ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY BOARD
343 S. FIFTH AVENUE, ANN ARBOR, MI
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2018
18-054 I. CALL TO ORDER
President Vander Broek called the meeting to order at 6:05 p.m.
18-055 II. ATTENDANCE
Board Present: Victoria Green, Jim Leija, Jan Barney Newman, Colleen Sherman (arr. 6:34 p.m.), Linh Song, Ed Surovell, Jamie Vander Broek
Board Absent: None
Staff: Josie Parker, Eli Neiburger, Bill Cooper, Rich Retyi, Karen Wilson (recorder)
Others Present: William Stapleton, Hooper Hathaway
18-056 III. RECESS TO CLOSED SESSION FOR DISCUSSION OF REAL ESTATE
18-057 IV. RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING AT 7:00PM
President Vander Broek reconvened the meeting at 7:05 p.m.
Trustee Leija arrived at 7:09 p.m.
18-058 V. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
(Item of action)
Trustee Sherman, supported by Trustee Green, moved to approve the agenda.
AYES: Green, Barney Newman, Sherman, Song, Surovell, Vander Broek
NAYS: None
Motion passed 6-0.
18-059 VI. CONSENT AGENDA
(Item of action)
CA-1 Approval of Minutes of March 19, 2018
CA-2 Approval of March 2018 Disbursements
Trustee Barney Newman, supported by Trustee Sherman, moved to approve the consent agenda.
AYES: Green, Barney Newman, Sherman, Song, Surovell, Vander Broek
NAYS: None
Motion passed 6-0.
18-060 VII. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
Paavani Tewari
Hi, my name is Paavani and I made a presentation for the Michigan Statistics Poster Competition and I would like to share what I found out. My first question was what are the most used materials. I wanted to know if people used the library summer game as reading program or a watch movies program. I found out that books is 49% and DVDs is 26%, so books is definitely more. Because books are more I wanted to know what are the most popular books over all the years. Most of them were Harry Potter, I wasn’t surprised by that, but when this new book, The Hunger Games came up, I was like what in the world is that book! So when most of them were Harry Potter, I wanted to know what were the most popular series. The most popular series were Hunger Games trilogy, Harry Potter, Divergent trilogy, Heroes of Olympus and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Because most of the books that we found were above my level, I wanted to know what most popular books were at my level 750 to 850. From this list I’ve already read Wonder and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They were really good. [Trustee Jim Leija arrived at 7:09 p.m.] I would like to take this time to say thank you to Eli for taking the time to list and for giving us the idea for using the summer game data. He also sent us the data and helped us fix some of the problems we had. And last but not least inviting me to this Board meeting. Thank you.
Chanbani Wiersba
My name is Chanbani Wiersba and I am currently a senior at the University of Michigan studying public policy and graduating in just a couple weeks. I previously came to speak to you in the fall because I’m interning at CivCity, which is a local non-partisan non-profit that focuses on increasing awareness of how local government works in getting residents in Ann Arbor engaged in civic life at CivCity. I recently published a report that looks at the level diversity in local government and thinking about what the community and what the public bodies in Ann Arbor can take away. And I will be emailing all the link very shortly. Many of you contributed to this report by filing out the survey I sent to gather demographic data and allowed me to interview you for the project. So thank you so much to the six of you who were able to respond to the survey and the two of you who took the time to be interviewed it was greatly appreciated it. I wanted to share a couple takeaways with you tonight. One takeaway I have is that across the bodies I looked at, City Council, Board of Education, Library Board and the County Commissioners, a lot of people care about engaging with the community, they care about diversity, they care about making better more efficient decisions for the community, but there’s not very much collaboration between these bodies or proactive collaboration with the community. So one idea I have is actually what Ann Bannister and Jason Morgan felt, City Council and County Board, they got together and had a coffee hour, a joint coffee hour, which allowed them to engage with each other and think about how boards can work with each other and also engage the community and bridge that gap. I would love for there to be more innovative ways to engage with the community because obviously not too many people come to your regular meetings which are open and so it would be great to find a way to ask residents how they can better engage in ways that are acceptable to the community. And another takeaway I have is that there still is lots to do in terms of diversity not just of representation but also of ideas and diversity doesn’t just mean having the elected officials who look like the people they represent, but that’s definitely a start. And looking at the population of Ann Arbor as a whole there’s many communities that aren’t currently represented. For example, right now we only have one person of color on City Council and in particular very few young people in office. We have people of color and what I would love is for the more active recruitment of these younger folks and more women to run for office and because you are in that unique position of being able to actively recruit people. People see you as trustworthy and obviously you have the experience that would be really great for candidates to be recruited into this especially people who otherwise might not run. And a final thing to consider is that many elected officials that I spoke with in my interview, I interviewed twelve people, they presented ideas for increasing financial stipends that you get to incentivizes people to run because obviously it’s a big time commitment. But it would be beneficial also to look at ways to decrease the cost of running for office in the first place. That more people are encouraged to run and, you know, a broader array of people with all their different experiences will come and run in the first place. So I really hope that this report will encourage public discussion and discussion within the body and across bodies of the importance of diversity and the importance of community engagement and collaboration and just kind of the general awareness of what is happening in Ann Arbor government. And I encourage you to read the report and you can find it on medium.com. It’s published by Mary Morgan who is the executive director of CivCity. I’ll send you all the report and feel free to email me back with anything particularly striking. Thank you for your time.
18-061 VIII. FINANCIAL REPORTS
Bill Cooper, Finance Manager
Finance Manager Cooper presented the March 2018 financials in the Board Packet. He noted that $15,297,148 in property taxes, 98.1% of the budgeted amount, has been received year-to-date. Currently year-to-date expenditures are under budget by $1,468,400.
18-062 IX. COMMITTEE REPORTS
18-063 A. BUDGET & FINANCE COMMITTEE
Treasurer Leija reported the committee met and discussed the 2018-2019 draft budget which is proposed for review later on the agenda. The committee is recommending maintaining the maximum millage rate allowable under Headlee.
18-064 X.DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Josie B. Parker, Director
Director Parker submitted her written report in the packet and highlighted the following:
A recent Community Action Network Newsletter recognized AADL for welcoming several local teen programs into the Secret Lab.
Tunde Wey will be presenting a program at AADL on his use of food as a way to promote difficult conversations about race, privilege and the disparity. This event is in partnership with the Penny Stamps School of Art and Design.
AADL participated in recent FoolMoon and Festifools festivities.
University of Michigan Depression Center’s Bright Nights program study paper was recently accepted for publication in Academic Psychiatry. AADL has hosted numerous Bright Night programs.
On May 16th join us for the bi-annual VISIONS Conference being held here. The Director of the Michigan Bureau of Services for Blind Persons, William Robinson, III, is scheduled as the keynote speaker.
A listing of educational groups provided with meeting spaces at AADL as coordinated through our Outreach and Neighborhood Services Department was reviewed.
The public computers on the second floor have been relocated. Laptop bars have been installed along the wall where some of the computer stations were previously located. The public services staff desk has been moved back near the new security office.
Public and staff comments were viewed.
Library Camp, an unconference open to library staff and board members across the area was held here last week Friday. Susan Kornfield, a copyright and intellectual property lawyer from Bodman Law was the morning’s guest speaker. Staff who prepared and ran this event were thanked.
The Downtown Library experienced a boiler failure last Friday. One of the boiler pipes leaked requiring the system to be shut down. Temporary repairs have been done and replacement parts are being sought. This repair could be quite expensive as outlined in the building assessment report prepared by O’Neal.
18-065 XI. OLD BUSINESS
18-049 A. RESOLUTION TO REALLOCATE BALANCE OF APPROVED FUNDS FROM THE TRAVERWOOD MSE PROJECT TO USE TOWARDS PUBLIC MEETING SPACE IN AADL BRANCHES
Len Lemorie, Facilities Manager
(Item of action)
Treasurer Leija, supported by Trustee Sherman, moved the Board resolves that $378,000 of Capital Project Funds is reallocated from the Traverwood Branch Library MSE wall project for the construction of public meeting rooms in Malletts Creek, Pittsfield and Traverwood Branch libraries; that all resolutions and parts of resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.
Facilities Manager Lemorie reviewed the amount of bookable meeting spaces being created at the three branch locations.
AYES: Green, Leija, Barney Newman, Sherman, Song, Surovell, Vander Broek
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
18-050 B. RESOLUTION TO EXTEND SPACE USE AGREEMENT WITH THE FRIENDS OF THE ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY
(Item of action)
Treasurer Leija, supported by Vice President Song, moved the Board resolves that the President of the Board of Trustees of Ann Arbor District Library be authorized to sign a one year extension of the space use agreement along with the President of the Board of the Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library; that all resolutions and parts of resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.
Director Parker noted that draft copies were distributed to the Board of the Friends and no request for changes have been received.
AYES: Green, Leija, Barney Newman, Sherman, Song, Surovell, Vander Broek
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
18-066 XII. NEW BUSINESS
18-067 A. DISCUSSION OF PROPOSED 2018-2019 BUDGET
(Item of discussion)
Finance Manager Cooper presented the draft 2018-2019 budget. A 2% increase in tax collections is anticipated. With a millage rate of 1.8913, total revenue is anticipated at $16,679,610. This is includes $100,000 pledged from the Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library.
Expenses show an increase of 7.8% in Salaries and Wages which includes a 3% merit pool and staffing increases in facilities and security. Employee Benefits decreased by .63%. Increases are seen in Employment Taxes, Materials, Building Rental, Library Programming and Operating Supplies. Grants and Memorials reflect an expenditure of $100,000 for the Summer Game. Hold notices are no longer being mailed reflecting in a decrease of 42.86% in Postage. Other Operating Expenditures which includes various memberships and fees shows a decrease.
The Capital Project Fund shows a proposed budget of $1,008,825 reflecting $500,000 carried over from the 2017-2018 fiscal year.
The Board discussed the designation of monies received from the Friends, expansion of philanthropic support and soliciting corporate sponsorships. The topic was referred to the Budget and Finance Committee to research further.
The Board gave no further direction to administration to revise the proposed budget prior to the May public hearing of the budget.
18-068 B. VOTE FOR CLOSED SESSION FOR AT THE MAY 21, 2018 REGULAR BOARD MEETING FOR DISCUSSION OF REAL ESTATE, LABOR NEGOTIATIONS AND DIRECTOR’S EVALUATION
(Item of action)
Roll call vote
Treasurer Leija, supported by Trustee Barney Newman, moved for a closed session for discussion of real estate, labor negotiations and director’s evaluation at the May 21, 2018 Board meeting.
A roll call vote was taken.
AYES: Green, Leija, Barney Newman, Sherman, Song, Surovell, Vander Broek
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
18-069 XIII. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
David Diephuis
The conversation about what to do with the Friends money or how to handle it kind of resonated with me one way. And that is that one of your strategic goals is to explore alternative sources of funding. To me when you start talking about what you’re going to do with the Friends money that should be part of a larger discussion of, you know, are we going to do some alternative funding, what’s it going to look like, have a foundation, a different foundation, look for corporate partnerships, et cetera, et cetera. So I hope that you move forward in this next year, you might need to budget a little money so you can spend some time looking at what needs to be done in that area. Because certainly if you go to the voters and ask for a special millage at some point, whatever it is, no doubt one of the questions is going to be what are you doing to raise money beyond asking us the taxpayers? That’s my comment for the evening. Thank you.
18-070 XIV. ADJOURNMENT
President Vander Broek adjourned the meeting at 8:23 p.m.