Library Board 2022-02-02

COLUMBIA HEIGHTS PUBLIC LIBRARY Approved 3939 Central Ave NE, Columbia Heights, MN 55421 3/2/2022 BOARD OF TRUSTEES: MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022 ATTENDANCE INFORMATION FOR THE PUBLIC Members of the public who wished to attend could do so in-person, by calling 1-312-626-6799 and entering meeting ID 862 5221 5747 and passcode 039390, or by Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86252215747 at the scheduled meeting time. For questions, please call the library at 763-706-3690. The meeting was called to order in the Library Community Room by Chair Tricia Conway at 5:30pm. Members physically present: Tricia Conway; Teresa Eisenbise; Gerri Moeller; Christopher Polley; Nick Novitsky (Council Liaison). Members remotely present: N/A. Members Absent: Carrie Mesrobian. Also present: Renee Dougherty (Library Director); Nick Olberding (Recording Secretary); Georgia Cook (Library Supervisor). Public physically/remotely present: N/A. 1. Introduction of Georgia Cook: The new part-time Library Supervisor introduced herself to the Library Board, and highlighted her recently completed Library Sciences master’s degree. She resides in the southwest metro area, and hopes to learn the needs of the community and how the Library fits into the residents’ daily lives while working here. 2. The Minutes of the January 5, 2022, Board Meeting were moved and unanimously approved. 3. Operating Budget Review: $51k remaining unspent, but the financials will not be finalized until later this month. Most of the surplus is due to underspending in personnel; there was no Youth Services Librarian for 2.5 months and part-time staff did not work all anticipated hours. To date in 2022, three part-time Pages have resigned and one will be studying abroad for the spring semester continuing a pattern of understaffing. Community Forum: Opportunity for public input; no public in attendance at this meeting. Old Business: 4. Fine-Free Implementation Update: As the Board is already aware, the City Council unanimously voted to eliminate overdue fines at CHPL. Thanks are due to everyone involved in the effort: former Board members for starting the conversation, current Board members for continuing to advocate and seek support on social media and in the community; library staff for support and logistics; citizens for voicing support and communicating with the City Council; and the Council for listening and asking the questions needed to make the decision. Implementation will happen in three phases. The first phase is programming the Integrated Library System (ILS) to eliminate overdue fines on any items checked-out on March 1, 2022 and after. The next step will be to change the status of any items previously borrowed so that they, too, will not incur overdue fines. Lastly, any existing overdue fines on patron accounts will be expunged (overdue fines only, not lost/damaged costs, rental fees, or purchases.) Steps two and three will require the assistance of ILS vendor SirsiDynix and will likely happen after March 1 because many other libraries are also eliminating fines at this time and ACL/CHPL will need to wait for an available programmer. In the interim, patrons that may be blocked by fines in excess of $10 can contact staff to have overdue fines forgiven. Council Liaison Novitsky wondered if there is an efficient way to message patrons (especially blocked patrons), and welcome/invite them back to the Library. 5. Review of Library Policy Manual for Submission to the City Council: After 18 months of review, updating, and approving various policies (some of which had not been reviewed in 10-20 years), the Board is ready to forward them to the City Council for final approval. Board Staff Secretary Olberding has compiled and reformatted all the revised policies into one CHPL Policy Manual document, which will be submitted at an upcoming City Council meeting. Realizing that some of the policies reviews were done in 2020, the Board discussed a review cycle. Now that policies are up-to-date, subsequent reviews should take much less time and could be done more often. Every three (3) years was the consensus of the Board members in attendance, to coincide with Board/Commission term limits, meaning that fewer members will be starting from scratch understanding the reasoning and implications  of the policies. No motion was made to enact the review cycle, but 2025 was suggested as a target next review date. New Business: 6. Preliminary Strategic Planning: The Board Meeting packet included previous Library strategic planning documentation; a Goalsetting Report prepared by the City of Columbia Heights in 2020; and research done by Carrie Mesrobian into the goals of ISD13 and other groups. The Board assigned themselves the task of looking over the strategic planning documentation, doing their own research, and compiling goals they might have for the future of the Library. The Director will seek staff suggestions for strategic planning before next month. A progress report on the current strategic plan was distributed at the meeting. 7. Director’s Update: Operational reports, general updates, event reminders, and items from the floor. a. January Operational Reports: FYI b. Compensation Study: The City commissioned a compensation and pay equity study for all positions and is in the process of approving and implementing its recommendations. Employees with the lowest wages will be getting the largest pay increases. Compensation increases will benefit the Library and other departments in staff recruitment and retention. The study will add ~$30,000 of unbudgeted personnel expense to the 2022 budget and a percentage increase in subsequent years. The Board said at the next meeting they would like to discuss the possibility of re-structuring PT/FT positions and whether there would be a benefit to decreasing the amount of PT positions to add an additional FT position, or other potential options. c. IT Department: The City IT department will increase from 3 to 5 persons in order to adequately serve all departments. A new position of IT Director was created and Jesse Hauf was hired. New Help Desk Technician Jessica Lundberg will focus on the library and liquor operations. New staffing will allow theIT Department to quickly implement changes/upgrades, fix issues, and adapt to new technologies. d. Annual Report: The 2021 Annual Report will be presented for approval at the March meeting. e. 2022 Snow Blast Winter Fest: The 2nd annual Snow Blast family-friendly community event will take place Saturday, February 5, 2021, from 3-6:30pm at Huset Park, featuring story stroll, skating, pony rides, fire pits, food trucks, beer garden, and free hot beverages/popcorn/s’mores while supplies last. There being no further business, a motion to adjourn was made at 6:27 pm, and seconded; meeting adjourned. Respectfully submitted, Nicholas P. Olberding Recording Secretary, CHPL Board of Trustees