as we can to 2030. So we’re talking about a myriad of items that we did. And I found these very helpful. I think you all did this. Right. And I don’t know if you all have a copy of this, on your own can pass that around. But just what are those aspirational ideas, looking at what is ongoing, what is essential, all the way to foundational as far as what needs to be paid for and covered. So that was each we got one of those for each department, public works public safety, the museum, the golf courses, everything. So I thought those were pretty helpful for me as a council person looking at the whole picture, and seeing where those priorities are.
Unknown Speaker 1:41:09
Be able to send that out digitally, since you can’t see it.
Unknown Speaker 1:41:13
Do I have rehabber? Here he is I just had a paper copy. That’d be great.
Unknown Speaker 1:41:24
Yep. And that’s, that’s all I have. Let’s say anyone has any questions for me?
Unknown Speaker 1:41:30
Questions for Susie?
Unknown Speaker 1:41:32
Especially when it’s not library late related? Should I wait till after we’re done?
Unknown Speaker 1:41:38
Um, maybe just in the interest of time, if you don’t mind?
Unknown Speaker 1:41:42
So So I have. It’s not a question. It’s just a an observation that is this might appeal to you, Catherine. This, this has a listing of things that the library desires to accomplish. And I haven’t really studied it, of course, but I would add some kind of long term stable funding. So the list made that I can. If you get a chance for a rewrite in your job, Jeff and John made it
Unknown Speaker 1:42:27
that that wasn’t the goal of that it was really to share with council, our current work work efforts that we do not about what we’re trying to attain with, based on the feasibility study.
Unknown Speaker 1:42:46
And if you look at, you know, because we have we have ones for shared services, utilities and public works, public safety, the electric department, the water, I mean, we have one of these for every single department. So I think just having that itemized list of, of just it wasn’t I know, it does, it doesn’t get in depth. I, the public safety one was pretty, pretty large. But even then it didn’t get to, you know, as far as like specific numbers, or budgeting it was just the central the core ideas that they’re trying to do.
Unknown Speaker 1:43:30
That has been a focus for the room. Yes. Yes. And I have a lot of these to digest.
Unknown Speaker 1:43:36
So. So these numbers are the percentages as in percentage of expenditure of effort or labor or
Unknown Speaker 1:43:44
so yeah, so public safety organizing, this was design time. So 5% of their time is dedicated to this 10% of their time, was dedicated to significant community support work or urgent critical needs.
Unknown Speaker 1:44:06
Well, thank you for sharing this as well. Any other comments or questions for Susie? Right, let’s move on then a library board comments. Right. Let’s talk about our next meeting. I would like to maybe if we could confirm the date. But if we could also talk about format. I typically am a fan of hybrid because I think it allows more people to participate. But I also am recognizing the limitations in this room. And so I’m curious if we could hold a full in person meeting next month. But let’s talk about the date first. So third Monday, so I have that is April 17. Anyone have any conflicts or any reason to rearrange that they
Unknown Speaker 1:44:59
don’t? Do it for me. I’m just in the middle of district negotiations. So we do have a meeting. Yeah, it’s going to be budget. Right. So our pay you need to go
Unknown Speaker 1:45:23
in the event we get out early started for so in the event we get out early I can come by,
Unknown Speaker 1:45:30
that’d be great. And that works out. Yeah. Great otherwise, and let’s, let’s continue on your poll. 77 o’clock. What do you what do you all think? Resume attendees? Do you think this is one to attend that you’d be able to attend in person?
Unknown Speaker 1:45:49
Um, I currently don’t have anything on my calendar. But I would also say that like things kind of happened to so I’m not there, right, because my boss texted me yesterday, and that she probably has COVID. So I like wouldn’t have been able to figure that out like a month ahead of time, if that makes sense. So like, I don’t have any currently, like scheduled conflict right now with that. But if someone were to text me out of nowhere, again, I probably wouldn’t come in person. So it just kind of like, I guess, like, barring anything new happening, I will plan to be there in person. So yeah, and I just have childcare complex a lot of time. So yeah, you know, tonight, my husband’s gone, and my parents are gone. And my sister’s gone. So this was the only way for me to participate also. So, you know, the things happen. But yeah, and
Unknown Speaker 1:46:42
I bet you, I think that participation is an important part and making sure we provide options for all to participate. So I guess, then, to keep the zoom option, that hopefully, we will be able to, to meet without it.
Unknown Speaker 1:46:58
With mice, we can’t keep.
Unknown Speaker 1:47:01
So the suggestion is, we go to the old board meeting, it’s a smaller room. I mean, it’s more congested. If you don’t have it, don’t pass the mic.
Unknown Speaker 1:47:13
At the moment, although this might be kind of fun to sit in there, it is stuffed full of prom related clothing that’s been donated. That’s another children’s program while they’re organizing it. It’s really a library effort to get stuff in people who can’t afford my stuff can go wrong. Anyway. So I don’t know that that would happen next time. But what can happen in this room is more than one of these. So we’ll make sure the technology is figured out so we’re not open mic night.
Unknown Speaker 1:47:53
Right, that’d be great.
Unknown Speaker 1:47:55
It’s curious because in my classroom, just a single laptop will pick up everybody. Well, mine’s different.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:02
Oh,
Unknown Speaker 1:48:03
the background fan is switched on the same. Yeah. Um, okay, anything else regarding our next meeting? Other than that,
Unknown Speaker 1:48:16
can we just name the main meeting too?
Unknown Speaker 1:48:18
Because Megan’s so crazy yes. Great idea
Unknown Speaker 1:48:27
Alright, so I have that is May 15. I might be at a conference that day
Unknown Speaker 1:48:36
Yeah. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:42
There is a probability of this maybe I’ll just say the short term
Unknown Speaker 1:48:59
was the 22nd we have better No, I go I’ll be gone. Okay. So I will definitely be out of town on the 15th
Unknown Speaker 1:49:10
I don’t know if that’s it. Anyone else knows that already.
Unknown Speaker 1:49:19
You want to do it?
Unknown Speaker 1:49:21
Yeah, I could do the eighth I could do the 22nd I don’t know all the other
Unknown Speaker 1:49:26
conference on the 22nd but the if we weren’t for me.
Unknown Speaker 1:49:31
You argue with any American I can do it.
Unknown Speaker 1:49:35
I cannot but John can I have worked in red for
Unknown Speaker 1:49:39
the Senate. Susie, I can do the eighth or the ninth actually all of those are good for me. Right now let’s
Unknown Speaker 1:49:47
let’s move to do the eight. Sounds like the majority of us will be here then. Right. Well, then I missed the journey at 851. Thanks off You
Transcribed by https://otter.ai