Park and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

I'd like to welcome our public, fellow library trustees, and library staff to the Board of Library Trustees meeting for Monday, September 14th, 2026. I'm Jay Steinbrick, Board Chair, and I'm calling this evening's meeting to order. Trustee Corrales, could you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please? Thank you. Mr. Rocha, could you please take roll?

Trustee Razzouk? Here. Trustee Elstrand? Here. Trustee Acuna? Here. Trustee Smith? Here. Trustee Corrales? Here. Trustee Ivey? Here. Trustee Steinberg? Here. And Trustee Samuels? Here.

Okay, we will now begin our meeting with public comment. This is the opportunity to comment on closed sessions, consent calendar, and any matters within the jurisdiction of the Board of Trustees. Public comment is now open. Please follow the prompts on your screen.

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Okay, Mr. Roach, are there any requests to speak?

No requests.

Okay, thank you. We will now close public comment and move to the consent calendar. All matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine by this board of library trustees and may be enacted by one motion. Members of this board and or library staff may request specific items to be pulled from the consent calendar for discussion or specific action. However, there will be no specific discussion of these items unless it takes place before the board votes on the motion to adopt. I would like to pull the security incidents report item from the consent calendar for discussion. Other than that, are there any other items from the consent calendar that trustee or staff wishes to pull for separate discussion or action?

No.

Okay. Moving forward. Do we want to go ahead and take that one item?

Sure, thank you so much for pulling the item regarding the incident reports. I want to draw the board's attention to pages 16 and 17 in your packet, specifically the incident that occurred on July 16, 2026, and then the incident that occurred on July 28, 2026, both at the main library. Unfortunately, we had two library staff that were assaulted in the last two weeks of the month of July. And because of that, we have taken some various actions. Incidents occurred outside the facility, right by the staff entrance at Main, and the other occurred at the Main marketplace circulation desk, that front desk there. And so, first, both employees are okay and are recovering from their incidents. However, because of that, we saw a significant need to increase the training for library staff, which we did during our All Staff Day, and we continue to do with our monthly trainings that are coming out from the library management team. In addition, we have added library staff at closing at Main Library. We're bringing librarians both from the Main Library and other jurisdictions, other locations that'll be helping to close at Main to make sure we have higher level staff available in case of incidents, as one of the incidents did occur at about 7 p.m. We also are just ensuring that there's adequate staffing in those evening hours, that 6 to 8 p.m. shift. We wanted to, some nights, it's pretty slow. And then other nights, it's busy and it's kind of hit or miss. So one of the things we're really doing is trying to staff for the heavier nights, even if we think it will be slow, as we know that incidents can occur anytime we're open. In addition to those, we've had the counseling team at National on site to meet with our library staff to make sure that everybody is moving forward from these incidents as best they can. We're also evaluating the space there at the main library, that circulation desk. When we designed it, remember it was designed about 10 years ago now, hard to imagine that it was that a while back. And we weren't experiencing as many or as severe of incidents as we are today. So one of the things we're doing is looking for more of a wraparound desk where customers can't be directly next to the employee, giving that just a little bit extra space to hopefully prevent these types of incidents in the future. Additionally, we're working with the Riverside Police Department and the city attorney's office looking at our municipal code. As you know, our code of conduct is part of that municipal code. And we will likely be bringing an item to this body in November or December, hopefully making some edits to the municipal code, giving more, not more authority, but allowing the Riverside Police Department and security guards to issue exclusions on behalf of the library department. In the one instance with one of the individuals who assaulted an employee, we realized that we don't always want library staff being the ones to approach these customers with exclusion notices. And we don't necessarily want them even to be with We don't even want a guard doing it. We probably don't even want RPD having to do it, but they are in the most equipped position to do it. And so making the language really clear to give them that authority so that they are able to do it without having any concerns about liability on their side. So those are just some of the actions we're taking, but I did want to bring this to your attention because they were so severe and they did impact our library employees. I also want to commend the Riverside Fire Department, the Riverside Police Department, the City Attorney's Office, and we worked with AMR as well on one of these incidents, and they all responded very well and are helping us out as we go through this process. But I just wanted you all to be aware. Happy to answer any questions.

Did you say one of the incidents happened outside Maine?

Yes, right outside of Maine, we had an individual who drove up, appeared to be intoxicated. Not somewhat. He was pretty intoxicated. Staff tried to help him because he had left his car on and rolling forward. And we were trying to assist. And it did not appear that he wanted that assistance and then assaulted the employee.

And was there security outside at that time?

There was security guards outside at that time, and they were walking over as it all happened at once.

Okay.

Well, I'm very thankful that no staff were seriously injured.

As are we. That is the, you know, that's something that we take very seriously as our staff and making sure they come to and from work safely and are there and it's safe while they're there. And as well as our customers. We want everyone who uses our libraries to have a safe experience. Thank you.

Okay. Any other questions from...

So I was just curious if the other incident was about a library policy or procedure or was it purely Bad behavior, I don't know.

Yeah, the person was very upset. They had lost an item and owed some amount of money on their account due to a lost item. I want to say it was an iPad, but it was some kind of technical device that they'd lost. And they got very upset and slapped the person at desk. So I would say it was both bad behavior and tangentially a policy. But I think, yeah. No problem.

I think there's always a fine line between being accessible behind the desk and being secure, so it's a tough thing to balance.

It is, and it's, you know, we want to make sure the public can be assisted. We don't want to create barriers to access. We want people to feel safe coming up to the desk. We don't want those huge reference desks of the past that intimidated people. However, at the same time, we need to make sure we're providing safe and secure spaces for both the public and the customers using our sites.

Any other questions?

I've got a question about that. So it says that the assaultees, the people committing the assaults, have an exclusion for 365 days. So it stands to reason they're listed somewhere. Are there any stats on people that commit such offenses and whether or not they have reoccurrences after that period is over and they continue attendance at the library?

Sure. So both individuals, their cases are at the DA's office. We are pushing for prosecution for assaults on both instances. If, for whatever reason, the DA were to decide not to go forward with that, we would be pursuing restraining orders against those individuals for as long as we can get them for with the court system. One of the individuals has continued to return to the library sites, has not returned to Maine, but has returned to other library locations. And when that person arrives, we call the police and the police remind them that they can't be in the library and escort them out. In my time with the library system, I've been with the library for a little over 10 years, this is the second and third staff assaults I've seen. So it is not a common occurrence by any stretch. It's definitely very rare. But because of the severity in that it was done, both were done to staff. Well, when we pursued charges when it happened to customers as well. But that also is a rarity. Though these instances are very severe, they don't happen often, which we're very grateful for.

Okay, since there are no other requests to pull any of the other items, we're going to go ahead and do I have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar?

I move.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Mr. Rocha, can you take a vote, please?

Trustee Razouk? Yes. Trustee Elstrand? Yes. Trustee Acuna? Yes. Trustee Smith? Yes. Trustee Corrales? Yes. Trustee Ivey? Yes. Trustee Steinbrink? Yes. Trustee Samuels? Yes. Motion carries.

Great.

Moving on to discussion and action calendar, we're on item eight, to accept a donation to the Riverside Public Library of a collection of five books from Assemblymember Dr. Corey Jackson.

Yes, I'm excited to share this with you today. Dr. Corey, Assemblymember Dr. Corey Jackson has again come to the libraries in his district and is donating more library books. As you'll recall, some of you might recall he donated some books last year and this year he's really, last year he looked at the African American experience and this year he's looking at more at the Latino consciousness and culture. He is specifically hoping to promote literacy, representation, and deeper cultural understanding within public libraries through these donations. This donation includes one copy each of The House on Mango Street by Sonia Sandra Cisneros, Bless Me Ultima by Rodolfo A. Anaya, 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez and Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. The library will be hosting a small, he wants to bring them out and do some pictures and that sort of thing, a little ceremony about the book. So we're working to schedule that and we will let the board know when that is going to take place.

Thank you. Public comment is open. Please follow the prompt on your screen.

Public comment is now open for this item. Call 951-826-8688 and follow the prompts to access the meeting. To request to speak, press star nine. When called to speak, press star six to unmute. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID can be found on the agenda.

Mr. Rocha, do we have any requests to speak?

No requests.

Okay, thank you. Do we have any comments from the trustees at this time?

I just wanted to say the titles that he's donated are very classic to the Mexican-American experience, and they're fantastic. So, yeah.

Okay, great. Thank you. Moving on to discussion and action calendar, we are now on item nine. Receive and file a five-year update on Literacy Legacy, a Maine library room naming campaign by the Riverside Public Library Foundation.

Trustee Steinbrueck, on the last item, we do need to take a vote to accept that donation. We do? OK. Yes, my apologies. No problem.

So in that case, Mr. Rocha, could you take a vote for us? Or do we need a, we actually need a, yeah. Do I have a motion to accept? Second?

Second.

OK, we have a motion and a second. Mr. Rocha, can you take a vote, please?

Trustee Razzouk? Yes. Trustee Elstrand? Yes. Trustee Acuna? Yes. Trustee Smith? Yes. Trustee Corrales? Yes. Trustee Ivey? Yes. Trustee Steinberg? Yes. And Trustee Samuels? Yes. Motion carries.

Now we're on item nine. Once again to receive and file a five-year update on Literacy Legacy, a main library room naming campaign by the Riverside Public Library Foundation.

Yes, so. In September on September 13th, 2021, The library foundation, upon the opening of the new main library, put together a literacy legacy campaign to solicit sponsorships from the community to pay for various naming rights in the library. Some of those naming rights were upwards of $2 to $3 million for different spaces, and it was just an initial look at the landscape of what donations might look like at that time. The initial goal was to raise $10 million. Since then, in the five years that it's been going on, they've raised $1.25 million, which is excellent. But they've hosted fundraisers, spoken to numerous community organizations, and provided multiple tours to encourage donations. The Riverside Public Library Foundation in spring of this year went through a goal-setting process, specifically looking at the Literacy Legacy Campaign as well as other goals that they have. And they have reduced their overall goal to a very strong $5 million from the $10 million. And to do that, they did that based on the actual donations that they've seen, as well as feedback they've received from the various donors of some of the higher ticket item spaces. And part of this revision is that the foundation will be looking, seeking slightly lower donation amounts for some of the spaces. that might be more attainable for members of the Riverside community, especially down from those that were in the $2 and $3 million range. Overall, though, the goal is to raise that $5 million for the library. In addition to the naming of spaces, They've also added an additional donor wall. So originally they had the gold and the silver, gold for $2,500 donations. $1,000 donations were on the silver wall. And they have added a new exciting platinum donor wall for those that contribute over $10,000. So they looked at a number of ways to look at their fundraising and to make it more accessible for the community. Happy to answer any questions.

Sorry, where is that wall?

They're in the front. When you walk into the main library, if you come in and you turn left over the immediate left down the hallway towards the elevator to the third floor, there are three prominent walls. They're not glass. They're like an acrylic and with names on them.

Do we have any idea how many individual names have been placed on different collections or areas of the library based on this campaign?

Sure. I want to say it's 17, but the majority of those have been on book stacks. Book stacks in the children's area were $5,000 and will stay at $5,000. The teen area, which is $7,500 and will stay at $7,500. And adult at $10,000. But they have found kind of a... And then that, I think, is 12 or so of the naming opportunities. The rest have been, there's one study room named. The Carnegie Room has been named. The Innovation Center was named. And the Children's Early Learning Area has been named.

Is that indefinite or for a period of time?

As I recall, they were 20-year donations.

Thank you. Any other questions? We'll need to vote on that? Okay, then we don't. Public comment is open. Please follow the prompt on your screen.

Public comment is now open for this item. Call 951-826-8688 and follow the prompts to access the meeting. To request to speak, press star nine. When called to speak, press star six to unmute. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID can be found on the agenda.

Okay, Mr. Rocha, do we have any requests to speak?

No, public comment.

One last time, trustees, any other questions? Okay. Moving on, we're going to go on to the Board of Directors Communication Item 11. No, sorry, I skipped one. Moving on to Discussion and Action Calendar, we're going to go to the Item 10, Receive and File an Update on the Summer Reading Program. Good evening.

I'm Jessica Herdina, your Assistant Library Director. So every summer, the library has a summer reading program for all ages. Participants receive prizes each week for reading books, magazines, graphic novels, or anything that's of interest to them. Our goal is just to encourage reading. For children and teens, continuing to read during the school break helps prevent learning loss, increases literacy skills, and prepares them for returning to school in the fall. The library also provides free, fun, and enriching activities and performances for the community. This year's theme was Plant a Seed Read. Programs and performances were centered around nature, promoting reading through fun and interactive activities. We saw an overall increase in participation this year across the board. We had over 4,100 people register for the program this year, which was a 48% increase from last year. We adjusted how teens and adults logged their reading this year so it was based on minutes rather than total books, which allowed us to get a more accurate reflection on how much time they spent reading. Children read over 37,000 books and teens and adults logged over 14,000 hours of reading. We also had 39 local businesses and organizations sponsor reading prizes, including Marchfield Air Museum, Ono Hawaiian Barbecue, Glow Mini Golf, and the Riverside Parks Recreation and Community Services Department. Summer reading program attendance also increased with over 6,200 participants at the libraries and 1,968 at the parks. Some of the free performances at the libraries included Dino Party, Aztec Culture and Dance, Mr. Twister Balloon Twisting, and Wild Wonders Animal Show. And no surprise, our animal shows are always our most well-attended. To go along with our summer reading program, we also partnered with Riverside Unified School District to provide over 7,700 free lunches to anyone 18 and under at our main library, Specialist Jesus S. Duran Eastside Library at Lincoln Park, and our La Sierra Library. New this year, our USD also provided lunches to community members with disabilities of all ages. With funding from the California State Library, we were able to provide activities, performances, and free books to build home libraries. We also again offered American Sign Language interpreters at our weekly lunch performances, increasing accessibility for the community. As part of the library's summer community outreach, staff provided pop-up programs at four Riverside parks where families participated in outside story walks, crafts, and activities. Library cards were issued and free children's books were also handed out. We had two sources of funding, $18,927.56 was spent on the summer reading program from the library's gift fund account, which was made up of contributions from the Friends of the Library and the Riverside Public Library Foundation. These funds cover the cost of presenters, programming supplies, and promotional materials. We also had $56,309 spent on the Lunch at the Library programs and the pop-up park visits, which is from a grant awarded to the library by the California State Library. These funds covered weekly presenters with ASL interpreters, free books to build at home libraries, and additional programming supplies and promotional materials. New this year, our library marketing staff created a summer reading program guide that included information about how to sign up for the reading program, all the summer events, and a survey to gather community feedback. As part of this, we received 185 responses to the survey, which is accessible through the printed guide, digitally through an interactive QR code at the libraries, through links on social media, and through the Beanstack SRP app. Some of the responses included for question one, we had 50% responded that they had participated before and over 30% were participating for the first time, which is a nice jump. Let's see, we had 81% say that they or their child read more this summer because they participated in SRP. And then some of the suggestions for next year included more adult events on the weekends and evenings, more activities for preteens, and better crowd management for performers, which is something that we've identified already, and we're working on ways to provide a better experience for performances next year, as well as communicating better with the community for those larger events, particular animal programs. And then some of the memories and stories that were shared. There's a few listed here in the presentation, but three additional ones that I pulled that I really liked were, I love that the summer reading program is open to adults. It brings back many happy memories for me. Reading together as a family and also challenging each other for the first time has made this summer one to remember. And carving time weekly to read with my daughter and see how she's improving with every book she read. And then we just have some fun photos of our staff who made it all possible. And I think sometimes have a little bit more fun than our participants when they help out, holding the snake there, which is a no thank you for me. And then the recommendation is that the Board of Library Trustees receives an informational report on the 2026 Summer Reading Program at the Riverside Public Library. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Public comment is open. Please follow the prompt on your screen.

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Mr. Rocha, do we have any requests to speak?

No public comments.

Okay. Do we have any questions or comments from the trustees?

I guess I just wanted to say congratulations on the increase in participation. That's an incredible number. Do you have any sense of how that happened? Like, that's a huge jump.

Sure, I think from some of the comments we received, a lot of new participants. I think just this year, a lot of people were looking for a lot of free events to do, and we happened to be the place. And I think they found us. Our social media was really engaging this year. Our guide, our summer reading guide, is the first for us in this format. And I think getting that out really made the programs a lot more accessible. And then, yeah, we had a lot of videos and engagement on social media, which I think brought a lot of people in.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

I have one more question regarding the lunch at the library. I do know not all parks are cooling centers, right? Not that we're the end of the summer, but not all parks are cooling centers. But on the parks that we do have cooling centers and we have lunch at the library, do we talk to them at all? Do we say, hey, it's 106 degrees out. Are we allowed to use your park or the gym inside to eat? You know what I mean? Do we do something like that or do we not?

So usually, yeah. So when it reaches a certain temperature, so generally cooling centers activate at 97 degrees or higher. And so our library staff will work with the parks where they're hosting pop-up programs and connect with them to bring our programs inside. I would imagine they bring in food inside, but I'm not sure about that, but yes.

But that's only for the cooling centers, is that right?

That's for any of the parks that have a community center. Yeah, we collaborate with them. Because we understand nobody's going to want to be outside if it's 105 degrees. Great. Thank you.

Any other comments? Thank you. This report reminds us why we're here and a wonderful job. Please let the library staff know who were involved, how much the board appreciates their work. Okay. Moving on to the Board of Directors Communication Item 11, Brief Reports on Conferences, Seminars, and Meetings Attended by Board Members. Are there any trustees that would like to provide a brief report?

I have a comment. It doesn't necessarily fall into a conference, but my family and I attended Let's Get Ready Riverside, which was the Riverside Preparedness, on the 5th of September, and it was outstanding. It was so much fun, and when we first got there, there were maybe 10 people sitting down and getting ready. And that was quarter after when it was starting. And by the end of it, it was packed. I mean, there was standing room. The staff was trying to bring out chairs and pads for the kids to sleep on, to sit on. and it was just outstanding the story time was excellent um and i have a four-year-old grandson and he was enthralled the entire time but when the fire truck pulled up i mean it was absolutely standing ovation for that so well done you that your staff did an excellent job and it was absolutely outstanding i did i had the information as a trustee that it was happening and then of course we saw it in the paper but social media is, boy, it's the way to go to get that information out, and all the comments I heard were just very, very complimentary. Wonderful. Well done, you.

Anyone else? Again, not a meeting or a conference, but I did take a few moments to walk around the new library that's being built. I think the basic outline is there now, and the framing was very unique in the way that they're doing it with Y-framing. So I'm very excited, actually, just seeing the framing up. It's very exciting times. So thank you. We'll move on then to item 12, which is brief reports, conferences and seminars, or meetings attended by our library director.

Sure. So, well, first I want to be remiss not to mention that you have the September guide of all our fun activities. Make sure you do visit the rest of our Let's Get Ready Riverside program series. We love doing this. And there's going to be a police and canine story time this Saturday at 11 a.m. at Orange Terrace. So if you want to hang out with little police dogs, that's the place to be. Well, I guess they're big police dogs. You're right. You're right. They're not little. They're not little. Very big police dogs. Beyond that, I want to mention that at City Council tomorrow, we're going to be doing our annual library department presentation at 3 p.m. We'll be bringing that back to this board in November, so you'll have it as well. In addition, we're going to be taking our furniture and shelving for the new Eastside Library to council tomorrow, and so that'll be on the consent calendar for approval. In addition, the city is taking a fully comprehensive look at homelessness, where they're engaging every city department. You may have heard this from our new interim city manager, Hatch. As part of that, there is a weekly meeting and the library is at that table and is participating in that meeting. So our voices are being heard as it relates to homelessness. And finally, we will not be meeting in October due to the holiday. However, CLA will be here at the end of October. The dates are the 22nd through 24th. So California Library Association's annual conference will be in Riverside again this year, second year in a row. My understanding is we take a year off, maybe two, and then we get it again. So it's always exciting. We have the hit place for this annual conference, which is awesome. And thank you to the board.

Do you happen to have the date for the Riverside Foundation gathering? Is it November?

November 10th. Let me confirm that when I get back to my office.

Because that would be before our next meeting, wouldn't it?

Yes. Let me confirm that date for you and send you all an email. But I don't have that right at my fingertips.

I did receive something at my house. I don't know if you all received it, but I just want to make sure it's on everybody's radar. OK, I want to thank all of the trustees for their time and library staff who put together this meeting agenda. The next regular board meeting, as you said, is scheduled for Monday, November 9, 2026 at 5 PM. As there are no further items on the agenda, this meeting will be adjourned at 533 PM in grateful remembrance of Dolly Parton and her extraordinary dedication to childhood literacy in libraries everywhere, whose extraordinary legacy extends far beyond music and entertainment. Inspired by her father, who never learned to read or write, Dolly created the Imagination Library to foster love and reading in young children. What began in her home county of Tennessee has grown into an international legacy program that mails free, age-appropriate books each month to children from birth to ages five, regardless of family income. Her commitment to putting books into the hands of children reflects the very heart of what libraries stand for, opportunity, imagination, learning, and the belief that access to books can change a life. As library trustees, I can think of no better legacy to recognize as we adjourn this meeting this evening. Thank you.