Library - Regular Meeting

Alright. And we have one minute. Okay. We are on so. I'm calling the 08/07/2025 meeting of the Library Advisory Board to order.

First of all, we do have a quorum. And second, I'm hoping you've all taken a look at the minutes that were emailed to you. Is there a motion to approve? I make a

motion to approve the minutes.

Thank you. And I have a second. Thank you so much. Discussion, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. The minutes are approved of the May 1 meeting. Thank you. Now, we move on to citizens to be heard regarding items not on the agenda. Would any citizens care to be heard? Sure. Come on up to the podium. Yeah. Identify yourself. Okay. That's alright. We'll wait. Yep.

We're not going anywhere.

Right up to the microphone there.

Hi. Hi. My name is Andrea Mendez, and I'm from Miami but I moved back to Florida, I've been back to Clearwater after having, you know, been in Miami for twenty years and we are very upset that your budget is being cut so much. I mean, I grew up here. I went to high school at Clearwater High School, and I used to have go to the Moss Brothers here. I'm so thrilled you have this building. It's beautiful. But we're very concerned, and so are my kids, about you guys being closed on Saturdays and Sundays specifically. We're very concerned because, I mean, I was working. I was the director of quality assurance and stuff.

So, of course, I was working and my husband was still alive and, but still my kids didn't go to expensive places for after school programs. They went to the library. They went to the downtown library in Miami. They went to the Coconut Grove library. They went to Sunset library. They went to all the libraries. We even went to ones that were really good for kids, you know, decorated for kids. And this library is beautiful. And my concerns, of course, not only is my concerns for the kids, where are they going to go for after school programs? Where are they going to go Saturday and Sunday?

I mean, have a library book in my purse right now, you know? So I'm upset about that. I'm also upset about the fact and so is my so are my kids, especially my daughter who's 20. And she's one of their constituents and she, you know, before she moves to Iowa to change things there, you know, she's really talented. And they also meet on Sundays for your Dungeons and Dragons.

I guess there's about seven or eight people that meet for that. And that's a monthly thing. And I don't know where those young adults and older teens are gonna hang out and where they're gonna tell their stories and practice making their own stories because that's what your Dungeons and Dragons is. It's not some evil thing. You know, and first and foremost, I know I've spent so much time already, but it's the homeless. I mean, where else can you go to get water, air conditioning conditioning in in a a heat heat craziness? This is nuts. This is unfathomable. Right? How much we're on heat advisories?

And where are these people gonna go to see a friendly face and see their peers and get some air conditioning and see a beautiful view and expand their horizons a little bit mentally. I mean, so I'm very concerned about that.

Andrea, thank you so much for coming and talking about this today. These are my concerns too and I'm so happy that you came and talked about them. If you can find other places to talk about them, that's good. Cry.

I also share your concerns and ask you to come to a city council meeting. Absolutely. Where you can speak to the entire city council because unfortunately, they do the budget. We have

no So where do I have to go for that?

We have no control over the budget.

The meeting is tonight. Tonight. In this council Okay. Yes. I wish I had the time right on the top of my head, but I don't. Before you leave, everyone knows that in this building. So do you know what time

it is? It is 06:00, I believe.

Well, just want to add.

06:00.

So citizens to be heard on general topics is not available during council meetings. Citizens can talk about what's items that are on the agenda.

On the agenda, yeah.

However, they will be having like a first reading in the budget and second reading in the budget in September.

In September?

By that September. The budget is written.

Oh, wow.

And you can also reach out to city council leaders by phone, via Email. You can contact the city manager's office.

So, I got a

lot of work

to do.

So, there's there's other

Definitely email. Every

have city council like work in the council again.

Well, get some of your neighbors to join you, you know. You get together maybe and have a little potluck or whatever and start calling and writing. If you have other like minded people in your neighborhood who have concerns about the library.

Well, we're on Drew Street. So we've got all that going on.

Sure. Sure.

But that's And they do read all the e mails.

Right. So e mail No, that's

Email and call and you don't have to wait to do that.

You can do that anytime. I would say get started right away.

Yeah, and as often and as frequently as you can, you know, with your neighbors and other people who are concerned to get the message across.

Okay.

A little bit of homework.

Thank you. I will do this. But the agenda, I know when I had to do the agenda, when I had to provide items for the agenda, when I would see the agenda, it was like this thick. Is that how it is in

Pinellas County too?

It is usually that way. This is for the city of Clearwater, the meeting here. So there are usually many, many things on the agenda. And

is there a way to get that in advance of tonight?

It's on the

It's on the city's website.

City's website.

Myclearwater.org.

Yes. I know. A little bit more work. Meetings in attendance.

It's pleasure meeting you,

ladies We thank you so much for coming in.

Oh, I'd like to say too, Andrea, we have plenty of people coming to those meetings who are not obeying that rule. They're coming in and getting hits for their YouTube channel and saying whatever they want, whenever they want. So Can

you talk about that a little bit more if you don't mind? And dope

If you want to know exactly what I'm talking about, you can see the televised meetings on the City of Clearwater's YouTube channel. And we have people coming here and just getting hits for their YouTube channel, trying to get the cops to hit them, trying I mean, just causing a disturbance in the meetings. The Trumpers? Do what?

The Trumpers?

I don't know.

The White Fingers?

I don't know what their exact Well, they're all issues. But,

yeah, I would just encourage you to get with your friends and start calling and emailing and yeah.

Rep for office and vice president.

Hey, that too. That works too.

Thank you, Andrea. Well, we thank you for coming to

us. Thank you so much.

Alright. Let us move on now to new business items and the first of those is the library proposed budget for 2526. Miss Overmeyer, I am going to ask you for input on this issue. Okay.

So the proposed budget was we had a special budget meeting yesterday for the city council So we had some presentations. In your attachments, gives a detailed report of the proposed budget for fiscal year 'twenty five-'twenty six. In regard to the library, we have a reduction of 7.5 FTEs, full time equivalent employees. So we for fiscal year twenty four-twenty five, we had 82.9 FTEs. Now, if the budget is approved in September for fiscal year twenty five-twenty six, we will have 75.4.

The result of this is a reduction of hours locations. So I've mentioned this before in previous meetings. Our countryside used to be open twelve to five on Sundays. They are no longer offering we are no longer offering Sunday hours at any of our locations, but Countryside was the only one that had Sunday hours. And then Main Library was open Saturdays twelve to five. And now Main Library is closed Saturdays, and we have been closed on Sundays for a little bit. So no weekend hours at the Main Library.

Who made these decisions? Who made the decisions which days and hours to cut?

I did.

You

did? Is there a

reason they Is there a reason we couldn't maybe have one of the weekdays?

We talked about it little bit late.

Is something that I definitely considered. However, Saturdays were have been challenging for the main library because of all the park activities. The park activities and also the Ruth Eckert Hall Amphitheater and the Bay Care Sound. So the more activities and events they had downtown, it really proposed a challenge for access to the main library. Now I'm not just talking about parking, but just general access to the main library.

So we were seeing and, you know, I evaluate all the data and we were seeing a significant decrease in footfalls and program attendance on Saturdays because people either said, Oh, there's an event on Saturday downtown. I'm not going to even bother going to the main library because I'm not going find parking close by or it's going to be, you know, really crowded. So that's how I came to the decision about Saturdays. So it was data driven.

Yet parking was a problem all along. We have been parking in that for years now.

Parking is challenging.

And when they took half Libraries parking away

It's a

very big challenge. That we were going to be paying for it.

So is this the weekend, the closing of the weekend hours is all of the would that be North Greenwood as No,

this is just the main library. And part of my decision making process was so the main library wouldn't be available on the weekends. However, we have four other locations.

Yeah, around you.

Now, the Beach Library is not around They the never were. We have North Greenwood, our East Library and our Countryside Library that are open on Saturdays. And they're what library are you? Our North Greenwood, our Countryside Library and our East Community Library at SBC. On Saturdays.

They have been open on Saturdays. They remain open on Saturdays. And as part of this change, I've added hours to those days and including Fridays. So now Main Library, we used to be open twelve to five on Fridays. Now we're open ten to five North Greenwood, East, actually East is open a little earlier because they follow the college hours a little bit.

But in countryside now instead of twelve to five, they're open ten to five. So they actually gained a few hours, access So that was part of my decision making when I was given this assignment to reduce our department's budget.

Tough assignment. Sounds like you weighed everything very deliberate, and at least there are some positives for extended hours in other places.

And I just want you all to know that, you know, we make changes, we make decisions, I make decisions and we see how it goes. So that doesn't mean this is forever. Sometimes, know, you change hours, you know, and we see how it goes. If something's not going as planned or if it's, you know, if there's a better way, then maybe in the future there could be other changes. But for right now, that's what is being proposed. One

factor I'd like to mention, which is not on the agenda, are these upcoming proposals for the use of the main library. And it says in the proposal, call for proposals to use this building

Right.

That it may be taken over in its entirety. So what I understand is three proposals have been accepted or chosen. Is that right?

Yes, they were ranked.

Oh, okay. Are they all taking over this building in its entirety or? Okay.

So I am part of the selection committee for this and this committee operates in the sunshine. It follows the sunshine law.

So you can't

So I am unable to discuss specifics because we actually have a follow-up meeting next Friday, the fifteenth, to hear from the top three proposals. Okay. So I can't I am not allowed to elaborate. Now those are public meetings.

Is the information available on the internet that we could like the three that were selected, is that available yet or is that going to come out later?

Yes, is public record.

It is. So can request

to see all of the proposals.

We have to request.

They are now public record because we had the initial meeting last week. So now they are public record and you can make requests to see those proposals.

Okay. So the reason I bring that up is, obviously if somebody else is taking this building, it doesn't much matter if we're closed on Saturday and Sunday, right? Because this building will no longer be a library if that's the case. So just bringing that up.

Yes, because I had heard the same thing that the main library was closing and I thought that's obscene, frankly. I just am appalled. Yeah. But if I may go back to the budget, is the work on the Beach Library going forward?

Yes. In fact, on Monday's work session, we Parks and Rec department is managing this project because it's primarily the library is inside the rec center. So they are working with an architect. And on Monday's work session, we added the library piece to that project. So we are working with an architect to get the Beach Library up and running. So we are in that process. I don't have a timeline, but we are moving forward to reconstructing the rec center and the library.

And what is the staffing for the Beach Library?

We have one full time librarian and two part time librarian systems. Okay.

All right. Any other discussion of the budget? Then let's move on to board.

Oh, I just had one question for the budget. You mentioned the additional budget meetings. I was trying to remember when you said they were for the council, the full budget. They were in two budget meetings. I don't remember what month. September, I think, is one of them. God bless you.

Yes. By law, you have to have a first reading of the budget and the second reading. And the second reading is the final approval by city council. So those two meetings are in September. Okay. I think the first meeting, Danny, I don't have my computer up. First meeting is in the September, I believe the second meeting, which would be the second reading in the budget, is September 15, I believe, Thursday.

Okay. So we I'm sure they're on the mic. Yes.

Okay. Yes.

Just thinking of having another show of support for libraries

at both of those meetings. Sounds good. All right. Now let's move on to board duties. Precisely what?

Well, I just wanted to just as an awareness of, you know, the duties of the board and particularly the Sunshine Law. Because I believe last meeting there was a question about Sunshine Law. So I just wanted to include it and maybe if you have a will to discuss specifics. I'm not an attorney, and that's why I included in the packet details from our attorney about what is the Sunshine Law, what can you do, what can't you do as body, as a board. So really it was just informational.

And if you had any questions that I could answer, and of course if you have questions that I can answer, I will definitely get you that information from our legal department.

I had a question. So if I wanted to also be a member of the Friends of the Library, Is that permissible since I'm on the Library Advisory Board? Could I be a part of Friends of the Library as well?

To my knowledge, absolutely you can.

Okay. And then the second question is if there were other people on this board who also joined Friends of the Library, And we all talked about Friends of the Library, but other topics may come up about the library. Is that permissible or have you crossed over into violating the Sunshine Law? To me, it doesn't seem like you have, because you're on another you're involved with another group, you're part of another group.

True, and that's a very good question. I would have I would prefer to get legal advice.

Okay. Yeah, and that's why I bring it up, because I'm, you know, in joining Friends of the Library and other board members might be interested in joining it, but I don't want us to do that if we're going to get in violation of the Sunshine Law.

I mean, you could talk to, you know, other members of the Friends group or like or neighbors or whatever about library activities. Right. It's it's talking to each other as a body when you're when it's not a public meeting. Right. We call that, you know, discussing it in the sunshine.

Right. And that's why I was like, but if you're part of the Friends of the Library and you're at their meeting, you see what I'm saying? Yeah. I see exactly That's why I asked for clarification because, you know, one of another one of us could join Friends of the Library and we're both in that meeting talking about library events because it's Friends of the Library. And so I wanted to make sure, does that violate the Sunshine Law?

Yeah. Let me get clarification from legal because, again, as you know, I'm not a lawyer.

Yeah. No, when I first became involved with the Library Advisory Board, I asked if it were possible for us all to go to lunch after

Yes.

To get to know each other. Was like, no.

I know that part is Oh, okay.

But that's not exactly true, right? Because we had clarification on this. We can go to lunch. We just can't talk about anything that has

to do

with the library. Right.

Got you.

And then there was further clarification that we could email basically any discussion. Is that right? I think you said that last time that we had the ability as long as it was written? No.

No. That's

in you

see under the Sunshine Law memo that I provided.

Yes. That's in there.

It said any verbal Right. Written.

Yes. Oral. It cannot be. Right.

That's in

So that's not happening.

And the tricky part is you can't discuss things that may in the future be on your agenda.

It makes it really hard to be any kind of effective, you know, because we meet every three months.

Yes.

In the midst of this, our board is is being consolidated with two other boards. Don't know if you knew this.

Right. Yeah. Was hoping we could talk about that. Yeah.

So that's another thing that like What does that

mean? There are other things to talk about, board members to

be heard to ask Yes, about I figured you'd get to.

Yeah, yes.

So yeah, that's the board consolidation is a concern because it makes you wonder, well, are we going to have fewer meetings or more meetings or

Well, I guess we're going

to get

to it. So I guess we can

Right, we'll get

to it.

Finish with the Sunshine Anything

further board duties of the Sunshine Law?

Yeah, I just wanted to say that I feel like there should be more meetings if we're going to actually try and help with this budget situation or any of the situations that we they're pretty serious in the libraries right now. If we want to be effective as a board, I think meeting every three months is not really doing anything. So I think we need to have some kind of additional meeting set up or something like that so that we can get work done. And if it needs to be televised and that would make it okay with the sunshine laws, then I guess so be it. But at the same time, it seems ridiculous to make any kind of discussion about that now because our board's going to be consolidated and we don't know what that means. So

Well, we know that it would be bimonthly meetings.

Okay. Well, that's better.

Yeah.

Yeah. And that as it was discussed yesterday, they were thinking in terms of seven members, so it would be more than the five required, and that it would be spread across the three boards. I'm kind of jumping the gun here.

Okay.

But it might be three from EAB, two from library, and two from Parks and Rec.

Okay. Gotcha.

But that's all tentative theoretical So, at this all right. If there's nothing further on board duties, let's go to the director's report. You're on.

Were you planning to discuss the consolidation or

Well, we couldn't do that now or I was sure that under board members to Oh, be I'm sorry. Yes. Yeah. I'm sorry. And that was my assumption that that's when I am

my bad.

Yeah, that's where

I was going jump in.

Then we'll discuss it there. All right. You may continue with your director's

report. Yes. So the one that I, you know, is a big change. So on June 28 we did officially change our hours. So like I said, the main library no longer has Saturday hours And we added some hours.

Countryside doesn't have Sunday. So those officially changed on Saturday, June 28. The parking situation, as you know, has been challenging. So kind of hyperlinking, but related. The hotel construction, I do not have an update as in regard to their groundbreaking.

I don't have any details. So but we anticipate once they start construction that there will be access impacts. So during COVID, our locations who didn't have drive throughs, drive up drive throughs, we offered curbside pickup. And that was really well done and well received back in the early COVID days. And then obviously things got better.

So we stopped it. But I brought it back here because of the parking challenges. Challenges. And the intent is people can like you would at the grocery store or any other retail establishment that offers this service, people can drive up. I don't know if you notice a sign up front.

People can drive up. They just call or text the phone number on the sign, and staff members will check out their items that they requested and bring it directly to them in the car. So they don't need to get out of their car. They just, they can sit in their car, wait for a staff member to come out and give them their library materials. We just launched that probably three weeks ago.

But from what I'm hearing, it's very popular and appreciated. So, you know, I'm trying to find ways, small ways to mitigate some of the access challenges that we have been experiencing and that we will increase once the construction begins with the hotel and then the Osceola Street scape project which is anticipated to begin in this fall, I think September, October. Wow. It's a lot of disruption. A construction lot downtown upcoming.

So are they is all the parking in the front right now, is that all we're going to ever have? Did the hotel take the rest or

To my knowledge, Okay.

Oh, wow. That's sad.

Yes. That's pathetic. Yeah.

There are city lots around the park, and they are planning to build a parking garage down South Osceola. So and of course, there's Garden Ave parking garage and MSP parking garage. So, you know, there is parking. It's just people will have to walk. Curbside pickup, it's been very good. And so I'm really happy to report that we were able to bring that back and

I'm sorry. Can we go back to the hotel parking? Because wasn't there a percentage that was supposed to

be for the library? Yes. So the agreement, as I understand it, that has been approved is 50 dedicated spaces for city business. So for city employees.

Oh, I see. Gotcha.

Within the hotel.

I thought at some point we thought that was going to be library patrons or was that never going to be library patron parking? Was that always like?

It was probably considered.

Okay. But the

ultimate decision was city staff. Okay. We just concluded our summer reading program. And it's I always call it our season for libraries because, you know, we the students are out of school and they love to come to the library and participate in our summer reading program. So this summer was another successful year, kids and teens of all ages.

And then we also incorporate an adult summer reading program. So adults and parents and guardians can also participate alongside the young children and teens. So I just wanted to say it was another successful year. And we always conclude our summer reading program with a back to school event. And for the past seven, eight, nine, ten years, we were giving away backpacks and school supplies and books.

And this has been something that our Library Foundation has continued to support in regard to monetary funding for this event. So this year, we gave out $10,000 worth of school supplies and free books to children up to 17, 18. And again, I just want to mention this was a generous donation and continued support by our Library Foundation. So it was fantastic. And actually the event is going on this week.

And then another wonderful program that we offer is a partnership program with the Suncoast Animal League. It actually starts in May and goes to July 31 and that is our pet supply donation program. And so that just concluded July 31. And our community has donated over four fifty fifty items for to benefit the animals in the shelter of the Suncoast Animal League. So it's a wonderful partnership, and we're just very proud to be able to help animals in need and organizations in need of pet supplies.

Moving on to the North Greenwood mural, I believe last meeting I mentioned that they were getting a mural, and they still are getting a mural. However, the artists that we initially selected, there were some hiccups. So we had to move forward with the second artist. So we are just in the planning phases of that. So stay tuned.

We're working out the details and whatnot. But North Greenwood will get a beautiful mural on the facade of the front entrance. So I just want to mention that. Again, you touched, Kelly, a little bit about the museum, cultural institution proposals. Again, I can't I am not allowed to elaborate or discuss details, but I do want to mention that we we had our first meeting last Friday, and we have a follow-up meeting on the fifteenth here in chambers. It's a public meeting, so anybody can attend.

And the time top is that next Friday? I don't

have my phone. I think it's at 10:30. It's It will be on the website.

Okay. Yeah.

And the three top organizations that were selected by the committee will be presenting their proposals to the committee. So I just want to make you aware of that. Staff have been feverishly planning for wonderful fall programs. So a lot happens during the fall. We have some holidays.

So just be on the lookout for just wonderful programs. Of course, Halloween is a big one, and then Thanksgiving, and the winter holidays. So we're planning on some great programs to celebrate those celebrations. And September is National Library Card Sign Up Month. So that's when we, I mean, year round we encourage everybody to get their library card, but this is our national initiative to remind people if they don't have a library card, should definitely get one.

A free library card. And then lastly, every year we conduct a, we have a staff development day. So we're part of the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative. There's 14 member libraries as you know. So in our interlocal agreement with PPLC, every other year we alternate between having a countywide staff development day and then on the off year each library, if they choose to, does their own staff development day.

So last year we did our own. So this year it's our countywide wide year and that will be October 13. And that is, again, coordinated by our PPLC executive director and the committee, a small committee. So it's just a great way to get staff together. You know, we have 14 member libraries.

There's a lot of staff members who don't know each other, and then it's a day full of just all workshops and learning opportunities and professional growth and presentations. So it's just a wonderful day of learning and getting to know people that you wouldn't necessarily, you know, because you don't work with them. So it's just, it's a great networking event. So that's October 13. And that is all I have.

Thank you very much. Now, board members to be heard, and I want to bring up the first subject that I think we all want to discuss, the transition from a separate library board that meets quarterly to being part of what would be called community engagement and leisure services board that would meet bimonthly. It was discussed, in a workshop to the city council yesterday morning. And I so I have some information on what the city council members had to say. They were all in agreement that they felt that this was a way to go, that we have to constantly be looking for what is the best way to do things and that there were reasons of efficiency and the fact that when these boards were formed, we didn't have things like Zoom meetings on the internet and even exchange of information was not as easy.

So I would like to open it up to whatever concerns any of you might have about the issue of combining the library board into this new board.

How exactly, you mentioned a little bit of it before, the composition of the board and how are they putting together this new version, this community engagement leisure services board?

Well, first of all, my understanding is that because this is in the charter that this would have to have open public hearings and then be put to a vote. And so that this would be a long term process. It sounded like it would take at least a year to implement this kind of a change. But that the hope is that it will actually engender greater community involvement and more input to the the city council about the possible workings and utilization of all the facilities of the Clearwater community. So, this is just kind of the introductory, you know, throw the idea out there and So see if it the combination would be of the EAB, which is Environmental Advisory Board and Parks and Rec and the Library Board.

I do know that there's been a great deal of concern from the members of the EAB that truly they don't want this consolidation to occur. The city has its priorities. And as I said yesterday, the city's priorities are shifting. The EAB was established before the city had a sustainability office and so there are those things that are being done already that it's not an elimination of the green concerns, shall we say, and that the protecting the environmental clear water and its parks and so forth is of vital importance to the city that that continues. However, there will be public hearings first and I certainly would encourage all the public to follow the schedule of meetings, look for the announcements.

Nothing has been set up at this moment. Correct me if I'm wrong. Do you have any additional information on the rollout of this change?

I do not.

Okay. So that that is my understanding. I did take some notes. I I heard them say that the goal is to be more inclusive. I'm not quite sure how that works and that it says it's the opposite of limiting opportunities for community involvement.

Because obviously when you think of reducing three boards into one, you think, well, it's fewer members of the community who get to have a voice. But I'm certainly willing to listen to the proposals and the thought behind it because there are other boards that are facing changes as well. And in terms of hours, I wanted to see if I had any other specific comments that I wanted to share.

Well, to me, a bimonthly meeting is obviously more productive than what we have now. So even though there would only be two members representing the library, is that what I'm understanding that the new consolidation board would have two

Yes. Board However, it's not I don't think that it would necessarily be in the descriptive documents that the members would be selected, from those existing boards.

Oh, I see. So it

could just Everyone will have an opportunity to apply to be on

I see.

The new board. Ah.

So there is not a necessary grandfathering in of any Okay. Of That's my understanding. And if I have that wrong, I would urge someone, yeah, in the city because the mayor said this was not his idea. I'm not sure where this idea came from. Mhmm.

And although there would be some cost savings, they said that's not why they were doing it. Said it's a matter of every once in while you need to look at the structures you have and see are they meeting the needs of the community the most effectively. And that, of course, is always a wise move to make. So I personally want to hear a great deal more about what How is being

does it work?

I can certainly read the description of this. Established new bimonthly board comprised of seven members. The purpose would be to provide feedback and guidance to city council on endeavors that enhance sustainable recreation, parks, and cultural programs at city facilities and foster community interest in events and initiatives that promote community well-being. The board will engage the community by holding outreach sessions on topics or initiatives supporting the city's strategic plan including community well-being and environmental stewardship, and that it will seek public input regarding services and programs at city facilities. So that's where we stand.

That's as much as I know. If anyone else has any additional information or questions or comments, please feel free to share. My,

you know, just listening to all of it is there's a benefit in bimonthly certainly because you get more opportunities to have some input and speak and maybe do some planning and some get some ideas and brainstorming going for all of these areas. But my concern is that's those are a lot of areas. I'm concerned is, one, how in the world long is the agenda going to be for these meetings?

Yes. Are covering broad city Well, supervisors of each of those departments. Yes. And they're each going to give a report.

And they're there. Right. They're each going to give the director's report. It's covering a wide variety and and my concern is that library just gets lost in the mix. Know, you read all

of those.

And certainly we know that there are members of the public who've said, oh, who needs libraries anymore? You can just look up

everything Yeah.

And those of us who are protectors, defenders Right. And advocates of libraries are going, wait. This is where the community gathers for all sorts of things. Yeah. Like preserving their heritage, talking about it, and a 100 other things that we know our library system is already doing in its many successful programs. So yes, the idea of our libraries being minimized Yes. Is a very real concern.

Yes. So I mean, could get I mean, the other way to look at it too is all bimonthly, maybe you get more people to come and you can talk about libraries, but you have so many things on there to talk about. How much time will you get to focus on hearing Jennifer's wonderful reports

and what the libraries are doing? We know that somebody has a very full agenda.

Every single time, bimonthly, that will be a very full agenda. So that's my concern is

that Well, the library there's a legitimate concerns to raise Yes. In the public hearings? I will.

Yes.

And yes. And as that information becomes available, I would recommend to any of you in the room, please plan to be there and make your voice heard.

Yes. Yes.

I have the impression looking at that pack that you have that this has a real savings feeling to it also because they do mention that a Sentry security guard is needed for each of the meetings and that obviously costs money.

Oh, and so that's a Yes, and that the filming of it and all the AB. Right, right, right.

There's a definite money component to Well

and as the mayor said and I was trying to get very precise wording during the meeting. Mayor Rector said this wasn't his idea but he agrees with it and likes the cost cutting aspect Yes. Of And so that was certainly a takeaway.

Another thing that might be a consideration is those city council meetings are really they're out of control and by no fault of the city council or the police. I don't even know what the answer is for what's happening there. But maybe there's some kind of inclination that if they cut down the amount of meetings that people could come and overrun, that maybe that would help somehow. I don't know.

And that's certainly unfortunate because the more a community engages its residents, the more you feel like you are a legitimate stakeholder in the community. I did not hear anything of that nature in the rollout of this possible change Yeah. Yesterday.

So And I noticed the nuisance abatement board Yes.

Which would be

perfect for what we're experiencing in the city now Yes. Has did is being disbanded and hasn't met since '23. Yes. So that could have really done some work here. There's a lot of new senses to abate.

Yes. And and in case you wanted to know the other changes being recommended, the Air Park Advisory Board would be That's a private entity. Went online? Yes. And that the same thing with nuisance abatement board would be eliminated, and that three boards, which I just spoke about would be combined. I guess we should be glad we're not getting canceled. Be thinking about what you want to share with the city and why this may not be the best direction to go.

Interesting. I also I had another point to bring

up too when we

were talking about the first and second reading of the budgets that were coming up, and I don't know if it's appropriate in the sunshine. Think it's okay. If we got in contact with the other two library organizations, the Library Foundation and the Friends of the Library, and talked about having a showing at both of those meetings. Accept I don't know if that violates anything or

I tried to do that after we had our last meeting. I tried to get your contact information, library foundation, library friends of the library. So we could come together as a group that could have power together. And it seems that that is not allowed or not a sunshine problem or

But I think we could go to their meetings.

Can we?

They are their meetings are not open to the public.

The foundation The foundation Board of meetings. Oh, okay. And that's Friends of the Library too?

Friends of the Library and Library Okay. Yes.

Well, we could reach out to them.

I don't know that we can.

Well, if you become a friend of the library and join the organization, you are

a That's a really good idea. Yeah, exactly.

You are a member, which is That's a

really good idea.

To do. And of course, the Library Foundation welcomes all donations and That's right. Put And if you're a donor Any other you're part of the organization. There you go.

You see what

I'm saying?

Yes. I think we all heard that

part Okay.

All right. Thank you.

I like it. Yes. It does feel like this feels very you just hit a wall every time you're trying to do something. That's how it feels to be a board member.

Well, have to kind of think, and I always ask permission, you know, but think sort of out of the box of how you can also get something done.

I love it.

Exactly. Yeah. Because I know when I first heard of this, I went, oh, Doge comes to Clearwater. You to stop. And I you know me, I have no filter. Then I thought, wait a second.

You got a good filter.

And that's why I came yesterday because I wanted to hear why this was being proposed and Yeah. And how the rollout would be done thoughtfully with as much engagement as the public wish to have. And that's that's what I'm looking for. So, just keep pulling up that website and checking on when meetings are going to be had and certainly, if you can attend city council meetings so that we hear what is being planned. If we want to have our voices heard, it's going to be incumbent on us to Yeah. Make that

And sadly, it's not a group us as a group. It is like you said, keep checking like nobody's helping you do that, you know? Like, there's no, hey guys, don't forget, know, like we're not allowed to talk. This is crazy to me.

You know, it's crazy. I am allowed to email the board members

for to

informational purposes. So I can email and say, this meeting is on this day.

This is the most best.

We would appreciate it tremendously if you would do that.

Absolutely. Yeah.

I believe I'm Because I'm allowed to

do that.

I need to attend more of these Had I not attended the meeting yesterday, I don't know that we would have had any information about what's

Well, I saw it come up, but I was on a another board. I had another board meeting last night. I was like, oh, I can't make that meeting. I I desperately wanted to know what

Oh, I had a meeting yesterday morning before that meeting, so I was actually late coming in. So it gets, like, I had a 09:00 meeting and then now it was at ten. I was like, okay, how quickly can I get over there? Yeah.

So what I emailed you last week or Monday with the this agenda and asking if you were going to be here I include the presentation Donna just read from along with the agenda. And I believe I mentioned in my email that the meeting special budget meeting was yesterday.

Yeah.

If you can't make it in person, all public meetings are broadcast. So they are available on demand after the meeting. So you can go to YouTube, Facebook, or even the city's website and watch the recording of the meeting. So I just want to if you didn't know that, I want to just let the board know that if you can't attend live in person, you can definitely watch it, view it after the meeting.

And again, the other thing we can always do is call and e mail Sure. All of the city to council express our feelings on the subject so that if you see a meeting's coming up but you know you have to be out of town, okay, put your thoughts in e mail and e mail all of them.

That's a good point.

Yeah, that's a good point.

It's a very good All right. Do any of the board members have anything further to discuss?

I would just like to ask really the selection of the three proposals for this library. Is that not something that we should have been involved in? I mean, I'm really just asking. I'm not saying that it is. I don't really know what the function of this board is yet. I mean, it just seems like this is such a huge thing. I don't know. What are your thoughts?

Normally how requests for proposals operate is city staff committee is formed to review proposals and rank and score, and then provide a recommendation to the city council members and the mayor. Ultimately, they make the decision. So staff provides a recommendation, and this is regard to any request for proposals for any department, any project. They make a recommendation to the city council, the city council, and in a public meeting, the city council discusses if they need more information, but they make the decision. So there will be a presentation to city council for staff recommendation from this committee.

And the public will have I would assume we'll have an opportunity to provide feedback.

So we are basically just the public. Don't have any kind of like consideration beyond that.

Like we're just No, you would just show up and I guess you could say you're a member of the Library Advisory Board.

Yeah. I guess that's about it.

That's the way you're going to have the input is you'd have to show up it.

But in this particular situation, since the proposed the call for proposals went out to say, you we want people to come and use this building. It could be a portion of this building or it could be the entirety of the building. Like, that's a big difference, right, if somebody just uses the cafe part or if they take over the whole building. So I guess having some impact on that decision feels like this board might want to have an impact on that. But if you're saying we're just public people and the same as people coming to a meeting, I don't know.

Just Well,

keep in mind that you, the board, the body, you're the liaison to the city council members and mayor. So at any time, you can call or email or request a meeting if you want with either all or some. So you do have, you know, an opportunity to communicate your thoughts or ideas with the city council.

Okay.

In addition, I would think that since these proposals will be known by our next meeting, but of course, a program would not be implemented that quickly. If we wish to have some input or a recommendation to the city council from the light of advisory board that that's something we could develop at our next meeting.

That's what, that's good. Because but I'm just concerned that like now these three proposals have come in and they've been accepted as the proposals that will be selected from. What if they all want the entire building and the discussion of us still having a percentage of this building is over? You know, I know you can't tell us, but, you know, I guess I'm going go

Yeah, guess my feeling is that that could not be decided as quickly as our by our next meeting.

I totally get it, but I'm but if we had been a part of the discussion before these three were selected, selected. We said, no, we want at least one of them to give us still a percentage of this building. You know, if we had been given some input into that. I don't know.

I agree that it feels that we were blindsided.

Thank you. That's how it feels to me too. But I'm still learning like how this board functions and what its real purpose is. And to me, what I'm hearing, correct me if I'm wrong, the purpose of this board and the power of this board will be as each volunteer member decides to spend their own time on it, right?

Well, no, and also, as Jennifer said, that you that we could approach the city council Right.

And ask Individually under their own power, not as a board.

But I think as a board, you could probably ask for a meeting with the city council.

Is that

true? As body? As a body? I would have to

ask the clerk.

Okay, yeah. Because otherwise, that's important.

Well, other thing that we used to have a yearly report from each advisory board to the city council. I remember putting that together and presenting it a couple of years in September. And I don't see why we couldn't do that again and we would incorporate whatever recommendation we develop at our next meeting and make that part of what we want to present to the city and say on behalf of Library Advisory Board, this is the recommendation. Yeah.

That's a

good idea.

That's a great And if you look under board duties Pardon me. Yes. If you look under the board duties document I provided, that an annual report is the expectation

of Yes.

Of all city boards.

Is that September? A September document? It doesn't have

to be

in September, generally

Like budget Budget y time, yeah. Okay.

But I'm thinking that perhaps after our next meeting that we could plan. Awesome. This is when we'll do our annual report to the city council, and it will include the recommendation we wish to make on the library usage.

And any other concerns?

Absolutely. Yeah.

Okay.

So our in a sense, our role is what we make it.

Yes. Right. Like I said, you had to be creative and think about how you're going to

have an impact. Right. And that's the thing. Are we going to be activists? Yeah.

Yes. That's the question.

But also, the question is a little odd right now because if none of us are making it to the next consultant.

Well, that's not going

to happen for year. At least a year. That's That's true. Yeah, but

it's at least a year to

be activists.

That's true. That's true.

And it could still be

a private citizen. Yes. Always. It just doesn't stay fresh every three months. So like these discussions we had last time Yeah, if we were to make a plan about that that we were going to present here today in this meeting, it's so we're not talking to each other in between. We're not allowed to discuss things. It feels so powerless. So I just don't know.

We'll figure it out. Okay. All right. Are there any further comments, concerns, suggestions from members of the board? Hearing none, the meeting is adjourned at 11:15. You. Thank you.