ST. LOUIS COUNTY LIBRARY DISTRICT
MEETING OF THE BOARD
HEADQUARTERS BRANCH
MONDAY, JULY 27, 2009
3:35 PM
The monthly meeting of the Board of the St. Louis County Library District was held at the Headquarters Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh, St. Louis, MO 63131 on Monday, July 27, 2009 at 3:35 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
Dr. Lynn Beckwith, Vice President
Kenneth Stricker, Treasurer
Dr. Ching Ling Tai, Secretary
Mrs. Edith Cunnane, Member
Others Attending:
Charles Pace, Director; Gary Holdefer, Associate Director and Comptroller; Barbara Brain, Assistant Director for Adult and Support Services; Kristen Sorth, Manager, Human Resources; Tim Wadham, Assistant Director, Youth and Community Services; Marie Conlin, Library Planner; Eric Button, Regional Branch Administrator; John Fox Arnold, Lashly & Baer; and Dr. John Splinter, National Coalition, L.L. Kos, patron; Carl Hendrickson, CAP; Jim Konrad, Mackey Mitchell Architects; Deborah LeMoine, City of Oakland; Jennifer Samson, St. Louis County Government; and Laura Kostial, patron. SLCL staff attending: Leander Spearman, Anna Kwiatkowski, Ken Cieslak, Robbin Oehler, Kathy Wiese, Joyce Loving, Lori Boschert, Nicole Clawson, Susan Scupin, Laura Kasak, Kathy Condon-Boettcher, Emily Althoff, Ed Clark, Vicki Krueger, Matt Lakin, Jake Fejedelem, Jim Bogart, Tracy Fletcher, Jill Pifer, Lynn Grimshaw, Julia Mangner, Cindy Fehmel, Ellen Meschke, Mary Wilson, Gerry Burrow, Anna Schurk, Jennifer McBride, Julie Cruise, Cheri Remington, Larry Seawood, Denise Keller, Stacy Berger, Natalia Catlett, Erin Chapman, Sharon Elliott, Jennifer Jung, Pat Woodward, Donna Spaulding, Dottie Wobbe, Erin Dominguez and Sandra Williams.
The MINUTES, dated Monday, June 15, 2009 were approved by the Board (Beckwith/Stricker).
PUBLIC COMMENTS:
Patron Laura Kostial addressed the Board regarding an earlier request concerning policy for High School labels. She stated she had letters received from Barbara Brain and Tim Wadham. She would still like to see the policy regarding the placement of High School labels.
Dr. John Splinter, with the National Coalition requested a policy for determining high school labeling.
Mr. Carl Hendrickson, Chairman of Citizens Against Pornography, stated that he did not want to ban material but to classify it. He wants to know the methodology for alerting parents. He stated he believed there were inconsistencies between branches in determining book classification.
TREASURER’S REPORT:
The Treasurer’s Report dated June 30, 2009 was approved subject to audit (Stricker/Beckwith).
DIRECTOR’S REPORT:
LIBRARY CARD CAMPAIGN
The Library is planning a major library campaign to get new card holders. We are especially reaching out to children. The goal is to get 100% participation this fall. We have developed two new children’s cards to help get them excited.
CUSTOMER SERVICE ISSUES
The major issues during the past month have been technological in nature. We had intermittent outages of access to our remote databases which went on for a period of several weeks. Eventually we were able to correct this problem by shutting down the servers and making some changes to the directory files. Nevertheless, during this time we received many complaints about services being interrupted. One gratifying aspect of this is that it showed us just how many people are using our databases and depend on them for a variety of tasks. We have also had intermittent problems with internet access due to changes in our network settings. We expect these problems to be worked out over the coming weeks as the new firewall is installed and configured. Needless to say, our customers were not happy with these interruptions but the situation has been explained to staff so that they can then convey to our patrons the necessity of these growing pains as we continue to make long term improvements.
NEW TELEPHONE SYSTEM
This past Thursday, July 23, the new telephone system became operational.
MAJOR LIBRARY EVENTS
At 7 pm on Wednesday, July 20 the library hosted romance novelist Dorothea Benton Frank. Ms. Frank’s latest novel is entitled Return to Sullivan’s Island. In this work, Ms. Frank revisits the characters and places she first wrote about in her debut novel with the South Carolina low country forming a lush backdrop.
FACILITIES
Our recommendations for Architectural services and for Bond Underwriters for the Tesson Ferry projects are action items for later in the Board meeting. Security cameras have been installed at the Florissant Valley and Weber Road branches and they are currently being installed at the Prairie Commons Branch. All burglar alarm systems installations that had been budgeted for, have been completed at this time. These are all part of our long term plan to upgrade security at our branches and are consistent with the Strategic Plan goals of creating a safe and comfortable environment for our customers. We will also be experimenting with a larger delivery truck to see if this makes delivery of materials more efficient.
LIBRARY USAGE
I am pleased to report that library usage is up over 20% compared to June of 2008. This is a huge increase for a mature system such as ours. A copy of the circulation report and a press release we put out about these figures is attached to my report.
EXECUTIVE PERFORMANCE PLAN
Mary Mosqueda of the Lockton Group has proposed to assist the Board with the development of a performance management tool for the Director. If this is something of interest to the Board, I will ask Ms. Mosqueda to develop a formal proposal for presentation at the next Board meeting. My understanding is that each Board member would be interviewed individually and based on those comments a performance management tool would be created to assist in the evaluation process. The Lockton Group is our consultant for matters involving employee evaluation and compensation.
ALA CONFERENCE
From July 10-15 I had the opportunity to attend the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago. As usual, most of my time was taken up with attending the Council meeting and dealing with such matters as approving the Association’s budgetary ceilings and making various policy amendments and changes. Like most professional associations, ALA has been negatively impacted by the economy and revenues have fallen significantly below projections. Nevertheless, due to prudent fiscal management, expenses have been cut by an even larger amount so the Association remains on a sound financial footing. On a positive note, total attendance at the conference was over 27,000 which is down only slightly from the record attendance in Chicago four years ago. Other conference attendees included the following: Tim Wadham, Assistant Director of Youth and Community Services, Eric Button, Community Services Administrator, Lee Spearman, Recruiting Coordinator, Lori Boschert, Manager of Circulation, Nicole Clawson, Manager of Youth Services, Gary Holdefer Associate Director and Comptroller, Geri Olmstead, Branch Manager at the Thornhill Branch, Charlene Zinkl, Branch Manager at Meramec Valley, Laura Kasak, Branch Manager at Florissant Valley, and Cathy Kondon-Boettcher, Assistant Branch Manager at Mid-County.
REPORT ON COLUMBUS
Following my report we will be hearing from Ed Clark, Facilities Manager and Larry Seawood, Coordinator of Sorting, regarding a follow up visit that they made to the Columbus Metropolitan Library. After our initial report, we felt enough issues were raised regarding facilities and sorting to warrant sending Ed and Larry as well as Fleet Manager Darryl Wallace to make a subsequent trip just to look specifically at these aspects of how the Columbus Metropolitan Library system operates.
UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS AND PROGRAMS
Daniel Silva will be visiting the library on Wednesday, July 29 to talk about The Defector, the latest book in his series featuring the enigmatic art restorer and assassin, Gabriel Allon. We are expecting a substantial crowd for this event; this will be Mr. Silva’s third visit to the St. Louis County Library.
On Wednesday, August 12 the library will be hosting best selling mystery writer J.A Jance. In Fire and Ice, Ms. Jance teams up once more two of her most popular characters, Detective J.P. Beaumont and Sherriff Joanna Brady, in the grittiest and most gripping thriller to date.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
COLUMBUS METROPOLITAN LIBRARY
Facilities manager Ed Clark, and Sorting Coordinator Larry Seawood presented a slide presentation on operations of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. They concluded that some of the operations of the Columbus Library could be incorporated into our Library to increase productivity.
PART TIME EMPLOYEE BENEFITS
The Library Board approved the recommendation of Daniel & Henry to remain with SRC/Aetna as the provider of medical insurance for part time employees. The vendor approved at a previous meeting could not fulfill their quote. The benefit is strictly voluntary and does not result in any costs to the Library. If an employee chooses to participate, they are responsible for the monthly premium (Beckwith/Stricker).
NEW BUSINESS
INSURANCE (DIRECTORS & OFFICERS)
Lance Carlson, Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services gave a presentation on the Directors & Officers policy purchased by the Library. He explained that the policy includes coverage for members of the Foundation Board. He stated that the Library is adequately covered with a limit of $5,000,000.
EASEMENTS (OAK BEND BRANCH)
The Library Board approved a resolution for a temporary easement and dedication of additional “right of way” to the City of Oakland. The Oak Bend Branch enhancements are new curbs and sidewalks. The documents had been approved by legal counsel (Stricker/Beckwith).
BOARD BY LAWS (ETHICS)
The Library Board approved a change in the Ethics Policy which required Board members to provide disclosure statements. The Director, Associate Director and Comptroller and Finance Manager will continue to complete annual disclosure reports (Stricker/Cunnane).
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES (ARCHITECTURAL SERVICES-TESSON FERRY)
The Library Board approved a recommendation from the Building Committee that a contract for architectural services be signed with the team of Mackey Mitchell and PSA Dewberry for the Tesson Ferry project (Cunnane/Beckwith). Dr. Beckwith requested a list of the 24 firms that responded to the RFQ.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES (BOND UNDERWRITING – TESSON FERRY)
The Library Board approved the recommendation of the Bond Committee which had recommended Stifel Nicolaus as the lowest and best firm to provide bond underwriting for the Tesson Ferry project (Cunnane/Tai).
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS (NATURAL BRIDGE LIGHTING)
The Library Board approved the low bidders recommended by staff; Villa Lighting at a cost of $22,275 for the fixtures and Dimaggio Electric at a cost of $18,950 for the installation (Stricker/Cunnane).
TECHNOLOGY (ROUTER COMPONENT)
The Library Board approved the recommendation of staff that the low bid of Alliance Datacom be accepted for $12,500 (Stricker/Cunnane).
AUTOMOTIVE (MAINTENANCE VANS)
The Library Board approved the recommendation of staff that van #40 be traded in to Jim Butler Chevrolet immediately to avoid any additional service problems. The second vehicle would be ordered from Dave Sinclair Ford. There is a total trade difference of $67,957. (Stricker/Beckwith).
CLOSED SESSION
Mr. Stricker moved that the open meeting adjourn. Dr. Beckwith seconded. All approved by individual voice vote.
The meeting adjourned at 4:55 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
___________________________________________ __________________
Dr. Ching Ling Tai Date
Secretary