Board Meeting Minutes 10-21-19

LIBRARY BOARD MEETING
Monday, October 21, 2019
Hanover Park Branch Community Room
7:00 p.m.

CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT

Anita Forte-Scott, President; Jillian Bernas, Vice-President/Secretary; Theresa Seyring, Treasurer; Hannah Hyman; David Jonen; Julie Wroblewski Bosshart

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT

None

STUDENT TRUSTEES PRESENT

Alisa Gandhi, Araha Uday

OTHERS PRESENT

Victoria Akinde, Tanya Bhothinard, Emily Gilbert, Justine Gilbert, Monica Harris, Blake Kindl, Annie Miskewitch, Kathy Morgan, Tiffany Nash, Dan Pohrte, Carole Pye, Hollis Sienkiewicz, Bobbi Sloan, Lori Teipel, Gail Tobin, Beth Valenziano

PUBLIC COMMENTS

No public comments

BOARD COMMENTS

Trustee Jonen congratulated the Library on the Culinary Curiosity exhibit and thanked all the staff members who contributed to the exhibit’s creation.

Vice-President Bernas talked about the Schaumburg Township Historical Society bus tour, with special recognition of Local History Librarian Jane Rozek’s work. 

President Forte-Scott has toured the Culinary Curiosity exhibit and enjoyed the experience. She plans to visit again to see more. She and Treasurer Seyring will attend the ILA Annual Conference Trustee Day Thursday, Oct. 24 in Tinley Park.

RAILS - Ms. Hyman

RAILS will be hosting a Trustee Training event at the Central Library on Saturday, November 2 starting at 9:30 a.m.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Trustee Hyman moved and Vice-President Bernas seconded that:

The September 16, 2019, Regular Board Meeting Minutes be approved.

Discussion included a misspelled name, addition of names and a correction.

The motion passed unanimously. 

APPROVAL OF BILLS

Treasurer Wroblewski Bosshart moved and Trustee Jonen seconded that:

The Library Board approved the September 2019 Bill List.

Roll Call Vote:
Mr. Jonen             Yes
Mrs. Seyring             Yes    
Ms. Bernas             Yes 
Ms. Hyman             Yes
Mrs. Wroblewski Bosshart     Yes 
Ms. Forte-Scott         Yes

ADDITIONS OR CHANGES TO AGENDA

The Architecture + Design presentation will be moved before the Director’s Report. There will be an Executive Session to discuss appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees; and litigation, when an action against, affecting or on behalf of the Library has been filed or is pending.

FIRST FLOOR PRESENTATION AND PLAN BY ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN
 
The architects from Architecture + Design walked through the new, proposed floorplan, pointing out the updates from the existing design. A new kidsZone entrance, with a smaller entrance for children and a fiberglass wall to bring in light, was presented. One construction option would be to make the smaller, child sized entrance more interactive with interchangeable electronic displays with possible light show projection. This will create an active play area that children can interact with and touch. The color scheme of the fiberglass will reflect the colors already present in kidsZone.

Acoustical ceiling panels will be included through the new lighting fixtures in the circulation area, along with a new circulation desk, self-checkout stations, holds area and behind-the-desk workflow. The bathroom color scheme will reflect the blues and greens of the Commons area. The bathroom was created with a common balance of durability and usefulness, along with an updated design that reflects the rest of the Library.

Bids for construction are planned to go out November 21, 2019, with construction planned to start in February 2020, and tentatively ending in June 2020. The alternate options in construction at the kidsZone entrance could cost a potential $100,000 over the current budget, depending on bid amounts.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

President Forte-Scott mentioned upcoming events connected to Hanover Park.

DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Executive Director Harris asked Deputy Director Miskewitch to introduce Blake Kindl, the new Building Operations Manager. He has overseen building construction projects for two decades and is excited to be a part of the upcoming Central building improvement. 

Executive Director Harris continued her report with a mention that the next meeting will have a presentation from our current auditors. Finance Director Valenziano said the recent visit from the auditors was a great opportunity to see how to do things differently and improve upon current practices.

Ms. Harris mentioned the Summer Challenge wrap up statistics and outcomes from this year’s program, including identified goals to improve for next year. RAILS received a grant for Census 2020, with the Library expected to receive a mini-grant from RAILS to promote the coming census. The first payroll cycle from the new system has gone through and the taxes will be noted differently in the future. One Book, One Community has been announced with a visit from author Min Jin Lee scheduled to take place at the Al Larson Prairie Center for the Arts on Thursday, February 20, 2020. Board members have the opportunity to participate in promotion for the One Book, One Community initiative by having their photos taken with the book before the November meeting. Ms. Harris also explained the agenda of the upcoming Staff In-Service day, noting that board members are invited to attend.

DEPUTY DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Deputy Director Miskewitch mentioned the carpets were cleaned for the entire Central building, along with paint touch-ups. Regular repairs and landscaping refreshes took place at the branches. Kanopy was launched on October 1 with 10 checkouts available per patron per month. The IT department also worked with Digital Services to create more clarifying email notifications for items that were not automatically renewed, so patrons know which items are due on what dates.

Ms. Miskewitch mentioned training for the payroll conversion took place with the entire staff. Ms. Miskewitch joined Ms. Harris during the Donuts with the Director to speak one-on-one with staff at all locations. She also attended the Urban Libraries Council Forum that took place in Utah this year and focused on the theme of AI and Digital Citizenship. She noted how artificial intelligence is currently being used and how important this topic is to libraries. 
    
DEPARTMENT REPORTS

Access Services – Victoria Akinde

Access Services Director Victoria Akinde explained her department encompasses Interlibrary Loan, cataloging and acquisitions. They are involved with ordering materials, downloading the catalog records, processing the item once it arrives and delivering items to their departments. Ms. Akinde works with IT and Circulation on creating appropriate records between items and the patrons using the cards. A big initiative for her department has been the zero-waste policy on books. Staff members dedicate a good deal of time to pulling items that haven’t circulated for the book sale. If a pulled item is in bad condition it can be recycled to keep it out of a landfill. And if an item doesn’t sell at the book sale, then Access Services works with a vendor to try to sell it to keep it out of the garbage.

Ms. Akinde’s department also discussed the new leasing program being used to limit the purchase quantities of very high interest items that potentially end up in the book sale. She also discussed how book donations from patrons with good intentions often create unforeseen costs in processing and are frequently added directly to the book sale.

Hanover Park Branch – Gail Tobin

Hanover Park Branch Manager Gail Tobin noted that the branch does a little bit of everything and recognized the staff with all they do in their roles. Ms. Tobin is very active in the community, including on the Bartlett Area Chamber of Commerce and Hanover Park Village’s Business CONECT Committee. Many programs taking place at the Hanover Park Branch are sent over from the Youth or Fiction department from Central. But recent original programming initiatives have included new movie showings and technology programs.  

Ms. Tobin also highlighted how the Library was a distribution center for the free nutritious meal program from the Greater Chicago Food Depository with 1,145 meals successfully offered to patrons during summer 2019.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
 
Nomination Committee – Anita Forte-Scott and Hannah Hyman

President Forte-Scott explained there were 12 applications for the open board seat and they will be discussed further in the executive session.

STUDENT TRUSTEE REPORTS

Araha Uday has been working with the school district social media coordinator to promote Library programs to their students, including What’s the Tea and Brainfuse. She started working with students to keep them more informed about what services the Library provides. 

Alisa Gandhi has worked with Araha to create an updated PowerPoint presentation with new information for the classes they visit. The SATs thanked the Library for the donation of 20 new books to Conant’s school library. Alisa and Araha are working to get into the new Hoffman Estates school library. They discussed expanding marketing to the teens to make them more aware of Hoopla, Kanopy and other helpful digital services.

TREASURER’S REPORT

Treasurer Seyring explained the General Fund Balance dropped by $250,000. The Income Statement includes total revenue of $30,000. E-Rate funding that was expected last year came in this year. Books and materials are currently tracking below budget but are expected to catch up. Costs for recent new hires will be projected in the second quarter.

Treasurer Seyring mentioned the finalized costs for the payroll conversion will be reflected in December. Community Services costs are lower because many e-resource subscriptions are paid in the first quarter of the year. The ILS system was paid earlier in the year than expected. Investments have reacted favorably because of interest rate hikes. 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

None

NEW BUSINESS

Review of Draft Pay Scale 2020

The board received final revisions to the draft of the revised pay scale that addresses updated recommendations. Changes include shifts in the scale for some positions, as well as the addition of positions not in place in the last draft. The pay scale will simplify the three existing scales into one central scale, and all required minimum wage changes for the fiscal year are addressed. The new pay scale is set to go into effect beginning January 1, 2020. Recommendations are all designed to keep salary costs within market range.

Review of Policy Schedule

The board reviewed a schedule of what policies were updated last and when they might be included in a regular system of review. Mrs. Wroblewski Bosshart recommended review of topics in groups on a quarterly level or bi-annually. Policies could be reviewed until all were updated, then the schedule could become less regular. Ms. Bernas suggested a possible four-year cycle, which would allow every trustee to review every topic during their term.

Approval of Code of Conduct

Vice-President Bernas moved and Treasurer Seyring seconded the approval of the Code of Conduct. 

Roll call vote: 
Mr. Jonen             Yes
Mrs. Seyring             Yes    
Ms. Bernas             Yes 
Ms. Hyman             Yes
Mrs. Wroblewski Bosshart     Yes 
Ms. Forte-Scott         Yes

The motion passed unanimously.

Approval of Waiver of Bid for Professional Service Product Architecture + Design for construction documents related to 2020 renovation in the amount of $28,067.28
 
Trustee Hyman moved and Trustee Wroblewski Bosshart seconded the approval of Waiver of Bid for Professional Service Product Architecture + Design for construction documents related to 2020 renovation in the amount of $28,067.28. 

Roll call vote: 
Mr. Jonen             Yes
Mrs. Seyring             Yes    
Ms. Bernas             Yes 
Ms. Hyman             Yes
Mrs. Wroblewski Bosshart     Yes 
Ms. Forte-Scott         Yes

The motion passed unanimously. 

Approval of Professional Development Expenses of $1,455.60 for ALA Midwinter Conference in January 2020, $1,464.75 for PLA Conference in February 2020, $1,624.69 for PLA Conference in February 2020 and $1,411.28 for PLA Conference in February 2020.
 
Trustee Wroblewski Bosshart moved and Trustee Jonen seconded the approval of Professional Development Expenses of $1,455.60 for ALA Midwinter Conference in January 2020, $1,464.75 for PLA Conference in February 2020, $1,624.69 for PLA Conference in February 2020 and $1,411.28 for PLA Conference in February 2020.

Discussion included clarifications of the difference in amounts. 

Roll call vote: 
Mr. Jonen             Yes
Mrs. Seyring             Yes    
Ms. Bernas             Yes 
Ms. Hyman             Yes
Mrs. Wroblewski Bosshart     Yes 
Ms. Forte-Scott         Yes

The motion passed unanimously. 

EXECUTIVE SESSION

Vice-President Bernas moved and Trustee Jonen seconded that:

The Library Board exit the open session at 8:59 P.M.

Roll call vote: 
Mr. Jonen             Yes
Mrs. Seyring             Yes    
Ms. Bernas             Yes 
Ms. Hyman             Yes
Mrs. Wroblewski Bosshart     Yes 
Ms. Forte-Scott         Yes

The motion passed unanimously.

Trustee Jonen moved and Vice-President Bernas seconded that: 

The Library Board enter Executive Session at 9:09 P.M. 

Roll call vote: 
Mr. Jonen             Yes
Mrs. Seyring             Yes    
Ms. Bernas             Yes 
Ms. Hyman             Yes
Mrs. Wroblewski Bosshart     Yes 
Ms. Forte-Scott         Yes

The motion passed unanimously. 

Trustee Hyman left Executive Session at 9:59 P.M.

Vice-President Bernas moved and Trustee Wroblewski Bosshart seconded that: 
 
The Library Board exit Executive Session at 10:01 P.M.
 
Roll call vote:

Mr. Jonen             Yes
Mrs. Seyring             Yes    
Ms. Bernas             Yes 
Mrs. Wroblewski Bosshart     Yes 
Ms. Forte-Scott         Yes
The motion passed unanimously. 

Vice-President Bernas moved and Trustee Jonen seconded that: 

The Library Board re-enter Regular Session at 10:02 P.M.

Roll call vote:

Mr. Jonen             Yes
Mrs. Seyring             Yes    
Ms. Bernas             Yes 
Mrs. Wroblewski Bosshart     Yes 
Ms. Forte-Scott         Yes

The motion passed unanimously. 

ADJOURNMENT

Vice-President Bernas moved and Trustee Jonen seconded that:

The Library Board adjourn regular session at 10:02 P.M.

The motion passed unanimously.