Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

Should we start our 06:00 meeting? Great. Thanks for everybody's patience. So now I'm going to call the 11/20/2025 special meeting to order, and the public can access the live meetings at httpsfullerton.registrar.com on Spectrum Cable channel three and AT and T U verse channel 99. And if you're welcome to address to our board of trustees either in person or virtually by joining the Zoom and the Zoom meeting, what you would do is go to zoom.us/join or call 605-0252 and please enter the Zoom ID, the Zoom meeting ID which is 1607079419.

And if you would like to speak, please use the raise hand feature. And with that, could we please take the roll call?

We actually have to adjourn the closed session meeting first. Even we recessed previously. We need to adjourn.

So we adjourn the closed session meeting. Is there any report that you want to do for the closed session meeting? We'll do that

up here.

We have a closed session report session in the regular meeting.

Okay. Then Sorry. Okay. So You

can just come in and adjourn the closed session meeting, and then we can

start again. Yes. Alright.

Exactly.

Okay. K. So we closed the closed session meeting, and now we start a new meeting. Alright. Let's take the roll call.

Okay. Thank you. Trustee Lisa Wozab,

present.

Corresponding secretary Jennifer Sarves. Here. Vice president Joshua Dale.

Here.

And president Xu Ling Chen.

Yes. Here. So let's And do

trustee Megan Watson absent. Sorry.

Right. She's not here. Right. Right. Okay. Let's see the place of allegiance, Thank you, trustee Dale. Now we are going to ask our library director to report regarding the closed session.

Thank you, president Chen. The board of trustees of the library went into closed session to discuss the library director recruitment, and no action was taken.

Alright. And then we're gonna move forward to our library director again for the new meeting report.

Thank you so much, president Chen. We'll go down the list. Thank you so much, and nice to see people here at our meeting. In terms of a city council meeting on November 4, the city council approved the the contract position made possible by the Library Foundation donation for our digitization project. So we're very grateful, to the foundation, city council, and to the board of trustees.

In terms of the main library at Hunt, I'll go through the the different divisions. In terms of circulation and our division report there, I'm happy to say that, this October compared to last October, we've seen an almost 18% increase in material being checked out and circulated. So we're very happy about that. In terms of visitors coming through the door, we're up almost 7% increase than last year. Something also that will be taking place, the library does, lend out state park passes.

And now the hold for those passes, should somebody want to reserve one, will be seven days instead of three. So we're hoping that that will make it, just easier for people to actually come pick up the pass and be able and be able to use it. And we really have seen that the number of passes have increased, and they really wanna align the policy with the rest of the items that have a seven day hold as well. So just to provide some continuity. We are also looking at rolling out the new auto renewal service.

As you know, the Fullerton Public Library is fine free. So if somebody's late, they do not pay fines. And in that spirit, what will happen is if, I just can't get to the library to return my book, it will automatically renew for one time. And we're hoping that that will really help people, especially families, where sometimes you can't find the kids' books and you wanna return them. And even though it's fine free, they wanna make sure that, they're not on the naughty list.

And, so we're hoping that this will just, again, just be something else that will help families and all of us to be able to just know that you have time to return your to return your items. So, a big thanks to Alicia Long, our library services supervisor, for pulling that along. I'm also happy to let you know that the library technical assistant posting is currently live. And so, we hope to get that position filled in the next few months. Let's see what that recruitment yields.

We also have another position, a part time one for our library clerk that will go live soon. And with the hiring of the two positions, we will be able to open passport services and and also, of course, just just have more library staff to be able to help the public. So we're very happy about that. I will say too that for the just so for everyone to know, the rolling out of the new auto renewal service does not include the hotspots, the park passes, or new DVDs. And if somebody has an item on hold, then it it won't apply to them because we wanna make sure the next person can enjoy that item.

Other than that, everything else will will auto renew. In terms of children's, Melissa started. Yay. Here she is. Melissa. Would you like to introduce yourself? Sure. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes, please. Gleven and Melissa. We love meeting you.

Thank you for having me. My name's Melissa Kimball. I've been a children's library, assistant for five years. I worked in Ontario the city of Ontario previously. I did a recurring monthly STEM program for kids five to 12, so I'm excited to bring, our monthly STEM kits back to here. I speak Spanish, and I also know American sign language, so I would love to also teach introduce some sign language classes to our libraries.

I know that one.

Yeah. So I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

Well, we're excited to have you. Welcome. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you so much. It'd be exciting to have the STEAM kits back. Thank you so much. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. And children's department also hosted the second twilight tales Tuesday night. It is a once a month special evening story time with 27 attendees that heard stories about Thanksgiving and May made thankful turkeys. Yes.

Thank you. The cover to cover In N Out program just ended. We're happy to say that, many children came in at the last minute to make sure they got their cheeseburger or grilled cheese, and we'll have more numbers once, you can calculate them for next time. But suffice it to say, we had many participants, So In N Out should be pretty busy. Also, let's see.

Two of our children's pages have been trained by our TS staff to physically process materials, adding RFID tags, and that will be really helpful as we navigate getting a new vendor. As you know, we lost our Baker and Taylor, and I really wanna take the time to to thank the staff for their due diligence and finding alternatives to make sure that we can still buy new materials and provide them to the to the public, especially during the holiday season when they're it's it's very popular. So thank you. Thank you both. And the staff that is not here, thank you.

TV land. In terms of our teen services, I'm really happy to announce too that, they are hosting their fourth annual clothing swap event for teens, Saturday, November 29. That will be held in the Osborne Auditorium from 12:30 to three. It is the TAB volunteers, teen library volunteers that are, doing a wonderful job creating the flyer, promoting the event, and gathering materials for our program. So we're really looking forward to that.

They will also be able to work on scrapbooking making, bracelet making where they wait for more clothes to be brought into the swap. So any teams out there that have gently used clothes that just need to find a new home, please, consider bringing them to the library to be part of this wonderful event. And for more information, please please give me a call, then I'll put you in touch with Emily who's coordinating that. And, also, Keith Lee as well as our teen librarian, they hosted a class visit from LA La Vista High School on Friday, November 7, where students get a fun tour of the library, went on a scavenger hunt, and they were provided community service. They provided some community service for the children's department by sorting donated Legos, and they worked on crafts and activities.

The partnership continues with the high school through this school year and bringing STEAM lessons and activities to the students. So thank you so much, Keith Lee, for that. Adult services. Dude, where's my yarn? That's just a great title for our program.

October 24 had its second Dude, where's my yarn? And patrons from really all ages were invited to work on their fiber art projects, learn how to stitch, or spend some time making crafts. Has become very popular. Attendees were saying that one and a half hours was not enough time, So it was extended for to, four hours, 11AM to 3PM, and it will meet, monthly on the fourth Saturday of every month if anybody's interested. There's Zen I think it's supposed to be meditation at the library.

But there is a group of library patrons practicing zen meditation in the library on the second Saturday of every month. So that's something that you would like to to participate in. Please come out and in the senior librarian's words, reenergize in everyone's favorite chill setting, which we all know is a library. At Hunt, they had a wonderful story time XL spooktacular on October 28 with over 200 patrons attending this wonderful event. They made trick or treat bags, jack o lanterns, Frankensteiner, a bat inspiration, A double double double toil and trouble cauldron station allowed them to mix their potions, which made candy magically appear.

And patrons were able to have, enhance their costumes with available face painting and balloon art. They also hosted a teen spooky art night, and each paint station came with an easel, black light, activated paints, brushes, and teens had a great time just making their Halloween masterpieces, which we're very excited about. In terms of the arts and culture, I'm really happy to say that, yesterday, I had the opportunity to go to the opening of the Once Upon a Sketch. Wonderful. If you follow the Fullerton, Museum Center, they went live on Instagram there, and the curator did a wonderful job of explaining not only the art that was there, but also the corresponding books.

And it was really just delightful to see it. They did a wonderful job with it. There's also a screen there where people are reading the books, and they are in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Korean. So very happy. And I'm really happy to let you know too that, there are there is gonna be an author talk, and so we'll be planning those events along with Jaime there at Hunt.

Let's see. I also had the pleasure of meeting the museum director, Alisa Rubalcava, and, her and Amy All who helps us coordinating the art gallery there, and I are going to be meeting. We're hopefully next week, if not, in the near future, to really talk about our partnership. She's very excited about partnering with the Hunt Library Gallery. And so, we had a really nice conversation, and I look forward to to letting you know just what what what that mean, what that partnership, but, very exciting.

It's a great museum if you haven't have you haven't been there. Make sure I didn't forget anything. And maybe a Lunar New Year event if we can try to get the last day extended. Lunar New Year this year is the February 17, and this exhibit is set to close on the twelfth. So I'm I'm gonna make my plea, and let's make that happen. Let's see. And that is my report. Thank you. Oh, one more thing. So just to let you know, on December 5, the, the library staff will be will have an all staff meeting from five to seven at night.

We'll do some team building, activities, and also, we're gonna have, the opportunity for every division to really brag about all the things they've done this year and have their coworkers cheer them on and applaud them. So we're looking forward. Yes. Lot more of this. And so just looking forward to to that event and having some fun as well as pat ourselves on the back a little bit for a job well done. Thank you so much. Oh, that's right.

No. Thank you for going through detail, you know, lots of programs that our amazing library is doing and sharing with all of us. That's great. Our board of trustees, anyone has any questions or comments you want to make?

I don't know if now is the time, but, I would love to these arts and culture reports that, that, our director has been putting together are fantastic, and I'd love to receive and file them and submit those to city council. I know that we had last last month, we talked about the Dia de los Muertos exhibit and, the other exhibit that was going on as well as this one. And I think that reporting that to council to show them that we are participating in the arts and culture that we were assigned, would be a good thing. So I'm not sure how that fits into the agenda, but

That

that's a perfect segue because I was actually going to pitch utilizing also utilizing our library newsletter, being able to possibly do, like, an arts and culture corner. And do you think that that might be an opportunity? I don't know how well you think that might be received, but it might be nice to add that to our library newsletter.

That is something that, we are going to talk about at tomorrow's newsletter meeting about how we might incorporate that. But I know that I was able to speak with Beatrice on this earlier this week. Did you wanna talk more about that, or did you want me to?

Oh, you can.

Oh, happy to. Thank you. Obviously, that's a wonderful overlap and is our primary other than our wonderful website, is our primary public communication tool is our our newsletter. And so there are a few different things that we could do as options for having a culture corner in our newsletter. Alliteration tends to work pretty well.

So one thing that we had talked about in past meetings was having the opportunity for people to come provide public comment on cultural events that then, because of the timing of trustees meetings and when the newsletter goes out, then we could report that information out through the newsletter so that anyone who is unable to attend the meetings, and that way we're, consistent with our messaging. It also removes the, need to solicit information and select which information or to share or not to share if we're specifically reporting on what's already happening in the library board of trustees meetings. That is the other option, though. We could also solicit information that gets selected for that purpose. So that's for something as the cultural arts committee, something that you all could provide us a little direction as to how we might wanna proceed.

I think it's nice to be able to share information because we have in our community, we have, you know, a wealth of arts and culture. And and I would love to learn about, you know, other people's culture, and I'm happy to share mine as well too. But just have that opportunity of being able to learn from each other, I think it's amazing, especially reading is great, but sometimes the experience that, you know, I feel like I take away stronger when I actually, you know, be able to hear the story, be able to feel that, oh, that's what they do, and that's why they do what they do. And I, you know, oftentimes feel very touched by the the way that people share.

Right.

So

I think it's a it's a great topic, and we'll think through how do we collect that information in a timely manner. And so it will be reaching out to different entities in the community that we can help help us to at least let them know that they can give us this information to share. And also as we look to the new year to just find more opportunities to really highlight, you know, cultural traditions in in different ways in our libraries.

I love that the like, having the report out is different than solicitation. Solicitation takes on staff time. Solicitation takes on possible preferential treatment, like other things. And I think that reporting out is is a wonderful way to do this where we're not nobody's playing favorites. Nobody's doing anything else. And I think that really is a wonderful suggestion for for how to to keep keep this alive.

So what we were hoping to do is put out a call for culture corner as something where we would recommend this practice possibly starting in 2026 when we get back to more regular meetings as I know we have a special meeting at a special time in December. Mhmm.

And also too, as we grow or strengthen this relationship with the Fullerton Museum Mhmm. There would be an opportunity to share maybe what's going on in the Fullerton Museum Okay. How we are partnering. You can see this special collection come over to the hunt. This is in partnership with the Fullerton Museum. So it's a it's a great way to be able to share

that Okay.

And strengthen that relationship as well.

And if all of this can be given to, in our council report, that would be amazing just to report back the progress that we've made so far.

I know that Ruth does do that. Perfect. And what I can I'll talk to her when she comes back if maybe it was in the library report. It can be arts and culture. It's Just kind of like, I've separated out here. We can do it there as well. Perfect. Yep. Absolutely.

Thank

you. I'd like trustee Jennifer's idea about reporting because, you know, because we have been given an assignment and, yes, we do annual report, but sometimes because report, it's so long and so many pages and it's actually harder to digest. And I'm thinking since this is something new, I feel like a shorter rapport, you know, a quarterly or something just to update this is what has happening. Feel we'll keep them updated on what's the progress that we have tried, and maybe they will realize that we couldn't have more personnel in our department to help out with what we are doing.

Mention. Think

of what we could do.

I mean, I know that, you know, trustee Dale brought up that our our mission and our bylaws are actually different. Within that education department, we don't wanna be taking away from anything. So this is just addition. It it doesn't seem to be taking anything away.

It's really an enhancement. Yes. You know, the arts are are very important in terms of education. And to be able to offer it in different mediums, think, is just good for the community. My Graceman?

Well, it's showing

that it's that we're trying to integrate it into each meeting, I think, will show that there's some progress. So thank you.

Yes. Thank you.

Any more comments from our board of trustees?

I did have two out of the three hamburgers already from I helped eat them. We had some fries too. They're very good. I've read over a 100 books this year in case anybody wanna know. So we're we're doing great over at the

Sarvis household right now. Maybe the library will start thinking about some In N Out for the adults.

We're gonna write that letter to In

N Out.

That is so attractive, and that is great. Well, thanks for everybody's comments. Could we I'm so excited to see our foundation and our friends. Can we go, with the foundation, share with what's happening that you're doing so well?

Juliet Gardner from the foundation. The just highlighting one thing that we are so excited that we have helped with and are continuing are the hotspots. We gave some more money, and that's just great for the community. So that's our that was the one we wanted to highlight.

That's great. Thank you so much, Julia. Now I don't have to be on the wait list because every time I went to get the hotspot, every single time, you know, that is like a long wait list. And then it's like a week later, okay, It's your turn. Well but I don't need it anymore. So thank you so much. Great. Yes. So our friends.

Thank you, president Chen. Kim D. Wolf from the Friends of the Library. A couple of things that I wanted to talk about. We have set the dates for our 2026 book sales, the two day sales. They will be January, June, and September. So basically, the last weekend of those months, January, June, and September. Of course, we will, you know, if necessary, reschedule for construction that's going on. You never know what what kind of schedules and delays there might be. But we hope for the best to have those sales.

And they're they're so successful for us, and we're able to support the library through that. So we're very happy to do that. We've also extended the hours in our bookstore a bit. We heard from patrons that they liked would like to have the library open in the evening, particularly on city council nights because they kind of hang out in the library waiting for the meeting to start. So on the first and third Tuesdays, we are open from 03:30 to six.

That's we would ordinarily close at 03:30, so we're staying open until 6PM. We've done it a couple of times in November. We'll do it in December meetings and in January, and then we'll evaluate and see if it's worthwhile Because it is a bit of a challenge for our some of our volunteers are older and and don't wanna drive at night. So they you know, we we have to make sure that we can staff the library or the bookstore rather in the evening. So but so far, I've worked through two of them, and we the first one was very successful.

Second one was a little slow. So we're looking at ways to let the public know that we are open that one evening a couple times a month. And if there are no questions, that's all I have for tonight. Just just a comment.

Mhmm. The holiday book selection and the DVD selection selection is fantastic. I just grabbed a bunch of stuff for my grandbabies, and Yeah. It's quite a few books for myself.

It's it's going really, really well. The shelves are clearing out. Always well organized. Thank you. Thank you. And we I sometimes say, oh, do we have to do it so early? But that's when people are looking for things like that. So it really by the time the December rolls around, we won't have much Christmas stuff left. So or holiday things. So we're happy to do that. Thank you. I'm gonna dash back over to the library for the book discussion. We have our new librarian, Amanda, leading or getting ready to lead it. So I'm gonna take off and go and finish up the discussion.

Oh, thank you

very much for all the vote. I wonder if guys questions.

Oh, sure.

So I'm sorry.

Look. Go ahead.

Go ahead. Can you tell me you may not know this. Can you tell me about this donation you guys made in honor?

The three names.

The three names? Do you know anything about it?

Yes. If I can recall.

Bousquet, Bergman, and Getha? Itha?

They were, I don't recall offhand. I'll have to get back to you on that.

No. No. No. Alright.

Okay. Thanks.

Do we have you, Kim.

The question doesn't have to be for Kim. I wonder, do we have any because everybody's thinking about holidays. Everybody is trying to buy presents, and books are always the best presents. So, was there any way that we can kind of, you know, just let more people know that this is the best place to come and buy?

Maybe we can have something in the in the The newsletter. Newsletter. It's already on

the list.

I promise. And and be sure and check out the the silent auction items and the books and items that are in the display cases. We have really top notch things, collectibles, and and people are just, you know, crazy about they they line up. Juliet was one of them. At 11:00 on Wednesday afternoon when it or Wednesday morning when it closes, you wanna be there to get your bid in so that you win that item.

So, yeah, people wait. So, yeah, do be sure and come to the it's in the the lobby of the the conference room. And Wednesday at

11:00?

Well, it yeah. I mean, you can look at it any time and place a bid. And it'll it says there. It says when the when the bidding closes.

Ah.

And she does it promptly at 11:00. So you you have to be there by eleven in order to get your last bid in. Yeah. So well.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Kim. Right. Moving forward, could we see if we have any public comments?

If anyone in the room would like to speak as we do not have any members of the public on Zoom.

Yes? Duncan, we're so happy to see you. You wanna say anything? I

don't wanna.

Alright then.

Alright. Then we'll move forward. Which one? Yeah. Didn't you already say it? Do you wanna say more? Go ahead. Was I was just getting. That's okay.

I actually have been thinking about this. This is something we've talked about. And I don't know how really to go about this, but I really would love to see if we could put together, like, a strategic vision meeting, or in almost like a state of the hunt, type of meeting where we could possibly have, like, a joint meeting with Parks and Rec and staff and just kind of put together even if it was, like, in a town hall forum, but where we could have kind of a a vision meeting. I've spoken with some other people throughout the city that have have booked. I've I've gathered kind of some feedback on their experiences with either the booking or the their experience throughout the rental process.

And so I just would love to see what we would do because, you know, we're we're really tasked that this needs to be a sustainable venue. And so I I don't know when and where we could do this. But is there anything like that in

Will you suggest that we email you if we have ideas? Or what will you suggest that we communicate our, you know, ideas?

I'm I'm not familiar with how the city does its budgeting process or how it looks in the New Year. I can ask questions, and I can get more information about what that process is and and also speak with parks and rec to see if there's something we can do as a joint effort because we share we share the building with them. And I'm happy to get back to you of letting you know what I found out and how we can move that along. So I know that the budget process for the city, I believe it begins in late January as I understand So it may be within that time frame would be a a good time to think about all this because I'm sure Parks and Rec is thinking about that building as well.

K.

Sure. Happy to do it.

Or the other way is if you have your vision, you can go ahead and share at our trustee meeting, and then it will be public information and see, you know, how many people that maybe were joining your vision or not and then can be a public information.

What we can do once we get, more information about this is there may be an opportunity maybe to agendize it so you can have a discussion and and come to some I don't know if it's a vote or not in terms but just to some agreement.

Right. It's not agenda item, but it's a comment. Yeah. If you want to make comments or suggestions It's just

I mean, we have this partnership, and I think that, you know, it just it it it needs to be collaborative.

Mhmm.

And so how do we go about I mean, they're having they have staffing challenges. We have staffing challenges.

Right.

But we have to work together to book this venue, keep this venue booked, and and how do we how do we work together to make it the optimum situation. Understood. So I don't know how we can be a part of that,

but I think our director is working on it.

I will I will work on it. I will get some I will get some information. Yeah. I'm not sure because that part is Parks and Recreation, so I think that's a good question to to get answered how it is that we can, work with them because we share the building with them. And and, really, their patrons are our patrons. And so we're talking about the same group of people for different reasons for being in that building. Okay. Thank you.

If if we do reach the point of doing some sort of collaborative or town hall, I would suggest we invite the original stakeholders, including the Save the Hunt folks and, and the ad hoc committee members.

Thank you.

Well, when we give the certificate in one of our trustee meetings, we did have all different stakeholders and the groups, including, you know, the foundations, the friends, and the safe the hunt, and quite a few individuals

Wow.

Were involved, at the time. And so there's definitely a name list that can be shared.

We we have received some guidance from our city clerk who has notified us that any joint meeting of legislative bodies has to be a Brown Act meeting, of course, with broadcast and public comments. So we would have to hold it in this space in the chambers. So that would be tricky to schedule and possibly require, and would ask that city council suspend the rules. And so that would be something that we would have to put through city council, but would require some scheduling. It's tricky, but not impossible. But, certainly, it's it's really important to work with all of

the

mutual stakeholders. On that note, though, we do have some happy news in that Jaime and the rest of the Hunt staff have been able to finish our unified calendar on the website where you have all the partisan rec events at Hunt now.

Yay.

Yes.

That's big accomplishment. Right? Because we're, you know, different departments under the same umbrella, so it'll be nice.

But we wanted to best notify patrons and make sure they could check one place for

everything.

Yes. Thank you. Very good. Alright. Consent calendar.

The first item is the library bill summary.

Any comments?

The only comment is, once again, I wanna thank the, foundation for their annual donation. Much appreciated. Thank you for supporting library services in the city.

And a big number too. Thank you.

And if nobody else has comments, I would move to I would move the consent calendar as constituted.

K. There's a motion. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Alright. Could we take, the vote?

Trustee Lisa Wozab?

Yes.

Corresponding secretary Jennifer Service? Yes. Vice president Joshua Dale?

Yes.

President Xu Ling Chen? Yes. Trustee Megan Watson absent. Motion carries.

Thank you. Thank you. And we'll move forward with the regular business, and we're excited to, you know, talk about our hot spot services continuing and expanding. Alright.

Thank you very thank you very much, president Chen and trustees. Yes. So this item before you is a continuation in expanding the hot spot services with the, money that we received from the foundation pledge. We will we're asking for your approval in, purchase of additional units and the accompanying data plans. And, again, using a portion of the pledge not to exceed $6,000.

And like you mentioned earlier, president Chen, we're hoping that with the additional hotspot devices and service that we can, lessen the wait times in between checkouts for people to use them.

Or maybe no no wait time.

Yes.

But when you need it, you need it. When there's a wait time, sometimes it doesn't always work. That is. No. Thanks for the foundation's help. It's great.

Absolutely. We're happy to answer any questions. Oh, please.

Foundation has decided to give that pledge money, let me get this right, at the beginning of the year so the library doesn't have to come to us with every bill. So that money will be there in their coffers so that they can go about their business. And then if there's something above and beyond, then they can come to us for that.

Thank you so much for sharing. That may actually expedite this.

But we we very much appreciate that.

Thank you. Thank you, Juliet. Do we have any public comments at this time about Hospa?

Unless anyone is approaching the podium, we have no members of the public on Zoom.

Right. Yes, please.

Hi. My name is Saladatta. I am a member of the public, and I wanna publicly thank the foundation for their most generous donation. Wonderful.

Thank you for expressing your appreciation. We appreciate that. Alright. Moving forward since we don't have

I move that we approve the funding for the hotspots.

I second.

Great. I'm excited. Let's vote.

Trustee Lisa Wozab?

Yes.

Corresponding secretary Jennifer Sarkis? Yes. Vice president Joshua Dale?

Yes.

President Su Ling Chen? Yes. You're next. Motion carries.

Thank you all. Thank you.

Thank you so much to the foundations. With that, we're gonna adjourn our meeting. Thank you so much. Stay dry and, you know, drive safely. Thank you. Good night.

Thank you.