Mid-Columbia Library System
Board of Trustees Meeting
Minutes May
15, 2006
Present: Staff:
Shirley Painter, Chair Danielle
R. Krol, Director
Gloria Garcia, Secretary
Robert G. Schultz, Board
Member
Bonnie Taylor, Board Member Harold Hayes, Community
Ser. Mgr.
John Radford, Board Member Ana
Sánchez, Exec. Assistant/Minutes
Absent:
Sandra LePage, Board Member
(Excused)
Special
Guests:
VISITORS:
Tanya Patton,
Bonnie Williams,
Diane Longanecker,
Shirley Painter welcomed the three members from the
Dayton Library and offered the Board’s assistance in starting up their new
library.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA:
Ms. Painter pointed out the second item on the agenda
under discussion items, (Article – “Trustees Restrict R-Rated Loans”), was supposed
to be on the July Board meeting agenda and requested the topic be moved to the July
agenda.
Ms. Painter noted she would also like to talk under
the Information Item, Summary of Road Trip.
With no other additions or corrections, the agenda
was approved as corrected.
CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS:
§
Finance
Report:
The balances as of May 1, 2006
General Fund: $1,299,382.49
Library Capital Reserve Fund: $1,252,898.57
§
Approval of
Payroll and Benefits
As of this date, May 15, 2006, the Board by a
majority/unanimous vote ratified the Finance Director’s signature on the April
2006 regular payroll voucher number 16597 – 16734 in the amount of $230,706.56
§
Voucher
Approval
As of this date, May 15, the Board by a
majority/unanimous vote ratified the Board Chair’s signature on voucher number
7715-7811 in the amount of $170,501.97 and approves for payment voucher number 7812-7871
in the amount of $105,090.86.
§
Surplus
Property
The following worn out, obsolete, or no longer needed
items (168 AV, 57 fiction, 424 non-fiction, 703 juvenile, 2,635 periodicals,
512 other) were declared surplus, and the director was authorized to negotiate
their sale as an entire, unsorted lot.”
Total number of items to surplus is 4,499.
Ms.
Painter requested a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Robert Schultz moved and
APPROVAL
OF MINUTES – APRIL 17, 2006:
Ms.
Painter noted she felt it would make sense for Ana Sánchez to sign the minutes
as well as Gloria Garcia since Ms. Sánchez took the minutes. Ms. Garcia noted even if staff takes the
minutes the Board Secretary is ultimately responsible for the minutes. It was agreed that Ms. Garcia would be the
only one to sign the minutes.
Ms.
Painter requested the Board’s input on how they would prefer to be addressed in
the Board minutes. The consensus was
that they will be addressed as Mr. or Ms., with the exception of Mrs. Painter.
Ms.
Painter asked for a motion to be entertained to approve the minutes. Ms. Evans moved to accept the minutes as
presented and Mr. Schultz seconded the motion.
Approval of the motion was unanimous.
VISITORS:
DIRECTOR’S
REPORT:
Ms.
Painter requested the Board review the Board roster and inform Ms. Sánchez of
any corrections.
Danielle
Krol asked the Board how they felt about having their e-mail addresses shared by
staff to the public. The consensus was
that it would be acceptable to publish the Board’s address and telephone numbers
but not their e-mail address unless it is the Mid-Columbia Library System’s
private domain e-mail address.
Ms.
Krol shared that the Richland Public Library hired a new director, Ann Roseberry, who was the former public library director
in
Ms.
Krol informed the Board she plans to travel to
Tuesday
and Wednesday, May 16 & 17, the Executive Team will be interviewing the
candidates brought in from out of town for the Youth and Outreach Services Manager
position. Later on during the week some
staff will also be attending the Labor Relations Institute in
Ms.
Krol stated the Executive Team had a very productive session with Diehl Rettig,
general counsel to MCLS this morning.
Once the minutes for the meeting are typed, she will share them with the
Board. Mr. Rettig also invited the Executive
Team, Branch Managers and their spouse/guest to take a boat ride on his boat;
they will be planning that event soon.
Ms.
Krol informed the Board she would be discussing Jeanne Goodrich’s proposal for
strategic planning with the Board Planning Committee during their next meeting.
Ms.
Krol said that the Staff Day was incredible, featuring terrific speakers and
she thanked the Board members for attending.
Ms.
Krol noted she would like to have Pat Wagner do training during the next Staff
Day. One of the topics she felt would be
good was “If change is so great, why am I not having fun?” She also suggested having the Board attend some
of the training sessions.
After
the Director’s Report, Kyle Cox resumed the Parliamentary Procedure Workshop
that began prior to the regular Board meeting.
Topics
covered under this training included: Types of motions; handling motions, action
items and committee structure. Mr. Cox
provided the Board with a laminated summary sheet on how to handle motions to
use during meetings for reference.
The
Board discussed possible improvements on the agenda. Suggestions included adding “New Business and
Old Business”, and deleting “Information/Discussion Items” since the Board is
provided with information ahead of time and do not need to review the information
as a group.
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
RE: PRINTED REPORTS:
Ms.
Painter shared with the Board her experiences from the road trip she, Ms. Evans
and Ms. Krol took to visit other libraries.
Ms.
Taylor noted that both of the reports, resulting from their trips to libraries
in
Ms.
Painter pointed out the suggestion of creating floor maps for patrons. This is something she has been requesting for
a long time and noted that it is something we should think about. Other suggestions she liked were using the term
“express check-out” instead of self-check and providing lanyards for latch-key
children that could possible be paid for by the Friends.
Ms.
Evans suggested having a staff member go through each report and list the
recommendations, how much will it cost and how the Library System can
accomplish on those suggestions.
Ms.
Evans then moved to compile a list of all the recommendations resulting from
the staff’s reports. Ms. Taylor seconded
the motion. John Radford moved to amend
the previous motion to assign the task to the Board Planning Committee. Mr. Schultz seconded the motion. The amendment to the motion passed
unanimously. Seeing no further
discussion, Ms. Painter put the main motion, now amended, to vote; the motion
passed unanimously.
DISCUSSION
ITEMS:
In
relation to the Risk Management Report, Leoné Michalec reported that she has
received a letter from Safeco Insurance and will be addressing some of those
issues with the City of
Ms.
Krol proposed the Board have Pat Wagner conduct a workshop for the Board on
October 3rd with regard to governance and goals. Ms. Krol also proposed a workshop on fund
raising and development featuring Terry Collins and Paul Feavel from the Seattle
Public Library Foundation to be conducted jointly with the MCLS Board and the
MCL Foundation.
Ms.
Painter asked Ms. Sams if she thought this type of training would be
appropriate and if the Foundation would be interested. Ms. Sams noted she would bring it up to the
rest of the Foundation Board and they will decide a date at a later time. The Board concluded they will vote on this
topic at the next Board meeting.
There
is currently no update on the Lorz Foundation as the Board is awaiting a
response from Mr. Rettig.
Ms.
Painter informed the Board that during the Administrative Committee meeting, a
recommendation was made for the Board Finance Committee to meet on a regular
basis. The member of the Board shared
their experiences from other Boards with regards to other finance committees
they have served on. Ms. Krol shared
with the Board that Mr. Rettig had mentioned that all of the committees need to
plan their meeting dates for the entire year.
Mr. Rettig also suggested consolidating the Finance and Planning
Committee as there is some overlap in their responsibilities. Ms. Taylor suggested having the Finance
Committee meet bi-monthly.
Ms.
Taylor moved that the Finance Committee meet bi-monthly and if they do not need
to meet they can cancel the meetings.
Ms. Garcia seconded the motion.
Motion passed unanimously.
Mr.
Radford moved that all committees come to the next Board meeting with a
tentative schedule to vote on. Ms.
Garcia seconded. The motion passed
unanimously.
In
relation to the update on
Mr.
Hayes referred the Board to the information provided in the Board packet
regarding non-resident cards. The
response to the Board’s questions regarding this topic was defined in the
information provided. The Board
concluded that they would like to refer this item to the Administrative
Committee.
Ms.
Painter shared that RFID was a very interesting thing to see when she went to
the Seattle Public Library. However, it
is rather expensive but in Joe Ford’s report, he noted that the price may come
down in the next 18 months. Ms. Painter
pointed out that she wanted to be sure staff understood that the issue is not whether
they want to go to self service or not.
Most agree that self service is where they are headed. The issue is whether they retain security
strips or not.
Ms.
Painter requested that the TRIDEC report be carried over to next month’s
agenda.
Mr.
Cox pointed out that there were two articles about having Richland Public join
the MCLS.
Mr.
Radford shared that he had also written a letter to the editor but it was not published
because they felt it was too long.
Mr.
Radford noted that there was still an error on the calculations of the
statistics report. Ms. Michalec noted
that she would have it corrected.
Under
the Governance Committee reports, Ms. Painter asked the Board to think about
the type of training they would like to receive. Ms. Taylor suggested discussing this topic in
the Planning Committee. If any member of
the Board has ideas within the next couple of weeks, they should e-mail the
ideas to Ms. Taylor or Ms. Krol.
Ms.
Painter noted she really appreciated having the task list resulting from the
Board meetings as it would help the Board stay on track. Ms. Taylor suggested the list be sent to the
Board within a few days after the meeting.
Ms.
Painter noted that Ms. Evans had done a great job in talking about the road trip. Ms. Painter shared some of her experiences
from the trip as well. Ms. Taylor
requested that Ms. Painter add her suggestions to the list that will be
prepared from the staff reports.
The
Board quickly reviewed the last items listed as Information Items.
Mr.
Schultz noted that Mr. Cox’s presentation was very helpful and believes it will
help them run the meetings more orderly.
He also mentioned that he would like to see a condensed agenda, since a
lot of the information items do not need to be discussed or noted on the
agenda. He suggested having old business
and new business on the agenda instead of Discussion Items. He also suggested having the committees
provide a report each month, even if it is to say that there is no report for
the month. Each item that they have for
discussion should be clear to the Board as to its relevancy. It would be more useful if the agendas were
set up in an action type fashion.
Mr.
Cox pointed out that even though information is included in the Board packet,
it is not necessary for the Board to discuss all of it.
Ms.
Garcia suggested placing items that do not need to be discussed under an
informational tab.
Ms.
Painter concluded the regular Board meeting by reminding the Board that the
next meeting would take place in
The
Board and Executive Team entered the Executive Session at 8:43 p.m. The Board moved out of Executive session at
9:02 p.m. Ms. Painter reopened the
meeting to adjourn and asked for a motion.
Ms.
Evans moved to adjourn the meeting at 9:03 p.m.
Mr. Schultz seconded the motion.
The motions passed unanimously.
Gloria
Garcia, Board Secretary