Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

Is it time? Yes. Alright. Okay. So good afternoon.

I called the September closed session meeting to order, and the public can access the live meetings, https:bulletin.registrar.com on Spectrum Cable Channel three and AT and T U verse Channel 99. The public may address to the Library Board of Trustees either in person or virtually by joining the Zoom meeting online or by telephone. Those want to join the Zoom meeting, please go to zoom.us/join or call +1 (669) 254-5252, and enter the Zoom meeting ID, 1607079419. And please use the raise hand feature if you would like to speak. And for now, let's take the roll call, please.

President Su Ling Chen. Present. Vice President Joshua Dale is absent. Trustee Lisa Wozep. Present. Corresponding secretaries Jennifer Sarvis absent. And trustee Megan Watson.

Present. All right. So we have a closed session. Could we see if there's any public hearings that are waiting to share with us?

We have no members of the public in Zoom or in the room.

All right. Then let's meet in the back. Thank you. We'll be back soon.

Hey. We wanna be on time.

All right. Good evening. I called the 09/25/2025 regular meeting to order, and the public can access the live meeting, https:fullerton.registrar.com on Spectrum Cable channel three and AT and T U verse channel 99, and the public are welcome to address to our Board of Trustees in person or virtually by joining the Zoom meeting online or by telephone. And if you are joining Zoom meeting, please go to zoom.usjoin or call 692545252 and enter the Zoom meeting ID, 1607079419. And please use the raise hand feature if you would like to speak.

For now, let's start taking the roll call, please.

President Sulin Chen. Present. Vice President Joshua Dale, absent. Trustee Lisa Wojsap. Present. Corresponding Secretary Jennifer Sarves absent. Trustee Megan Watson. Present. Thank you.

And Trustee Megan, would you please lead help us to lead Pledge of Allegiance?

Yes. Please stand and place your right hand over your heart.

Thank you very much. Now this is the first meeting that we do not have duty, but we're welcoming our interim library director, Beatrice. And I think she started on September weekend, And I want to thank Bethany for organizing the meet and greet for the foundations and the friends and all able to meet with the beaches. And I know she has been meeting with lots of people all the past many, many days, including me. So I appreciate her effort and time in getting to know the community. And now it's gonna be your turn to do the report.

Okay. Well, I turned on the mic, so that's that's a good sign. Thank you so much, president Chen. I first want to just report on closed session. And at 5PM, the board of trustees went to closed session to where's my board?

And you received an update on the recruitment for library director when no action was taken, and that is a report from closed session. I'll now go into the council meeting. We are grateful to the city council and to the board of trustees. The job descriptions language where we proposed and recommended were approved by the city council at their last meeting as well as the fee schedule. So with that, we will be working with HR for the two recruitments upcoming, the library technician assistant. Am I saying that right? And the library clerk assistant. Is that right? Am I saying that right?

It's library technical assistant one, but and library clerk. You, Bethany. Library clerical assistant.

Clerical assistant. Thank you so much. I'm getting the acronyms. So we're happy about that. And with the main library, we're happy to say that we have had some elevator issues, but it looks like they've been resolved. We're gonna keep our fingers crossed on that one. The HVAC system overcirculation will be fixed on Monday, so we're very happy about that. The job should take about eight hours is what we're being told. So we are close to the public, so there'll be no impact to the public when they when they do that. I'm also happy to tell you that three librarians were were chosen during the recruitment, and they will be joining the library staff in October.

And we have start dates for all of them in October, so we're looking forward to expanding the staff. I know that you probably already know the great video that was produced by the library that is going to win the PR excellence award at the California Library Association Conference on October 24. I got a chance to see it yesterday. It is fabulous. So thank you so much.

I also want to let you know that the library did have employees that were recognized at the annual employee recognition event, including Bethany here, And they were recognized for years of service. We had one person celebrating five years of service to the library and also those who went through the Cal State University Fullerton leadership program. And I think we had about five people receive a recognition. So congratulations, Bethany, is one of them. The Hunt Library, the HVAC systems, is still in progress of being repaired.

So they've made a little bit of progress, but Jaime there, Cortez, is the really the liaison with maintenance to finish that work for the HVAC system. And it's only in the library. The building is cool. So what staff is doing, just keeping the the doors open to the library, and that seems to help kinda get some of the cool air in there. See. And and then the Overdrive collection, do you wanna report on that, Beth?

Absolutely. Before that, I would like to say that the friends sponsored the meet and greet event and that Kim is absolutely the one who made it everything that it was, and we really appreciate all of her work on that. It was a wonderful event. For the Overdrive collection, we have an update as we did previously announced on the reciprocal borrower agreement where we can essentially interlibrary loan ebooks from several other libraries that unified catalog for that so that it's easy for our patrons to just view all of the resources all at once has been a little bit delayed by OverDrive, but we do anticipate it before the holiday season, which is always our highest level of overdrive resources for all of our holiday travel. And then we have a very exciting new collection that we will be launching very soon, which is called our High Low Simultaneous Use Collection.

And what that is is high concept, grade level appropriate reading with a lower vocabulary level, which is really helpful for struggling readers or English language learners. And that will be a simultaneous use collection, which means that everyone can all read the same thing at the same time, which has been very popular with our Overdrive comics, especially with school age children, because that way a whole friend group can all read the same thing at the same time. And so that's been very popular, and so we look forward to launching that soon. Look forward to more information in our newsletter, which will be out next week.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bethany. With adult services, just wanted to also let the trustees know that the tech tutoring program is proving to be very popular, so people can come and get help with their laptops, smartphone, tablet, e reader, and really get that one on one support. So that's been very popular. We also had the two thousand twenty five North Orange County Super Mini Con took place at the Hunt Library, and we had many participants. And the number I have here is over 250, and the event generated about a thousand $200 in donations to the library.

So, yes, I think that's really exciting, that partnership that they have had they've made. They do a board game day every month here at the main library, but extended it to Hunt, and it was very popular. So we're really happy about that. The teen advisory board continues to meet, and, one helped organize the art hours, the monthly program for school aged children. And they're also planning a teen clothing swap clothing swap event in November, which I think is really great, just thinking sustainably.

And so Emily Elliott, the teen librarian, is working with that group. So we hope to come back to you with just more information about that. They continue the partnership with La Vista High School for the twenty twenty five, twenty six school year. She has attended their ambassador meetings, and she's able to share books, library events, and resources. And and she also is continuing to run the monthly teen craft events.

So it's so nice to get teens in the library, which is not an easy demographic to appeal to. In children in terms of children's services, September brought the return of story times to the main library, Exclamation Point. They're also doing the Coder Dojo also returned, and I'm also working with the teen advisory board when they brought back that monthly art hour. And, also, Emily and Keith Lee attended the, Cal State University Fullerton Library Expo, where they're able to talk to about, 550 students and staff, giving out flyers, free books from the friends of the Fullerton Library. And they had many sign up for the digital library cards, which have gone viral, by the way.

Yes. We have over I think somebody came in that is a Snoopy per person. I don't know how to say that. But it's got over 14,000 views. And so I'm happy to say that our circulation numbers are going really up by people coming to get a card. And we hope that we'll they'll start using our services as well with the new card. With that, it is library card sign up month. And, of course, we have the popular Camp Snoopy library card. So please come and get yours. There is a special display in the main library to honor Hispanic Heritage Month as well.

And digital applications begin to be continue to be very popular for people to use that medium to sign up. Let's see. More than doubled new borrow sign ups between August 2024 and 2025. And, again, that the card designs, they did go viral on social media. So we have lots of new faces coming into the library, which is wonderful.

Looking ahead, circulation staff is working to make a community ofrenda or an altar to honor our loved ones that have passed, and they'll be displaying that for Dia de los Muertos. And actually, it says here October 1 to November 3. So there'll be a way where the community can participate. And so they're working on those details, and they'll have them up on the website so people can come and bring a photograph of their loved one. And at the Hunt, I think I'm I think I talked about that.

Let's see. They hosted a first outdoor family storytime with over 90 attendees. And in all, Hunt hosted 11 programming events with over 600 attendees. Yes. And that is my report. Thank you.

Thank you, our director. I think we're gonna move forward to the board of trustee and friends and our foundation report. Any trustee would like to make any comments, questions? Go ahead. So Lisa and I, we'd last, last meeting, we talked about we, are going to meet with the Brea community center deputy, director, and we did.

And they were very, very friendly. So we learned about a lot about how they operate. And, obviously, Breaard population is only a third of Fullerton. However, they pride themselves as, you know, a very much art center with their gallery and with their public art. I think what surprised us is their community center, not as beautiful as ours.

I don't know if I'm biased, but I say ours is prettier. However, their company center work as a revenue generator, and it's actually very popular. You know, you would need to be, like, eighteen month ahead to rent their place. And they also say that their staff feel responsible to ensure the facility, you know, stay fully booked because it does bring income for the city. And I know that's not our library per se, but we have a Han library that we love for people to come and use and generate income as well too.

So I want to share this information, then then, you know, director can kind of decide how we can work with the manager or parks and rec to see how our, you know, library could actually be used more and hopefully bring some money as well too. Their service is a bit different because they call community services, and then they actually include parks and rec and the human services, the senior center, the arts and culture in that they call the community service department. Also, budget wise, they actually the city allocate $9,000,000 in the budget. And plus, they also generate revenue from rentals and events, and that's 3.5. So added together, it's a nice budget for them to work with.

So I think that we learned something, and they're very happy to come to give us a report if you're interested. But I think our concern is because we're not in charge of our facility rental, and we don't find that it's appropriate for them to come to this meeting to give us a report. But if, you know, the director think that it will be nice for them to report to the city council, you know, or the parks and rec, then we're happy to make that connections for next step. And from the meeting, we also talk about, you know, reaching out to city councils, and and I did. And I want to say that for both council, Valencia, and our mayor, Frey Zhang, that I have contact with, I seem to continuously hearing about cancer.

Like, okay. What do you want the arts and culture committee to do? And, again, I keep on hearing that, you know, there are so many events at Anaheim Convention Center with the North America Music Association. You know, there's so many events happening, how we can do our side events that coordinate with their schedule. But, again, all this is gonna require people to make it happen.

And, you know, I would like to kind of figure out with when we have a full board situation and maybe continue to follow with the culture and arts that what our department see that work in our function that connect with the the library, the community together in the direction that we would want to move forward. So if we can add some item into our next month meeting or some some sort of presentation. And, again, if we, as the trustee, could reach out to any of the council member or if there's anything to report, I'm pretty happy to go to the city council report as well too. But I think I'm kind of want to have a consensus versus, you know, my personal opinion. Right?

I I don't think that's the right thing to do as we are public, and I would like to have consensus on the direction that we want to go. And then I'm very happy to advocate for that. That's the report I have. Sorry for the length.

I just wanted to add one thing that we found really interesting. Yes. They're obviously, their community centers bringing in 3,500,000 a year in revenue. One of the other things that they have there frequently is a lot of cultural weddings. It's become a really great spot for cultural weddings, which would be another way to also market to variety of different groups for and and one hundred day birthdays in the Korean community, things like that.

One thing that was really interesting, we knew that they really pride themselves on being a city of public art. They're ranked third in the nation. But one of the things that I found interesting is when we have a development come in in the city, we basically call it, like, park dwelling fees. So that's kind of at the discretion, and there's usually some infrastructure and things that fall within the purview of what's being asked of that developer. In Brea, in addition to they don't necessarily call it park dwelling fees.

But they also require every developer to put 1% of that total property value into public art. They actually will come up with a design. They will they have different artists that they work with. And they put together a perspective design, and they will take it to the city. But they actually give them a lot more freedom in the public art that the developers have a little bit more purview over, which I was really I was I was surprised.

But similar to the piece that you see on the corner of Imperial And Placentia, the ballerina piece that's there. But that was actually put together funding from that that corresponding development that was right there. It was very interesting. And Alec came with us as well. He had, of course, a different perspective, and he they was able to get a lot of his questions answered and things that he was interested in as well.

And I just wanna commend them for being such great neighbors and very open and however they can help us. Obviously, we're just a little the scale's a little bit different and folks are a little bit different, but they've just been very generous with their time, and we really appreciate that.

I think addition to willing to come here to do the presentation, they have so many people that want to rent their place to the point that they're willing to give us referral. So they say that, you know, if I could actually make make connections with our director, they're happy to come to tour our Hung library, and they're very happy to give us referral as they cannot accommodate all the people that want to go there. And so maybe if we can see what makes their so so community center so popular and so revenue generating, I think that we would, you know, do great.

I think also their proximity to a hotel, proximity to the mall, proximity to the freeway as well. But also their scheduling window. That was one of the things that we noticed as well. Just being able to to book eighteen months in advance, especially if you're a quince, a wedding, something like that that usually takes a lot of advanced planning. So I do think that we need to look into that as well.

I think one more thing that I'm hoping that we can look into is obviously, you know, hung library. The the budget situation is gonna be coming up on April 2026, and it's just gonna be around the corner. If we can look into Citi's plan, how are we able to sustain it? You know? Who are the key stakeholders?

And because the community was so passionate about, you know, help this to happen, you know, they saved the hunt, all different committee group that came together to made it happen. I would like to see what will be the plan to keep it continue to happen, please. Thank you. Megan, do you want to say anything? You're good? Okay. Alright. Thank you. Then could we move forward to foundation? Do we have foundation representation?

We do not appear to have foundation tonight. However, if we can have the friends go

first, we

will be joined by

the foundation. Very good. And thank you for hosting the meet and greet for our interim director.

It was truly our pleasure. It was delightful to see everybody come. City people came, librarians came, a lot of our longtime volunteers came, and we appreciate the chance to meet with you. As you know, our probably big focus right now is on our two day book sale, which is tomorrow. And I've really really appreciated the support of staff.

I got a call from Alicia tonight saying, I have a person here with a question. And the staff has been very supportive with HVAC issues and elevator issues, and they've been very collaborative. But that is our big push right now. We're pleased to have a big event and hopefully raise lots of money. And on a personal note, our family has Puptoberfest on our schedule. So the Hunt Library Puptoberfest is a big thing with us. So, anyway, I think that's it. Any question?

We appreciate the support that the friends give us all the time. It's such a wonderful, amazing partnership.

In the last decade or so, I've been volunteering casually and then more. It's a very collaborative environment. It's very supportive. I've really enjoyed the growing collaboration and information flow.

Thank you. I have a quick question. Since we did not have the previous book sale, do we have an abundance?

We have an abundance of books, and we're struggling with the question of our we usually do three a year, three book sales a year, two days. And we usually do February, June, September. June, we can do with elevators. January, February, we're looking at with the Osborne. Yeah. So we'll have a lot of books, and we're trying to kinda think one day, two day. We're being very flexible in terms of what we can do because a lot of stuff will move into as it did before with the Osborne stuff will move into the community center. So we have a lot of books. We're hoping to get

sell a lot of books. I'm excited.

Yeah. It'll be a good sale, and we've had a lot of community support. So

Thank you.

I just wanna add one more note that I cleared with the friends before we put it in the newsletter. You can join the friends membership for twenty twenty six and get into that early access sale tomorrow if you join at the door. So if you really want to get the very best deals, come early.

That is great. Very good. Lots of options. No foundation representation. Am I right?

That is right.

Okay. Alright. Any public comments?

There are no members of the public on Zoom, and I don't see anyone approaching the mic, so I believe we have no public comments tonight.

K. Then we'll move forward with our calendar. Any question about consent calendar? Public comment. Right?

I think I saw one. It's the meeting minutes. Right? I think the meeting minutes with a closed session report. So on page two, the closed session report, the first paragraph, last sentence, the board did not provide any further direction.

I feel that was not did not represent what actually happened. I think the board did provide a clear direction that we would like the city to

You said it was on

page two? The July 28 closed session. Page two? The city manager informed of the board of the intention to seek the services of professional search firm to assist in finding the candidates for an interim library director. And here, it says the board did not provide any further direction. But I think what happened is the Board actually gave very clear direction that we would like to see alternative.

Would you like me to change that? Yes. At least because that's what actually happened. Okay. I will do that. Thank you.

Any comments? Any motion? Do I have to ask for public comment? The consent calendar?

Do we not ask for? Oh, okay. Then I make a motion to accept the consent calendar with a correction

to the minutes. I will second that.

Alright. Let's, take a vote.

Megan Watson? Yes. Lisa Wojsup? Yes. And Selin Chen?

Yes. Thank you. All right. And moving forward to our regular business. So the first item is the staff development.

Should we hear from our interim director?

Yes. Thank you, president Chen. Yes. So this item before you today is the request that the library would like to hold the staff development day in February 2026. They have not we have not chosen a day in February, but, no, we want to have it that month. It would take place between 9AM and 2PM with the library opening to the public at 2PM. Our recommendation is to ask approval so that we can move forward in planning for the provisional development day. And a note that the passport office would be closed that day. If you have any questions, we'd be happy to answer them.

K. Let's see if there's any public hearing, public comments.

Not seeing anyone approaching the mic and no one being on Zoom. I believe we're alright.

Alright. Any questions, comments? Look to the left. Look to the right. I

move to approve the staff development day for February.

Sorry. Could I ask a question? Do we know the actual date? No.

We tend to not schedule it this far in advance until we have a confirmed speaker who we've confirmed is available for the date that we select. We work with the speaker to confirm a date, and then we will announce and set that date. We should be able to do so prior at least the meeting prior to the actual closure.

Okay. Thank you. Sorry. No. You wanna go ahead and make the motion?

I make a motion to approve.

I'll second.

Alright. Let's take vote.

Megan Watson? Yes. Lisa Wojzap? Yes. And Sueling Chen? Yes.

Thank you.

Alright. So our next item is 2026 library holiday closure days. Yes. Our director?

Thank you. Well, here we are back in another holiday season. So the 2026 library closure dates, the list is for here for your review and approval. I believe you have a page to just kind of let you know what that will look like. And just to note that, once again, the city will be closed between December 24 and Friday, January 1. The city will be closed on Friday the second because that's their normal Friday and their rotation to close, but the library will be open. And we respectfully ask to approve the closure dates. Okay.

Thank you. Anyone want to talk about it? Any public want to make any comments? Hearing none.

And no one on Zoom.

Okay. Alright. So, any discussion, motion?

I move to approve the twenty twenty six library holiday closure dates as listed. I second.

Alright. Let's take both, please.

Megan Watson? Yes. Lisa Wojzab? Yes. And Su Lin Chen?

Yes. All right. So our business number three is rescheduling of November and December meeting to November 20 and December 18.

Thank you, madam president. Yes. So the days before you would be with your approval, the November meeting would take place on the twentieth and the December meeting on the eighteenth.

Sounds great. So that we all can take our holiday vacations. Alright. Any no no public comments? Alright.

And none on Zoom.

Okay. Alright. So discussion motion. It's just amazing that both

of those holidays fall on the day that we're supposed to meet. It's just they lined up perfectly. I I motion to approve rescheduling the November and December meetings.

I will second.

Okay. Let's take vote, or we're just gonna celebrate Thanksgiving here. Everyone brings something.

Megan Watson? Yes. Lisa Wojsap?

Yes.

And Soo Lin Chen?

Yes. Alright. We're moving quickly. So next item is funding short and long term range request to Fullerton Library Foundation conference center window shade request. Could we hear from our director?

My pleasure. Thank you, madam president. So this is the request to receive a file. This is one of the wish list items and to approve the foundation's funding of a new comp of new conference room window shades, and then accept the funding up to 25,000 from the foundation for this project. So I believe we're just coming back to you with the status report. We now have an a total down below under discussion. The second paragraph is $17,797.68. That is a quote we received, so we are here, to get your approval so we can move forward and continue this project with the donation from the foundation.

Anyone has any questions or anyone want to explain or kind of give visual? Because when what I learned is it's not gonna make changes on the appearance, but the function actually will make big changes because now it's everything goes up and down together. With this, then we're able to do individual one and just make it much nicer depending on when the sun comes in. And it it's much nicer to to do it the way that I

think you're working. You are right. The vendor was actually in the library to explain what how it will work, and there'll be three sections that can work independently. And so it will be more functional. And what I really liked is their recommendation was to get kind of a darker the outer shade one because when they're down, if we're inside during the day, we can see outside. So I think that's really a nice feature to be able to have. So yes, so it'll be a lot more functional. And it was really interesting just to hear those kind of recommendations. Thank you.

So I do have a question. So this is gonna be motorized?

Yes. Yes.

So are you using a a clicker? Is it are you gonna have control over it, or is it going to be is there anything that's gonna be on the exterior of the building to track the time of day?

It will still be a library staff that would go and open and open it.

K.

There is existing mounted device so that that's that we can use it. They're gonna use the same wiring, but it'll be theirs. And we've asked we asked for something to cover it so that library staff will be the ones to go in there.

Yes.

And then tell them how to use it and just yes. So Okay. Yeah. Library staff will still be in in charge as far as that goes.

Good. Okay. Because there's a lot of user error that can happen, and it's very expensive.

He was very clear about.

And is this a vendor you guys have used before?

That, I don't know. Do you know that's a vendor?

I do not. This is one of those few projects that I'm not actually involved in. But we can find that information

It's my industry, so I'm

just I

do know that.

So I'm just really I just want to caution, because when you invest that much, it's just we need to make sure that because some fee motors and all those things can break very easily. So we just want to make sure that especially, I was going to recommend having more control over it and not having so much bells and whistles, like outside mounting and all the wind, it can get really involved. So making sure that you guys have a little bit more control and protection of the mechanism, it will be great.

Well, I appreciate that. And right now, the panel itself is actually in the room. Good. So thank you.

Mhmm. So question, because we want to rent our place out and people coming and use it. So for outside group using it and they prefer certain, you know, way the shades works. Right? Like, are librarian gonna help them do it or teach them how to do it, or what is the plan?

I believe it's my understanding that when the group gets there to use the space, that it will be a library staff member to open up the case that's covering it and ask them, would you like the blackout shades? Would you like just the the interior shade? And do all that for them, And then and then lock it back up. The big thing what the vendor said is make sure that you don't have anything that is like, if there's a there's like a what is that? Like, it's not a table, but there's, like, cabinets.

And to make sure that you don't have anything going up against it, because you don't want the shade to come down. So we're learning, and we'll have to decide how we of let the public know. We can tell them, but we may if it's helpful to put something out there to remind people, don't put anything that the shades will come down on. And you tell us how you want it, and then you'd leave them alone. That's really what he said. Don't touch these shades. So we'll make sure that it's library staff that controls it. Yeah. Thank you.

That'll be nice. Because sometimes people want to change it because, you know, during the day, the sun, you know, the shade, things change. So it's like, oh, okay. I wanna go up or I wanna go down, and then we go play with it.

Right. And we'll just make sure that if they need a change during their event, that they need to come to library staff because it will be locked.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you. The vendor local?

It says that it's

a local fortune. It's Kovacco.

Oh, oh, it's Kovac. Okay. Kovac. Okay. Good.

Thank you, trustee Watson. Yeah.

Comments, questions? Motion.

As far as public comments, no one on Zoom nor is anyone approaching

the phone. Any we welcome public comments if there's any. Yes? No? No. Okay.

I move to approve the request for the window shade.

K. One second.

Alright. Let's take vote, please.

Megan Watson Yes. Lisa Wojsap and Xueling Chen.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

I do have a question about our agenda forecast. It lists the meeting room policy and code of conduct.

Are

those updates to the policy? Or is this just a like, how we do the mission statement every year? Say, yes, that sounds good.

No. This is actually a new policy for the meeting room.

Okay.

And we're working I think we're going to work with Parks and Rec. We're going to try and mirror what they have.

Okay.

And so we can be consistent and all be you know, have the same type of policy. Nice. Mhmm.

Are we good? We're done with the meeting. Right? Okay. We'll see you next month. Thank you all.