Library Board of Trustees

SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES MARY RILEY STYLES PUBLIC LIBRARY Held in the Mary Riley Styles Public Library 120 N. Virginia Avenue Falls Church, VA 22046 November 6, 2019 1. CALL TO ORDER AND INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS Chairperson Stephanie Oppenheimer called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The following Board members attended the meeting: Stephanie Oppenheimer Chet DeLong Chrystie Swiney Kathleen Tysse Molly Novotny Jeff Peterson Absence excused - Don Camp Planning Commission Liaison Rob Puentes was not in attendance. The Director introduced the guests to the Board: City Manager Wyatt Shields, Mr. Lionel Millard as the new Library Project Manager, Director ofPublic Works Mike Whitfield and Project Manager Joel Timmins. Others present for the meeting included: Council Liaison Ross Litkenhous, Library Director Jenny Carroll and her assistant Claudia Gutierrez. Ms. Oppenheimer stated the importance of gathering the Board for a special meeting to strategize on how to approach Council and engage the public before the GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price) is presented to Council. There have been many conversations about the library project, the surplus monies, and the need for engaging the public to support the project. She encouraged the Board to attend Council meetings to show support for the library and invited the public to do the same. 2. LIBRARY PROJECT UPDATE AND STRATEGIC PLANNING The Director presented the interior finishes walk through video with narration. The video started at the comer entrance foyer showing the upper level and the new layout of adult collections and services. The walk through included the new addition showing the exposed brick wall (former exterior of the building) and adult fiction collection, the adult non-fiction area, reading and seating areas with outlets, public computers, a new meeting room and the new Local History Room. On the lower level, the Youth Services area serving teens and children, the video shows the book collections, service desks, and the large conference room with a capacity for 180 people. The video walked through the 3 different literacy zones including infants, school-aged children and teens. The space includes two study rooms, a large space for strollers, large windows, seating areas and play spaces for kids.  The Board was pleased with the presentation, as it will be a useful tool to show the public how the new library will appear on the inside. The Director also previewed the interior finish boards for display to the public; two of them will show the upper and lower floor plans with fixtures, furnishings and design colors, and another will show the exterior elevation including two interior renderings for the main and lower levels. All ofthis information will be posted on the library's website including the video, slide show presentation of the exterior elevations, and an update on the project. Mr. Millard informed the Board that the library project team is preparing lessons learned from the City Hall project to present to Council at the December 9 meeting. Mr. Millard added that work to prepare the trailers at the TJ Elementary School campus is progressing. The new ramp entrance and painting are complete; a sink and cabinetry will be added to the staff area. The GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price) package from Centennial, the Construction Manager at Risk, is due to city staff on December 13. City staff will review the package and then enter into negotiations with Centennial. The process will take approximately 3 weeks and is a confidential process. The GMP package will then be brought to the Board in a still to be determined open or closed session. Procurement and city staff in conjunction with the city attorney will make that decision in the next month. Mr. Millard stated that there were some items added to the GMP package that came out of lessons learned from City Hall; such as addressing the sprinkler system, audio visual and security features, and increasing the contingency. He addressed the change in the submission date for the GMP from December 2 to December 13. The GMP drawings were issued November 5 to Centennial and five weeks would be approximately December 13. The project management team in partnership with Centennial determined that the best approach would be to give Centennial the full five weeks in order to negotiate with their sub-contractors to get the best pricing. City staff also needed time to review and negotiate the GMP before bringing it to Council. The project team, which includes the Library Director, Mr. Millard, Mr. Timmins, Mr. Whitfield, City Contract Manager Karin Battle and City Purchasing Agent Jim Wise will be reviewing the GMP and conducting negotiations with Centennial. The GMP cost will be presented to the Board and after that to Council. The first opportunity for presentation to the public will be either at the Board meeting or Council meeting. The GMP will be presented to two sessions of City Council - a work session and a regular session in January. Mr. Shields stated that is it currently on the January 6th schedule and is subject to the negotiation process. There are two actions from Council one of them is to authorize the execution of the construction contract and the other one is amending the budget both of which will require two readings. All of Council's actions will be in regular meetings. If there are still ongoing negotiations then Council may have a closed session and this may be why the Board meeting may be a closed sessiOn. There was a discussion about what strategies the Board should take to convince Council to make the library project one of their priorities. One of them is showing the value of the project to the community and what we are getting for the money. There were suggestions of getting library users and people involved in order to speak out in support of the library project by attending Council meetings or sending a letter/email to Council. Mr. Litkenhous encouraged the Board to do this. There was a concern about the project cost increase and determining how it will be funded. Mr. Shields and Finance Director Kiran Bawa will provide Council options at the work session to address the overage and Council will make the decision. There have been questions from Council both financial and "nuts and bolts" ofthe library 2 project and Mr. Shields is working on gathering the questions and providing the answers. Mr. Litkenhous added that these questions are related to the overall project cost and if it had been managed effectively. Another concern is the timing- given the time between pricing occurring five years ago and then going to referendum 3 years ago- and being able to cover the scope of the project. Even with the overage is the library project what the City really needs and do citizens want to spend more money than what was approved in the referendum. Mr. Litkenhous suggested either putting the library project on another referendum or waiting in order to commit more money for the project. Mr. Litkenhous stated that it comes down to a number and what they are comfortable approving. He added that Council needs to decide on which City projects they will allocate the surplus to; some of the priorities are traffic calming, stormwater improvements, and cost overruns for the City Hall project. The Board discussed what arguments they should focus on to answer Council questions. They were of the understanding that guidance from Council was to proceed with the design of the library project. Council reaffirmed that LEED silver certification, streetscape and stormwater needed to be part of the scope of the project, which increased the project cost. The Board made a case to the public that the library needed a renovation due to all the building problems such as plumbing, the HV AC system not working properly, not being ADA compliant, an aging elevator, and the lack of space among other issues. At the 2016 referendum, the citizens voted for a library renovation and expansion. If the scope of the project is now changed or reduced, it will not be covering what the citizens voted on. There was a question regarding the financing of the overage. Mr. Shields stated that incurring more debt is a legal issue because it would be more than what the voters approved. The approach that they would propose would be to not incur debt to finance the gap. The expansion is important since there has been a considerable increase in the City's population and in addition, the demand for library services had increased as well. Mr. Millard added that the current building conditions cannot be ignored; it will be expensive to keep maintaining the building the way it is including staff time. The Director added that there would be serious repercussions if the library remains the same. The building is over capacity and there is a high demand for library programs; if there is no renovation and expansion, the programs will needed to be held in the current small conference room which does not have enough capacity. In addition, the building problems will keep increasing, and fixing all these problems will likely trigger ADA compliance. Bookshelves will need to be taken out to make more space for aisles and turnarounds and the book collection would be reduced to approximately 80,000 items. The Director and City staff will work on talking points including a timeline of the project, a list of the costs of not renovating i.e. replacing equipment and associated maintenance costs, a comparison between the initial2014 budget addendum, and the increases in costs to the budget including Council requirements. The Board will write a letter to provide to the public including a form letter that can be used to send to Council. The Board discussed attending Council meetings in November and December. Mr. Litkenhous supported having the public contact Council and recommended consistent and sustained pressure. The Board agreed to work on a strategy consolidating information, lobbying Council members one-on-one, getting citizens to support the library project's completion and attending the next two Council sessions on November 12 and December 9. They will also invite the Foundation and VPIS to offer their support as well. 3. BUSINESS NOT ON THE AGENDA None 3  4. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 9:00p.m. Respectfully submitted, Approved: Copies: Board of Trustees, City Manager, Library Reference Desk, Staff Bulletin Board, City Clerk, Library Web Page The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit ofthe Americans with Disabilities Act. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability, call 703-248-5032, TTY 711. 4  MARY RILEY STYLES PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES SPECIAL MEETING November , 6 2019 SIGN-IN SHEET NAME ADDRESS EMAIL ~~~ LitV S. L/Vl~- .~ _ ~-k~"k~~~u ~ 3tJtJ ~,fk I t)I/'C IJ f1 ;/c. ~ JJA ;+('e r) Fe- Ibf a,ft;.J-0d:J(!}_ h /1 5Clz //~ rhv ~ "" t- w~;_,~@ lA <-1 L tv1 ;/lew{ I ll 11 lmitC4Je I I 1 ) Page 1