Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

No reservations. I was, yeah.

All right.

I call the August 27, 2026 regular meeting to order. The public may access live meetings at HTTPS, fullerton.legisar.com, on Spectrum Cable Channel 3 and AT&T U-verse Channel 99. The public may address the Library Board of Trustees in person or virtually by joining the Zoom meeting online or by telephone. Those joining the Zoom meeting should go to zoom.us slash join or call 1-669-900-9128. and enter Zoom meeting ID 1607079419. Please use the raise hand feature in Zoom when the president calls the item you wish to speak on for discussion. Instructions can be found on the agenda. Members of the public may only speak one time during public comments. Please speak at the podium. Can I ask the recording secretary to please call roll?

President Su Ling Chen absent. Trustee Carrie Prelitz? Here. Trustee Lisa Wozab? Here. Corresponding Secretary Jennifer Sarvis? Here. And Vice President Megan Watson?

Here. Trustee Sarvis, will you lead us in the pledge?

I'd love to. Will you please rise and place your right hand over your heart?

Ready? Begin. This year, the library card sign-up month is September. The Fullerton Library invites you to tune in and sign up for a library card. Already have a library card? Invite your friends and family to join the library to discover the card that hits all the right notes. From book clubs to craft nights, story times to digital resources, a library card is your key to all the fun, enrichment, and opportunity the library has to offer. We'd also like to recognize three founding anniversaries, of the Hunt Branch Library, Main Library, and Friends of the Library. The library director will provide more information in her director's report. We will now hear public comments. Those who wish to speak, please line up at the microphone. The first speaker can come to the microphone. Seeing no one in person, are there any Zoom calls for public comments?

There's no one on Zoom right now.

All right then I will request the library director give her reports.

Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here. Emily should be walking in any minute and we're about So I'm just gonna say a couple of things and then we'll go on to the teen division report, but if it's okay Emily will also Speak to a few things that the boards wanted to sort of chat with her about and then she's gonna head back to the library to work the ask care desk so we don't have too many more details regarding the anniversaries, but I do have dates and September 12th is the Hunt Branch. September 16th is Maine. And September 17th is Friends of the Library. So we plan on doing something to commemorate each of these still in the works. But because they will all happen before the September Board of Trustees meeting, we wanted to formally recognize those dates today. One last thing before I hand it over to Emily. Reporting on the recent city council meetings August 4th was canceled. August 18th there was the full budget adoption and we will go over that in more detail on agenda item number 3. Now I'm going to hand it over to Emily.

Do you need notes or do you have your notes.

Hello, I'm Emily, the teen services librarian at the Fullerton Public Library. I'm going to be giving my past and current teen updates and then some also updates on like social media that I'm a part of as well. So the teen summer reading program ended August 1st. We had 86 total registrations, which was more than double last year's total. We had a total of 153 recorded books that were read. I had, for at least July and a little bit into August, over 30 volunteers that helped and logged more than 130 hours of service. They helped at the teen reading program sign-up table, so helping their peers sign up, and then also the various summer programming that we had, passing out food, helping out with crafts, stuff like that. Current and upcoming programs, as we get back into the swing of the school year, we're gonna be starting our Teen Advisory Board meetings. Teens in seventh through 12th grade can attend those meetings on the first and third Tuesday of each month at six o'clock. Starting September 1st, so this upcoming Tuesday, no registration or application is required. They're more than welcome to just attend. They receive an hour of volunteer credit for each meeting that they attend. And it's a fun opportunity for them to plan and organize programs for their fellow peers up in the teen department. They're also super interested in developing program and crafts for children's. It's a good opportunity for me to get an idea of what's cool and what they want to see. So they help decorate the space, put up displays. If they have any extra ideas for passive volunteer opportunities, I open up to them. They've done really popular programs in the past like our team clothing swaps. They've done the hour hour for children where they lead crafts for school age children. And then they've also just make friends across the school district. So it's really cool. The teens who attend also will get first pick for signing up for volunteer opportunities in the library. So with new after school programs and story time starting up again, I give them the opportunity to sign up for those volunteer spots since they're very committed to the library and they show up to the meetings. We also have craft nights. So I partner up with the adult librarian, Amanda, and we provide craft nights for teens and adults. Last night we had our Leybe-inspired craft night, which was a huge success. Over 100 people showed up. It was kind of insane, but it was really awesome. They made felt crowns inspired by the Leybe fan base. People who attended last night expressed their appreciation for being able to come to this. if they weren't able to attend on Sunday. All the decorations were still up, the photo booths, so they got to experience that as well. And then I think go and get library cards as well. So it was busy in the conference room, but also throughout the library. It was really cool. Otherwise, we had a book bedazzling encore in August that Amanda and I led, which was, again, open, no registration this time. So we had like 50 people that came. It was really awesome. And then we have an upcoming craft night in September to kind of tie in library card sign up month. We're doing like an origami wallet to hold your library card. And then bookmark making, so like scrapbooks, junk journaling, that kind of stuff. Another upcoming outreach program is in September. We're hosting a young adult author, a local author to Fullerton, Israel Moya. He just released his new YA book titled Monarchs in the Wind. And I'm going to be partnering with him. He's going to be leading a writing workshop for adults and teens on September 12th. And then he's going to have his books for purchase and signing as well. So we're happy to host him. He's the father of one of my volunteers, so we're happy to have a local author as well. Outreach continues with La Vista La Sierra High School. We're doing monthly outreaches at their library and hosting STEAM activities. And we also attend their new student orientations where we set up a table and help new students quarterly sign up for our library card as an opportunity to connect and get more readers there. We also donate a lot of books that we receive to their school library as well to fill in their personal school library for their students as well. So that's really nice. And then that is all of my outreach, or all my updates. And then I wanted to just note our social media team has been really excited over the past month announcing all the LeyV library card. Our general announcement that we got graphics from the actual LeyV team blew up obviously. And then we made a stop motion video to promote our own just for the fun of it. which the artist actually commented on and reposted to her story so it now has over half a million views reposts shares comments which i think helped attendance for the library card event on sunday and it continues um we did a recap post collaborating with the city of fullerton so that's brought in all the information and letting everybody know that library cards are still definitely available, and it wasn't just Sunday that they could get the cards. So I wanted to pass that on because everybody on the team has been really excited for it. That's all I have. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Yeah. I just have a question regarding the partnership with La Vista La Sierra. Is that grant-funded? Or it's just completely supported by the library?

Completely supported. One of their teachers reached out to the library just before I came on board a couple of years ago and initially made contact with Keithley. And then when I came on, I started helping from there. So it was just them reaching out and making partnerships within the city. And then from there, we've been coming monthly during the school year and just doing STEAM activities.

OK. If it was to be expanded, there's a lot of potential for it. I would think, for grant funding with the demo that they're serving.

They're a wonderful school, and we're so happy to partner with them. That's great. We've come to a bunch of things over the past year. We go to their club rushes. We've expanded to coming to the student orientations just recently, which helps as well. They're really excited to get their kids to sign up for library cards as well.

I love that. Thank you. I have a question. I know that more often you've used registration for the craft nights, and then it seems like lately... We haven't been. Is that causing problems as far as having enough resources? Is it like you're just really over-planning for how many people are going to show?

Yeah, so that was a recent development that Amanda and I kind of came together. We started doing the registrations as a way to cap it with material so we knew if we were doing a really... Sense of craft. We could cap it. We noticed, though, with registrations, it limits people. There's a waitlist option as well. And as people register and cancel the registrations, the people in the waitlist move up. We find that doesn't always happen. So when we have full registration, which tends to happen every time, which is really awesome, not everybody shows up. So those who are on the waitlist are encouraged to come and see if they can hop in in any empty spaces. I think sometimes maybe people who don't get put on the registration list, maybe you're like, it's not worth coming. I'm not going to show up when there's a space for them if they did. So we're going back and forth and figuring out if we are going to do away with registration. And that was what we did for the book bedazzling encore. We did no registration because it was really popular and we had like way more than we normally do. We had like 50 or so people come and normally there's like 20 to 25 people that come with registration. Last night was really crazy. That was just I don't even think we could have put a cap on registration just because opening up to more people who are able to come. So I think going forward, I think this upcoming craft night in September, we're going to try no registration and see how it goes, and then from there, determine. So a little bit of both.

I'm just wondering if maybe something very small, a little tchotchke or something like that, but if you could say to those that preregistered, they would get some little bookmark or something like that to try and encourage people to do that.

Yeah. And I believe within the calendar system that the library uses, I think they get reminder emails. And within the fine print, it tells them if you can't make it, cancel your registration, et cetera. So it's all kind of relying on the patrons to do that. But yeah, that's an awesome idea to try as well. But the one program, minus last night, that we tried without registration was really successful, and we were able to kind of cap it with the amount of people that came. So we'll give it one more time, and if it ends up being insane again, we can try to workshop it from there.

I just want to note, this is something that every library goes back and forth with, and for the exact reasons Emily mentioned. You place registration on there for all of those reasons, but then it could be a deterrent. Plans change last minute all of that so especially if it's an ongoing or recurring program where we might have leftover supplies or be able to over buy anyway. As long as space is permitting like last night we pivoted and we just started adding chairs. We had enough craft supplies so oftentimes it's just a capacity issue but we might say okay well we need to buy more for the next book bedazzling but we're kind of cutting into that supply but I think we all kind of err towards not wanting to turn people away. Because then sometimes you end up with a smaller program. So I would tend to agree with this. And I also just wanted to mention... A couple of things we'd wanted to chat with Emily about before was the zines, I think. That was something a few months ago that we had invited her two months in a row, and she's a very in-demand woman. And so I'm just trying to recall what the other reasons that we had asked you last time, but that was one of them.

Yeah, we did love the zines, and we were wondering if that could be a quarterly thing. I know that this was staff-driven, and it was just online. private time like and I've seen them at the little table and really cool my kids absolutely love them literally like would read it every night like can you read me this to go to bed can I can I can I use your phone to do the QR code and I was like okay you can't read but sure like let's let's do this and so we were wondering if maybe that could be added into something that could be part of the materials disseminated. I think that was what we had talked about. Not, obviously not monthly or something like that, but even like two times a year.

Sure, yeah. I know the zine that is in question is the one that I believe was made by Alex on the circulation team, which is really beautiful. I'm a personal fan of zines. I know like Anaheim Public Library has a circulating zine collection, which is super awesome. They do the OC Zine Fest. I'd be so on board. I'd be happy to start it off with the teens and see if maybe, or I've talked about it also with Amanda as a potential craft night and see the interest level there. I don't know if there's a particular time of the month that may be National Zine Month. I think it's somewhere early.

I was going to say, didn't we, we were talking about, because they just had the OC Zine Fest this month, but we were talking about with the new hunt exhibit was how this all got brought up, right?

Yeah, so happy to try it out with the new craft night or maybe a passive thing that some teen volunteers can work on if they have any ideas. I'm happy if I need to spearhead it or get anybody else on the team that's interested as well. I'm fully on board with Zines and including them. I think they're really popular.

This might be a question for later, but who was the person that reached out and registered for the, I don't know how to say her name, Lofi?

Okay, that's going to be later then. Okay, I have lots of comments.

Good, all good comments. That sounded bad.

Last night, the craft night, was insane, but in the best possible way. I heard nothing but positive comments, thankfulness, excitement, no negativity or any of that. The air conditioning was on, which helps. It's been really fun the last couple weeks.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

Yeah there will be so much to talk about but this was Alicia's brainchild and heart child and all the things so I'm going to not steal that thunder in any way. I am reporting on behalf of Keithley. So we had one thousand two hundred twenty three children register for summer reading this year. We had given some preliminary stats at the last meeting but these are the final stats. That's 300 more kids than last year, and just under 100 more finishers. So finishers meaning reaching all seven prizes. And she really expressed to everyone what finishing and participation meant, because signing up for something is one thing, but following through and engaging with the process is a whole other level. So not only was our registration up, but our participation was up, which was really amazing. Last time we were here, Judy had even mentioned the end of summer party and I couldn't remember the name of the nonprofit. It's called Break Every Chain. So that is the group that we partnered with that was able to give out the backpacks and school supplies and all those other fun things. So that was just such an amazing gift. And I don't remember if we mentioned this last time, but I want to note that Bethany was there again doing face paint as she often does at children's events and just, you know, her little hand going and try not to cramp up and the kids just loved it, made lots of crafts and So for August, we really took a break from programming. That's really traditional after summer reading, take a break and then gear up for the school year. So we're going to be bringing some programming back soon, right around Labor Day. Alec will be giving an Osborne update. But depending on Labor Day is falling the second week of September this year, which is confusing at least me and potentially more than just me. So it will be the first or second week of September when we start bringing programming back. I'm going to give one more update then I'm going to hand it over to either Alicia or Bethany and then I'll take it back for some more reporting. So the hunt division actually Jaime had his bubble statistics in. So there was a big bubble event yesterday. Quick stats 303 participants bubble and water play refreshing snacks, make your own bubble wand craft. The photos are so fun. There were, I mean, it was the perfect hot day to have a bubble and water event out on that lawn. September 5th, we have the reptile encounter coming up at the hunt. And then fall story time starts on September 15th. We're on a bit of a hiatus from the regular programming and story times right now. And then on the Parks and Rec front, their programming will resume September 2nd. There are some transitions with staffing and personnel in all of the divisions right now for various reasons. Parks has had somebody resign recently, Chewy, then somebody come back recently. So I think things are just in a little bit of a flux right now, but I think everybody will be ready for the school events and September programming to start. The two-day mini-con was a success. It was an entire weekend, August 8th and August 9th, and the Hunt Library hosted the Ready OC's Family Preparedness Open House, and we contributed free emergency books for attendees to take with them.

So I'm going to hand it over to, do you want to take it, Bethany?

For technical services?

Sure. I would say the most exciting thing for this month is something that we have been waiting for for such a long time, and that is for OverDrive to finally have the reciprocal borrower unified catalog, which means that the I don't remember the exact number because it has changed since they've incorporated this, but it's at least 15 different library systems that your Fullerton Public Library card now gives you access to the Overdrive at all those libraries. And how it works is that if there's a hold from a patron from one of those libraries, it gets filled for your own library first. But if there's something you really want that perhaps we don't quite have the stretch to get, now we have access to so many more thousands of titles that are available from all of those other libraries. And it's one experience. You don't have to go into the... I believe Buena Park is one of them. All the other different library systems catalogs to search now. You can just go in and search in one place. You put a hold on an item, it will automatically get filled as soon as it's available from whichever library. It's wonderful. And so that is something that we're very excited about. We're also gearing up for our first book orders of the year. Those are gonna get placed shortly after Labor Day. And then I think the other two big things that we're working on is newsletter team meets tomorrow. So you'll see the next round of the newsletter next week. And then the website team is hard at work on updating for the federal guidelines for accessibility. And so that is a huge project that we are chipping away at, but we are very excited to have a fully accessible website.

Okay, not that this isn't exciting as well, but I think we're really waiting to hear what Alicia has to say. For Adult Services Midsummer Movie Marathon, there were consecutive screenings of Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1 and 2. So for anyone who's familiar with the Hunger Games... series um that movie marathon um yeah that was a really neat movie marathon um dude where's my yarn um program creator roland conley so is you know resigned and moved to a different library but the legacy continues the program is so popular right now we're um fighting to find a new space for it because um there's so many people who attend and they've created this little community it's like a potluck it's a you know, yarn. It's a whole thing. Um, the super mini con, as we mentioned over 150 attendees. Um, and it was also a two day fundraiser. So what's really neat about that is the SoCal gamers, um, charged. I mean, it's an optional fee to attend, but then the proceeds go back to the library, which is such a wonderful thing. Um, town and gown America at two 50 was on August 8th. We had two professors, one from Cal state Fullerton, one from Chapman university, um, We had the snippets from the Ken Burns documentary both of the professors presented and then there was some really interesting discussion afterwards. So we're looking to have another Town and Gown this fall. Emily mentioned the Book Bedazzling Encore August 11th was a huge success. The local authors fair, we just had that last weekend. It was the day before the Leve Day, which all seems a blur now. We don't have stats on attendance, but there were more than 40 local authors present at the author fair. And then Emily mentioned the writing workshop with Israel Moya. OK, last thing, local history room ongoing. Newspaper digitization project continues. A highlight that Sherry mentioned is local history completed work with retired Fullerton police officer Lee DeVore on his latest book to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Alloway shooting at Cal State Fullerton. Lee is wrapping up his book titled A Campus Shattered, which is possibly the first written account of this massacre. He will donate copies to the local history room this fall. So that's a difficult subject matter, but it is Fullerton history. So, you know, we are participating in helping him with some documents on that. Upcoming, we're reaching out to the Veterans Legacy Memorial Project about partnering with them for a Veterans Day project. Not yet sure how that will look, but want to make sure that we're commemorating these types of holidays. And then another upcoming fall community partner Fullerton Heritage will be sponsoring the local Fullerton photographer Emerson Little on a much needed survey of the city's original streetlights. They're interested in documenting the current condition of remaining lights in our downtown corridor and our preservation zones as part of a larger preservation restoration project. The local history room will be absorbing all the photographs organizing them. I don't know if absorbing was was a typo organizing them and hosting them on our Web site as part of the building's database which is already available. This was just be adding to it. And with no further ado Alicia. No pressure.

Oh, I do feel the pressure.

OK. But I'm so excited. And I'm going to try to contain myself as I explain all the things right now. So if you don't know, we have a new library card. And this is it. Hopefully you've all had a close up with it. If not, I'll bring it around for you. We have indeed launched our special Levee Book Club library card. And so yes, it is Levee. But I think the artist herself has said that Lafayette is also okay. So when people come in, we just invite everybody, however they say it. But Leve is a Grammy Award winning music artist and she's also a children's book author. If you haven't read her adorable book, May May, it is absolutely the cutest, most charming and touching book. And she's also the American Library Association's honorary chair for September Library Card. sign up month. So very fitting as we head into the month to celebrate that. The response to our library card has been immense, truly immense, and it's just been such a wonderful time for this to happen. As Emily had noted, we've had over half a million interactions with some of our social media posts about this, and On Sunday, we held a special event here, our pop-up, a very levy celebration in the conference center room. We had staff all band together and come in and make this day possible for everyone. And we had hundreds, hundreds of people lining up from about 7 o'clock in the morning. to be let in at noon for the Levy Day celebration. And this is them understanding that that was the entire purpose of us opening. The library services otherwise weren't available, and they were here to come in and learn about us and to join us. And it was just so exciting. People were in such good spirits, too. People were standing out in the heat. We were inside in the heat. And yet the spirit stayed so, so bright and so engaging. We were open for four hours. In those four hours, we issued 717 library cards. Levy library cards. Yes we have to just absorb that for a moment don't we. That's truly of course a single day record for us. I would probably imagine that there have been some slow Decembers where we haven't hit 717 in a month. So for us to hit that in one day is truly just such an evident sort of moment for us about how how relevant libraries are, how much Levee draws people to the library and really uses her platform in an important way. And I will add that in the last three and a half days, we have issued well over 1,000 of these Levee library cards. Yes. And we initially ordered 5,000, so we may be ordering again soon, just to keep up and make sure we don't run out for people. And the response we've had from people has just been so genuinely warm and excited and and people are learning about the Fullerton Public Library and I mean I feel like we're becoming a destination library. You know some people have their giant aquariums and they're There are other beautiful things. And we really have this special corner kind of that draws people to us. And people, as we were talking to them, I was talking with some people saying, oh, what are you doing with the rest of your day? Oh, I'm going to go figure out what's going on in Fullerton. I'm going to go get something to eat. I'm going to go downtown and walk around for a little bit. So people are coming here and enjoying not only the library, but also the city because of this library card. Of course, we've all stretched our creative wings a little bit on this as well as we've seen Emily's beautiful artistry in that video, if you've seen it. And the fact that the artist herself posted on it and then reposted it, that really just sent it just to another level. And all of this really happened in such an incredible way. We've had the approval to do this for about four weeks. So we pulled all of this off including designing the library card ordering the library card putting together our event creating the social media and all the things that went into this in this short amount of time. And that's really the kind of team that we have at the library because we could not have done this with just one person taking this on. People took on big parts of a big project and everybody was just in such a good spirit to do this together right now. You know and of course we are infinitely grateful to the friends as they funded the library cards So we're awfully awfully thankful for that and of course our foundation who were present at the Sunday event and and just basically got to let people know a lot more about what they're doing and are running a donation drive that we're still drawing in donations for now. We have their QR code up at the front desk. And as people want to upgrade their existing card and give us that optional $2 donation, they're scanning that QR code and going online and making that donation in a way that's sometimes more accessible for people than cash. I know if I have cash in my wallet, I'm spending it. It's gone. So sometimes being able to do that through your phone, I think it's a little bit more accessible for people. And so, yeah, as I said, because of this little piece of plastic, this library card that really is such a key to the library, we just have had thousands of people noticing us and visiting the library. And what better time for that to happen with us? That's my enthusiasm. I'm so excited.

Alicia is so humble and does not want to really, and it really is everybody else's job, particularly mine, to just let everybody know that it is because of her that this happened and grew into this major thing. So it was interesting to see when she first approached me about this, can I apply for this? And I didn't even know who Leve was either. I was calling her Laufey as well. But you know passion when you see it and the energy that was coming off of her. I'm like, I don't know exactly what this is about, but it seems like a wonderful thing. So let's do it. And like Alicia said, from the application to the finding out that we would be one of the libraries to the A Very Lave Day last past Sunday was such a tight turnaround. And because she is so organized and creative and just brought together people through her enthusiasm, That's what made Sunday happen. So a couple of things she didn't mention. Her and her team also put together a list of local Fullerton landmarks that people might visit while they're here. And that was one of the handouts on the table. Because we're not just about highlighting the library. We're about elevating the whole city. And we really believe that libraries can be a part of that. So I thought it was so special. It was everything from the Muckenthaler to what else was on that sheet?

I believe that we had a few coffee shops on there because the person who put it together is a big coffee fiend. No judgment there. But yes, Muckenthaler, and of course we highlighted our Hunt Library, and of course the cafe, and really just tried to highlight a lot of our donors as well.

Just really like she was saying get people to while you're here because we had Visitors who drove from three plus hours and were messaging us like if we get here by this time Will we still be able to get a card a couple of them didn't I think it was two to three We made sort of a special exception for them so that we would be able to get a card to them because we recognize that they genuinely drove that far to get here. And we're hoping that while they were here, you know, they drove that far anyway, they would visit the city. Amy and the cafe also came up with a signature drink, a blueberry lemonade, and all of these are tied in and themed. If you don't know much about Leve, all of the colors and the flavors and things really were part of that.

The poster?

The foundation, yeah.

Yes so as a part of my thank yous to the foundation here I also had a note to say that the foundation is also sponsoring a giveaway of some ALA Leyva Reid posters and so people were given tickets to to participate in that giveaway if they showed us that they followed either the Fullerton library or the foundation on social media and if they showed us both they got two tickets. So we have pulled those tickets, and we're contacting the very lucky and inevitably very excited people to come get their posters soon.

This ties in, Trustee Bozab, to the incentives you were talking about, like the first 200 people who attended and showed that they preregistered or were upgrading their account got a little goodie bag with some themed merchandise. And then I think it was about 500 raffle tickets that we had people fill out until we ran out of raffle tickets, which we didn't think we were going to. But we also reached over 6,000 Instagram followers as of today. And apparently this time last week-ish, we were under 5,000. So the impact of this event is just astronomical. And all of it is opportunities to just further engage with residents and beyond. Um, There's something I keep forgetting to mention. Oh, that's what I was going to say. When Alicia said, OK, part of this agreement is the pop-up has to happen on a Sunday, and we're not open Sunday. And we're like, OK, how are we going to do this? We won't have enough staff to open up the whole library. We have to manage the expectation. It's just for this particular thing. We came up with the conference center, all of those things. The number of staff who were interested in coming in to work on a Sunday and shift their schedule was pretty small. When the momentum started to build in, like, the 10 days before, after we were allowed to announce it, we had a lot of volunteers to want to be a part of this. I mean, it was just so infectious. So it's just been so wonderful.

So great job, everyone.

All right.

I realize that Osborne renovation update, Alec.

Yes, so it's going well. We are nearing completion. I think we've kind of recognized a couple of hiccups of things that didn't make its way onto the plans that are now being addressed, including a sink in one of the what will be the storage room needs to be lowered to meet ADA compliance and removing a couple doors that were not necessary anymore that we're not going to be having 10-foot table standing vertically, leaned against the wall to protect them from falling on anyone. um outside of that i think we're just kind of cleaning up the edges with the construction crew avidex the av team will be coming in hopefully next week to work on their part of the project and after that we should be getting pretty close to opening the doors it's if you went in there you you know it's a total facelift from what it looked like before um i think i don't know i think we're all pretty over the moon and are pleased with how it all looks and uh I think we have some programming in there that we might need to shift around next week, but hopefully the week after that we'll be ready to cut the ribbon and open it back up to regular use.

This is a legacy project, and we still have funds left in the grant. So there are a few things that we're really being sticklers on or really saying, oh, I think we want to do this the right way. So the lighting is one of them. It's a bit dim in part of the Osborne with the upgrade. The lighting pattern is beautiful, but it's hard to explain. In the slats of the part of the ceiling, there's like pop in lights and there's just not enough. The construction team is really wonderful to work with. They seem to be doing really amazing work and they're very receptive to our requests. And so just today we asked about that. There were also some handles on the cabinets that look really nice, but they're sharp. Leave it to Keithley, a children's librarian, to recognize that that would not be good for kids. To be honest, I wouldn't have noticed that. But the edges are sharp, and they're kind of that little kid head height. And I thought, good catch. We just need to put around it. So it's like little punch list items like that and little, I don't know, sort of extras that we're doing. We're still within the contingency. So technically, we're not spending any more money than was already budgeted. But there is money. in this project, so we should be fine. It's really, I think, necessary things that if we don't do, the future staff will be like, why would they not have done this? You know, this really is the time. So thank you, Alec, for that update. And then I noticed arts and culture is the last thing. I would just say the update on that is that we're working with Amy. Amy All had announced her retirement but has pushed the date back a little bit. which for us that is really helping because we need to launch this new gallery exhibit. So she will be meeting with a few of us next week to see what the next steps are on that. And you're right, Vice Chair Watson, that it was the book binding or the zines, so we may have a tie-in with that. So I'll mention that to Emily as well. And I think we can move on with that.

All right. Thank you so much. Thank you for all of those updates. So much exciting stuff happening with Osborne, with the bajillion people that were out here on Sunday. Are there any board member comments? We just finished reports. So now it's, yeah, it's any comments that you guys want to make, reports, clarifications?

I I don't know I will go through the proper channel of going out to the website But now that we have this partnership this lay fake card and everything if we can have Maybe request ebook and audiobook in our catalog because I see that it is not in our catalog I'm sure we have her book in our system, but the there does not seem to be one at least for maymay the bunny for for ebook and audio book. And I think that would be great to have, uh, access to that would be wonderful.

I did look into all of the books that she has in her book club and her titles and saw which ones not only did we already have and or were available within the ebook. Um, I will look into that one and if it's available, we are going to start placing orders next month and I can't imagine that would miss the list. Awesome.

So this year there were 50 last year there were five Yeah

That's a really good question, though, and thank you. That was the last nagging thing that I kept forgetting to mention. Part of the reason why there was such a turnout from patrons driving from a distance is that several libraries weren't able to get their cards in time. And that impacted us in a way that we didn't anticipate. So some of these A Very Lazy Day events at other libraries were canceled the day before. There was a library that had 10 cards. I don't even know how that's possible. But again, it's a testament to Alicia's planning that we didn't even know we were going to be a part of this. And then there was such a tight turnaround to come up with the card design, get them ordered, printed, and delivered to be able to make this happen. And the systems that weren't able to do that are larger than ours. So I can't say enough just how successful this was. So yes, 50 were invited to participate, but not all of them were able to follow through and any near the way we did. Also, Alicia has been in contact with the Leve Press team, and they are so impressed with how things went and are asking for photos and really accommodating with requests that we've had to use her music and things like that, because I think they see what we did with it. We just turned it into something that they hoped it would be.

Just to give credit, who designed the cart? Oh my gosh, Alicia. It's beautiful. I'm so excited to get it.

It is really beautiful. Okay, I have a few things. On Saturday, August 22nd, Rotary Maine hosted a successful uncorked wine and food festival fundraising event at The Hunt. And as one of the co-chairs of the event, it was really valuable for me to help plan and execute a large-scale event from scratch. I guess, from the outside and the inside. So it really gave me a little bit more insight into some of the issues that we've been talking about with booking and executing events at the Hunt. I was blown away on Sunday when I attended the Levee event. And I did not stand in line to take a card because I knew that I could come back. And it was just amazing. It was stunning. It was absolutely beautiful. What you did with that space, the quality of the art, just the creativity, I was so impressed. I mean all of you this staff what we were able to field and now I had no idea that it was done in such a short amount of time, but it was absolutely so amazing my husband was really impressed and it was a warm day it was a warm day and I Also going over to the cafe, she had no air. She was all by herself. She was just dripping sweat, but with the biggest smile. And it was just such a great thing to see her benefit as well, which also transcends into the fact that the library's contribution to economic development Metrics need to be shared Some of the things also that guide but being able to report back to City Council And to the city manager I think will be really important to be able to say that and to also know that the library takes very seriously being an important key member of this community and a proud member of this community and proud to share an important facets of the community and being engaged. Also, lastly, I just want to recognize the passing of Dolly Parton, serving on the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Advisory Board for Orange County. I have always been a fan of the program, but then also knowing Senator Shannon Grove and how that bipartisan legislation came together to bring Dolly Parton Imagination Library to the state of California was something that I had already been following. But many people don't know that Dolly Parton's father was illiterate. And he told her that of all of the things that she accomplished in her life, this is the thing that he was the most proud. And so it's so, so, so sad. to lose this icon, but just the legacy that she has left. And I do have to say the boost in interest. She's saying, please don't send any flowers. Donate to Imagination Library. So that's what I have to say. Thank you.

May I just add something real quick? I just want to note to go back to something you said at the beginning, which was about the decorations and things that were here on Sunday. That was largely led by Jennifer Pack. You probably know her from the Hunt Library. And she did all of that with other staff, but she led all of that. It was all put there that morning. It was all installed that morning. She pulled that off because... people see her vision and she sees her vision and she's able to pull it all together like that. It's just really, truly amazing. So I wanted to add that.

One more thought in regards to having the Rotary event. I told the story of the hunt to quite a few people that were new to the community, came as guests, and I I wish there was an opportunity or some type of, what is it, vitrine? Is that like the little case that we have? It really would be nice to be able to have some type of story of the hunt, how it was designed, why it was built, the architectural importance of it, and have it somewhere so when people come and visit the site, they could actually read about it. I mean, there is a plaque that says when it was built,

know dedicated and all of that but it would be nice to know a little bit more about the story of the hunt ruth can you add that to the notes for me to follow up on okay thank you yeah i agree and i just want to say these names so jennifer yes joanna from parks and rec who created that amazing balloon arch and advised us on what to purchase and who came in that morning, brought her little daughter, and put that together that morning. And for the people who worked at the card stations for four hours, so we have Trevor, Alex, Steph, Haven, and Jennifer, and Alicia giving breaks. They were there probably sweating also, but with smiles on their faces. Um, I just needed to have those names be in the record because what they did was, um, it was really awesome. So, okay.

I'll also add, we had a few other people. So you were mentioning earlier that some people who weren't really, there was no, I didn't direct these people to come. They said, can I come? And that was Ellie. She offered her services up and she just came in to support the fun we were having. And of course, Anita was there. So thanks to you too for that. And also our vendor, Amy with the cafe. If you've met her, you know her. She's wonderful. And we told her about the event we were having. And the first thing she says, I'll be there. I'll be there. She just was so enthusiastic and said, what can I do? What special thing can we make out of this? So yeah, amazing.

Thank you. All right, we'll now move on to any comments from the foundation member.

We've had two meetings since the last meeting of the foundation and the budget. Really what we've been talking about the most I would say would be how to respond to the budget cuts. In principle, I think everyone is on board on doing what they can to help the library get through this situation that we're in right now. How that's going to play out, what that's going to entail has not been decided. There have been several ideas that have been proposed. But it's still under discussion about how we do that. I do think there's an intent to kind of focus on a renewed effort on fundraising, possibly matching funds for money that's obtained for circulation. But nothing's really been decided yet at this point on what that's going to kind of look like in detail. I think there is very much a desire to make sure that any any that this is temporary and that the the city will be going back to providing those services as part of its regular budget. I know that's I know you're not the one who makes that choice but you can talk to the person who appointed you and let them know that that's what what the foundation that's been that will be helping out on this feels. We I think that's kind of the main one. I think that's the one thing that, but it'll probably take some time to kind of look at the options and see what those would be, how much money we'd be talking about and such. By the way, this is my first meeting that I've noticed this. These do look new, the translation. Can you talk to your IT about maybe putting the English and Spanish language in separate columns? Because what happens is... Because I'm a little hard of hearing, so I like using that for English. My Spanish is, you know, a CSE at best. So I'd like to be able to see what the English is, but it kind of, as you can see, there'll be significant blocks where it's only one language is visible. I think if it were split off into sides, then you could get both. It would probably work a little better. Do you have any questions?

I do have a question. If we were directing people to donate to the foundation right now, it would just be a general. There's no donate for book purchasing. You're not doing any kind of special fundraiser related to that. It's just the general.

foundation donations so we did have the the proceeds from the sale of the bass and cherry property are in a separate account uh but i don't i'm not really administering that differently it's it's being invested and money is being pulled out from it so the idea would be and again this hasn't been decided but that possibly could create another account that would be specifically for donations for books, possibly with matching funds from the foundation to provide that. I think there is concern that what is done is done in a way that is very clearly temporary.

I'm glad to hear that you guys were out there at the event because there was a lot of people to talk to about that. And yeah, I saw a lot of chatter on social media about helping donate.

Yes, I've noticed a lot of it ever since yesterday. There's been a lot of people up and they frankly are pretty upset about that. I saw that too.

Oh, it's my job. If we could hear from the Friends, please. Hi.

Judy Jennings from the Friends. My report will be a lot than the other reports at our recent board meeting. The main topic is regarding the October 9, October 10 book sale. So we have our various committees already meeting to make sure that everything's in order. There's a committee of dedicated people. They all have their parts. There's many parts and if everybody does what they have to do, then it all comes together. So that's where we are right now. We have a great inventory of books. So it looks like we should have a nice bunch of books out there on the floor for everybody. This one is just going to be a book sale because our art curator will not be there. And so we aren't going to do the art sale, but she is going to have in the display windows of verticals, she'll have some of the art pieces that we hope to move along. So book sale again, no art sale. We are also in the process of, we have a dedicated nominating committee. It's that time of the year where we start looking around for new board members. It's hard to get people to even be on the committee, let alone knowing they're going to have to shake people down to be a board member. But that's what they're in the process of doing. We got a true expert in Naomi there. She's small but mighty. So that's one of our main topics. And then... Memberships, we'll be starting to deal with memberships in September. We'll be having our new cards available for memberships for the following year. They cover the remainder of this year and the next year. So both of those things are kind of ongoing. I would like to say being in the bookstore the last two afternoons, how fun it has been meeting the people coming in or they've already been there to get their new library cards. I drove by. I saw the line. But I did not expect that this would still be ongoing. And I was there also for when they were getting line for the crowns. And I did sneak into the room and take a look, and it was really nice. I was in all those jewels thinking, that looks pretty good. Anyway, it's been a lot of fun talking to these folks. Took some pictures out in the foyer where the clock is. Some people wanted the pictures taken there. Congratulations on a wonderful event. Lovely family come in this afternoon a mother two boys. I think ages six and nine and They came in to get their library cards their new library cards and The other thing is they wanted to support the library they explained they had heard about the budget concerns and they wanted to come in and buy some books and to support the library. We've been hearing other people come in and they're aware of the budget cuts, but I love this particular family because they were doing it as a unit. So two great things, supporting the library, getting their cards. Congratulations again. As the friends, we did increase our book prices this year. It was prior to all the budget discussions. And this next book sale that's coming up will have the increased pricing there. In the bookstore, we're seeing it make a difference already, but I'm hoping for the book sale, it will make a significant difference. We'll find out. We haven't had any complaints about it. People have acknowledged they've seen it, but we haven't had any complaints about the pricing. So we're looking, kind of projecting where we're going to be by the end of the year. And we're thinking we're going to be in a pretty healthy spot to be able to help out with what we're presented with as far as the needs list. So that's everything I have. Any questions?

So as was said by the foundation, that they're still in discussion about what they're going to be doing. You said that you have new board members coming on, or potentially, if you can get them. Possibly. There might be some old ones, you know, that don't get away fast enough. Stand up and shift. Move to the right. Do you foresee that you could possibly have like a targeted just fundraiser specifically that would be, I guess, earmarked specifically for that is what you're saying? Because just like you're saying, there's public that wants to come and give directly to a specific fund or... So I'm just curious because obviously as the trustees, we can't do anything like that.

We really haven't as far as the friends. Anita has brought this up to us and exploring ways for people coming in to make donations to direct them as far as the friends. But as far as a fundraiser, specifically from us, no, we haven't had that discussion. Quite frankly, three book sales a year is a huge process.

Yeah, I mean, just being able to have a situation where you could earmark it specifically because if you continue to get requests, I don't know, either the utilization of a QR code or. where that would go to be able to have, I guess, targeted funds. Because if that's what people are looking for, they want to be able to have that vehicle to be able to do that.

It may work differently between the Friends and the Foundation. So I think the Friends funding is a more general funding, and we come to you with participation in many different aspects of like everything from our staff development to programming supplies to the library the Leyva library cards things like that whereas the foundation what we're looking at this year are those are sort of the targeted budget items like we know this amount will be for this one thing so maybe we could fundraise more directly for that like Sean had mentioned And I just want to clarify that the foundation didn't express anything to say that they would not be funding. It was just how they're going to go about doing it. Will they give the funds quarterly? Because they're also very interested in keeping money in their account to gain interest, because frankly, that's what we've been using from them recently. But when he said things like matching funds, we're looking at direct giving opportunities towards that goal. This is for the book budget. you're donating towards that. I don't know if the Friends wants to do that or if it's just like a general fundraising. Yeah, it seems like that. And I want to mention also to say thank you to Judy and a few of the friends and I think one of the foundation members who came to the budget meeting and just was there just to support us. And you did not go unnoticed because I did have someone say, were the people in the red shirts there for the library? And I said, yes.

I was very pleased. Anita had mentioned at our board meeting perhaps that we could come to the budget meeting. We're not an easy group to get out at night. But I was very surprised to see. I think we had about nine members up there. So no, no, no. We didn't make any trouble. We were peaceful. But it was information that we've tried to convey. But I think coming and hearing it in person was really important, too. So everybody's on board. We're going to do the best job we can. Hopefully be able to better support The library but there is one thing now that you've mentioned it and I might take this up with our membership chairman I believe on the application there is something there about making a donation I think it's a yeah, I think it's a line on the form As you guys just sent recently sent it to my office, so I need to fill it out, but I did happen to see a

There is a line that can go directly. So I don't know what your process is for earmarking or specifically sending specific funds.

So anyway on those generally what happens somebody will just send in excess money I'm just really concerned because the messaging a lot of what's taking place, you know online and I'm just I

There's a lot of politicization of what's going on with this, and I'm concerned about this. And I think that there's not an understanding from residents that these scenarios actually came specifically at request. Obviously, we know that. But they did come from the department heads looking at their situations. And then obviously, that conversation took place with us. And so I'm just very concerned about kind of the messaging and kind of what's going on with this as an issue as it's kind of taking on a life of its own.

Would there be any like direction or recommendations or to staff to work with the support groups in a different way or?

But I just all I know is that I be either through foundation or friends I think there's gonna be more people that are gonna come and say hey, what can I do? How can I give and so I think that It I don't know what the solution is for that what it would take to earmark it or QR codes or putting that out there and I don't know, but I do think that there is going to be a desire for residents to make direct donations, and we would need to have something in place. I don't know how to do that.

So we're actually working with our IT department. So as I'm sure everyone knows, we moved to a different IT vendor this past July. So far, they have been really wonderful. And the person directly assigned to us has been really great to work with. And one of the things, Bethany or Alicia may be able to speak more clearly to this, but the gist of it is, They're helping us put online donations on our website, which we didn't have before. So it was something that I had also asked about for those reasons a couple of months ago. But the how do we get there? The timing was bad because we were transitioning to a new vendor. They've onboarded very quickly and so he has already found he's already brought us at least 50% towards the solution because the thing is It isn't only the ability to make the online donation. It has to direct the money to the correct place and so for our budgeting and accounting it needs to talk to our ERP so or ERP, EAP, ERP. And so we're getting towards there. So there will actually be a solution soon.

And I didn't know how that works. Can they do direct donation? Does it need to have a 501C3 pass through? Does it have to go through their friends or does it have to go through the foundation?

Alec may be able to speak to this, but we have a foundation and friends account. Well, that's great.

If it can go directly and have the ability to earmark it, that would be amazing.

Yeah, so we have the two restricted accounts right now, the Foundation and the Friends. There was consideration, I mean, years ago now for creating a third account just for direct donations to the library that never really saw the light of day because of people rotating out of the ASD department who were kind of pushing for that. But yeah, it's a possibility.

It is probably better though for donations to go through a support group rather than directly to the city. So these accounts with what we're working on and this is so recent it's like in the last two days we haven't even had a chance to chat about it. That will help us accept donations sort of on their behalf. One of the things that I've been emphasizing to both of our support groups these past few months is we can't solicit solicit donations directly in the way they can. But what we can do is help support them in gaining more donations, whether it's through marketing, exposure, inviting them to participate in meaningful ways, like the foundation having a table at this event, to help them raise funds that then come back to us. So it is really a circle of life kind of thing. So yeah, there should be more of that to come.

And I do feel with the book sale that's coming up, because we always hear these comments, people thanking us for being there. They're happy to come and support us and to support the library. I feel that we will probably have more people coming to this next book sale and have this in their mind as well. We do what we do to raise funds. We've never been, I guess it's not been our function to do donations, but I do feel that we will probably have a pretty good book sale, and I'm willing to bet we're going to see some people that we haven't seen before. Just recently coming into the bookstore and the library, if I see somebody new, I always ask them if they're new to the library, new to the area, If they've seen our signage, I love to hear them say they've seen the signage. And so we are pulling more people in all of the time, and that's going to help out.

And then just in case somebody asks us, the bookstore also will just accept donations as well.

Thank you so much All right, we will move on to our consent calendar are there any board member comments I

Move we accept the consent calendar I'll second All right recording secretary.

Will you take the role?

Carrie Prelitz Yes, Jennifer service. Yes, Lisa was up. Yes, Megan Watson.

Yes and suing Chen is absent All right moving on to our first item for regular business The annual report to City Council of staff could present the report

Ruth do you have the actual letter? Do we need the actual letter?

I believe we have it.

Oh you have it. It's attachment one.

OK. Yes. But the actual letter signed by Su Ling is with

I did not bring that.

Okay. I also want to make a quick note for the consent calendar. We usually have statistics as part of the consent. One of the tasks that the library technology assistant that was one of her tasks so it's being transitioned over so that next month we'll have statistics from this month. No the previous month and this month we're we're transitioning into that.

One moment.

So what you have in your agenda items are the proposed 2025-2026 annual report for City Council. Su Ling was not able to be here today, but barring any changes to the document, I went and had her sign the hard copy. That doesn't mean you can't make any changes. We will be able to work around it. The this is part of the continuing communications to the city council regarding our annual library accomplishments operations milestones milestones stones and goals. So we're required to. send this to City Council each year by August 31st. So with your approval, we will submit this on Monday. Or if you have any changes, we will make those and Su Ling will review and sign and we will submit a revised version to them. But now, as of now, if there's any questions, I also want to note that Historically, this document is presented in the way you see, which is a long letter. It almost reads as just like a narrative, almost like what we present at each board meeting. Next year and moving forward, I'm going to be looking at changing the format into something that's a bit more dynamic and visual. I want the numbers to be presented in like graphs and charts. I also want to include goals, which is something that's not been included. So as we get closer to that planning stage of this for next year, we can come to the board with sort of like a mock up of what my vision would be for that report and see if that's something that you would be interested in. If so, we would move forward with that. I think it would be easier to receive the information in that way and sort of like more engaging.

All right, we will now hear public comments. Those who wish to speak, please line up at the microphone. No one in the audience wants to talk. Is there anyone on Zoom who would like to address this item?

There's no one on Zoom right now.

In that case, are there any board member comments?

I think it's fantastically detailed and really lays out what the library has accomplished over the last year.

It was very well done, but I'm looking forward to a new format in the future I will say it is it is very detailed and it's a very amazing, but it is a lot It's very overwhelming So I think you're right in visuals and a little bit easier to digest information would be nice If there are no other comments I

I move that we approve the annual report to submit to city council.

Is there a second?

I second.

Thank you. Can we have a vote called?

Carrie Prelitz? Yes. Jennifer Sarvis? Yes. Lisa Wozab? Yes. Megan Watson?

Yes. Thank you. All right. Our second item is the updated fee schedule and increased to passport photos. Can we hear a staff report on this?

Yes so you may recall in April voting to approve the fee schedule which included passport photos at twelve dollars per photo. Shortly thereafter the conversations around revenue generation were you know came to the forefront and one of the areas of opportunity although small it's not nothing was to increase our passport photos price.

Thank you.

So what Alicia did was look at surveying local libraries to what they charged for their passport photos. So the attachment shows some of those comparisons. And $15 seemed to be a reasonable increase. There's one other library that charges 12. There were a couple of libraries that charged 15, and then there were several libraries that charged way more than that. Again, we felt it was very reasonable to charge 15. But because you all had already approved that and the timing of our meetings wouldn't allow us to have you vote beforehand. What I'm hoping is that you will vote to approve this. It would bring in approximately we're thinking five thousand more in revenue just based on numbers of how many passport photos we've done so far. But if for any reason you you don't vote to approve this time the city has already adopted the fee schedule. We would just continue charging twelve dollars until this group was ready to approve that. The timing of it made it necessary for the council to vote. But again, I didn't want the library board to feel that they did not have a voice in the decision.

Are there any public comments on item number two? Please address the mic. Are there any members of the public on Zoom?

There are not.

Do we have any board comments on this item?

I'm glad I'm not getting my photo taken in Newport Beach. I think this is more than fair. Very comparable. Still $5 less than our neighboring city.

If there are no other comments, can I get a motion on this item?

I move to increase our fee on passport photo from $12 to $15.

And can I get a second?

I second.

All right. Let's have the roll call.

Carrie Prelitz? Yes. Jennifer Sarvis? Yes. Lisa Wozab? Yes.

And Megan Watson?

Yes.

And our final regular business item, which is the 2026-27 adopted budget. This is simply to receive and file. I don't know if there is a report because we kind of already talked about it, but take it away.

This really is just to receive and file because we haven't met since the council adopted the budget. We did want to make it an agenda item in case there was any discussion. At the last meeting, the library board gave staff the trust and authority to move forward with what we thought was the best path for us. We did as such, but if there's any questions, please let us know. I don't think there were any big surprises in in the adopted budget it was very similar to what had been proposed. I think the biggest change is probably what we're looking at to do with the library technology assistant position but we had all kind of discussed the possibility of that anyway so I'm just here to answer any questions.

All right. Are there any comments from the public on the item number three. Are there any members of the public on Zoom?

There are not.

Are there any comments from our board members? I just want to say, Anita, again, thank you for all the work that you put in on this. It was clearly some hard decisions were made. And I really appreciate how well you explained it to us at the last meeting, how much you advocated for the library. So I really do appreciate. As much as this process maybe is not what we hoped that the library would look like this year, I think that you know we all understand what's going on and how we're gonna be able to survive it.

Thank you. I want to thank you all for the support as well and the trust that you know we have the library's best interest at heart. I also want to thank the staff because these are difficult decisions and when you come in as a new person and you're part of making these big decisions for a staff who has been through a lot of uncomfortable transitions over the years they really had to walk this with me as well and put trust in a lot of difficult conversations particularly Bethany this will affect her division the most but we're looking to really build that division up and I There is still so many feelings around this but I do believe this gives us a chance to be stronger moving forward in this particular moment where we're at. And I just need to say how much I appreciate the staff and the board and support group support and the community.

DIRECTOR HARRIS KETCHUM All right. Don't believe we don't have to do a motion for a receiving file.

DIRECTOR HARRIS KETCHUM That's correct.

DIRECTOR HARRIS KETCHUM So we are receiving and filing this. And with that. adjourned the meeting.