ST. LOUIS COUNTY LIBRARY DISTRICT

MEETING OF THE BOARD

HEADQUARTERS BRANCH

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2007

3:30 PM

 

The monthly meeting of the Board of the St. Louis County Library District was held at the Mahlon P. Wallace Headquarters Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., on Monday, November 19, 2007 at 3:30 p.m.  The agenda had been posted in all branches of the Library District at least 24 hours before the meeting.

 

ATTENDANCE:

 

            Library Board Members:

 

                        Jean Weinstock, President

Lynn Beckwith, Vice President

Kenneth Stricker, Treasurer

Chingling Tai, Secretary

Edith Cunnane, Member

 

 

            Others Attending:

 

Director Charles Pace participated via conference call; Gary Holdefer, Associate Director and Comptroller; Darold Crotzer, Crotzer, Ford & Ormsby Counsel; Barbara Brain, Assistant Director for Neighborhood Services; Kristen Sorth, Manager, Human Resources; Jennifer Samson, St. Louis County Government; Jim Bogart, Development Manager, Jake Fejedelem, ITS Manager; Denise Keller, Finance Manager and Sandra Williams, Executive Assistant and Friends Coordinator.

 

The MINUTES, dated Monday, October 15, 2007, were approved by the Board (Stricker/Beckwith). 

 

TREASURER’S REPORT:

 

The Treasurer’s Report dated October 31 was approved subject to audit (Stricker/Cunnane).  Mr. Holdefer reported that final payment had been received for the Natural Bridge claim which occurred over a year ago.

 

DIRECTOR’S REPORT: 

 

CUSTOMER SERVICE ISSUES– Mr. Pace reported that there was no pattern to customer service concerns during the past month.  There were some heating and cooling issues, internet time service management questions and concern for how juvenile material is labeled.  There were also some letters complimenting staff on their performance.

 

MAJOR EVENTS– Mr. Pace reported that a plaque was presented to the regional manager of Borders bookstores to thank them for all the work they did to promote the Library Foundation as their gift charity for the month of August.  Almost 2300 books were purchased for our bookmobile program as a result of this promotion.

 

Mr. Pace said that he attended the St. Louis County Council Economic Luncheon on October 24.  County Executive Dooley spoke about the importance of growth for the future of St. Louis County.

 

November 1-3, we held the first ever large scale book sale here at the library.  There crowds were quite large and the enthusiasm was high for this event.  There was coverage from Channel 2 News promoting the book sale that morning.  A large number of staff, too numerous to name, individually contributed to the success of this event.  Mr. Pace said he wanted to especially thank Jim Bogart, Sandy Williams and Carrie Robb for their work and dedication in making the book sale a success.  The entire sale made almost $13,000 for the Library Foundation.

 

On November 14 the library will be hosting authors Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry as they talk about the third and final book in their series on Peter Pan. I will report on this event at the November board meeting.

 

November 15th the Jewish book Festival was hosted by the Headquarters branch when two authors discussed the “Secret of the Grotto”.

 

FACILITIES

 

We had no serious facilities issues in this past month other than the usual complaints about building temperature. However, we are concerned about a recent spate of accidents involving library vehicles. In most cases the person at fault was the other driver. Nevertheless, we are planning some additional safety and defensive driving for all of our staff who use library vehicles on a regular basis in order to prevent as many accidents as possible.

 

STRATEGIC PLAN

 

The planning process is continuing with an all day planning meeting scheduled for Friday, November 16. We hope to write the bulk of our objectives at this meeting and then fine tune in the coming weeks. In January we hope to present to the Board the facilities plan. Our goal is to have a completed strategic plan ready for presentation to the board at the January meeting. Bob Rohlf will be visiting us again in early December to continue the work on the facilities plan.

 

STAFF

 

Pat Woodward is the newly appointed manager of the Tesson Ferry branch, Pat was previously the branch manager at Grand Glaize. Anna Schurk is now Branch Supervisor at Oak Bend she previously worked as supervisor at Indian Trails. Barb Urban is the new manager of Grand Glaize prior to this job she worked as supervisor at Daniel Boone.  A plaque was recently sent to George Durnell thanking him for his years of service.

 

(Mrs. Weinstock remarked that a letter of thanks was received by the Board from George Durnell thanking them for his plaque.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

 

On November 19 best selling romance author Barbara Taylor Bradford will visit the library to talk about her latest book The Heir. The event will take place at 7 pm in the Headquarters Auditorium.


UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

 

NONE

 

NEW BUSINESS:

 

2008 Budget Preview

 

A Powerpoint presentation was presented by administrators.

 

Gary Holdefer presented information on roofing, carpeting, parking lots and HVAC projects proposed for next year.

 

Kristen Sorth discussed compression adjustments for salaries, new positions being recommended and merit raises.  Dr. Beckwith requested job descriptions and information on the new positions.  She also discussed new initiatives by Human Resources to include an employee assistance program, self service automation for personal data and recruiting and training for new staff.

Dr. Beckwith requested the fiscal amount on paper and would like a prioritizing of new positions.

 

Barbara Brain discussed signage on exterior and inside the branches.  Mrs. Weinstock asked that publicity be included in the plan to alert the public of the changes to come.

 

Jake Fejedelem discussed upgrading ITS to include Radio Frequency Identification.  He also discussed a new telephone system and a network upgrade.

 

Charles Pace said that he hoped to use a portion of the undesignated reserve fund to pay for the additional facilities one time projects.

Lynn Beckwith asked that the staff develop a recommended policy for the undesignated fund balance (Beckwith/Cunnane).    Discussion ensued.  Board requested that the budget information be received two weeks prior to the next Board meeting.

 

CLOSED SESSION

Kenneth Stricker moved that the open meeting adjourn and the Board reconvene in closed session pursuant to Section 610.021 subsection (1), (2), (3), (9), (11), (12), (13) and (14) to discuss matters relating to legal actions, causes of action or litigation; property acquisition or sale and any personnel matters involving hiring, firing, discipline and promotion.   All approved by individual voice vote.

 

The meeting adjourned at 4:40 p.m.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

____________________________________________                    __________________

Chingling Tai                                                                                         Date

Secretary