Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

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Are we okay to start? Everybody tested? Ruth, we're good? All right. So I called the June 25th, 2026 regular meeting to order. The public can access live meetings, HTTPS, Fullerton.Legistrar.com or Spectrum Cable Channel 3 and AT&T U-verse Channel 99. And you're welcome to address in person or virtually, either by joining the Zoom meeting online or by telephone. If you would like to join Zoom meeting, please go to zoom.us slash join or call 1-669-254-5252 and enter Zoom meeting ID 1-607-079419 And please use the raise hand feature if you would like to speak or for any discussion. And let's take the roll call, please.

President Su Ling Chen.

Present.

Trustee Carrie Prelitz. Trustee Lisa Wozniak. Present. Corresponding Secretary Jennifer Sarvis is absent. Vice President Megan Watson.

Present. All right. And then Trustee Kerry is going to help us lead the Pledge of Allegiance. So let's all stand up, please. To the flag, the United States of America, and to the Republic, which stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. Now we're going to go to our library director, Anita, please.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for being here. Thank you for all that you do in support of the library. For the June 2nd and 16th city council meetings, there was no library-related business to report. At the June 16th city council meeting, it was decided that our budget would be a carryover budget. So as you all know, or may or may not know by now, we will be adopting a budget in July. The plan is for July 21st. I have updates from the Maine Library, and I was trying to sort of reduce how much I was going to mention, but there's just too much good stuff going on. So I will get through this quickly, but I really didn't cut anything out. Thursday, May 7th, Maine Library hosted Alzheimer's OC, and they talked about the importance of sleep. On Saturday, May 23rd, the very popular ongoing program, Dude, Where's My Yarn, met in the young adult room. One of the highlights was that somebody attended the program and thought they were not going to be able to participate because they didn't have supplies, only to be warmly welcomed and to have supplies shared with them. So it was a really lovely experience. That's a really wonderful group.

Upcoming events, Saturday, June 20th. Did that happen already at this point?

That happened already. We had a great Learn to Grow Herbs hosted by the library and also UC Master Gardeners of Orange County. I believe this is the group that left seeds, right? So I think we're thinking of starting a seed library. Some libraries have that. We're going to see how it goes. No formal plans, but there were some... leftover seeds that were available to take from the ask care desk i don't know if they're anymore um but that's something that would be really fun uh to start so we're going to look into that and then on the 21st we had the um tuesday night reading club by popular demand um the thursday night reading club had exceeded the capacity for the membership so we now have it twice a month Um, for the children's updates, so many kids attending so many programs and doing so many things, but the highlight is that as of today, we have 948 children registered for summer reading. That's 53 more kids registered than we had for last summer in total. And we have five more weeks left. So this might be what sounds like, according to Keith Lee, the first year we might have, we might exceed a thousand participants. 177 attendees for the Jack and the Beanstalk Puppet Show. Yeah, just really super high attendance, high community engagement. We have an intern from Troy Tech. He's helping out in the kids area, and he's also helping Sherry in the local history room with the digitization project. And Emily and Keith Lee attended Night Market twice this month for community outreach. I'm going to pass it over to Alicia for circulation.

Hello. I've got a little bit of an asthma thing going on right now, so hopefully the mic will do its job. All right. So what's going on in circulation? Right now, parks pass, they are surging again. So we've had 244 checkouts in May alone. And typically that we range closer to about 100. So summertime is hitting and people are exciting or excited and they come in and tell us, oh, can I check it out again? I went to Crystal Cove, Huntington Beach, all of that. And it's just so much fun to hear people so excited about this program. We do love having that going. Also, I want to give a quick update on auto renewals, which we began back in December of 2025. It's been about, of course, six months now, and our late returns have reduced from about 27% to about 11%. So also, the percentage of items that have aged into a lost status, in other words, they've been out for quite a while, has reduced from about 1.9% down to 1.7%. So we're seeing a wonderful kind of effect of the auto renewals program. And patrons are also sharing that They appreciate the extra flexibility because it does make it feel a little bit more of an easy thing to fit into just life. And then additionally, we do have our new external return spins. They are indeed installed. They are up and running and doing their job. And I had a patron describe them to me in the most charming fashion as saying that they are the best kind of old school. So and I have to agree, I love them. They work, they do the job. So and then finally, passport services are going well. And I'll talk more about that in a little bit.

Could I ask about the Stay Pass Park? Yes. How many do we have, and how long can the patron check it out for?

We have 273 that are cataloged, and they check them out for two weeks, and then if nobody is waiting, they will auto-renew one time for an additional two weeks.

Because we used to get very handful.

Yes, we started out with two, and then we kept asking for more.

Wonderful. Thank you.

Are we promoting those on social media? We have. Right now, we don't see that there's a strong necessity to do so. We have a hold list right now.

Oh, okay. I was just wondering if it might be nice to also have some of our patrons submit photos like them at the different parks. With the pass, holding the pass. So it might be nice to see where they're all traveling to. That's a great suggestion.

When we do grant reporting for the parks passes, the California State Library asks for stories and photos. So that would be another good reason. I don't know if we collect those already, but if we don't, that would be great for that as well, because Fullerton could potentially be featured on the California State Library. When do you want to go?

I'm happy to go now. I also have the latest number for adult summer reading signups, which is 114 already, which is pretty high for us for adults so far. And if you haven't already signed up, go ahead. But what I really wanted to draw your attention to is we have recently added all of our great new electronic resources. And so you'll now find on your statistics for this meeting the new digital resources usage numbers. But the one I really wanted to highlight was that in May we had over 5,000 uses of the new novelist resource. So people really like that reading recommendation resource. And I think it's well-timed to launch with summer reading. As you're starting to try and figure out what to read for summer reading, it's already right there for you.

Sorry, how did they get the information? Is it from our newsletter or how? Oh, the number? How do they know to use our resource?

Oh, yes, the information is in the newsletter. It's also on the website. It's also linked into the catalog. So if you look up a book title and you do the discover more, it will show you novelist content. So you don't have to look that hard to find it.

It would really be great for us to be able to do some type of messaging campaign, like maybe towards our senior community or, you know, some of our residents that are farther away from the library and be able to kind of push that out and let them know that they could receive those digitally. I think that would be really great.

That's a really great idea. I think that the new zine that Alex is working on that really highlights all of our digital resources. I know that the city has the RSVP officers who visit the senior centers, etc. And so making sure that that's included with their packets that they hand out would be great.

I wonder if there's ever a possibility to actually push that through either the Center on Aging, OC, or Meals on Wheels. That might be really nice as a resource.

We will print as many copies as anyone will be willing to take.

And then that's it for me. Thank you, Alicia and Bethany. So back to me. My next report will be for the local history room on behalf of Sherry. The Fullerton News Tribune digitization project, which I think we all learned about at a recent meeting, continues. Jesse is now completed through 1923. And then... Nathan, the Troy Tech intern, is helping with that as well with the photo digitization project. And Sherry wanted to mention with the help of Bethany and Technical Services, the map digitization project, Mapping Fullerton, has gone live.

We are doing a soft launch soon. It will not be the complete database of all of our maps, but we wanted to get the ones we thought would have the most interest up first. And since that is a much more labor intensive project, that's something that we'll build throughout the year, but we're very excited about. There's some really excellent aerial shots of town that go back quite a ways.

Are we going to have any residents say, wait, it looks like my yard is just a little bit larger? My plotting is off. I think my lot looks a little bit larger there.

And then, of course, the big news with local history in partnership with Fullerton Heritage is the flight reception. And you should all have received the flyer digitally, but we also printed out a flyer because everybody likes receiving their information, I think, in different ways. So July 10th at 10 a.m., landscaping has already sort of cleared up the area there. There's not a really big space to host or, you know, have somebody speak. So we're still figuring out how that looks. The response for attendance is higher than we had even hoped for, which is a good thing. So we're ordering refreshments and sort of updating those numbers accordingly. I think what will happen is we'll end up on the lawn slash the walkway.

for this event. It should be pretty brief.

Thank you, Celine, for agreeing to say some words. Ernie from Fullerton Heritage will be saying some words as well. And everyone will, I don't know, take photos with the sculpture, hopefully post them online and have some goodies. And then upcoming, Sherry is looking into doing something for Veterans Day called the Veterans Legacy Memorial. We're only in June right now, but we all know that time flies, so it's worth mentioning. For the Hunt Library, for anybody who may have attended or heard about the summer reading program Carnival Kickoff, it may have been our highest attended event ever. I don't have, I mean, don't quote me on that, but there were more than 700 people who attended. It was wildly successful. And one of the big takeaways is how creative people are getting with the parking. We saw a lot of families drop families off and then go park farther and, you know, dad or whoever was maybe had to walk a bit of a distance. Um, we saw people walking in from the neighborhoods, um, different things, but there were no complaints about parking, which is really interesting feedback in that there was just no feedback on that. So it was wonderful. Um, Midsummer Night's Dream, um, well attended thank you for those of the trustees who did attend um not as highly attended but to get 350 people on the night of an nba final and a world cup game we're surprised and delighted that many people showed up so that was wonderful as well what was also cool about midsummer night event is that it attracted um a demographic that's harder to connect with which is like 20-somethings, young adults. I mean, it did run the range from children to adults to families, but there was noticeably that gap we usually don't get, which is like late teens, early 20s, 20s kind of group. So that was really fun. Camp Hunt started on June 1st. That was in partnership with Parks and Rec. They're still running right now, Monday through Friday, 9 to 3. As Su Ling knows, Arborland Montessori started their summer session visits, and Jaime got to meet a bunch of new students, and that was really fun. So thank you for visiting.

Great.

Um, we have the new hunt library drawstring promotional bags with a new logo created by Jennifer, um, with some feedback from a few other staff and the, um, external return bin is now installed at hunt. So patrons can drive up and return items into that external return bin. Upcoming event, June 30th, so this coming week, we have one of our Storytime XLs. This is fire safety ahead of 4th of July, and it's in partnership with Fullerton Fire Department. We're going to have our guest reader and fire friends, Sparky, coming dressed up. We're hoping to have a fire truck, but it's always pending, you know, actual availability of they're not on a job, so... And July 11th, we have our big K-pop event. This is our second time doing this event. So we're really excited to see how that will go. And July 17th, this is a new one for us. The Orange County Soccer Club is going to do a story time. So they're actually having players coming out. They reached out to us, I want to say, in April, um, asking if us, if we wanted to do this and we were like, yes, I mean, it's the world cup. Everybody's in soccer frenzy right now. Um, so they're going to be coming out. There's going to be some actual players. We don't know who they are. Um, reading to kids and then they're going to do some outdoor soccer play. They're even bringing soccer balls. So that should be fun. Sorry. What time is it? Um, so we're still narrowing down a time. It's not until July 17th. Um, Understandably, their players' schedules are a bit all over the place right now. And we're not sure. I think it's going to be around 3 o'clock, sometime in the afternoon. So we'll have a flyer for that soon, as soon as the time is finalized.

Have we promoted that around to any of the local soccer clubs that were doing this?

Not yet because we just finalized the date. We didn't want to, because it's in partnership with the larger group and everything that's going on. But as soon as we have that, we will.

You could actually send it straight to Coast Soccer League. Coast Soccer League could push it out through the entire league. That's all the competitive clubs. Sounds great. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Um, so I'm now going to report on teen. Um, so Emily had planned to be here tonight. I don't know if you remember what at the last meeting when we presented the zine, um, Emily did not create the zine, but it's aligns very much with the young adult audience. And so for other reasons, I think, um, trustee was, um, you had mentioned, um, the, um, is it the tap program? Tab, Teen Advisory Board. And so she was going to come here tonight to report. But as many of you may or may not know, tonight is a critical membership meeting for the Fullerton Municipal Employees Federation. So they are having a meeting and a vote tonight regarding things that will have a major impact on our budget, depending on how that vote goes. So it's not a common thing, and it was very important for staff who wanted to be there to attend. She was very excited to come tonight, so she's very excited to come in July. So I'm going to report on her behalf. Teen Summer Reading Program started June 2nd. They have many attendees. Their next... seasonal craft night. It's going to be a joint adult and teen patrons, July 8th. It does require registration. They're going to be making beaded succulent plants. So it's like a potted plant that, yeah, it's like, but it's made out of beads. Um, they had volunteer orientation. So one of the things we're trying to do is have Emily train. The trainers is how I'm describing it. She's spent so much time. I mean, anybody who's organized volunteers knows how labor intensive and time consuming that is. So, um, she's holding volunteer training session orientation so that they can train new volunteers instead of every time we have a new volunteer, she's training them. So I think that's working out well. Um, And on July 31st, the library will celebrate the summer teen volunteers with the party. So for all of their hard work for the volunteers, they'll have their party. Okay, almost done. The last thing is arts and culture. So the arts and culture biggie for this month, you've received it via email. We also print it out as the Pacific Symphony on the go event. Tuesday, July 7th at Hunt, 530 to 6 is the hands-on musical program. 6.30 is the actual concert. We're going to have Roaming Glory. Anybody who's visited the excellent coffee cart that is at Hunt during the weekdays, they will be there. And I think they're also going to have like pastries to sell as well. A couple of things that I wanted to mention from the adult side that you have flyers for, but I just wanted to mention here. Telling Our Story is this community sort of paper quilt project we're doing. So, Ruth, do they have quilt squares? So if you see this square, if you want to participate in this community quilt, you can just write your story. You can decorate it. You can do it at home and bring it in. We also have colored pencils inside the library. There's a whole set up. And you can see right above the table with the supplies, we've started posting the community quilt. So it's a really neat, interactive way to engage in America's 250th celebration. And this was an idea from one of our librarians I met, Amanda.

Question. Are we going to ask for volunteer posting? I think it's great. Everybody created stories, but we see none, right? So I would love to see stories. So I wonder...

There, yeah. So there's a table with all of these supplies, colored pencils, and then they get put right above it. So it's a big square on the wall. And the idea is it will look like a quilt. Right now we have maybe two rows filled. Right, right. Are we going to also post digitally as well too? When it's filled in, that will look nice. As of now, it looks too empty.

Yeah.

So we're hoping for... But we should have time. Yeah.

Yeah, we have time. So July 4th is the target date for all of these celebrations, but there's only one July 4th day.

So I think it's perfectly appropriate to have lead up and also some programs and events afterwards. Yeah, the celebration is the whole year after July 4th. So we do have time.

But we are really asking for participation. Brilliant idea. Yeah, really fun. And then... last thing i'm going to mention and then alec i'm going to ask if you can just do a quick osborne update since that's your kind of baby um we're all aware of these dates i think also but i just think they're worth mentioning because of budget and also because both of the community budget meetings are happening at the libraries july 7th at 5 30 main library conference center thursday july 9th at hunt library 5 30 community budget meetings these are going to be more interactive not just like town hall listen and receive information I think they'll really be worth attending if you want to participate in what will be the proposed budget a few weeks from then. And then I'm going to hand it over to Alec because we have big news with the Osborne project.

yeah we finally got to uh start breaking ground on osborne yesterday the construction crew has finally got all their materials and are ready to get going um so it's just been a lot of demo these first couple of days i think you guys got pictures um you could see ceiling tiles stacked tall and uh kind of the bare ceilings and a wall put up to partition between kind of the entrance to the children's library and the osborne entrance um so we're looking at six weeks of construction is what we're told um we've looped in the it for the it upgrades and we think we have all parties on the same page and uh we're just excited to finally get the process going and we're really excited to see the room once it's all done i think you guys got some renderings as well um attached with uh did those get submitted with them okay no well We'll keep it with a little cliffhanger there. But yeah, we've got renderings, and we think it's all going to come together really nice and look great.

Six weeks is going to go by very fast.

Yes, we're very excited.

And we have some time contingency, although I probably shouldn't be saying that. But our target is to reopen those rooms by Labor Day. So anybody who's done construction, been involved in construction, probably everybody knows how that goes. So we're planning accordingly.

Great. Can we ask the trustees any questions, comments, reports?

I have questions, comments, and reports.

Great.

First of all, rewind. I run the Silent Book Club of Fullerton, and last Saturday, Jaime and Alicia was there, too. We had such an amazing tour. We had about 15 people from our club come, and we toured literally every inch of the library. Like people were like, there's four levels to this library. Like everyone was so shocked. It was so cool to hear people, you know, say, oh, I didn't know this was here, or I had no idea of this history. Jaime was such a great tour guide. He's just very, very good at what he does. And everyone was really excited. We had people sign up for their first Fullerton Library card. We had people get their first physical card because they had the digital for Libby, but they're like, I want a physical one now. So I just really wanted to thank the library, everyone for letting us invade your guys' space because we literally were in everyone's way.

We will share this with Jaime. He did mention this, but there's so much going on. Everybody's doing so many things every day that I didn't even make it on my list, but he did mention that your group stopped by and he was very delighted by the wide range of this group. He said there were like kids to adults to seniors and it was really wonderful. So I'll let him know that you mentioned this. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes. Oh, my husband was like the photographer. He took like 70 pictures and then sent them to me. And I was like, I can't use all of these pictures. But yeah, it was great. Really, really appreciate it. I was wondering, that's my report. My question is, is there an update on the privatization talks? I know that there was a meeting scheduled. Do you have any updates on that?

So Alec and I did attend a meeting with city manager and with the representative from LSNS, Michael Posey. It was a very, I mean, we wanted to go into that meeting with questions, just factual, just very pleasant, not combative, and really just hear them out. Because our sort of like outlook on it is we want what's best for the library. We don't think that privatization is what's best for the library. But if we really have open hearts and open minds at this point, we have to look at all options because the situation is serious right now. So, he did answer most of our questions. We had many, many questions. He was very candid. The meeting did not go a minute less than the hour. I mean, we really asked everything. We came in very prepared. We also came in with spreadsheets that showed our budget versus what they were offering and how close it would match and And all of that. After the meeting, the next day, maybe a day or so later, he did email us with answers to some of the questions he didn't have answers to in the meeting. And then he wanted to connect us with his CFO. Um, so, uh, we were tasked with doing that. And so Alec did meet, um, I think have a virtual meeting with the CFO and do you want to speak to that?

Yeah, I met with the CFO and the head of sales and, uh, they kind of were poking through a more detailed budget of ours just to kind of give a more updated proposal. Um, Less questions, less going back and forth, more of a sales pitch kind of. But again, we were tasked with having these meetings, so we were kind of doing our end.

We did provide the company with our publicly posted budget from this current fiscal year because they were using numbers from several years back. So they did update their proposal somewhat. it wasn't consistent. Like this page didn't master with this page. So we kind of really had to go through page by page to, and we also had to ask them some clarifying questions, all of that to say the savings that they are proposing is approximately 600,000 something per year. It almost exactly matches what our budget reductions that we've already proposed. It's like, I don't know if it's a coincidence or if it's just, we really are looking at all of the options ourselves. But the numbers came in so close that, you know, we, we, we now have the numbers and from what we're hearing, there is no interest or incentive in moving forward with it from city management. That said, we don't know that it would or would not come up with council, but I've not heard anything. I don't know if it, and, some of you may have additional feedback on this, but that's where, that's where it's at. Okay. Our city manager, you know, said, you know, thank you. You did what we asked. We now have the information and it's kind of just sat there.

Okay.

And thank you for asking.

Thank you.

Okay.

Report, question, comment. I went to the Monrovia Public Library for the first time over the weekend and something they had, which I was like, oh my gosh, we should totally do this, is they had Alzheimer's kits and teen mental health kits. So they're like a backpack or like a tote bag that's checkoutable. I didn't ask for how long they would check it out. But I'm thinking, because we partner so often with the Alzheimer's Association, something like that. And it was things like know information about local resources it was puzzles it was like you know things to keep your mind sharp early stages teen mental health kids was you know things like puzzle books coloring books things that would help kids um and i was wondering if that's something that if there was an outside group that could donate those materials something that you guys would be interested in having as a resource that would be a question for the staff who would be

handling like the, the heavy lift on that. Um, I think many libraries have versions of takeaway kits. So like right now Keith Lee is doing STEM takeaway kits. Um, some libraries have, um, um, citizenship pathway to citizenship kits that have like, so And so we could do that. I don't know if it's the donated items so much as coming up with a workflow to where, because the difficult thing with those kits, like the steam kits, you give them and there's no expectation they're coming back. When you have kits like this where you account for the items and they're expected to be returned, you have to kind of come up with the workflow with that. So I think, I mean, you can, like you can jump in, but it sounds great. There would just be that process. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I would agree with that. And I think also given that we would probably want to myself collaborate with our teen librarian and adult services librarian, just to make sure that it's relevant to the needs that might be maybe including book lists and things like that as well.

If they could be giveaway kits. So these were circulating, they were meant to be. I mean, if it could be something where like, yeah, like little puzzles and things that That would be ideal. Okay. So in that case, yes, if we could get, and you know, it could be that the organizations do have something like that, but maybe we just have to put them in a bag, which is fine.

Yeah.

But that's a very good suggestion.

And then my last thing, so sorry. I just, I love going to new libraries and seeing like, oh, what are they doing? Was they had a section, and I was thinking, because I know that adult literacy is something that we're kind of looking forward to in the future. They had a section specifically, they called it Fresh Reads, where it was shorter sections faster books for adults, not for kids. And it had like a sign that this is for like emerging readers or people that have a hectic life and want to get a book in. And it was really cool that it was right there. And, you know, it was nonfiction and fiction together. I just thought that that was like a really cute little, I was like, Ooh, I would grab like a bunch of things so I can up my book total for the year. It is. It's wonderful.

It's almost like the reader's digest or those books that were like the shortened versions of things. Yeah. Yeah. We can talk to our adult librarian about creating display. We have so many displays that it's like prime real estate. So you try to find that line between it being too busy and rotating. And so maybe we can identify a month that's like the literacy month or there's got to be a month about like adult literacy that we can connect that to. That would make it easier to get it into our calendar. I think that's wonderful. And Amanda, who made the quilt idea, she recently came from, I want to say, is it Santa Fe Springs? She's recently hired from a different library system and brought a lot of these different ideas and actually she's, um, has her teaching credential. And so literacy is a passion of hers. So she's a teacher and also a librarian. Um, so she is actually the librarian who we're working with right now to start, um, some do some version of, of a literacy program because we didn't qualify for that grant. Um, but we're, we will be able to do some version of it. So yeah. I'll mention this to her.

Yeah. And whoever came up with, there's a display right now in the library. That's a movie and a cookbook. And it's like, it's like, who did that?

So that was a collaboration between myself and Alex, our zine curator. And she's, she's pulled all those books and DVDs and just made a wonderful experience.

So cute. So it's like you get the movie and then you cook a meal that's like related to the movie and they're like tied together. It's so cute. Yeah. very, very big fan.

She's so creative. And she just sent out a message to our staff asking us, is there a book that you've read that should be TikTok viral, but it's not. And I wanted to reply, but I'm like, I don't, I don't have TikTok. So I don't know what qualifies as TikTok viral, but there is like a book that, a few, but one in particular where I'm like, everybody should read this. It's so cute. So she, and I, that's going to be her next display. So she has some really great ideas.

Okay.

Very good. No, thank you. So Lisa, I want to say something.

Well, I, I, I do, I do the same. So I was actually at the Orbelinda library not long ago. And I did take pictures. And what they're utilizing is they're utilizing just screens, like digital screens, to promote their merch and drives you to the book corner to purchase the totes. Sorry, miasmas. Yeah, I feel you today, girl. But also, too, they promote throughout the library the Friends membership. So how to sign up and it's in all of the departments. It's in the children's as well. So they have these video screens and they use it just, you know, they got things on a loop and I really liked that. Um, I follow, um, a reading influencer and she, this last post that she had, it was really cute. She's like, if you are Kathleen Kelly, um, you would love this book. So you've got mail. She's one of my favorite characters. If you've got Kathleen Kelly from You've Got Mail. If you're Kathleen Kelly, you'd love this book. If you'd love this book. If you're Elle Woods, you'd love this book and you'd love this book. But she has all these different characters and who you would, you know, these different, current titles that you might like as well. In regards to the takeaway kits, that would be a really great either Girl Scout Gold Award or an Eagle Scout Award. And we can actually go to those, you know, the councils and actually pitch that we are open to partnering with Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts on specific projects that can benefit the library.

I'm glad you bring this up because we received an email from a young, I don't know if it's a student or just a young person. I'm losing perspective the older I get. That is maybe a scout, but maybe is also, no, I think it was something having to do with Rotary and wanted to get some kind of badge and was asking about like a- Was it Rotaract?

Somebody from Rotaract?

I don't recall that, but they mentioned a program that was like a stuffed animal and a reading. It was some kind of like... Oh, the Reading by Nine initiative?

Something like that. So that may have been Leslie, our president, because we actually were in a conversation about that. So there's a new Rotary International initiative called Reading by Nine, where you would partner either with schools or at the library and help do reading tutoring. So that may be...

It wasn't that. It was a program that was older, but this would be a version that I think would work better. They were saying it was something that stopped during COVID, but what they were describing wouldn't necessarily work. But anyway, the whole point is that somebody did reach out asking to partner with the library to complete their project. And so we've been thinking, so we're scheduling a meeting with him. So I'll bring something like that.

There's a lot of high schools also that create and require a capstone project. So just being able to put that out there that we are open to partnering with different service organizations.

We definitely want to. What becomes difficult is they need somebody supervising them on site often. And that's where we run into the capacity for that. We want to partner with everyone, and all these projects sound great, but then we want to make sure we're replying to the emails and we're able to do our part on our end.

Maybe we could require they have to have their own individual advisor aside from library staff. Could be.

But when somebody reaches out directly and they take that initiative, we will respond to them. So this person, we are. But I would hesitate to make a pitch towards the organization because it might get so much wonderful response. That's true. But it's a really good idea.

Also, this is a great event. Is the city willing to post this?

They have. So they, this is the one that, That city manager's office shared out, right?

Yes. And I might be able to add it to the city calendar. Okay. So I can find out because I know I add our book sales on there and the board meeting. Okay. I can check.

And also the Fullerton community band has a tendency or they, I guess, I don't know if they only perform at Fullerton college quad, but that's where they perform. So it would be nice to possibly lure them to the end in some way and let them know that that's another option.

Maybe a pre-show.

I don't know if they may have a partnership with the college. So there you go.

Thank you. Yeah, but we did send it to city manager's office. And mayor, council, and all employees should have received this flyer. Wonderful.

Do you want to make comments, questions?

Just that my family and I went to the summer reading kickoff. And I was blown away by how many people were there. Yes. Yeah. It was, I've never seen that many people. We usually go to, um, they have one with a dog at the dog park and they have like a big, um, I forget what that one's called, but there's usually a ton of people there. This is, I've never seen this many people there. It was unbelievable. And, uh, they immediately asked about when the Pokemon day would be. So they're looking forward to that. And I have, um, all of their friends who are girls are very excited about the K-pop day. So we'll probably go to that too. Um, but yeah, it was, it was really good event. Uh, Yeah, my kids stayed a lot longer than they expected.

Thank you for that. I'll pass that information along to Jaime and that whole team. Where did you park? Or did you just arrive very early?

No, we actually arrived pretty late. It was completely full. We saw people parking way down the street, and we just got really lucky. We just drove through as someone was leaving, so we got super lucky.

Okay, nice. The street actually from Valencia to Hung Library. through the bridge that was just recently paved just last week. So it was very smooth and very nice. You're excited about something?

Totally random. There's a sign, like the parking lot that's on the other side of the bridge that's at the park, there's a sign that says Hunt Library, like foot bridge path, but it is fully faded, like not painted. If someone painted that, would people be mad?

There's, there's actually some signage in, in the works.

Oh, okay. It's a cute sign. And I'm like, if someone just needs to like redo the white letters, you mean like somebody in the middle of the night, I happen to get the car and go on my own, but that's a whole nother story. Well, I was just like, it's so easy to just put it back. But if there's signage already, I won't risk.

Well, I think that makes it easier to, to be able to park and just walk over there.

It's a cute little vintage sign. It kind of matches like the Union Pacific Trail sign. And like, yeah, I liked it a lot. I hope they don't get rid of it.

It's just aging, right? So I got a question about summer. Now we're in the middle of summer. How are we comparing summer versus regular school years in terms of teen activities and, you know, children activities? Because normally, you know, they're so busy at school, right? And now school is out. What difference have we seen?

The programs and events during the summer are different than what we have during the school year. So we can really only compare this summer to last summer. I mean, you can compare circulation, I guess, to the school year versus, yeah.

Yeah, I don't have them on me myself, but generally in the summer we do see a surge in circulation with people coming in to stay fresh.

I did hear from Emily not very long ago that they already have more than twice as many signups for teen summer reading this year than they did last year.

I just assumed that because school is out and this is like the best place either to be or to check out books. So I was hoping that it would be a lot more traffic coming here because, you know, reading, it's good all year round, but summer just seems to be a really perfect timing for that. And the question is about the Pokemon Go, the 10th anniversary, July 10th. Can someone explain what is it going to be like? I'm not a Pokemon fan, but lots of my friends are.

You know what?

There's a July 10th anniversary event. Is it something special celebration? Do we all bring cards?

It's going to be in the conference center. This is a good question. And the fact it's also good feedback that we don't have this answer, which means we need to get this answer.

There is a gentleman that has a that is like, I don't know, a Pokemon go guru in downtown Fullerton. And he has a tremendous following. I'm assuming it's on social media.

Yeah. He actually works. I forget his name. He works for Niantic, the company that owns Pokemon go. Like they not like, like he works with them to promote Pokemon go. So he has like resources and stuff. Like when they did the chalk on Wilshire with all the Pokemon drawings and stuff like that was him. So I just assume it's going to be nuts. Yeah. It'll be down. It'll be nuts. Yeah.

I'm seeing if I can message Keithley, but it won't happen.

So it's not so far the slider library event.

Yes, it's library event at main library on Friday, July 10, from one to four. More information is going to be in the newsletter that goes out next week. But so far, what it says we will have is craft snacks, a Pokemon movie screening, and more fun for the whole family.

Right. I wonder, so like library wise, like which division is in charge or which staff is in charge?

The children's department is in charge of this one.

Okay. So there'll be more information to come.

Absolutely. And the newsletter that'll come out next week.

Great. And I'd like to make comments that I did visit the Midsummer Night's Dream, um, since I did not grow up here. So I did not learn about Western literature, um, But what's just very fascinating as I walk into the Hahn Library and see all the staff dress up, and I start to feel the dream. You know, it's just really interesting. And the music was going on in the quad, and the harp, and I learned that our own Emily? No.

Amy? Amy?

Amy actually is a flute player who plays flute really well. And people, you can see that they were just in the La La Land. It was magical. Right, right. And they did magic, I think, again. Not Fortune Teller. What is it called?

The tarot card. Tarot reading.

Right. So I did one. And again, just, you know, an experience for me. And I thought all the staff did a really good job. The decoration, the people that were involved just make it very, like, put you in an environment. Then you feel like you went back, you know, in the time. and picturing the Shakespeare and the literature. And I was just really drawn into it because it's something brand new and fascinating for me that totally following to the situation. And I really appreciate that. And I did also get a chance to see the summer program that we had at the Hunt Library as well too. And I see that they're doing a really good job. The students were very engaged. And they're having fun learning things that they are doing as well, too. So, no, thank you. I think it's really nice. Now, coming back to privatization that Megan brought up, I personally feel that all of us that are sitting on the board here has an obligation to advocate for the library, since we all do have connections with whoever, you know, you know, more than one council member that if we could reach out and advocate for the library. It's not just the number, an obvious number already doesn't match. More than a number, it's the community, it's the people, it's a relationship, it's how the librarian has been served here, has known the community, understand the needs, and how we are able to work together, and I think that's a huge part. So I just like to advocate that if we all can take part in please reaching out and communicate and attend whatever sessions that we can that, you know, Anita share with us, that would be wonderful. Thank you. So we're going to go ahead.

Thank you. I actually have a question and sort of like a question about guidance. So we had considered putting the results, like putting together a staff report about the privatization meetings and everything you asked about and decided that. it might draw attention to it. And so I decided not to put it on there, but I also realized that I want to get your feedback on that because, um, we've been really nervous about this, but it seems that the numbers and, and you're right, it's not just about the numbers, but for some people and during certain periods of time, it's about the numbers more than usual. and we're in one of those times. And because the numbers didn't really check out and then all of the other reasons, I really, I don't feel like anybody's looking to move this forward. So I'm just a little bit concerned if we're advocating against something that nobody's talking about, I don't know. And you all know the community more than I do. So I'm really looking for guidance in this subject.

My personal opinion is because the decision makers ultimately are going to be the city council members as our elected officials, as our city leaders and I would say that they will be the first stop for me personally to be able to reach as many as I can from this point on and obviously any company member has any opinion they're always welcome to share.

I think framing it not like hey, council members, don't privatize the library, but framing it more of like, you know, the budget cuts that the library has presented provide us with, you know, the ability to have the programming that we want, have the staffing that we want. And, you know, we have two options, the 5% and the 10%. And like, you know, please move forward, hopefully with the 5% cut, but with 10%, we can still survive. And like, I think if we do talk to council members, framing it more in line, not with like, heard about them eating, kind of like that kind of thing, but more of like, you know, we think that the library has done a great job in creating a budget that meets our needs, that helps us with the cuts that are required and like kind of framing it more of that way. I do, I appreciate that, you know, this topic is very invigorating to the community. Like there is a huge feeling about keeping the library, the library. And I, so I appreciate, you know, the fact that you don't want it to be something that becomes, especially if it's not moving forward. Yeah. If it does move forward, we, I hope we'll all advocate against it. But I think that talking to our council members and just saying like, the library has done a great job. Leave it at that. Like,

Yeah. It's almost like you don't want to mention. Yeah.

Don't want to push them into that like thought process.

And also just adding that because of our amazing support groups, we could not survive these cuts and would probably have to look at that if it weren't for our friends and foundation. I have to say that every time.

So, um, I, I, I actually have had conversations already and had a meeting and I, in a very positive way, saying, you know, we have, the resources that we have. We're incredibly blessed with this foundation. We're incredibly blessed with amazing friends. That would go away. We wouldn't have that support if the library was privatized. And also, you know, reiterating what, I mean, the importance of what is meant to me personally, what's meant to my family. It's part of my childhood. It's part of my Fullerton upbringing. But then also, too, like, hey, before anything happens, Let us be proactive. How can we be proactive? I think that we all feel that way. I think we're in a situation where, and we have a community that would be supportive. I think that we would have, if we could have that conversation, just please give us an opportunity before any decisions are made. That's how I approached it.

You know, pandemic... hasn't been out of our mind. We're still, we all remember the time that we were told to stay home and not go anywhere. And we all have seen the consequence with the mental illness, the craziness that we see things happening in the society. And in library books, it's food for the soul, you know? And I think, again, it's not, something very tangible that with numbers that you can, you can price, you know, there, there are things that it just priceless. And, and I feel, you know, what's more important than your state of mind. And so, you know, I, I feel that we have preachings required, obviously. So, you know, we, we all will do our own share and, and I do not, feel that that will be the direction because yes, we're so blessed because I don't believe other library have this kind of support group and partnership that we have with the friends and the foundations. So with that, could we have any comment to make or can we move forward?

I think I've been coming from a library background. I have very strong feelings about privatization, obviously. And I do think it's going to be a very unpopular opinion with the community at large, and there will be a lot of people who want to say something. So I think you brought up a very good point that we shouldn't, if no one's heard anything right now, that we probably shouldn't raise any flags. But if we do hear that it's going to move forward, I think there will be a lot of people who will want to come and say something. So for now, I agree that I think it's better to bring up the budget cuts and say what you're presenting is going to be a good step forward, but not mention privatization.

Because there's some people who may not even realize what it is or that it exists, and I don't want to plant a seed.

It's not an option. All right, Judy, our friend. We're so happy to have you.

And to have something so great to discuss today. You know, I don't do the microphone well. Is this working? Okay. All right. Well, as you all know, and I saw some of you at the book sale. We had a wonderfully successful book sale. It was two days. And the first day we did $10,000 worth of business. And usually the rule is the second day you get to half of that. So we were holding our breath because we've never gotten to $15,000 before. And we did. We made it $15,132. Yay. Yes. And we do have some expenses, but they're not excessive. And it was a book and art sale. We did sell some nice artwork. So that kind of pushed us up there over that 15,000. There were several things that went on. One, and I have to comment on this wonderful video that Alec and Emily did interviewing some of our happy customers as they were leaving the building. And it just put a smile on everybody's face. You know, it's a lot of work. And then you see something like that. And it was just truly excellent. You know, I don't know how you did it and turned it around that fast, but it did show just how happy our customers were. So I wanted to be sure and mention that. We don't have exact numbers on how many people attended the first day. We had a little over $600. The second day, I don't know what happened with our counter person, but We didn't get numbers. Usually the second day is the same as the first day. So that's quite a few customers. Normally we run about 500 for each day. So very well attended. We had a lot of books and we had a lot of artwork. And we do appreciate having the extra landscape to display our artwork. So, uh, so we're looking forward to our next one. And of course, you know, it does thrill us that this money goes to library director towards all of the many things that it needs to help out on. That makes us feel really good. I personally sitting in the bookstore, love seeing those kids running by or seeing them running up with their hamburger thing or whatever it is. Uh, it makes us all very, very happy. Um, I wouldn't like to comment inadvertently. I was a part of the tour the other day. I didn't even know there were tours. And we were downstairs. Our two ladies that do the children's books were there. And I was grabbing books to take upstairs. And it was so nice. Everybody was so happy on that tour. And I think I knew almost all of them. And he asked how many of them had been to the sale. And almost all said they had. And of course, being up in the bookstore. So I didn't know how a tour came about, but I thought it was a fabulous idea. And it is kind of neat to come down the basement, be in the bowels of the library, and see what all is going on. We didn't have a lot of books because of the sale, but we were busy working on what we had. So I guess that's about everything I have. Oh, we're getting our signage installation on the 30th. Thank you, Alicia. Very excited about that. Any questions on anything? Okay. Well, I do thank you for your participation.

It was great. It really was. There's a lot of people. I'm always a good customer. And my son came. Yeah. Yeah, my son bought three seasons of NCIS for his girlfriend. She loves that. So he got three seasons of. DVDs for his girlfriend and bought some manga and all kinds of stuff and books on film and all of that.

So it's just wonderful. And I know, I know when you came in to see our sales floor that first morning, you were kind of astounded. It is quite amazing and it is a lot of work, but everybody kind of has a role they play and a responsibility and then it kind of comes together, but a lot of work. Yeah. Yeah. But that video helped because that was a real validation for us. And I hope others will get to see that. But yeah, it was just a really nice validation. Not all of us have Instagram. So the one with Instagram moved around from group to group and you could just see it on their faces. So job well done. Anyway, any other questions?

Would you please help us to thank all the volunteers and our friends for their hard work and efforts in making such a great, successful event? I would be happy to. Thank you. And is the next book sale, is it October 9th and 10th?

9th and 10th. All right.

It'll be here before we know it. Great. Thank you, Judy. Thank you so much. Thank you all. Sean is not on there. Is it any other foundation representation?

So we have two members of the public on here who may or may not be representing the foundation. It's not, but I'd say let's open it up for public comments. And if one of them happens to be representing the foundation, well, we'll be happy to take that report. Yes.

Go ahead.

So if you'd like to speak either in chambers or on zoom, if you're in chambers, please approach the podium. If you're on zoom, please raise your hand in zoom. Not seeing any. All right, I believe we can move on.

Anita, you and I attended the foundation meeting. Is there anything that you would like to bring up here for everyone's awareness from the foundation meeting?

Yes, but first I wanted to say something I forgot, which is thank you, Su Ling, for sponsoring two of the library staff to attend the State of the City event. Keithley and Kyle were able to attend, as was I, and we were able to make connections at that event. We saw Trustee Wozab there as well. We were able to primarily make connections with some members of the school district, which was really valuable and have turned into a couple of meetings. I just really wanted to say thank you to President Chen for that opportunity.

I'm actually very excited that our staff are happy to reach out because sometimes I feel like most of us, it's not our nature to put ourselves out there. You know, when I go to the meeting, I have to remind myself to, okay, don't always just talk to people you know. Try to say hi to people you don't know. And it takes courage. It's not, you know, it's not our nature to do that. So I appreciate, you know, our staff has the interest and willingness to be able to put themselves out there. And I hope it's a good learning experience for them, too.

It was. And another thing I forgot to mention is that Keith Lee had been wanting actually Bethany suggested social media video that partners with the fire department. It was something that she had seen on Instagram or something. And just by coincidence, a few days before, she said, oh, we should do something like this. And then Keith Lee went up to Chief Lozier and pitched him the idea. And he agreed to it and said that some of his new firefighters would be perfect for that. So we haven't made it happen yet because there's just been so much going on. It's only been a couple of weeks. But real connections came out of that. So thank you. And then your question about from the foundation meeting. I think the biggest item I learned is that they purchased a... fundraising platform. So they are sitting on several million dollars, which we are so grateful and quite relieved, frankly. But to keep their 501c3, they also need to spend money and they also need to keep fundraising for money. So even though they have a really good bank account right now, they are looking for ways to fundraise. And they have a group of board members who, you know, admittedly, they're not sure what direction to go in. So I think it was a really good choice to, you know, purchase a platform where that's that company's area of expertise.

That was a big takeaway for me. I think that opened up another opportunity for us because I remember in the past, we're thinking about, oh, maybe we can have a concert, you know, Taylor Swift, whatever, right? That can draw people in. What we were looking for, how can we generate revenue for us? Whether it's home, whether, you know, it's our library, beautiful place. But I think immediately we encountered that, oh, we're a library and we're public service and we don't, We don't collect money. And obviously, that's kind of the reason that we do want to partner with Parks and Rec, because they can do events and they can collect money. So if we're able to work with the foundation to do the events and then the money can go to the foundation, I think it serves the same purpose. So I think that's a great excitement to open more doors. for us to be more engaged with the community with more events and also generate the funds for us as well, too.

Great. It's vital to have a fundraising pass-through as the foundation.

And this community is very generous. So I think it's very nice. Should we move forward with our regular business? All right. So the consent calendar, right? So... Any questions, comments about the consent calendar?

I move to accept the consent calendar as is.

Any second? I second. All right. Could we take a vote, please?

Carrie Prelitz? Yes. Jennifer Sarvis? Absent. Megan Watson? Yes. Lisa Wozab? Yes. And Zilin Chen?

Yes. And we only have one regular business. Exciting one. All right. So pass for who will help us to understand more about what's going on.

Yes, yes. And I'm very, very happy to give this update about our passport office. So as you know, back in May of 2025, we did have to close our passport office due to staffing issues. We have reopened it as of May of this year, and we've really reopened it with a sustainable reopening model around it. So we've changed kind of how we're doing things in the sense that we have added our full-time library technical assistant, Trevor, whom you met. And so... this has as i said it has allowed us to reopen our passport office we were closed for a year we do have our hours of wednesday through saturday from 11 to 3 we are appointment only and so that gives us 16 hours weekly with one to two desks available for customers to come in that's hard for me as a library staff member to say customers but they are customers Hopefully future patrons. And so that again is a 16 hours that we're offering currently. We do also offer a photo service from 11 to the hour before we close every single day that we are open. So that's an additional service that we are always offering. And when we don't have an appointment filled, we do offer fill-in service. So we use that term instead of walk-ins as we don't want to give people the impression that they can indeed show up, and we do not offer the walk-in service. So we want to give them that understanding that it is fill-in appointments. And then so between May 20th and June 20th, so that would be our first month of service, We were projected to finish with 177 passport applications and 175 passport photos. We ended up about two or three short of that just due to people not being able to make it in for their appointment. But we are very impressed with what we have indeed achieved. brought in, and so if you look at 177 passport applications, that by itself would be around $6,195, and the passport photos being $2,100 for a total of $8,295 in one month for revenue.

So it's just one month, one month forward for more to come.

And as we're just beginning. So, and we have a really enthusiastic team. And again, as you met Trevor, we have someone who's really just excited to do passports and that's the energy that we're, we're excited to be starting this with. So any questions?

Sorry. I just also wanted to mention, um, that the hours are going to increase. For passport offerings. So this is the total that Alicia and her team brought in for one for the first month where we did a soft launch at the beginning and we're not even at capacity of hours. So it's very impressive and very encouraging numbers.

So by appointment would be go online to make appointment?

Yes. So at Fullerton library forward slash or fullertonlibrary.org forward slash passports.

And could I ask what is a turnaround time if people come to apply for a passport or extension?

I believe right now it's four to six weeks for the standard service. And then if you pay an additional $60 per application, it's I believe two to three weeks. And that's in addition to the mailing time. So always add a week or two on top of that.

Right, right. Very good. Very good. Any other questions, comments, public comments as well, too?

Just as soon as you guys get a promo poster, let me know so I can actually deliver it to the postmaster. They said that they would put it up at the main post office.

We do have one, so I'd love to share that with you.

We have a few post offices in Fullerton. Yeah.

Well, we'll send it along to Ruth, and Ruth can pass it along. I also wanted to mention, did you mention Buena Park?

No, I did not. Go ahead. Did you want to do that? Okay, okay, okay. So Buena Park Library, the district library there, they are closing for a period of time so that they can do pretty massive renovations on their building. They've moved into the, I believe it's the Walter Knott Education Center for a temporary period of time. While that is happening, they will not be offering passport services. And that has always with the Buena Park Library been, since they've offered passport services, that has been a large part of their offering. And they were offering that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday for a pretty significant period of time. So in that absence, we are happy to assist their patrons slash customers with their needs.

Great. Very good. We don't mind if they are from Brina Park. Right, right.

Yeah, yeah. Did La Habra have passport services? Do we see an increase? Because I don't know, how much longer is La Habra going to be closed? Okay. Okay.

If we if anyone would like to make a public comment, now's the time to raise your hand and zoom or approach the podium. Seeing neither, I believe.

All right, do we have anyone want to make a motion or? Yep. And you want to make a motion?

Motion to receive and file a second.

I think we're excited about this passport, you know, service. We appreciate the report. And, you know, we like to hear more in the future. Look forward to having more great news. So let's take a vote, please.

Carrie Prelitz. Yes. Jennifer Sarvis. Megan, sorry, absent. Megan Watson. Yes. Lisa Wozap.

Yes.

And Su Ling Chen.

Yes. And with that, we're going to adjourn the meeting tonight. Thank you all. Good night.

I can't believe