Library Commission - Regular Meeting

K. Now we need to do the pledge of allegiance. Okay. Roll call. Honestly, double I three. I mean, it's gonna be ordered. Yes. Roll call. Commissioner Porter. Present.

Commissioner Navarro. Present. Commissioner Purcell is here. Commissioner Whitener. Whitener. Present. Commissioner Ramos. Ramos. Ramos. Yes. Yes. Sergeant present. Commissioner Felix? Present. Okay. Everybody's here. Okay. Is there any public oh, no. Okay. The commission welcomes comments, including criticism about the policies, procedures, programs, or services of the city or of the acts or omissions of the commission committee.

Speakers shall not use threatening, profane, or abusive language, which disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise beats the orderly conduct of a commission or committee. The city is committed to maintaining a workplace free of unlawful harassment and and is mindful that staff regularly attend commission of committee meetings. Discriminatory statements or conduct that is hostile, intimidating, oppressive, or abusive is disruptive to the meeting and will not be tolerated. I've instructed our secretary, Gina, to remove any speaker that does not abide by these policies. Are there any public comments? There are not. Okay. Oh, so you're supposed to look at the minutes. They weren't here. Google of the minutes.

Right. I was We we oh, yeah. We've we did have a special meeting in September. So we have

I know she's.

Okay. I'll have all seconds. Okay. So now we're we're going on doing business to play this off my plate. Okay. So let's start with oh, there we get there it is. Okay. So new videos. Probably, wanted a few things. Right? You know, say that? So we we we're asking or indicating that we are?

Asking the group to make the modification to be proposed to Okay.

We would like to modify new business to put the election of officers at the end of new business so that we can get to know each other a little bit. What else do I Motion to approve. I'll move to approve that. A second. Okay.

Okay. New introduction of new and reappointed commissioners. I think that's the way to go. So we have But would you like to start with? Oh, you are experienced by institution? Sorry. I'm Crystal Porter. I've been on the solution for two years. I have a background in law and but I've been retired for a long, long, long time. So I'm on the letter writing committee. I was also on the orientation committee, which I think is not a thumb. And also on community outreach committee, so I would love to have some of you new people join me because now I am the community one, and I'm kept on at least doing average.

Sofia Barrow, I have been on the since 2020 or '21.

So this is my second,

appointment, with the commission. I born and raised here at Hayward and was working at San Clara in San Francisco.

I'm Shereen. I don't remember how long ago. I think it's three years. I started in the library doing tutoring for English learners, and I still do an English conversation circle. And I could participate in a lot of stuff with PayWard. So by recognitions, if you want to be

I'm Patricia Wagner, and this is my very first time on the commission. I'm a I've been a financial aid counselor, I'll say, for twenty five years. And I'm currently taking the 100% online MLIS program bachelor program at San Jose State. So I wanna become librarian. And so I figured this would be a really good opportunity to see the other side of the library and see what I can do to give back to Kayla because I was not born and raised here, but I've lived here now longer than I've lived in San Francisco, which is where I was born and raised. Okay.

My name is Angela Ramos. I am also new. I don't necessarily have a background, but I do a lot of volunteering before going to Chabot College. I helped out my school library with circulation primarily, And I'm hoping to eventually work on my master's as well. And I think I'm hoping somewhere to do a community outreach and want to go involved with the library.

I think that's about I wasn't born here, but I was raised here from second grade onwards, I was here almost my time.

Greetings, everyone. I'm Jacqueline. I refer Jackie. I this is my first commission with the

city of Hayward. I have

been on several commission boards with Alameda County. I my background is human resources. I do have a master's degree public administration from Cal State East Bay. I've been

living in Hayward for over thirty five years. My father was my late father worked in the water department.

It was top management. And if you

go into their campus, you'll see their street names after my father. So I welcome.

My name is Lindsey Bien. I'm the acting lab room services director. Our director, Jensi Almond, has been appointed as interim city manager since July 2025. So she will be returning to this group, this forum effective January 1. For this time being, I've been deputy director of library services for nearly three years. I've been with the city of Hayward for close to nineteen, all of which my services have been to the city of Hayward and the Lincoln Public Library. Just a deep, deep passion for library services. Hayward's community I've worked in Hayward's community for probably about twenty five coming from Cal State. Hayward, ice cream. Yes.

As a word. Yes. And I can't tell you how much this library means to the community and how much your service to this means to the city and to the the library patrons here. And it's these these boards and forums and all of our volunteers in the library and throughout the city of Hayward that really do the advocacy piece, which is so huge. I know that we're gonna be getting into all of that, for the library, especially during very challenging times such as we're in now.

So I just wanted to take this time to welcome everybody and just to let everybody know I've met with two of the three new commissioners, AJ, and Wittner. And miss Felix, I believe, had some work conflicts, so we'll be meeting at another time as well. But just to know that everybody has gone through a orientation at the library and how the commission actually works and has also gone under the city clerk's office. They had some trainings that you had in the Brown Act and you won policies and procedures. So the group is is participated in quite a bit of training thus far.

So welcome to the group, and we'll go ahead and move forward. K. Sounds

we're now moving on to the review. Just tell me if I'm. Okay. We're now moving on to the reviews, the digital welcome guide.

Yes. So, everybody has a copy when you were appointed a commissioner, by the city clerk's office. Everybody was issued a digital copy of the welcome guide, of which I believe, if I'm not mistaken, this has hundreds of pages inside of this guide. So this was too much to print nor do I think everybody was going to utilize the the printed copy. So everybody has a copy digitally.

But, again, just very high level, each of the appointed commissioners have received this packet, has gone through the respective sesh sections, and some of the areas that we really wanted to call out were what you have right here, inside of the packet that was one of the attachments that you did it. Uniform guidance for operations for city clinicians. So above all of the other documents, you've had welcome letters. You've had, copies of the city of Hayward Library Commission notes and how a meeting is governed, information on the Brown Act, the meeting schedules. But I think that really a big piece of it is around the the operations of the city commission, which is the likely commission for this department and what its role is within the city government and what it is comprised of.

So does everybody have a copy of the the guidance document?

Are we No.

I just printed it out for

real shipment.

Okay. If you guys wanna go ahead

and bring this one up, I'll just bring them.

Right here. Well, make it bigger.

Yes. Okay. This one. Much better. Still

bigger. So

all of this is very formal language, so I'm gonna summarize this. It's gonna be my own words here. So I have notes kind of taken from all of this. But, you know, a common question for the library commission is, you know, what is what is the role of the library commission? What is the role of a commission in general?

So the role of a library commission is typically to involve advocating for planning, evaluating library services to ensure they're effectively servicing our community. And, some of the main points for advisory are making nonbinding. So it's it's really, you're advocating. Who are a, recommending group, a recommending board for the library to make actionable decisions. So it's nonbinding recommendations to the library director.

A huge part of the commission is to promote the library's value. So you are the ambassadors to the public, raising awareness about library's importance, essential community services to the city of Hayward. You are the liaison with the community ensuring the library remains responsive to the public. So really keeping that pulse, bringing the information, ensuring that our agendized, topics of discussion are relevant and are displaying the information that, a, the public would like to see and that the the group would actually like presentations on. So although we have, a drafted agenda, which is in your agenda packet, that is a living document.

So as we move forward, sometimes there are topics that we need to amend and that become more relevant, and we are consistently looking at utilizing that document as a living document to stay stay very apprised of the the temperatures of both the politic the political nature, but also the needs of the community. Another big piece, and this has been a huge piece for the library, is really advocating for funding. This group is a small but very mighty group. I'm looking at commissioner Porter right now who led some charges with some drafting of letters that actually went to legislature when we were seeing some huge impacts on just, you know, the overall world of library funding. And, also, at times where the library had potentially having reductions to its acquisitions budget, and this group right here was able to advocate and go to present to council in which we actually were able to receive additional funding when actually, cuts were were being proposed.

So this voice, that you have may feel small, but it's very mighty here. And we've seen this commission do some huge things for the library. So just just kinda keeping that in the heart and core of what you're doing. But it's being really fiscally responsible too. So understanding what the needs are of the library and how we may be reasonably able to to, you know, meet those needs.

And then there's always a lot the lobbying for favor favorable legislation. It's a tongue twister there. So, there's also been a lot of advocacy at the state and federal levels, with the recent, you know, in in the past months slashes or threatened slashes to federally funding, INLS funding, we have a lot of our support groups rallying together, sending, letters to both the senators and the assembly members, which then go to congress. You know, once one voice may be a lot smaller, but once all those voices start coming together up and down the state of California and nationwide, that's when change really happens. So just remember, you're a small but very big group.

I keep saying that because it's so important, and sometimes we lose you know, it's hard beyond this room to imagine the impacts that it really makes, but it's huge. So the membership, the commissions comprised of members appointed by city council in accordance with established ordinances and resolutions. So you have applied to become a commissioner. You went through the interviewing process, and you were appointed as a commissioner. Technically, right now, we still have one vacancy in which the city clerk's office is going to be moving.

And, typically, we try to have a reserve list as well so that if you have a commissioner who is unable to meet the obligations of your appointment, that we are being able to backfill. So the city clerk's office is in the process. Right now, as of this moment, we don't have somebody to backfill one of the vacancies, which actually came to be after they did the recruitment, the last recruitment. But we're very excited with with the group. Sounds like there's a lot of alignment in what your interests are, your professional careers, endeavors are for your futures that are gonna be building this group, and it's a very diverse group with different backgrounds, which is where we see lots of movement come from that different backgrounds.

So this is amazing. So, typically, in every October, so annually, there's an election of the the commission elects a chair and a vice chair. So since this group is primarily new, you know, we wanted to ensure that we had a a chance to get to know know each other before the end of the meeting comes, and then we'll go ahead and motion for the election of the chair and vice chair in which, Commissioner Purcell will give instructions as we're kind of moving forward. But just to understand that that will happen by the end of today's meeting. Any questions so far?

I'm kinda throwing a lot back at you. So the terms of office, commission members are appointed by the city council and may be removed by motion supported by at least four affirmative votes from the city council. Commissioners may serve a maximum of two and one half consecutive full terms of four years on any morning commission. So that's that's basically where your term is. And, again, it just kinda goes into the commissioner's service.

The advisory role to the city council consistent with their originating ordinances and resolutions. Resolutions. Attendance of vacancies, we'd like to go over this just once again. Commission members are required to attend at least 75% of regular meetings. So at the back of your packet, we have a proposed meeting schedule for you to plan ahead for.

So 75% of these meetings, you need to be able to keep at, you know, a positive way here. So you don't wanna go below the 75% threshold. That is where, commissioners can be removed from the commission role by the city council. So, really just looking forward, October 20 is the first meeting that we're gonna be meeting as a group here with our new commissioners, in which our last meeting of the fiscal year will be in July, which is considered a special. There's still an agenda that is published, and we still do business, but the meeting is, all usually short so that we're able to do a celebratory dinner as well.

So that's really kind of, like, the biggies that we wanted to go over in the, uniform operations for the commission here. I think those were the big ones. And I've just already outlined some of the main goals and, respective duties for the commissioners here. I just always remind you if you have other questions to refer to the digital handbook here, and that all of the libraries, we're here to help support you. I have an open door policy when Genti returns in January. She also has an open door policy. We can support you in any way, shape, or form. Any questions with that? Okay. We're

you could go. I'm sorry for self. Okay. Taylor. 2526 agenda plan. I wanna go to k. Let's move back and see if I'm not again.

Alright. Going back to the document we just left off on here. So, typically, the library director proposes a drafted agenda plan. So, again, as I mentioned at the beginning of this meeting, this is a listing document. These are just proposed, presentations.

So for example, in previous years, we've been able to really kind of plan out when it would be best to provide some of the staff presentations. As you're moving forward, for example, in projection for November 17 of next month, we typically have all of our surveys, done for the state library. So it's a really good time for us to have staff create a presentation of no more than five slides. It's usually a ten to fifteen minute presentation with ten minutes for q and a. But the first report would be on ebooks and databases.

And then, we're proposing, which, technically, this is a new item that the commission has never seen. Instead of doing midyear budget, the city is facing budget challenges, and there is going to be a fall revise in November. So we found it very relevant to be placing this and appraising the commission of some of what the fall revise may look like, before that actually goes to council. In December, we do have a commission recess, and then we will reconvene in January in which we will still go back into midyear budget to kind of review where we're at the midyear cycle and provide any annual report statistics for 2025. The library does report on both the fiscal year and calendar year.

Just depends on who we're reporting to. Typically, at around that time, we're looking and forecasting for some volunteer opportunities. And then for February, we're just gonna talk about some of the special programming. So technology programs and makerspace are usually overseen by the same staff person, and we usually have some solid statistics by then. And we usually pair that with the marketing and outreach services as well.

And then in March, we switch switch over to really looking at programming for adults and seniors, and that is National Library of Workers Week. So and we we work with the the commissions to develop ideas for the commission support. And then come April, we really focus on education. So, typically, we're doing all of our fiscal year and year end reports around that time. So we have some solid data to provide for adult literacy services also our ESL services.

And we usually pair that one of our with one of our support groups, the five zero one c three Payward Literacy Plus Council. So it's pretty much geared together for the support of that. Then come May, we switch over to pretty much school age programming in preparation for summer. So that would be educational services, pre K, children's teams programming, and really looking ahead to what the summer programming is gonna look like, which is huge for the library. Come June, we had the proposal, and, again, this may these any of these topics can change at any time.

But really having our other, support group, the Friends of the Hayward Public Library five zero one c three to their presentation into the group and really look at their impacts and their goals for the impacts of the the current fiscal year and then projecting forward to the future year. Then come July, again, special meeting and then the year end commission dinner back to August recess. So on the backside, there's unscheduled items. So as we move forward, there may be topics that we may want to adjust. So these are things that we will place on the unscheduled items, and then the group can actually motion to adopt these as we move forward. But it's just kind

of a way to be able

to keep track. Most of what has been proposed in this agenda are really what the commission we've heard from the past, on on topics. And, again, we may want other presentations in here, and we would adjust accordingly. Typically, two presentations in ED is way enough. So I think we used to try to squeeze three. It was information overload. So keeping it to two, and then we're able to work with the respective staff here to be able to ensure that they are prepared for their presentation as well.

Would this be the time to propose on schedule one or what if you like? Think

we can. And small. So that is under the marketing and outreach. So Moby is under outreach. Okay.

Yep. Okay. I was just actually wondering about that since learned about as well considering it's a particular, like, school outreach, like, the high school and middle school. So that would be predictably, I guess, advocating history. A lot of the, like, will come here more, like, around. And we can do more, like, Teams and stuff. Yes.

And we can cover all of that. That's the report on outreach and marketing. So Okay. The librarian too that oversees that oversees both the marketing and mobile outreach services. So we can actually change the title of that. We can say report outreach marketing, comma, mobile outreach services. Even though it's technically outreach, we can call it mobile outreach. I Mhmm. I wanna

make sure that's there.

About the, you know, the, yeah, the

market review stuff. They had the city of New York, like, Justin had Gmails talking about how they had to cancel certain, like, budget stuff. And so I think we need to be particularly, like, kind

of focused on that right there.

Yes. That's why we're. You don't you don't. Yeah. Yeah. Typically,

the city has never done a fall revise, and so it's really taking into considerations the movement right now. Typically, fall revise comes in February, sometimes late January, February, so we are having to switch this forward. So we will keep the group of tribes to bring you information. That should be right before it's going to council so we can go ahead and that's the presentation we want. I can't tell you exactly what that presentation is. I couldn't move yet. I do not know yet, we will have to determine if it were.

Oh, sorry. Commissioner Navarro. Yeah.

Would any updates on the reopening of weeks and just how it's going to be included in one of these already? Where would you like to see that? I can very much do that.

I'll I'll I'll hear that soon. Like Yeah. Mean, when I think about

that. November?

Sure.

I have a slideshow already ready for that.

Oh, perfect. That's easy one.

You have enough information to share. So you have stuff already. That's a happy one. And so we can do a week's update.

It was more than me. We I recall that the commissioner, former commissioner of banks, was really concerned about the role of IA in library. I AI. No. In library development and and proceeding forward. Is there anything that's gonna be presented on that, or would that be under report on e books and that basis? Are we gonna hear anything else about that? Is that something we're suing? Or

So we can just we can scoop that in. I actually think that should be a topic that stands alone. So I think we should place that on the unscheduled items. I think that's a pretty meaty discussion. I guess. So perhaps my recommendation would be for the the commission to consider placing that on the unscheduled, and we can see where that fits in appropriately. I can ask around with that, and we can kinda come up with a what we think would be a solid presentation. Thank you. I'm not sure. Raw. Raw.

Not John Stamos, but raw. That's not gonna help you. We're all working at raw. I'm gonna

get raw. Yeah. Raw like Stamos.

I think but okay. So I wanted to because I have got a thing in the mail recently about the satellite library at the community center. Would that help? So can we include that sort of with me as a sort of conversation topic, or should I include it in, like, outreach?

I'm I'm definitely serious. Okay. So going back. So let me just clarify. You are you referring to the STAT community center?

Yes. Okay. So I also think that should be a stand alone as well.

So on the schedule? Yeah.

I would put that onto the unscheduled items, and then I can again do some research over the next month. Yeah. That's not even built yet, is it? That's still some time. But yes. Yeah. That is on the strategic road map, so I think You're right. Yeah. Stat Community Center.

So the total for just location of it is very beneficial. Like, it depends on excitement. Oh, okay, Rooney. Okay. I'm get back to you later. Sorry. Okay. Oh, we are now moving on to the discussion about submission goal. I think we had a good breath. That's okay.

Yeah. So we went over, really what it what the the commission body's role is and some of the goals associated with most of the commissions. So the advocacy, the, advocacy for funding, advocacy for knowledge within the community, representation of the library and its services, and the importance within the community, community, being the liaison within the community to keep a temperature and what the gaps the community needs is needs are so that they're reflected in our programming here at the library. But I do open discussion among the group. This is really I will I will add something. It's not really a goal, but it's kind

of managing to kind of trying to come the most for me because that's been that's been a big issue. I've I've been close, so maybe that's easy, but I've come to every meeting. But, I mean, when we don't get enough people, it gets, you know, a little hard to just for the most part, trying to show up to all the big things.

So intent then? Yes. Open to feedback if there's any other discussion. I know that your thoughts are.

For those of you who are new, I think, should be what we already know is to improve access to library services throughout the Hayward community. We have one Weeks branch. We have one beautiful downtown branch, but we have a vast percentage of the population that for whom this is not. So I'm really interested in if nothing there's nothing better, mobile library services and and provide outreach to those that into the population that need it the most. So one of the committee that I'm now committee person committee of one, the community outreach committee, we are doing we have developed myself and chair have developed a survey, a written survey.

We've also put it online. We're trying to get community feedback about how the library works for them, what would they like to see the library, but how far away from the library are there? Because I know that is a big issue for a lot of people. So, you know, we we we have events like the Trunk and Creek that'll be coming up next weekend, and I'm hoping that the commissioner, the library, the library that the surveys, written surveys, as well as information about the library so people can give us feedback because that's one thing I think that we're missing here. We have a lot of great programs that are we I just wanna make sure we're hearing from all of the community what the community needs are.

So, we made time that they're all being met perfectly. I've already received some feedback from a number of people, and I do know that that library access is a big issue for people who who really need it the most. So I'm hoping that we can fill that goal of letting the community know what are the wonderful programs we have here. And if you can't make it here, how can we have some of those programs that we or hopefully at Stack Center when the satellite library opens there so that more people can access them? Okay.

It's pretty much, like, the same similar as yours. Like, a lot more outreach. Like, when I was talking with our meeting, 100%. In a perfect world, we would have so many more branches. Like, we would have we would have, like, a branch for because now I have the the districts in the community for, like, the council members.

It would be, like, amazing of how one of each had a district to have that much more coverage and, like, the bill into the libraries, we don't. And so what I think would be best in my mind is just a lot more voice being able to, like I feel like for me, especially, noticing flyers and stuff or just staying around the town would be beneficial. And I I think getting more views in the library, with, like, teen events and kind of just knowing. I feel like it's still meaningful. Like, is that a library?

We're, like, deaf and library. People don't know that it's even here. And so I think just being louder and more just out there would be very beneficial to not only average, but also, like, interact with the community.

Looks like you have the person to join.

I got it. I I think we have a good group of people who can do that, and I horribly think we all need to go to Trump or Treat on Saturday. It's so fun, but this is exactly what we can do. Survey, talk to people who do exactly this.

Yes. Yeah. It's I don't know if this necessarily fits under goals, but I know early on in my appointment, I had a meeting with police around place making and creating, which is basically branding of Hayward and what is Hayward known for. Like, with, San Francisco has some Keys' cornstolen events. San Jose has certain things.

So what is Hayward known for? And I think the library has done a great job around those cultural celebration and those moments to kind of bring some people together. And I again, saying that out loud, I'm not sure how this manifests into a goal for the commission, but I think that goes along the lines of access and entry points because some what I've seen or my general consensus is even if some people have access to the library, they don't necessarily know how to engage. And I feel like those pieces or those types of moments really bring people together in celebration. Like, I was I the Juneteenth festival was amazing.

So, like, being in, like, the Chinese New Year's and all of those things, I really would love to, you know, harness that power to kind of be able to accomplish some of these things, like being this is really a hub for connection as well as as it is for knowledge and just information.

I I really wanna add on to what

you do. I feel like what you're saying, you could do a lot of great events that kind of connect, like, what Hayward is known for as well as, like, bringing the community here is, like, you could do events or even just kind of feed days on, like, his like, pay words, like, history has, like, a canary town or, like, an orchard stuff, and you can bring all sort of things like that kind of together and make one big, like, thing about it. Mhmm. That's really interesting. Oh, and I agree with this. I think we, like, we're coming out of the party season of Hayward, but spring through fall. There's so many street fairs and stuff. And we could get them during the day more and integrate them with library events. And the library events, like, some of them are insane. Like Okay.

But but but all but they're right? There's so many people in this you know, working together with the other events going on, it can don't we have part of the issue with Hayward is where Townsville like, Canister Valley has the one road, so that's easier for them to have events like that. It doesn't work so much with us, but maybe, you know, we have when we have the events, they're always around here Mhmm. And tie more events together and use integrated resources so we can save money, but also get more going. I have something.

Guess because I'm passionate about it, and I

don't know if the library a lot of programs for a senior citizen to get them more involved in to come meet them to a library. I know I do hang around a lot

of senior citizens that do wanna have, like, learning learning things, like speaking English or learning about AI I mean, Spanish or learning AI or just having some type of literacy

program for senior citizens. So that's something. As somebody who's been doing English conversation circles for, I don't even know, six years now, most of them are senior citizens. And I you know, doing that, but there there are tons of programs for seniors. Okay. My mom's in a senior center now here. Kirby goes there. I was just thinking within the library. Yeah. But, again, inviting the library to events because because the senior has great gardens. There's great gardens there, so lots of stuff.

And I also so thank you so much for the feedback. And interestingly enough, the next item is the presentation of our strategic plan. Okay. And that was actually an area that we is services received as well. So I think your pulse is exactly this is the this was a very touching and motivating conversation with the group just had, and I feel like you guys were all coming together and uniting forces and aligning with, you know, eyes ideas and goals moving forward. So this type of conversation, I think, was very healthy for your first as a group.

Any other comment? Any other ideas? I personally think it's important. Every time you have a great idea, please write it down. Simply present it because that's from my experience, we're always changing what we're talking about in the meetings, but just we always need more ideas on the library. We'll do them. Oh, okay. Now we're we're going on to presentation of the state the the strategic plan for

the library. Yes. Okay. So you're gonna hear from me again. So this may be repeat information, some for some of our existing commissioners, but hopefully, it'll be a nice refresh as we kind of reboot and kick start our next fiscal year. We thought it would be a great idea, you know, to to bring everybody up to speed on a lot of the work that has been underway and then really looking at what our goals are on our strategic plan through through fiscal year two thousand and twenty nine. So Alright. So I always like to start off with the question and answer on what is the strategic plan? Why? Why?

What is this, and why right now? So it was absolutely imperative that the library of this magnitude, just just to kind of give you an overview of what the library here, we offer more programs on a daily basis than anywhere else nearly in the state of California. There were an average of 10 programs happening every day here at the library. So with that and, really, you know, this library has really been opened for almost six years now, the new facility. And then the pandemic hit, and it kinda just threw everything out of whack.

We've got so much going on here, so many amazing programs. Then we had to pivot when the pandemic hit, send everything virtual, rethink services. And so it was an imperative time for us to really kind of gather our bearings on what are all of our services and really provide a guide for deploying our resources and make us really think about what our main goals are here for Hayward Public Library in alignment with the community needs. Because what the community needs were during 2018 to what they are now are completely different. And although this is a guiding document, this isn't set in stone.

So as we can already see for right now, this current calendar year that we're in, there's been a lot of slashing of funding federally that has impacted so many community members and so many stakeholders and community partner organizations and have impacted local funding in our library here. So, again, this is really just a guiding document that's really taking into consideration, some of our newer programs, which before the pandemic, we did not have a mobile outreach division. We did not have Kirby, and we have a tech mobile, Moby, that has yet to be, unveiled. But really kinda taking a look and driving the force on what that is how that is actually equated into the library. And then also for those of you who are unaware, the mayor did deem the city of Hayward as an education city, which means there's an education focus throughout every single department.

It is really written into our strategic road map, and I'm going to tell you right now, the education city focus, the library is the hub for all of the education focus. We are the conduit that really, works with the community on a grand scale and then every single daily basis. So the strategic planning committee was comprised of a team that really spanned across all divisions. So you have your your clerical all the way up to your highest executive. So we have librarians. We have library assistants. We had the deputy director. We had our library analyst. We have program assistants. We have pages.

And, again, I can say it already, librarians. And, really, that's bringing multiple perspectives to the work because one division may understand the library one way, whereas another another. So it was very imperative that we're bringing each other so that we're all breaking down those silos and understanding how the work is actually interwoven between all the respective divisions. It was a very interesting, exercise that we did. So those pictures right there aren't just fake pictures.

Those were actually, drawings from our respective teams. And one of the first activities that, we had so we we cons we contracted with a consultant, the Tom Global, which was very interesting because, technically, most libraries are contracting with a very library centric consultant that's that's creating strategic plans. Like, very different. We have a lot of social services here. We have mobile outreach services.

Hayward's just different. And what we didn't wanna do is we didn't wanna create a strategic plan that was very cookie cutter. We have a very kind of business centric mind in how we're interwoven within the community and lots of other community services. There's not too many libraries that are hosted with two institutions of higher learning with an education city focus, with an economic development lens trying to reactivate the community and businesses downtown. So it it was really interesting when we came across Baton Global because, really, they're working they're one of the CEOs, he actually works with a university, and it works a lot with businesses.

So this was this was very interesting. And after we did this, we had a lot of interest from other libraries on utilizing this consultant as well. But those pictures right there, one of the first questions asked were, you know, where do you see Hayward? What do you see the library as? So we had some interesting interpretations of that. So I'll take the one with that big old yellow blob is actually a sun. So in the center of the universe. Right? And if you could actually zoom in there, you'll see these kind of orbits, these small circles, and those are really some of our, big community partners, the school district, the institutions of higher learning. And then you have all these little stars in there, which are all of our community partners.

And then all the things within the sun are the different, community groups that are accessing library services. So you see really the cradle to to senior, demographics there, but the library being the focal point, kind of like the community hub. And that's that's where one of the respective groups. Then you see that spider web. So all the different links that are actually linking all of the community together.

That was a really interesting take on things. Then you see down in the corner, you see all those h's. For a community of a 160,000 residents, only having one new library in a very small community branch is really unheard of. And you would see see for a community this size, most definitely possibly in eight

to 10

branches. So, really, that's where we're looking at a group was actually looking at how we can have community partnerships so that there's more library presence throughout the community and in neighborhoods. So, actually, some of the pieces that you were just, talking about. So one of their goals is to be able to see Hayward and see the heart right there in the middle, but we are the heart of Hayward in all of the neighborhoods here, so the library being the heart. So I won't go into too much detail on all the pictures, but it was very interesting on, you know, the respective staff.

We we all see ourselves as the center of universities. Moving on. So the process and the data collection piece of this. So this was a this was a year long process. This strategic plan just wasn't an easy lift. This was something that really was very methodically done. It was the consultants led the way, but, again, in consultation with library leadership and all their respective levels, there were so many interviews and focus groups. So this was both done by the consultant and also through library staff. So interviews and focus groups. So there were meetings with staff, trustees, community partners, parents, all to discuss the library's current efforts and future aspirations.

We did have 81 participants in the focus groups, just for the interviews. And then for staff partner surveys, we did a digital survey, that was delivered to all the community partners collecting insights around what they how they felt about our services. Were they quality? Are there ideas for future improvement or just ideas in general and future services? We have 57, community partner. So remember, so that's 57 individual community organizations. So that's actually a huge turnout right there. That's not just 57 folks just out in there. Those were very specific people. Four C's of Alameda County, the school district, and people from the NAACP.

You name it, all of the partners engaged here. That was a huge turnout. Then we also did a community survey, which was very well received. That was a digital survey that was translated into many different languages, and it was geared towards patrons and community members around their needs and how the library can fulfill their needs. So, really, again, I just always put my fingers on my pulse of my wrist here, ensuring that, you know, what what is the changing need?

What do the what does the community tell us they want to see right now within the services, and how do they feel about our current services? We had 775 participants. That's very high for some, participation. Then we did some pure library analysis. So the consultant actually met with respective library different libraries.

So some of those libraries were Berkeley, Oakland, libraries that were similar in the services that they provide and the demographics that they serve. So kind of in alignment to be able to see best practices, but also areas that they have learned from so that we can integrate those into our potential gaps of service. And then, again, so I'm looking at commissioner Ramos. Are you not? You're all state. You're almost in Ramos. Yes. I'm coming out of the same job. So we always include youth in all of our surveying, interviews, all of our decision making. So it was really amazing.

We held a youth visioning, contest where they actually created they submitted artwork on, how they felt about their what did they imagine their library should look like. And so we took I believe it was five cards. Was it five or six, Gina, that we ended up publishing library cards? Five. We took five. And so those were voted on, and, actually, the art that was all submitted was absolutely stunning. But we were able to take the top five, and they were actually made into library cards. So when anybody goes to the front counter, they can choose their library card, and it's from this visioning. That was pretty amazing. Alright.

Next. So some of the key insights on findings. So, are you all aware of what a net promoter score is? So a net promoter score is basically how would you rate your a business, and would you recommend it to another person? Right? So this is kind of more like a business centric term. This is kind of one of those, examples from the consultant that doesn't typically utilize the library world. So this was an interesting, exercise. So what we did was, through all those surveys, we were asking folks what their satisfaction of was the library. So not only just what they thought about our services, but what actually tells the most is, would you recommend the services?

Right? If somebody usually makes a recommendation, that means the services are are typically something that somebody is finds, you know, a lot of value in. So, the satisfaction is largely consistent across all demographic groups, which is huge. That's a big deal. Some groups with slightly lower satisfaction included patrons with limited mobility, native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders, or non cardholders, which was very interesting.

They did they they are the ones who have been more negative, but they didn't have a roaring card. So it was a very interesting thing, but there was some trends. Some library partners and staff believe services could improve for working families, college, and early career age groups and unsheltered patrons. But overall, our net score was an 81. That was huge.

So this is out of a 100. So, technically, we've had really good feedback from the community, but it's actually not all the great feedback that we wanna hear. We wanna hear about the areas for improvement, right, which is gonna lead us into some additional slides here. So some of our, insights that we took away from this was collection use. So, again, it's been very interesting from 2018 to right now, specifically back in 2024 when we adopted this strategic plan, a, we had this brand new facility that was thrilling us and think there was a lot of excitement in our usage stats were super high.

Then the pandemic hit, and we went down. But then we started to come out of the pandemic. Right? So, obviously, that wasn't rocket science to probably predict. We saw, that the collection usage was increasing and has continued to increase.

So every year since the pandemic, so 2022 and beyond, we have increased usage stats for every single one of those fiscal years. Program attendance, same thing. So programs, you know, out the gate, there there was a lot of attendance, then we had to shut the doors, and we had to move things to the virtual platform, which, you know, it took some time after the virtual world to be able to kind of regain our footing again. And then library visits. Again, same thing.

Library visits dropped significantly with the pandemic, but as of 2023, we have once again exceeded every single number that we've past had for kind of our top numbers dating back to 2020. Additional insights that the library is providing more social services than ever post pandemic. I don't think that that is a surprise for, many libraries. This is a very typical trend. So although, we may not offer direct social services, we do have a lot of connections that we're making referrals out to.

And especially with the launch of our community hub, which I will talk about further in this presentation, that's really bringing It's it's basically the conduit for all the community partners to be able to provide their services Monday through Friday in a very concentrated effort, and many of those are social services. And then the staffing constraints. So the things that we found are staff love to do what they're doing, but they're burnt out because it's so much that they're doing. So, you know, staff some of the the the feedback that we receive from staff on the service is that they feel like they're doing more with less, which is oftentimes a common trend. So they're asking for increased staffing first before implementing new programs and services because low staffing is at the root of many issues.

And sometimes that can be program sustainability, and just plain burnout. So, this library team is very lean, very small, but very mindy group here. But, with the introduction of new technologies and capabilities, it's it's just really, I think, placed an additional impact on staff because not only are we doing in person programming now, we are now doing virtual programming as well. Not only are we just focusing on print collections, there's a huge, emphasis on our e resources, and that's also been a very big thing for this library. You sometimes only imagine this library as a physical collection.

There are 2,000,000 items in the virtual world. That is unreal. And the virtual world for the library art and resources, they're so heavily utilized. They carry a huge weight for library care for our statistics. So all of these things all for the moving to our strategic plan. Those are big changes. This is very exciting. I can't wait to give my presentation on week's branch in November. I can speak to probably every single one of these points and positively report on amazing things that have happened in just two months. But Weeks Branch came up as a huge concern among the community.

I think most of our feedback was at one week's. There were safety concerns about folks feeling fearful going up there because of some of the physical and, meaning, like, litter and drug paraphernalia that would be found in the park and the surrounding areas and also feeling unsafe, walking to their vehicles. There was vandalism. There was comments about the unpaused population in the park and challenges. We had comments from schools indicating that they no longer wanted to walk children over into the library.

So, again, impact for children and families. Concerns were raised about just the environment on bringing children. We had very low statistics with with family attendance at our story times, which are traditionally explosively popular at the downtown library. And this, you know, really the uneasiness on bringing their family over to weeks. So that was a huge piece of the strategic plan was the remodel of Weeks Branch.

Yes. Where is Weeks Branch?

Weeks Branch is in South Hayward off of Patrick Avenue. So Tennyson. Tennyson. Right there at the 380 Corridor. So Tennyson right there and Patrick Avenue where the KFC is right around the corner. Yes. So it's a very small neighborhood branch. But, before we actually had the downtown library, Weeks was the pop in place. So it was very interesting, and then we had a sudden turn, hit the pandemic. Things just again, the need for a strategic plan. The changes changed. They just changed. They're evolving. Okay. Keep going.

This is a very interesting slide right here. So this actually shows this gave the library a pat on the back. So this really interesting, graphic here is showing, the alignments for current versus the future. So the future is technically the I don't know if you wanna call that pink or red, shape behind, and then the blue is kind of the current brown range. I'm sort of color blind in a lot of ways here.

My my blues and blacks and browns all look the same. My reds, oranges. Just like so, anyhoo, staff were surveyed on in their opportunities for internal opportunity and collaboration. Do they feel like their work is flexible? Do they feel like they have the opportunity to create the innovative?

And then stability and control. So, essentially, the orange shape for what it should be. Right? So what what is a healthy set of data that's really showing that your work is aligned, your staff is aligned with the mission and the goals of their work and enjoy, you can actually see that it's nearly a perfect leader here. So we're a little off. It's very rare that they actually come close, but the, consultant actually said that they, in all the years they've been doing this, have never seen something come as close as this. But that means that our workforce strongly believes in the direction that the library is going and that the programming that they're doing is making a difference and that they are enjoying the work. So that is

a very healthy work culture.

I just wanna make it the slides.

I have to

go ahead. Next one. Okay. Some more key site insights and findings. So most mentioned programs and services. So the thing that we often hear are expanded hours, which come with a price tag to that. Expanded hours just don't come, you know, without costs associated with those for staffing, and really put that as a future goal that they would like to see. Availability of materials is one of the most important things to the community, so access to materials. Wi Fi is very important. So that may not just be in relation to our tech lending library, but really to the free broadband Internet that the libraries offer.

There's a lot of folks that are coming in to utilize that. Also, if you sit outside of the building, this entire downtown area is the footprint, so you can tap into the free Wi Fi there. Programming for adults, children, teens are, valued higher by the black African American population compared to other racial groups. That also means that we are doing something correctly over here because, very interestingly enough, through neighborhoods, the downtown demographic has indicated that the access to programming is, at very dismal rates for the black and African American population in the downtown area. So it was very interesting to cross correlate that with access to the library services.

So, again, I'm putting my fingers on my wrist. We have a pulse on the community need and access to these programs is very important. Again, Internet computers of heightened importance. So, for example, our Chromebook program that we have here through our tech lending program. And then we got the one, does it cross my mind to go to library?

Indicates a need for increased communications going to commissioner Porter's point. So really ensuring you know, I know that there was another person that also said, commissioner Ramos, I believe, you know, ensuring that people are aware of the services, so which goes to the marketing. And so that that came up as a need. So your goals as a commission are aligning with some of the strategic road map information. Okay.

So in this process, it was time. It was very time for us to update our vision, mission, and our values. So this was very big. This was not a, quick exercise. This was something involved over a long period of time, probably about eight to nine months, where we were consistently trying to see what it is that we really want to focus in on and what our mission and vision was going to be for the next five years.

So what we came across is for our vision, which has been updated on our city website, this document has already been taken to city council and adopted, and we've already made this presentation to most of the boards and the commissions the school district, our support groups as well. But our new vision is a vibrant community hub for lifelong learning, empowerment through information, and strong cultural connections. So just something very clear, concise, something that somebody can actually see themselves in. Our mission, Hayward Public Library provides diverse programming and resources, supports personal and educational growth, inspires creativity, and contributes to the health and success of a thriving keyword. So education being at the forefront of, economic development in the thriving keyword.

And then our values. So you can check out our our acronym, SLICE, s l I c e. We thought that was a kind of awesome, a slice of hayward, a slice of your library. So s standing for service, meeting our users' needs in a caring and timely manner. Learning, encouraging discovery and knowledge.

Inclusivity, valuing, hearing, and serving everyone, so really that placemaking piece. Collaboration, working with partners to provide innovative services, which is a huge thing for the library, and we are very well known for that. And equity, providing free and unfettered access to information, materials, and resources, which is at a part of any library access to knowledge in a building to know. So, really, moving forward, our goals are gonna be really focusing on education and literacy, ensuring all residents are literate and educational goals are supported. So these are really core services for the library.

Hayward cultural culture and heritage. So, again, I'm hearing a lot of what this group just discussed. Cherishing Hayward shared diversity and history with a lot of our equity and inclusion, programs that we have here. Outreach. Again, things that we touched on. Meeting community members where they are and connecting them to library offerings. So, for example, mobile outreach services for those that have transportation difficulties, meeting them where they are. They're going to the senior centers, going to the childcare centers, going into those farther range neighborhoods. Social services and economic development, supporting individuals seeking to improve their circumstances to really access to knowledge and information programming that's gonna drive their success. And then a big piece of any team is the team culture.

We wanna bring out the best in everyone for staff because when you have a happy staff, you're gonna have a successful business, and you're gonna have successful impacts on the community. And then stewardship. New York Public Library makes a wide use of public resources. So, again, I just put my finger right back on my pulse here, identifying where the needs are and the ability to shift accordingly, which I think is gonna be very essential for the next fiscal year and really identify some of the fiscal challenges that the city is facing. Next. And that is pretty much it. So there's our, strategic planning committee there. We have an amazing team. And if you haven't had a chance to

meet the staff, I will

be happy to teach you another library tour. So I'd like to open it up for any feedback. I thought this would be helpful to just kinda set a tone and just remind our, you know, our existing commissioners that have returned and some of our new commissioners of really where the library has been and where we are going, but with the understanding that we're also navigating new waters, you know, other challenges. But this, we do have a guiding document in place that was completely data driven and had huge you know, all the listening was there through the community. Any questions on this? I'm sorry. It's fine. Go ahead.

I have a question. In regards to staff burnout and not having enough people and hiring, I can imagine it's completely off the table. Have you explored options with, like, interns and volunteers to do the work? For example, somebody that might be trying to get a librarian, you know, things like that.

They're they're it'd be nice.

I have a full time job. I would

already have those here.

Yeah. So I can answer that. Yes. And I can tell you that the library has over 400 volunteers that really support and program. So things that oftentimes are interpreted that the public can do is that they can do a staff person's job. So that's actually a conflict of interest with the unions. So for example, we can't have a volunteer coming in doing staff in one of the desks. We can't have somebody cataloging our books for us. Like, these are some of the things that we sometimes hear from the community. So they have to be nonphysicians, and this goes up and down for any form of. But, yes, we do make very good use of volunteers, and there are always opportunities to volunteer with the library.

Michigan social services piece have the connection with Allegheny County Social Services if they are here. If they have that been connected where you could they can utilize the library. Okay. I'm looking for our.

Yes. So we have very strong connections. So we have mobile health units that are coming out here on you might actually catch them here on specific days. Check out the library market calendar where we have vaccination clinics. The folks can actually visit with doctors. We have here that actually, you know, take some of our, meeting room space, and they're able to do scheduled visits. Also, our community hub has been absolutely essential to connecting the dots. We have over 32 community firms right now participating in that. That goes from access to food, mental health services. We have our links plus pro not links plus.

Our links program through cable police departments connecting folks that are unhoused to the resources that they have. So the whole goal of the hub, which is actually was a big piece that we successfully launched back in July, was to make it a one stop shop here. So we're not saying, oh, you gotta go to South Hayward and access this and then have somebody going around to maybe not make that connection. There is a referral service here. So we have a collaboration with Neighborhoods, Cal State East Bay, where we have a master data sharing agreement where we're using Salesforce to actually put referrals into a system and then connects that individual within the resource within seventy two hours.

So they're no longer having to chase the resources. They're able to have them here. We also have a community pantry that we don't advertise to the community. But anytime anybody is in need, feminine hygiene products, slippers, shoes, socks, points to go use a shower, housing resources, canned foods, water, we have an entire pantry there that any of the partners have been trained on to make a connection within right then and there. So somebody might come in for access to childcare services where we might find out there is a need for food, and there's a food insecurity situation going on within the household.

They can then make the connection, and somebody's able to connect them to their resources. So this is huge for us. The library is just seeing an uptick in the need and the amount of folks needing access to those social services. Commissioner Rama. I think what I like what you're

saying about, like, that, like, kind of conflict of interest with volunteers and people who could possibly be hired and help out with the burnout. I feel like it'd be kind of a you can advertise, hey. We need to put the help with this kind of not busy work, but busy work by circulation stuff that kind of give more ability to the people who've been here longer to, like, work on harder things. And then you could, like, advertise that because I know that it's incredibly hard to get a job, like, even especially because, like, we're kind of, like, new to the workforce and college kids. I feel like you could possibly be like, hey.

You could help out and get, like, an actual entry level job. You know? I feel like that could be beneficial. Yes. Internships. Right?

From the From the course. Yes. So we actually do engage. So, we have students that come from IELTS programs. We have students coming from, Cal State East Bay, college core program as well. It's very, very specific work that we're assigning. We're ensuring that we have an opportunity that's both meeting the library's need, but also the individual's need. So for example, we have volunteers that are coming in that are helping the libraries do some of the busy work, cutting in for stuff with story times, those types of things. So it just all depends specifically on the task. I always just get asked the question, can you put volunteers on desk?

And so that was kind of more of what my point was, an actual job description. But we are very creative on the support. So, yes, we are always recruiting volunteers. Commissioner Ford. That was going to be my

question about internships, volunteer internships and. Yeah. And oftentimes, most

of those internships are paid by the organizations that we're referring them to us. Mhmm. So which is very interesting. So we get a lot of folks coming from Cal State, from San Jose. We have people coming from Chabot as well. It just depends on what type of internship. We even have some of the team interns that we had for for quite a time prior to the pandemic through Hayward Unified School District. So some of the students through the continuation school that were actively trying to get work experience, and that wasn't just through the library and maintenance services fire. So getting them access to but, again, that that type of an internship is much more labor intensive because you're having to coach. You know? And it's sometimes taking staff from their opportunity and what they're trying to do

for their for their career, but we are very good about balancing that out. So yes. I don't know. I really just snack during meetings. I think you could snack if you would like. Alright. Good enough. Enough. We have

a savage we can snack. We need to get careful.

No. I'm not. We got we gotta keep going. Are we done with this? Yeah. Any more questions or So we're ready to move on to the whole business, which we're gonna go through really quickly. Crystal and I are the letter writing committee there. Nothing you report. Right? So if you're in this room, the report from the welcome committee, I'll know.

Do you perhaps wanna just give a quick overview on the current committees that we have for the new commissioners and then what the goal of each respective committee is.

Well, I think that'd be a good idea, but they're all in They're a very great job. Nina? Me? I'm answering. Yeah. You answer, Kristen. They're only numerator right here. Yeah. The letter I will explain what the letter writing committee did does as this bank already indicated. Issues come up, especially legislative funding and that type of thing that affect the library and library funding and library's ability to improve the material that we have available to public.

So that's when the letter writing committee gets involved, Myself and Shereen, along, pledged through this together letters. And, provide them to libraries, and they actually provide provide the service of sending them out. We don't have to actually mail them to our representative because that is done by library staff. But it's an interesting job. And if anybody wants to join us, we welcome all comers. K. The welcome committee, there's nobody left. Is there Yes. No. Not. We we I'm sorry.

It's not welcome. The welcome committee was formed in instances like you all are joining us, here as your commissioners to really just introduce you to the the norms and, kind of what is expected of you as a commissioner. And I think it was come from a place when we had new commissioners, and we're trying to figure out or how to catch them up and felt that there was some gaps and some information that we could be more helpful with. But we're happy to report that's now been adopted from a city level. So that's very similar to what the packets that you've already gotten was a lot of the work that we had put in previously.

Previously, that was used for the framework for all commissioners when they're onboarding to kinda have a sense of what these protocols are, what, again, is expected, the goals, and shorthanded of the, the Brown Act and all of those little pieces that is kind of, important to be front loaded with. So that way as you're going through your meetings, you're kind of piecing everything together. So I believe we're there's no

longer a lead need for welcome committee based off of that, but I Well, I'm open to to consideration. I comment. Yeah. With the adoption of the uniform guidance for the operation of city commissions, I it is my understanding, although it's not specifically stated here, that the library commissioner will be orienting with new commission members. So I feel that our job is we have no role anymore as a vocal committee because we've got an informed guideline inside of the library director, and they will be good for them.

Yes. And I have to I have to say thank you because in your welcome packet, you found three welcome letters of which were drafted. So you had a welcome letter both from the commission. Well, it was from the prior chair, so, technically, she was still the chair, although not the chair any longer. And then you had the library director and from city council as well, and then all the protocols. And then your meetings with me, we had in the the library tour. So it was very, like, a succinct, hopefully, onboarding process and much due to the commission's performance. So much so, as they mentioned, it was adopted by.

Thank you all. Okay. And I interrupt myself because I'm such a bad chair. I forgot that we were supposed to put the election of officers into new businesses. So I don't know whether we should go back there or just go over all these committees that mostly I

actually think we should go back to Okay. In front of that.

Okay. Before we leave the welcome committee, I would like to make a motion that we dissolve the welcome committee because there's no longer a need for a welcome committee. I second that. I'm close. Thank you. Okay. Okay. I forgot how to do this. All those who are In favor. In favor of dissolving the welcome committee because it is no longer needed and is now part of Hayward Committee. Say, yeah, I don't know. Okay. Do you wanna listen? We all agree that we don't all agree to. Okay.

Back to the election of officers that I completely forgot. And okay. Yes. What do we do?

Okay. Alright. So as I mentioned, every October, there's an annual election of a chair and vice chair. So, technically, the commission can go two different ways, and this is with the the guidance document that we have provided inside of the welcome packet. The group can nominate in second, a chair and vice chair, or the group can choose to do a written nomination in which we can actually read. So it's happened both ways in the past. So if the group is comfortable with nominating and seconding the group voting towards that, that that is how that can

And you clarified to me earlier, it cannot be a new commissioner. Is that right? I just want you to take note of how I run meetings, and maybe you want, like, a lawyer. It's not worth it. He's been on commission and run meetings before.

Think this is viral. Okay. So she's done. Well, I mean, we that's what I do. I just hear. So you go in and I nominate. Understand she's been on this commission longer than. He has. I do. I agree with that. What second? I'm seconding. Okay.

Out of the four or five years. I

think a lawyer's really good choice.

So stick with stick with the chair first. Okay. So chair first.

Okay. So all in favor I told you this is why you don't go. You have no choice. That's it. So Do you have any thing to say about this?

I I You did a better plan. To accept

the nomination with just knowing that I have a foreseeable complex, which I can talk to acting library director with schedule. So I think

that would be the only thing that I'd love

to share with the group around just scheduling and making sure that I can fulfill the chair obligation as necessary. That would be my only concern.

I will just comment that I'm not concerned. That's why we have a life spirit. Exactly. No. To approve Sophie Navarra as a new library chair. Raise your hand. I'm just gonna raise your hand. And then second. What? Oh, sorry. We need a second. I'll second that. Oh, second since. Okay. No. I'll I'll approve. Raise your hand. See, I told you. Okay. So Sophie is nominated as chair. And I nominate mister. As vice chair? As I second that nomination for commissioner Porter. Do have anything to say? I have no problem acting as Sophie's vice chair.

It should be wonderful if we follow along, which is. Perhaps how it works. Motion to approve. Chris Aye. Crystal Porter as the vice chair. Second. Everybody seconds? Oh, I have a bridge. Second. It's a healthy second. Yes. Bridge in hand if you approve, or I or what? Nominations can fight, Sophie. The barracks have chairs.

Okay. Thank you.

Oh, you're going for a high five?

Thank you so much. We look forward to working with you. You have a great team leadership here, So with a wealth of knowledge, I mean, I think that this group is gonna really it's nice. With change comes opportunity. So very exciting for this group and what's to come in the next fiscal year. So thank you. Congratulations.

Okay. While I'm here, we're gonna hustle through this, and we don't have to take too late. Do we even have anybody on the CSUEB Chabot partnership lab? We do. I think that's a good idea to do that where we if somebody wants to work on engineering. So So that's something to think about, but we we have nobody on that right now. Okay. I'm sorry. The we're back to the old business. I know. What do you mean? We we there is nobody on the CSU Allstate Hayward and Chabot partnership committee anymore. And so what do they do? What what what is that? I wasn't going to explain and let Lindsay explain, but I when I would move to accept volunteers for that committee after letting me explain what it is they do.

So it's really working with our local institutions of higher learning. So it may span far beyond just Cal State and Chabot, but we do have a lot of focus here because there's a lot of interest in there, especially moving forward with potential partnerships with, academic libraries and potentially funding streams and collaboration. But there's always a a big deal to kind of go into the same things of volunteerism, providing internships and potential scholarships with something of discussion in the past. It is an absolutely essential committee. I would highly recommend this commission to continue on with this committee.

They're really trying to engage in further discussions with our respective institutions of higher learning because they are huge partners within Hayward's just not just the governance of its the city, but just community partners.

So it's a connection with the it's a connection with someone on this commission to speak to the two different schools to get volunteers to intern.

That that's been a piece of it in the past. So we actually had some commissioners that had a lot of experience in working with San Jose State, also with Cal State and Chabot that really had kind of assembled this community, and that it was a very big passion of theirs to be able to connect the college students to the library. But, also, I wanna put back out there collaborations and just entities as well because I think that's gonna be a big piece moving forward for the city, and we're really looking at some collaborative efforts for funding streams moving forward. So I think that the topic of that is isn't necessarily just one. There's many different ways that that committee can actually

move forward. If you're wrong, would it be what am I like, as a student, current student, have to go with these, like, who are they in conflict of interest, or should I be able to just, So did I just say that I wanna join? Or is there oh, okay. So, Commissioner Ramos, you would like to be start that committee going again? Yeah. Commissioner Felix, are you interested? Maybe. Well, I I I I I have connections already with and I was staying east day. I just didn't know that what they needed to do. Any Or the main one.

My because they have libraries on their campus. Mhmm. Right. So that was the only issue. Like, what would they do here? They're mostly reference libraries. Okay. They're mostly reference down the office study center. Okay. But I think any ideas you come up with, like, you're talking about programming or Okay. Could work with the outreach. I mean, I think the good thing is there's any way you can go with it. Okay. You know?

Yeah. That's just And as I mentioned, so there's a lot of folks up on the hill that actually come here and here to use the study rooms, all of our key resources. There's a wealth of information that the city library offers that the academic libraries do offer. But, again, I know that there's gonna be further discussions with leadership team. It would be great to have an officer present for the advocacy piece. Also, it it's a big that's a big committee, and that's one that I think is gonna be a very true it's gonna be something that's gonna move forward. Commissioner report.

I think it would be helpful, Lindsay, if you could put these new volunteers in contact with Shonda and Dominique who we have already established some contacts, and perhaps they can those former members of our community who can give some guidance on where they were going. Not that you're obligated to pull in the same direction, but to at least get a feel exactly what they were doing, what their goals were, what they had started.

Okay. Yes. I think that's a great idea. So

would you be interested in Yes. Thinking of this? Okay. I just wrote it down. Do we have to do anything official with it? I would make sure you motion to appoint Commissioner Ramos and Commissioner Felix to the Cal State Hayward and to vote partnership. I'll second that motion. We can do approve it. All in favor. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Good to see. Motion carried. Okay. Motion carried. We don't have a budget support committee. He left our commission. I don't know if that's a big it is

a big priority or yes. I would encourage the group to keep a a budget support committee, especially in the challenging financial crisis of severe disease.

Oh, what's so Well, what he was doing was going to the city council meeting or watching them and advocate and trying to understand what we we barely got started on going to the meetings. They've gone. So we haven't really

So we had a city council liaison who is Julie Roche. He is your council member liaison. She was just unavailable for this evening, who really brings information from the city council to these meetings. But, yes, Commissioner Purcell was correct. We had a commissioner that really kind of kept, a temperature on the council meetings and brought ideas for the commission for efficacy pieces, which typically some of the conversations that have developed were, increasing the library's acquisition budget in the past or looking to bridge gaps for, lack of state and federal funding.

So, again, that's it's more of an advocacy piece for that budget committee. So, again, I'm gonna say that I think that my recommendation to the group is to most definitely appoint somebody to that, committee if it's not tonight in the future, but that is it's an imperative essential function of this commission.

I just wanted to clarify that if he he was the only one on the committee, but we but we've done advocacy as a group for increasing the budget for the collection in general. So I I have maybe something just to think about right now. I mean, I watch it on YouTube every Tuesday, but that's on my.

That's actually so being able to digest that information, bring it back, that is that is a great bondage. Yeah. I I was assuming that would

be someone to go in person consistently, which is very difficult. You know, if someone is, like, just consistent with walking and being like,

that's going on. Yeah. And I think to on Commissioner Navarro's point, it's it's just being apprised of it and being able to communicate back to the group in addition to the city council liaison. So just pretty much whatever they're talking about, just bringing that information back.

So budget wise or just all the whole subjects and things that they talk about?

I think that's very much, the commission. So the committee can ask questions, and those are things that the group can prioritize. So there's not, an agenda set forth for each of these committees. It's driven very much by the commissioners. These are great questions, and I think you're gonna get this. Yeah.

I'm gonna because I'm temporary. Haven't been a push this long, so it's already 08:00. Okay. Maybe if you'd like to watch it, and then we can come back to it again, but we all have a better understanding. And, again, from the community outreach, is there anybody left on that? Yes. Myself. I'm sole member of the community outreach. I have not been to a meeting since June, I don't think. So a lot has happened asking people to contact the regional director, the Kidango child care services.

Kidango is a server that provides services for low income families. I have encouraged them to apply for the bookmobile services. I hope you have received some applications from some Kidango site. At one side I visited, they were very excited about the prospect of applying for local bill service. And I pointed out you're very close to me.

It's

playground. But I was told by the director that pretty fair contract, they cannot pay those children even if the playground was across the street to the playground. So the bookmobile service has to come to them. So I've also been raising them on the library services like the community hub and so on that we offer because I'm sure their families are maybe in higher need than the general population. So I'm trying to establish a link at least through this cadango, regional director who sends information out to her respective centers.

There's six in Hayward, I believe, can try to get them in more aligned with what what are we doing, what services are available, how to apply for services like the automobile. They didn't seem to have any idea if it was from them. So I think that was a big step forward there. And I've given them the name of they won't have a contact person, Education Child Care Services Division. I want them to make sure there's a name on this card that I was provided by you guys in as their contact with the library.

So I'm hoping that we will be able to kind of further the access to literacy services in that community and, of course, all others as well. But that's one that I've been we've been focusing on. I would love to have another committee community member to assist me if there's other anybody who is interested in joining. Alright. I I know. Know. But I have, like, a marketing consistently around the community that it could use that. You know? Good. Okay.

Okay. That is the end of all business. What? Motion to approve. What? Are guys new? So

I I second the motion to have commissioner Alice join the community outreach committee. All all agree? Say hi or Rayner? Aye. Okay.

Motion back. Okay. Recommendations. Is there any recommendations at this point saying, let's go a little speedy? Because when we get speeding to go late, we all get annoyed. Okay. Yes. Say something really quick. I hope you guys don't think that I'm, like, trying to do anything here. I just have

a lot of stuff right now, and I don't wanna commit myself at this point and then have to back out and not be able to fill it. When I do have room, I will definitely

get get on something. So I just wanted to say that. Once recommendation, you may be getting to it, Lindsay, but I haven't heard anything about it from the trees.

I'm just going. Alright. No. I agree to enter. Okay. I'm also gonna keep this clear and concise. So we'll start off with the trunk or treat. So all community partners, including the commission, was advised of the trunk or treat back in August by Ivan Gutierrez who was coordinating the effort. From my understanding, that, request went to one of the past commissioners that was part of the outreach committee. But the the trunk retreat does have a table already set up for the commission, the tablecloth and candy for the group to hang out, of which, we heard from the group that everybody was dressing up and attending the day up as what we heard from the commissioners.

So that is happening this Saturday, October 25. The event runs from eleven to three. 02:00. 02:00. Within those three hours, we service. We're estimating up to 15,000 people in three hours. Last year, we, hit about 12,900 folks. This is one of Hayward's biggest events. It is a community resource fair, so we call it Hayward Promise Fest slash trunk or treat. So we have 54 different trunks.

We closed down on C Street and Walkin Street. The entire C Street is lined with cars on both sides. The entire heritage plaza around, the green footprint, we have, I think, it's 72 community partners that are tabling that day. Every community this event actually doesn't even need to sell itself. Everybody comes to us asking us months in advance for participation.

There's free food, distributed thousands of meals by Five Seat Ziva that comes out. We have face painting free. We have, face painters that come in from, UC Berkeley and donate their time. Everything is completely free. All the community, organizations are basically doing advocacy and talking about programs, connecting families.

But then kids line up all the way around the Heritage Plaza to go down the trunk or treat area. We also are having this year the Lowrider motorcycles coming in, and our maintenance services division built out an amazing. Oh. And we have the big fire trucks and the SWAT tanks come out. The the airport brings out a helicopter on a trailer. I'm telling you, this is the most amazing event. All of the trunks are way decked out. These are just not trunks popped open with nothing. Everybody has a theme. There's a contest.

There's, people take a trophy home for winning. And then we have a stage with all performances that are donated. So, this is a huge community collaboration where everybody puts in to be able to support this amazing resource. And last year, we didn't get one. This week. So how can organizations

I know it's too late for

this year, but for the following years,

how can organizations, get a request to be a part of it?

So they can contact the library at Anypoint and services. It's the ones that really leads. We have just a main address and services. I can send you the information. But, again, we don't really reach out to the community. They are really coming to us. It's. Yes. So we actually maxed out on the amount of tables that we can actually have in the Heritage Plaza and the trunks for

the streets. So we actually get capacity very quickly. The third schedule for volunteers for the commission. We're gone. Well, I mean, there is scheduling. Are you gonna be there all four hours, okay hours, or what? Well, yeah, it's about half as long as it was last year, so we can all be there at the same time.

So, everybody, the instructions, and I can reforward these out. The the setup time is at 09:30. So somebody typically comes and sets up. The parking absolutely is becomes a situation around there. All the structures fill out. So we really ask you to be here, get a parking spot by 09:30, and then the event starts promptly at 11:00. So I'll leave it amongst this group to kind of organize the details. Some folks may be out here for an hour, but we encourage you in the past, the commission information is get out there and talk to the community.

But, unfortunately, I don't know. So I won't be able to but I have been to several previous years. I have walked in and got a lot of candy. Oh, you were Yeah. You were you. You were that one. I was that one. I was just gonna ask. So do do we are the library commissioners like, you said something about, like, a table one more setup. Do we each get one, or do we just kinda, like, make a space? Yeah. Just one.

So you have a table with chairs already, and then the library provides a tablecloth and bikini to be able to, hand up. And, typically, the library commissioners bring themselves and your, verbiage to interact with the community. Yes.

I will totally be there, and I'm dressing up both dogs. Mhmm. What wait. What are you dressing up as a bat? And I'm fine. I've been bringing, like I'll do a bee then. Yeah. So we can stay with

And beef with books. So what I could go ahead and commit. So since we have new commissioners here, I'll resend out. I'll have Ivan. An email's gonna be coming from with all the instructions for the day, and then I'll leave it. So I've got two more updates just very quickly. These are notable things. The library has taken over, and I'm looking at Gina. I'm really thanking Gina. All of the heritage and equity proclamations monthly for city council.

So we've been asked. We are curating all of the proclamations and then reaching out to all the community partner agencies to be able to come and accept with the library, these heritage and equity proclamations. The team has done an absolutely amazing job of, projecting out what each of the heritage or equity ones is and making sure that there's a presence. And, also, they've taken over all of the, city council display cases, and all of the library displays are going to be in unison with the the monthly proclamations, which are gonna be advertised on the city clerk's website. So there's a lot of systems in place.

That was a big uplift for the library. And then, obviously, I'm not gonna go without acknowledging the no king protest that we just had on October 18 down here on Saturday. It was a very peaceful demonstration. I last put that on last Thursday.

Yes. Was stuck. I had stuck in it. No. Was gonna be upset. They didn't connect so I got home. It

was very it was a large demonstration that was very peaceful, and I just wanna just say that I think A Word's community was represented. Yeah. They were demonstrations.

And I was calling to Crystal as she was going into the parking structure. So I was walking like, oh, it's completely done. Well, I can't get you over my nose. Yeah. Okay.

And then my final, update is obviously the city's budget challenges moving forward. So I won't delve into this, too deeply, but we are faced with some definite hardships moving forward. We have to present a balanced budget to council for all revised. So when I'm saying meet the city, all departments. So there are definitely there are labor negotiations underway, and each of the departments is been working very diligently for quite some time now to find all the areas possible to scale back on and providing a proposal for city council for fall revised for a balanced budget.

So more to come. Next meeting is gonna be very budget driven, so just come prepared for that. That's the end of

the week. Okay. We're having city council liaison. We don't have a friend in the library here. We kind of all randomly said our thing. We already did our agenda building, basically, earlier. So motion think it's supposed to to turn the meeting. More vote is spent during the meeting.

My second. My second. Alright. Later. Adjourned. Alright. I I was hoping to make it. So we're gonna make you guys are just.