ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY BOARD
343 S. FIFTH AVENUE, ANN ARBOR, MI
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2017
17-039 I. CALL TO ORDER
President Vander Broek called the meeting to order 6:00 p.m.
17-040 II. ATTENDANCE
Board Present: Victoria Green, Jim Leija, Jan Barney Newman, Colleen Sherman, Linh Song, Ed Surovell, Jamie Vander Broek
Board Absent: None
Staff: Josie Parker, Eli Neiburger, Karen Wilson (recorder)
17-041 III. RECESS TO CLOSED SESSION FOR DIRECTOR’S EVALUATION
17-042 IV. RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING AT 7:00 PM
President Vander Broek reconvened the meeting at 7:05 p.m.
17-043 V. RECOGNITION OF DR. A.W. CHASE’S BIRTHDAY
Secretary Surovell brought to the Board’s attention that today is the bi-centennial birthday of Dr. Alvin Wood Chase. He noted that Dr. Chase was a prolific self-publisher and shared several of Chase’s publications from his private library along with historical details regarding Dr. Chase’s life.
17-044 VI. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
(Item of action)
Trustee Barney Newman, supported by Secretary Surovell, moved to approve the agenda.
AYES: Green, Leija, Barney Newman, Sherman, Song, Surovell, Vander Broek
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
17-045 VII. CONSENT AGENDA
(Item of action)
CA-1 Approval of Minutes of February 20, 2017
CA-2 Approval of February 2017 Disbursements
Treasurer Leija, supported by Trustee Sherman, moved to remove the Minutes of February 20, 2017 from the Consent Agenda.
AYES: Green, Leija, Barney Newman, Sherman, Song, Surovell, Vander Broek
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
Treasurer Leija, supported by Trustee Sherman, moved to approve the consent agenda as amended.
AYES: Green, Leija, Barney Newman, Sherman, Song, Surovell, Vander Broek
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
17-046 VIII. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 20, 2017
(Item of action)
Treasurer Leija proposed amendment to the minutes of the February 20, 2017 meeting, section 17-036 by correcting the statement that the Executive Committee “was unable to meet to outline a process for the” to read “met but did not resolve the issue of a new process for the” Director’s evaluation and will therefore use the existing process.
Secretary Surovell, supported by Treasurer Leija, moved to approve the minutes as amended.
AYES: Green, Leija, Barney Newman, Sherman, Song, Surovell, Vander Broek
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
17-047 IX. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
Dave Diephuis
I live in Ann Arbor Michigan on South State Street. Thank you for the opportunity for speaking. It’s interesting you amended the minutes because when I was looking at the minutes this afternoon and that was one thing that bothered me was the fact the executive committee had met and had not come up with a more robust process for the executive director evaluation. My perception and perhaps my perception is wrong that Director Parker does a self-evaluation submits it to you and then you make your comments on. That seems a little bit of a disservice to both Director Parker and to the community. The community kind of expects at least I expect that you’d have some collaborative goal setting that is both measurable and specific and were not seeing that. I hope as you move forward you will address that. Some of you may think that you set a strategic plan, those are goals and yes that is a very good high level document but it doesn’t really have any specific targets or actions when you talk about you know, we want more adult programming. Well how much more adult programming, you’re saying 10%, 20%? When we talk about we want alternative funding sources, do we want to build to a $10 million endowment, do we want to get $500,000 a year. These are things that I hope you will work on and that I think the community expects. And on a different issue I just would talk about transparency. You guys are doing a pretty good job on your minutes and newsletter and things like that. I would still love to see this meeting broadcast. Almost all meetings in this community important and otherwise are available for viewing. This is virtually the only one that isn’t. And also I don’t know if you changed your policy but committee meetings are not posted where they are and they don’t seem to be available to the public. Again most committee meetings in Ann Arbor are available to the public to attend. I doubt that you would get many people coming to your committee meetings but at least they should be available. That’s my comment for this evening.
Henry Herskovitz
I’m Henry Herskovitz and I am from Turtle Creek Pennsylvania, but I’m not sure if that is what you meant by where I am from. I am here tonight to address an issue that I find rather disturbing. The AADL has used its resources including my tax dollars to place an ad in a magazine that supports an apartheid foreign government. Referring to page fifteen of this month’s issue of the Washtenaw Jewish News, there are two points I would like to make. First that this newspaper in addition to printing articles about development to the Jewish community also contains articles on the support of the State of Israel. In this issue there are articles discussing the Michigan Israel Business Group, prominent men and women who have studied in Israel and articles that encourage and pay for Jewish teens to travel to Israel. Indeed this ad from the March edition last year acknowledges the ties between Israel and Ann Arbor Jews. This lady is telling us that Israel exists in the marrow of Jews in this community. Secondly to support our claim that Israel is an apartheid state I printed for each of you the executive summary of a paper authored by Richard Falk and Virginia Tilley from the United Nations Economic and Social Mission for Western Asia. I would like to read its opening paragraph: “This report concludes that Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole. Aware of the seriousness of this allegation the authors of the report conclude that available evidence establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Israel is guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crime of apartheid as legally defined in instruments of international law.” So as a member of the AADL, as a tax paying supporter of the Library I ask that we cease purchasing ads in a paper that openly supports apartheid. Now when I got here tonight Josie told me that when she told me I had two minutes to speak that I have three minutes to speak so I would like to address some of you who may have been following this issue as closely as I do. These people know this report was removed from the United Nations website two days after its insertion and the woman who was the Undersecretary General for the organization even though she had only two weeks left on her contract she stepped down. And I think what she said was very telling. She said quote “We expected of course that Israel and its allies would put huge pressure on the Secretary General of the UN so that he would disavow the report and has.” But she said “I cannot withdraw yet another well researched, well documented UN work on grave violations of human rights.” So I think that we need to, in spite of the fact that yes legally, technically the report isn’t there, physically it’s in your hands and that’s the executive summary that you have, if you want the full report, seventy-five page report I do have a cached copy of it. That’s available to all of you. Thank you very much.
17-048 X. FINANCIAL REPORTS
Cindy Richmond presented the February 2017 financials in the Board Packet. Ms. Richmond stated the number of variances has decreased as she has been working with staff to ensure expenses are in their appropriate accounts.
17-049 XI. COMMITTEE REPORTS
17-050 A. BUDGET AND FINANCE COMMITTEE
Treasurer Leija reported that the Budget and Finance Committee met on March 10th and received an update on Westgate operating costs and a seven year forecast for capital building maintenance expenses. The committee will review a draft of the 2017-2018 budget at their next meeting.
Director Parker reported that interviews for the Finance Manager position have begun. The Accounts Payable position has been reposted.
17-051 B. DIRECTOR’S EVALUATION COMMITTEE
President Vander Broek reported the Board met with Director Parker in closed session to begin her evaluation. The Board is using the old evaluation process this year. The committee is working on creating a new evaluation process for next year’s evaluation.
17-052 XII. DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Josie B. Parker, Director
In addition to the written report in the Board packet, Director Parker highlighted:
Several thank you cards received were created with items from the tools collection.
The African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County Living History exhibit opening is scheduled at the Malletts Creek Branch Library on Sunday, March 26th.
All AADL locations served as warming centers during the recent wind storm power outage.
“Need Pruning Shears or a Ukulele? Try the Public Library” article appeared in the Wall Street Journal this past weekend. AADL staff was interviewed for this article.
Director Parker served on a panel at the UM School of Information’s QuasiCon Conference discussing the topic “Democratizing Access to Professional Preparation for Librarians.”
The Downtown Library restroom rehabilitation project has begun.
The 2015-2016 annual report was emailed to almost 90,000 email addresses.
Construction will begin on the Traverwood retaining wall once the frost laws are lifted.
Traverwood Branch will be closed April 17th through April 19th for routine maintenance on the wooden floors. Pittsfield Branch will be closed May 15th through May 22nd for re-carpeting.
The Assistive Technology Lab will be moved to a different location on the second floor of the Downtown Library allowing for relocation of a security station to the labs former location.
Trustee Barney Newman left the meeting at 7:56 p.m.
Requests from Old News and a number of tweets received were shown.
17-053 XIII. OLD BUSINESS
Facilities Manger Lemorie reported that permits for the Traverwood project have been received and construction work is waiting on the anticipated date of April 17th for lifting of the frost laws.
17-019 B. UPDATE ON DOWNTOWN LIBRARY RESTROOM REHABILITATION CONSTRUCTION PROJECT
Len Lemorie, Facilities Manager
Facilities Manger Lemorie reported that a dust wall has been created around the construction project area and demolition begins this week.
16-154 C. UPDATE ON EMAIL MARKETING EFFORTS
Eli Neiburger, Deputy Director
Deputy Director Neiburger reviewed statistical information regarding the recent emailed 2015-2016 annual report.
The infrastructure for a weekly AADL newsletter, with adaptation for mobile use is under construction. Statistical and analytical information will be amassed and reviewed from this marketing effort.
16-154 D. UPDATE ON NEW WEBSITE
Eli Neiburger, Deputy Director
Deputy Director Neiburger provided background information on the current website along with technical enhancements that are planned for the new website. The earliest planned launch date is Labor Day 2017. Patrons will be notified well in advance of the change. Administration and the Board discussed various ways to ensure patron notification and the Board requested a communication plan outlining actions to be taken to ensure this process.
Deputy Director Neiburger noted that once the new website design is in a testing format it will be brought to the Board to preview.
17-054 XIV. NEW BUSINESS
17-055 A. VOTE FOR CLOSED SESSION AT THE APRIL 17, 2017 REGULAR BOARD MEETING FOR DIRECTOR’S EVALUATION
(Item of action)
Roll call vote
Treasurer Leija, supported by Vice President Song, moved to hold a closed session at the April 17, 2017 regular meeting for the Director’s evaluation.
A roll call vote was taken.
AYES: Green, Leija, Barney Newman, Sherman, Song, Surovell, Vander Broek
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
17-056 XV. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
There were no additional citizens’ comments.
17-057 XVI. ADJOURNMENT
President Vander Broek adjourned the meeting at 8:41 p.m.