Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

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Good evening. I called 04/23/2026 regular meeting to order. The public hand access live meeting, https,bulletin.registrar.com on Spectrum Cable channel three and AT and T U verse Channel ninety nine. You're welcome to address to us in person or virtually. If you do that virtually, please call 605-0252, and the Zoom meeting ID is 1607079419.

And you're welcome to use the raise hand feature if you would like to participate in the discussion. With that, could we actually do the roll call, please?

President Su Ling Chen? Present. Trustee Carrie Prellitz is absent. Trustee Lisa Wojsup? Present. Corresponding secretary Jennifer Sarvis?

Here.

And vice president, Megan Watson?

Here. Alright. Any volunteer want to lead a pledge of allegiance? Thank you. We're happy to see some new faces here.

I assume was it the director can introduce or who will be introducing our new library staff?

Hi there.

Okay, Alicia.

Hi. Good evening. So, I am so excited to be able to introduce our new staff members this evening. If you both wanna just step up so you can kinda do your little hey there. I have Trevor Leppich. He's going to be joining us as our new library technical assistant one, and Alex Garcia. She'll be joining us as our library clerical assistant. They are both, very experienced as library clerks and passport agents. So perhaps you both wanted to say hello?

Yeah. Hello. Nice to meet you guys. I'm happy to be here working for the city and happy to get the passport office up and running.

Hey. I'm also very excited about the new things that we've that we will be working on.

Welcome. Great. Could you just repeat the name one more time, please? Sorry.

Oh, Trevor Leppich and Alex Garcia.

Great. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Alright.

You can sit down. You did it.

And we would also like to recognize this week, April, is the National Library Week. Do we do anything special? Is your mic on? There

we go. Thank you. Staff have been celebrating all week. We've had different, like, food treats every day internally, like, in our staff areas. And then I think Alicia will report on what we've been, yeah, giving out at the front desk. Oh. And I think we have some to share with you all at the end of the meeting.

Oh, you already did? Yep. We did.

We had balloons in the in throughout the library that was to mixed reviews. They basically deflated very quickly. So all of the best intentions were there. They were very festive for one day. And yeah. So it's been it's been a very fun week for the staff and for patrons.

Great. Thank you. We should celebrate. Every day should be a library day, but we also welcome a library week. Wonderful. With that, could we ask for our director report, please? And welcome our new director.

Thank you. Alright. Thanks for your patience. My first big show. So we are reporting on four council meetings because we didn't have, our, March meeting for the library board. So for March 3, there was there were no items on the council agenda regarding library. For March 17, there was a council item. The summary was to award $375,700 construction contract to Cabellifonia Inc. For the Fullerton Main Library Osborne Auditorium renovation project as part of the Main Library Building Forward grant project. So, council did pass that motion.

So we're proceeding with the project. And then for the April 7 and April 21 city council meetings, there were no library items on those agendas. And then for the main library update okay. So we have few things here. So this month's Twilight Tales.

So many of our programs were featuring around National Library Week. So Twilight Tales celebrated National Library Weeks National Library Week. And the kids room here at Maine has a passive program where kids and parents and staff are voting, would you rather have Mario's jumping abilities or Luigi's speed? So they're little, like, you know, soft little things you put in a jar and you can see, like and just in case anybody's wondering, Luigi's speed seems to be winning as trustee, Sarvis knows because stops in. Stopped in recently.

Children's also has started a monthly scavenger hunt where there's different printouts. Right now, I think it's cows dressed in different outfits. They're just printouts around so the kids can explore the library. It's a fun idea to get them going to different sections of the library and, you know, see different books. Okay. Circulation and passports, do you wanna go?

Yes. I do. Thank you. So a couple of highlights from Circ and Passports. So I like to share patron feedback whenever I get an opportunity to do so. And recently, heard from a patron that noted that the Wi Fi hotspots are a lifesaver, and this is not an uncommon thing to hear from people. People come in all the time telling us similar things, but that stood out to me. So I wanted to let you all know. Also, we did conclude our mystery date with a book, and we had such fun this year. We did a very, like, sixties theme.

And once again, we saw all time high engagement. We just keep going up with 236 specially packaged books checked out. 78 review cards came back, and we did have our grand prize winner who went home with a record player. So she was she was really happy about that, and that was a lot of fun. And then, of course, we are celebrating National Library Week, so we're giving out, our key chains and bookmarks, and we have special social media posts. And, it's just been a lot of fun to see people coming in and saying, hey. I saw this just, like, ten minutes ago on Instagram. And do you have any left? Yes. We do.

So, and then finally, we are very close to opening passports. So, we have our wonderful staff that are going to help us get that that up and running. We have a few things left to figure out with, getting our booking system ready, but we're essentially there. So, hopefully, we'll have an exciting announcement about that soon.

So there'll be an announcement. Right? Because people are waiting and excited to be able to see that.

Absolutely. There will be. We'll have a big celebration about it. Thank

you, Alicia. So I'm just going in order here. I probably should have summarized the list, but now I know something for next time. So goals. This is from Sherry from the local history room. She had a successful good, successful, very good turnout. 48 non heritage board members at the soft opening of the, I'm gonna pronounce this incorrectly, incorrectly, I think, Schaffner exhibit on Sunday. Is that okay. And the local photographer from the Observer, Emerson Little, was there to document the event, and I think photos were included. From the hunt division, there was a shamrock shuffle on March 17.

It was a huge success. It was like one of those amplified storytimes. So Jaime did a storytime, and then kids also got to do a a shamrock themed craft and there were snacks and activities. For National Library Week at the Hunt, they also had a theme story time this week. The spring break art camp hosted 25 kids.

They unfortunately had to turn some away, but it's kind of, you know I mean, it's a pleasant problem and that it just generates more excitement for next time. And then the new exhibit that we just mentioned was unveiled on March 5, snapshot 1887, Charles Henry Scheffner's Fullerton portfolio. It has been extended to August 28. Upcoming events this Saturday, Dia della Dia Del Nino will be presented by Arts OC, and, the hunt will be open also for a patron use, and there will be a story time or two. So Arts OC will be there.

There's actually I went to visit a couple of days ago. There's a really cool they're calling it a loom. Basically, they've taken, like, an easy up pop up inside and strung strings across all of the openings to create, like, a loom effect. And then there's just sort of, like, scrap materials and ribbons, and kids and parents are weaving them through. So it's kind of this, like, community quilt almost situation that's creating, like, walls around that.

So it's a really neat thing if you have time to stop by. From adult services, on Saturday, March 14, there was the very successful miniatures and role playing game day. It was the first ever themed game day at the Hunt Branch Library. And from what I understand, it was due to popular demand for another game day situation. So we have one at Maine bringing it to Hunt, trying to amplify, the Hunt.

So more than 40 attendees, there were role playing games, etcetera. Many thanks to Twinmask Orange County for introducing patrons to live action role play and to Soul Cal Game Connection for providing their role playing expertise. I just wanna give them a shout out here. Saturday, March 21, there's the latest installment of Gardening with the Experts. So Master Gardeners of Orange County, Grow It Now, Warm Season Vegetables, upcoming events.

Saturday, May 2, North Orange County Board Gamers Day, which we all know is extremely popular. Saturday, May 9, there will be, Collectible Card Games Day. I don't see I don't see, the May for the Star Wars thing on here. Oh, okay. Okay. And then for teen services, the teen advisory board continues to meet. Art hour continues. On March 13, there was an English teacher from Troy High School who gave an academic intervention class. Volunteer hours doubled for the month of March. And let me see.

Students in seventh students seven to twelfth grade can take home craft kits that the volunteers created these bracelet craft kits for, other teens to take home. And Keith Lee and Emily continue the partnership with La Vista High School, to bring library services to that sometimes, school that sometimes maybe might get missed otherwise. Okay? That's it. Thank you. What did you say about the Star Wars?

So for TS, we have, for technical services, we have a few things. But one of the things that's not really technical services, but, you know, I I like to help out with every year is we have our big annual Star Wars Day. And while traditionally, it would be on May 4, we are not going to do it on a Monday. We're gonna do it on Saturday so more people can come. So it will be May 2, and it's starting at 11:30.

And we will have games and snacks and crafts and movies and characters and fun photo drops. And I'll do the face painting again, but it is one of our highlight events every year. People are super excited about it. Speaking of things people are already excited about, we while I'll be talking about the rest of the electronic resource is a little later, the ones that we've already implemented from Brainfuse, JobNow, and HelpNow have already been so popular with patrons that I wanted to share one of the stories that one of our staff members said. That staff member related that a patron who is trying out some of the editing services, live meeting, and resume builder were super excited and have already used it to apply to a job.

They had not had a resume in such a long time that they were having trouble redoing their resume formatting. And so using the, software that acts as a template helped them so much that they actually, cried when they talked about how much it was helpful to them. So thank you all. This is already helping make a difference in our community for our our people that they have turned into a regular staff member related as they're looking for jobs, that they feel that the library is the place that they can do that and that this new tool is helping them accomplish that goal. And then speaking about web tools, some groups have already worked on there was the announcement that April 26 is the WCAG compliance for websites.

It's actually just, 04/26/2027 that are not that we're not already compliant. In fact, our website vendor has told us that they use our site as an example to other libraries. But just so you know, if you had any concerns that guidance is actually compliances next year, not this year. That's all. Thank you.

I'm also reporting on an arts and culture update. So we have two items. And in celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we'll be screening the film A Better Tomorrow, which is a classic, I think, fu film. I have not seen it, so I'm kind of excited and hoping I can stop by for that. Has a cast and crew from China and Hong Kong, and I believe it's in Cantonese.

I I believe that it's there's, like, English subtitles. And then our second arts and culture update is, as most of us may know, as part of the renovation of this room, the murals who were here have that were here have been moved to the children's area above the new books and graphic novels. And then just today, a new, placard was put up in between the two murals, and it it it's like they were made for the space. There's been such positive reviews. They look so wonderful and fun, And the plaque says something about, like, you know, kids and whatever. So it's it's really if you have an opportunity to go look at them, it's really great. That is all. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. So much to digest and really look forward to seeing the, passport office open. With that, could I ask any trustee have any questions or comments?

I attended the craft night. The second I saw that Instagram post, I popped over. You said how popular it was, and there's wait list. I was like, I'm getting on this. I bedazzled a book. I drove Tustin to buy a second copy of my favorite book because that was the closest place that had it because I didn't wanna screw up my my my favorite book in case. I had so much fun sitting with people that I didn't know. Actually, one woman was the front office staff at my daughter's school, and we got to talk and just have such a wonderful night, and it was joyous. I instantly got home and wrote Emily an email, tell me where you bought all the stuff because I'm doing a crowd of Bedazzle Night at my own house. And it was just an absolute blast.

It And was the first time I walked in the library and everyone was like, Where's your kids? And I was like, I'm here by myself tonight. I'm here for me. So it was it was a joy for many reasons. And we also love The Twilight Tales. That was a couple nights ago, two nights ago. We just had a wonderful time. My daughter was so upset. She's like, forgot to wear my pajamas. And I was like, your book your shirt says, I prefer books. I think you're in the right place.

Like, we're

okay. So but we've just had a wonderful month or two since we have since we've been here and just hanging out and running into everybody at the library because we are we are there all the time.

Next, I'm gonna be camping in the library. Great. Any other trustee, comments? Well, I guess I could share,

an announcement that, president Shannon and myself were able to bring our new executive librarian to Rotary with us. And we had a great lunch and give, gave us an opportunity to introduce her to Rotary, And she was able to talk with a lot of, different people throughout the community and set up some meetings and get to know people. And so we were so glad that she she joined us. We had a really lovely afternoon. So thank you.

Yes. And I feel excited that, you know, Anita is very open to meeting with, you know, members in the community, and I feel that bring, you you know, people together. And, obviously, Rotary always has been very supportive of our library and feels very welcoming of having you there. So, yes, we we're happy that, you know, you joined us last week. So thank you for doing that.

And I also appreciate, Alicia offer us, what is it called, the workshop, the digital for the newsletter, the the bee, the message bee, and was nice to see that how we use that. And, you know, we would like to see that putting to great use because, you know, with the digital ages, the communication, it's just so important how to be able to not just disseminate information, but really reach the soul. Right? And that's lots of time. People come to the books to, you know, discover, to grow, and to search.

So I think that's great. Thank you for doing that, Alicia. Any other comments? Alright. Then let's move forward. Could we have our friends, please, Judy?

Alright. Thank you. This month at the board meeting, it wasn't nearly as lengthy, so that was a nice thing. The majority of our time was spent talking about the June book sale. That's gonna be June. We had looked a little bit about extending the dates, but we've decided we'd stay with the tried and true here. This this book sale is gonna be a little bit different. I think I might have mentioned the wonderful donation that we received of artwork. And since that donation, the lady has provided us with additional pieces of artwork. So, one is a local artist, Scott Fitzgerald.

We have many of his etchings, and then there are other artists as well. So during this book sale, and we will be advertising it on our little postcards and with the ad we put in the observer everywhere we can, we are going to be presenting some of the artwork for sale. So we're gonna get our fingers our our toes wet in the art world. It's something new for us. Other than that, we had a wonderful day on the seventeenth where the foundation and the friends had an opportunity to put a meet and greet together, and it was very well attended by the library staff, the foundation, trustees, the friends.

It was it and it was all all to meet Anita. And she made it so easy as she moved around the room, and it was like we've always known her. But it's always nice to have an opportunity for us to celebrate, And that was just a a lovely day. So that's kind of what we have going on right now. Any questions about anything?

I just wanted to thank you guys for supporting the meet and greet. It was just a lovely morning. And, oh my goodness, with Kim making those beautiful book flowers. It was just it was just a lovely event. So

And those flowers were not easy to make. You didn't see any of the ones I made. They were really bad. And I believe we had a library staff member. Is Jennifer? That that helped make, those beautiful flowers. We saved them. We're gonna use them again.

They're not bad. They're abstract.

Yeah. They're very beautiful. And they were made out of book pages, some of them, so very special. So, anyway, anything else?

No. We truly appreciate the partnership that the friends have with our library. And then meet and greet, it's just, you know, wonderful, and I'm sure that really make Anita feels very heartwarming. Just being there, seeing everybody, the community, you know, everyone's there to support and want, you know, her to do well, and I know she she definitely feels that, and it's important. It's our library, and we want the library to be fully utilized by everyone in the city. So thank you so much for your support.

You're welcome. And she is a friend of the friends already. So thank you. Yes, please.

I wasn't sure if I you know, you never know when to say the thing, but I really do wanna thank everyone again. The foundation, the friends, the board, the staff, the community, everybody I always met, the rotary, you know, members from, Cal State Fullerton, everybody, not a single person has not been warm and welcoming to me and showing that the library and the community is so important to them and just really embracing embracing me being here in an effort to just keep that moving forward. It means so much to me. You all know how much I love what I do, and I I just fully immerse myself in it. And so I now love Fullerton, and I've only been here a month.

But when you said that it feels like, you know, when you've known someone forever, I feel like that already. And so, yeah, just thank you all. It was it was so above and beyond and quite overwhelming. I think a lot of people, like, who are near my office knew how kind of, like, nervous I was and things like that because it is quite overwhelming even all of the support. You just feel like this responsibility is not taken lightly by me.

It it I understand how important it is and I take it so so seriously seriously in in the most positive way. So, we are gonna do really great things, and and and feels so good to be doing that together. So thank you so much, really. And the flowers, you know, I wanted to take them home, but we decided to put them at the front lobby. A week later, they're still, like, the day. And it's they're helping us celebrate National Library, so thank you. We shared the wealth.

That is wonderful. Perfect timing for it. Right? The meet and greet. And then, yeah, and for the library week, and everybody can also enjoy. Right? Great. Thank you.

And then Sean for the foundation is attending via Zoom.

Oh, perfect. Let's hear from Sean.

Asking you to unmute. Sean, there

you go.

I just unmuted.

Perfect. Can you see me?

I can't even see if I'm visible.

We can

see Sean.

We cannot see you, but we can hear you.

Okay. I am I am reaching you from Historic Philadelphia on vacation. I'm actually right by the cemetery where Ben Franklin is buried. So that's why I'm not here in person. The next foundation meeting is set for two Tuesday coming up.

Correct.

Yeah. Next Tuesday. So what so basically and so I I I I know that we have a we're getting an overview from the agenda, which I just got today. I know we're going to be discussing of of getting an overview of the activities, events, and materials at the at the children's library, probably with an idea of seeing what what the needs are and and where we could help. So looking forward to that.

I do know that we we approved the request for electronic resources. That was a $6,000 request that was approved. Looking at the where we are, you know, in terms of our finance, I don't know if we should be doing this every month, month to month. The last couple months haven't been the greatest for the entire market, so I don't have a a but I I think that's kind of to be expected, so I don't think there's any concern there. And we also were invited to attend the presentation that Sully mentioned.

I think ours was on a different day to get in digital information on how to for the foundation to to input information on that library newsletter. As somebody who's very I you you you get to a certain point where you're comfortable with tech, and then a certain point where you just don't want it. Everything changes. Everything you learn changes. So I think it's it's always have to be updated on how on how the technology is is is constantly changing.

So that's did you hear all of that, or did I did I lose you at

any point?

Okay. Hear you very well, but, you know, we we enjoy hearing from you, but we would love it if you actually can let us see you because we also want to see Philadelphia too. So if there's any images that will be actually be even better.

Well, I've got a bunch. I took a bunch at the Liberty Bell in Constitution Hall, which was really, really exciting. I think it's it's kind of like a, like the pilgrimage to Mecca for, you know, American citizens to come to Philadelphia and see everything. So I'm really glad I'm able to do it. I'm sorry. I this was the week I did it, but it it's really, really great. Learned a little about libraries. Did you know that the libraries here in America started as a it was something that Ben Franklin put together with with his friends that were, you know, becoming prosperous, but not like they're the the very, wealthy. And so they didn't have a lot of money to buy a nice collection of books, and they wanted one. And so they formed a club.

This was, like, in in 1700 early seventeen hundreds, where they formed a club where every member donated a certain amount of money, and they used that to create a a a repository of adequate books for everyone to use. That's kind of where our our library system in America kinda started.

Very good. Now we can continue the club by welcoming more people to join the club. Sure. Thank you, Sean. We love hearing from you, and we'll see you next month.

I had already muted him so that we could move on. Sorry.

I I

it seemed like he was done.

He might be waving. Alright. Could we move forward with public hearing? I think we have was it Ernie? Alright. Ernie, I think we would like to hear from you about your ideas.

Good evening, madam president, trustees, director Torres, welcome. Welcome. Staff, friends, everybody, nice seeing you. Good evening. I'm Ernie Kelsey with Fullerton Heritage, your local preservation group. So when you were talking about the Schaffner exhibit, so that's something that the local history room, Sherry and Deb on our board, they we worked together and put together that exhibit, and it was our highest attender. It was a members only event for Fullerton Heritage, and it was one of our highest attended events, so with 48 people. So it was very nice, and I love seeing the hunt being used. More, I'm glad to have you on board. I mean, very excited as somebody that grew up here and came to this library and did a lot of studying back in the day.

So it's good to have you. Thank you, and it's good to be here this evening. I'm here to talk about flight. Guys know flight right out here. The check mark or the hockey stick, whatever, people call it. So we've started an effort to make it a local landmark. So for our semi quincentennial, we can celebrate this because it was commissioned for our bicentennial. So it was commissioned in 1976 and completed in 1978 by Aldo Casanova. And Jack, I always forget his last name. Brandon was the fabricator, very famous fabricator.

So we're actually, the library board of trustees back in '76 allocated money to, help pay for the the sculpture, which ultimately was $49,000, including fabrication and lighting and a party. So we've got the local landmark going right now. We've got it submitted, through the city manager, and it looks like it's gonna be maybe going in front of the planning commission on May 13. So it would get, moving forward to become a local landmark, and it's kind of being, fast tracked so it can be done by July 4. So we thought it'd be great if you guys could get involved too, maybe, like, a rededication ceremony or something.

We've already met with the city about, David Bishop from landscape about cleaning it up, redoing the lighting, making it a little more accessible, maybe some more DG around it. Amy All actually has kinda come over too because she was on the two thousand and two restoration committee. So, there's several plaques on it that need to be clean excuse me, cleaned up that are actually attached to it, so we'll work on that. But then we're talking about maybe a new sign out front that's a little easy to read. It's kinda high up that talks about the structure itself and then maybe commemorates, the two hundred and fiftieth for the country.

Something like that. We don't know. That's why it'd be nice to get some more eyes on it, some more opinions. So I just wanted to come out this evening and, see if that sounded good to you, something you guys can talk about. And, we work with the library a lot. We love the local history room. Thank you for extending the hours. I heard there are there's a few more hours now, so thank you because it's yeah. It's a great resource, so it's nice when it's open because a lot of people are really use it. So I'll sit down.

I I wonder, is there any specific, support that you need from us, or do we need to agendize this? What what are you expecting from us?

That's I was saying, like, a part like, a rededication, something like that, maybe. I I don't know. I mean, that's what I would think. We we haven't really gone that far. So maybe maybe some money if we comes down to the sign, like, we have some money at Florin Heritage, but we really don't know. I'll call it a marker that, like, commemorates it. I don't we don't we're trying to get bids on that now. K. We've looked at the ones around the duck pond, so they're, like, very good to be outside. They're durable.

Not no more brass blacks. We've had so many stolen in the city that we're we're gonna probably go to cast aluminum just throughout. There's been, like, eight stolen around the city, including our one hundredth anniversary plaque down in the downtown plaza and the plaque commemorating the plaza have both been stolen. So so we'll do something that people, a, don't wanna steal probably and so that's very secure.

Well, thank you so much for sharing. Wish

you Sure.

Absolutely. Too. Yeah. And it's you know, it was something that came up quickly, and we're kind of moving fast on it. So it wasn't something we started talking about last year. So

Okay. Okay. Okay. Do you yeah.

Okay. Are you looking for support

at that planning commission meeting?

You know, I feel like it's gonna move pretty smoothly because I've talked to a couple people about it. But, you know, anything, a letter or anything like that, I'll plan I'll go and speak about it to say we we should move it forward. We also have a historic district up that evening to the Lower Golden Hill Historic District is being voted on. So

Thank you for those the signage. It's just it's so quaint.

And were you guys at the at the community investment award meeting at the Rotary?

Yes. I was. I'm on the committee.

Okay. Okay. So thank you again for that. We we got a community investment award from Fort and Rotary. From and Fort and Heritage does. We've we've got it for about twenty two years, so thank you very much.

Thank you, Ernie.

K. Thank you. And nice seeing you all. I I kind of probably should come to these more because we do so much for the library. So it's nice to hear everybody talking about what you've done, and, it's nice that it's

Great.

It's very

seeing you more. Harmonious. Yes. Thank you. Have a good evening.

Thank you. Do we have another speaker?

And while the next person approaches the microphone, anonymous who's on Zoom, if you would like to also make public comments, please raise your hand during this time.

Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, chair and board board of trustees. My name is Curtis Gamble. I'm an activist for the for the veterans, these Cal State Fullerton students, OCT bus drivers, seniors, and our low income community. Recommendations. Bulletin observer. Page eight. And I'll just share this with you. Outdated outdated code outdated code booklets and bulletin sparks calls for better for better public access.

By Sasaki Kennedy on ape on 04/12/2026. A residence of Fullerton right raising alarms raising alarms over the availability of the city's municipal code booklet, which is currently outdated and hindering public access to a crucial legal information, which is this book right here. The most recent version of the book booklet is available at the local library. It's dated 2024, prompting concerns about fairness and enforcement of city laws. Curtis Gamble, which is me, a a a local advocate voiced his concern his concerns highlighting the negative impact that the outdated information, can have, especially for vulnerable populations.

The Fullerton municipal code booklet contains laws that are essential for residents to understand and follow. He stated, with the current edition being from 2024, it fails to affect the to reflect many of the codes that are not being enforced and not and do not align with today's standards. Gamble pointed out that the importance of the municipal code booklet for the homeless community, which relies on accurate legal information regarding emergency shelter codes. He noted that many homeless individuals have faced harassment from law enforcement and received unfair citations due to their lack of access to up to date codes. I urge the city to distribute the 10 updated copies from the clerk's office to the appropriate departments and ensure the booklet reflects the laws of 2026, he added.

Municipal codes are essential for residents as they outline legal rights and responsibilities. When this guideline well, when these guidelines are updated, it can lead to could it could lead to confusions and potential in inequity in the treatment of residents. Many locals are calling for the city to take immediate action to make to make current version of the code booklet more accessible, particularly in the in public spaces like the library and other departments. As of now, city officials have not yet have not provided a clear timeline for timeline for distributing the updated code booklets. For more information or questions, call the Fullerton City Clerk's Office at 714738636350.

Thank you for your time, and welcome, miss Anita. Thank you.

Thank you for sharing.

Alright.

Any more public comments?

Seeing no hand raised in Zoom, I believe we're okay to move on, and no one else approaching the podium.

Alright. Do we want to move forward with the constant calendar, or do we want to talk about agendas, put the flight sculpture in the agenda for next month? Any comments? I

think it should be an agenda item. I think it falls within our purview and our desire to expand our arts and culture, aspect of what we're doing and then also to take an update for, the meeting. And I move that we agenda item.

Any discussion? No? Yes. Go ahead. What do you would like to share?

Oh, I think I that it's unfortunate that we don't have a budget for our arts and culture, portion of our our committee because, there are wonderful things that we could support with financialness. But I'd love to agendize it so that we can discuss how we can help without any money.

I was Do a second?

Yeah. I would second putting it on the agenda for next meeting.

So there's a motion. Are you making a motion? Yeah.

I so move.

And I heard a second. Alright. So should we go ahead and take a vote?

Yes. Carrie Perlitz is absent. Jennifer Sarvis? Yes. Megan Watson? Yes. Lisa Wojzap?

Yes.

And Saline Chen?

Yes. Alright. Then let's move forward with our consent calendar.

I move to approve the consent calendar.

I will second. Wait. I have

One question. It's super random. Who's Doctor. Timothy Doran? Because we paid him $250, and I just wanna know who that is.

Oh, okay. Oh. That makes sense. Alright.

I second

the motion to that's why yep. Okay.

Alright. So we'll move forward with the counseling calendar vote, please.

Okay. Carrie Prellitz, absent. Jennifer Sarvis

Yes.

Megan Watson Yes. Lisa Wozak Yes. Angeline Chen.

Yes. Alright. So regular business, our first one on the item is twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven library budget. Could we hear from our library director?

Staff had been have been directed to begin preparing a 10% reduction scenarios. The 10% reduction scenario was, we were informed of recently. So as of now, we have 5% reduction scenarios. And let's see. So I'm just gonna read this. In alignment with a similar request to all city departments. So it's not a library thing. It's an overall city departments are being asked, had been asked for a 5% reduction and then a couple of days ago said begin preparing for more. So actual reductions are not confirmed as city council has not yet held their budget study session. A date has not yet been announced.

We're just being asked to prepare for that scenario. City manager is hoping we don't get to that scenario but, you know, we might as well plan for. I will provide updates to the board of trustees at our next meeting when we have more information. I will let you know what we have planned as of now. So we have discussed the overnight security at the Hunt Library.

That comes in approximately $205,000 per year. That's approximately 4% of our overall budget. So, by transitioning from, a security guard and over to a blue light camera which the city is looking into in other locations as well, that would potentially save us that 4%. The security guard is not allowed to act on, you know, take any action if if, there's any security issues they report to the police. So theoretically the blue light camera would accomplish similar goals, without also the liability of a person being on-site alone overnight.

So that's where we're at right now with that budget scenario. We, as staff, will discuss other opportunities to get to that 5% and also 10% if it comes to it. And also the, where is what's I always forget what it's called. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. Here we go. So also, the Hunt Library is why am I not seeing this? Basically, it's it's looked at, what what is it called again?

Where the police department is like a secondary location. Substation. Substation. Thank you so so so much. So Hunt Library is a police substation. So we're also looking into activating that more so that there's just like a police presence in that area. It can feel a little isolated out there as we all know. And that's, you know, in the in the night overnight when there's nobody there and during the day. So, restarting that conversation, think, will be quite helpful. And then, this coming Tuesday, the twenty eighth at 5PM, there will be, the fiscal sustainability ad hoc committee meeting, which, all department heads have been asked to attend. So we will, you know, have more conversations regarding budget at that time, and we should have more information to you by the next meeting.

Thank you for explaining because I'm thinking we don't have fat. Where do you trim? Go ahead. Go ahead.

Oh, I was just gonna ask, because I know that something that we do have that's just kind of hanging around is the idea of a reopening on Sundays. And I was wondering if our budget cuts are gonna because that's just been like, hey.

Here's some money to

do that when you can, and that feels like very easy to take back or, like, to just not allocate anymore, is that something you foresee being kind of rolled back or not talked about anymore?

So I'll first say that, an idea that we are floating to help us get to the 10% because of course we're not looking at people or services of cutting anything in that way. So we have had preliminary conversations with the Library Foundation regarding funding our book budget for the upcoming fiscal year. So if they do that, our book budget is approximately 200,000 so that will give us another four to 5%. We also have a vehicle that is assigned to the library. It's, you know, when we go to outreach events and similar occasions, it's not used that frequently and I think these are times where you really look at the things that are nice to have but not necessary and is not a person and is not a service or an event or a program.

So there are some things that we can look at. We have talked about the Sunday hours and would it look worse if we opened Sunday and then had to pull that back? So we do have some other ideas. I would like to present a better plan at our at our next meeting, but we have discussed that. Maybe it's not Sunday, but I think it's still gonna be the four hours.

No. I appreciate you explaining especially you know, we all think that staff are important, and, obviously, we don't want the staff to be affected. And it's nice that you talk about, okay. Let's not, you know, trim person. Let's not trim services. Let's not trim events. And so be creative about what are the things that that really it's in a, you know, situation that we can do without. So no. And thank you for explaining, and, hopefully, things are turning out for the better, but be prepared. It's always nice in this time. Thank you.

I I just wanna say, unfortunately, it's kinda like, welcome, and now you have to cut. So I really appreciate you being so proactive and really looking at solutions that are not affecting staff. And also too, I do have a quick question about the blue light camera. Yeah. And then also too, if it was a substation, do we need to accommodate any small I mean, there are little nooks and crannies in in the hunt.

Yeah. Do we need to provide them with office space if we were to do that? I know that actually my kids' elementary school was also a substation, and that was pretty open campus. And so for us as parents, we felt much safer because it was a substation, and they were just given a small area. So I was wondering if that would require any, use of office. But then also with the blue light camera, there's so many corners. Would that just be one in the parking lot area, Or would there be one that would be on the the backside of the building as well? I'm just curious. Yeah. So to dark there at night.

It is. And so to answer your questions, we're not sure yet. This is just sort of proposed ideas. And and the blue light camera strategy is being looked at in other areas of the city as well. So I think we're gonna have conversations about exactly those things including the substation conversation. I'm acquiring this information very recently so I'm also in the learning process to see what are our options, what are our requirements and things like that. So again, I really do think I'll have more information by the next meeting. And was there another question in there before that?

Oh no no. Okay.

I didn't know. You know I do want to thank you for acknowledging the staff really has made some efforts to look at areas that are wants not needs. You would think there aren't any and then suddenly you find something like the car and to find out that there's a few city vehicle pools that we could just walk over and use for those few times that it's needed. And then perhaps and I don't know if this is possible, we'll get that off of our budget. So again I don't know all the details of it but I really commend the staff for having some quick conversations and we want to be a part of the solution and also it requires all of the people who do this work and do it well to serve the community in the way that we want to.

So we absolutely are not looking at cutting any of those things if, you know, if there are other ideas. And so if there are other ideas that you have, you know, we welcome those as well.

Thank you. Thank you. Let's listen to the public comments. Is there any, comments, suggestions about the budget?

Please approach the podium and anonymous on Zoom. Should you want to speak to this issue, please raise your hand.

Thank you, Anita. Well done. Quick question. I'm sure you did announce this just now, and I missed some things. I hope you never all of you never need hearing aids. But if you do, wear them. As far as Sunday funding by the way, thank you for bringing that up. Sunday funding looks like it's going to happen.

The funding is still there, and it is not part of our proposed reduction plan or recommended reduction plan at this point. We feel there's a way to bring the hours that were requested. The question is will it be on that day? And there's there are bigger implications around surrounding that. So we'll have more information on that by the next meeting.

Thank you for that. Thank you very much. Oh, one last thing. On behalf of the community at large, we welcome you. And as I suggested to you earlier, in the grand scheme of things, you are the gift to the city of Fullerton and this library, not the other way around. You may look at it that way, but not us. Welcome. You're welcome. Thank

you. Any other public comments?

No hands raised in Zoom and no one approaching the podium. Thank you.

Alright. Then we're going to move forward to

the have a couple of questions, on a couple of line items that I know I know this is a working budget, but, I noticed that there were no no budget for passport materials. Is that because you don't need any or just

I believe if you look, and I might have, I might not have that in front of me, but I do think it is under a different section in that, budget. Great.

Yes. And then the other one I had was IT services, and that might also be on there twice. I I

got that one for you. It looks like we consolidated all of our IT allocation under the 600 administration budget rather than each individual division.

Excellent. And then, yes, the other thing I just wanted to reiterate was that those Sunday hours, especially with the the city's budget, just wanted to make sure that we could hold on to that and get guaranteed it to to to remain in our budget. So

Are we able to have a conversation about this, or would we need to have this agenda specifically about that? Because I would just like to know what your preference is. If it's the Sunday specifically, is it the four hours? Is it being open as a library? Is it be open as a revenue generator? Because there's different ways we can approach this. When that decision was made to request and approve for the Sunday hours, we were in a different situation. And so having the flexibility to say maybe we can do part of that but in a different way. That's kind of where we're going with it. But, again, it's not off the table.

I guess it depends on how they were originally allocated from city council. Mhmm. I believe that council member Charles had it specifically for Sunday.

It it it did. It was specifically for Sunday, one to 5PM.

Mhmm.

The the drawbacks there are if you have full time staff who start at 08:30 in the morning, there's a lot of time that's not being used. And so we are trying to prioritize maximum efficiency. So if the staff are there, we want them to be public facing. They were also hired as passport agents and revenue generation has become even more critical. So, we're working with the budget officer to, decide if our if our recommendation will request an adjustment to that Sunday.

If it still really is that it must be on Sunday and that is the hard request, we'll look at how to do that. But right now, we believe we can provide the additional service maybe in a different way. And that just again maximizes the efficiency rather than opening on another day for the requested four hours. But then you have people that are there not public facing for half that time.

I'm much in the same thought of because it's so important that it is revenue generating, are there any trends to find out? Would it be more advantageous? Because we do have a lot of people that work on Saturdays. On Sunday, that would be an opportunity for them to come. That's one of the things that we've talked about in the past.

But then also too, would it be more advantageous to have maybe a Tuesday or a Thursday extended hours? Or what does that look like? Were the trends that people would like extended hours on a workday, and we think that we'd be able to generate more revenue that way, or do we think that we would bring in a lot of funding on Sunday? I mean, we have to look at it like that.

I mean I I I these are great questions, and I really appreciate that you're giving us the opportunity to present other ideas even if it turns out that we can't, you know, move forward with any of those ideas. So in our management team meeting this morning, one of the ideas that Alicia actually pitched was similar to that extended hours. But instead of extending hours, on a Tuesday or Thursday when we're already open until seven, potentially Friday and Saturday where we're currently open until five and having that be open till seven. If we're already open, we also don't have to pay for a security guard to be there an additional day and, custodial services to be there on additional day. There's also a security concern in that if you're opening a day, it it primarily just for this small service, it's such a small staff on-site.

There it poses almost like a vulnerability because, you know, there's just less people. So evening hours having run a passport program in my previous location and Alicia you can chime in at any time who has years of experience running a passport office at a at a different location as well. Sunday hours would bring it would provide a really wonderful service so would evening hours. If people can get there after work, those times will be booked because the post office which is one of, you know, frequently visited for passports, they shut down services quite early in the day.

They do not have the staff. I've already spoken to the postmaster and he's allowing us to market our

services at

the post office because they have maybe one person. That one person is now doing passports for a family, and the line is out the And many patrons are very frustrated. Yeah. And it puts, you know, the postal the postal worker at a disadvantage too because people are really getting very irate.

They're already strained there for resources as well. Yes. I

Because found they've had a lot of cuts.

Correct. And I found in my experience also that they actually welcome it. It's this is not a spirit of competition. It's a spirit of collaboration and mutual support.

I know I may be the outlier here, but I don't have small, small children anymore, but I used to love when the library was open at ten and we had somewhere to go. So I know that there are probably other people out there who are clamoring for the opposites, the earlier hours, as

well

as those weekend hours, especially through the summer and other times when it's just like, it's so hot and we have nowhere to go, and we've done the playground so many times, and I don't wanna spend a $100 at Kids Empire. The library is always just a lovely, wonderful place to to meet up and to go on the weekends as a family because I know it's so hard to find those things that you can do together.

All of that is absolutely valid and heard. We're trying to be as much as we can for as many people as we can in the situation that we're in as well. So four seven.

Let's do it. We have so many families that really that this is a safe place for them. It's a safe space for their kids as

I mean

they rely on.

Having grown up in in that exact way, as you all know, my background, the library was one of my safe spaces as well. We just wanna make sure that when we are open, we are actually providing that safe space. And so sometimes those less staffed days, they're it just has that feeling of scarcity. So we we just wanna make sure that we can do it well. We want to do it. We just wanna do it well.

I wanna compliment everything you're doing so far. Yep. So thank you for taking such care and dedication on such a such a big thing. So thank you. Thanks.

Thank you for I appreciate the questions. Honestly, I welcome them, and I and I I am new to this community. So even though I have done this job in other places, I haven't done it here. And so hearing from you what your goals are and being able to reach towards those is very helpful. I don't know how close we'll be able to get every single time, but at least I know what we're aiming for. So I I really appreciate it.

Thank and thank you for looking into it. I the worst thing to do would be to lose that money. So so if any way we can use it and keep it and then continue adding to our budget in years to come, let's let's do that.

I would just like to add to your point. You you had mentioned the potential of being open earlier. We found, we we when we reopened after the pandemic closure, we were open Fridays and Saturdays from ten to four instead, and that inconsistent open time led to confusion. And so making it consistent was really helpful to the public. The idea that Alicia mentioned would then make it the exact same schedule every single day, which would, again, increase, consistency and ability to communicate that to the public.

Well, I just wanna chime in that I feel like I work all the time. So I I always appreciate the weekend. You know, Saturday, Sunday seems to be the best time to be able to come to the library, and I assume they're people like me, but obviously money is an issue, and so you have to do what you have to do, and I would trust that, you know, looking at the community, looking at, you know, the experienced staff that we have and see what will be the best service. We talk about that, you know, we would like to, you know, provide a top notch service where our amazing staff and with limited money, and so what we can do with that. So I think we would refer to, you know, the the experts here to think about what would be the best way, and we just want to be supportive, and we'll go from here.

Thank you. So ready to move to item number two. So library fee schedule for 2026, 2027.

Would you like to make a motion?

Is it so motions needed even though it's not a final budget. Right? It's just a proposed because there seems to be so many we're calling

this a recommended budget. I believe the budget that we're we will be presenting in May will be the proposed. If you voted right now, it would be with the understanding that you're likely voting on something different a month from now.

Receive and file?

Should we file or Yeah.

I I move that we receive and file this recommendation and look forward to next month.

I second.

Alright. Let's take a vote.

Carrie Prillitz, absent. Jennifer Sarvis Yes. Megan Watson

Yes.

Lisa Wojzak Yes. And Sulin Chen.

Yes. Good. Alright. So the fee schedule for $20.26, $20.27.

Do we

hear from Alicia?

Yes. We do.

Hello. Okay. So, I did wanna say that the, updates to our fee schedule, are relatively minimal. The primary changes include removing the Osborne Room a from a rentable space, primarily because that space has always been in in the years I've been here and as long as I've known, it has been primarily staff space. We have a lot of programs in the Osborne that require a lot of equipment and other things, and that is the space where we put those items.

It's also how we access technology, and that's going to be all the more relevant as we, have new technology available in that space. So and for those of you who go to our stay and play, all the fun things that go into the room, that's where they live when they're not in there. So so that has been removed from the, fee schedule here. And then, additionally, there's just been some clarifying language around the, affiliated groups. So instead of referring to our Orange County registrar of voters, as the vote center, they are instead referred to as Orange County registrar of voters. But, otherwise, there's really been no significant change.

Any comments? Is there any, public comments about this?

Should you like to make a comment on Zoom, please raise your hand in Zoom. But no one is approaching the podium in chambers, and there's no hand raised in Zoom.

Could I ask that I know this is your first meeting, but I did request for, Han Library usage statistics and, the fee schedule or income generations. And I wonder, you know, when could we actually have that? And I assume because Hung Library does not belong to the library, so it's not on our fee schedule. If anyone want to rent the Hung library, they will go to parks and rec. Is that how it works?

That is. And we actually have and thank you so much, Alec. Alec McLennan, our administrative analyst, stayed, later today to attend this meeting and may be able to speak to this?

Yeah. So you got it right. It's all through Parks and Rec, so it's on their fee schedule. I'm sure we could pull the data and work with them if you want it for next month's meeting. That's something we could bring to the table.

I think we are interesting finding our revenues. You know, fees is what we charge, but, you know, we have facilities. So what's what's the the revenues? And well, I think we think the 100 is ours. Right?

So we also like to know how how well that it's used and also the conference room here. Right? The Osborne probably wasn't very much used before, but in the future, it will be very popular as well too when we talk about money. I think we want to think about all the possibilities to allow the community to use it, but also help us to generate some revenue as well. So however that can be possible.

Does that information live anywhere currently? It's it's our revenue, like

I'm sure it's available through, like, the accounting software. I'd have to ask around to figure out what codes I need to punch in to find that. Yes.

Or the Osborn in the conference center room

Yes.

We can see, together what what they're, what we're bringing in on revenue on those.

Yeah. So in future meetings, we're happy to add that information so that you can see those revenues. The only thing about the hunt is that it really is through parks, so we would be bringing a report from a different department. I mean, it may be available. They just had their parks meeting last week, and they do an excellent job as reporting their stats, so it probably is there as well. We just don't have any agency at this time in, you know, any changing with that or we would just be reporting what's there, not really discussing ideas necessarily on how to make adjustments as far as I know.

And how do we inquire about the possibility of moving the dog park? Would that be parsing. Right?

Yes. It is. It is. And, DAISY does actually have a a mock up scenario, around that. You you mean to create to increase parking

Right.

With that goal.

Right.

Yeah. There there is a mock up scenario that may have actually been on the the most recent Parks meeting, presentation.

So if anything to do with our Hung Library, could we also be informed of their agenda so we can actually go to their meeting as well?

Oh, for sure.

Right. Like the city council, when there is library agenda, we are informed. So parks and rec or other department has our library agenda, I I would like to be informed as well.

So just for parks specifically, because even though at the Hunt location, we work very closely, oftentimes in tandem, we're we're not officially, you know, merged in any way. So you're saying just, like, would Ruth send you out an a notification of their meetings?

Anything to do with the library. We would like to be informed.

Oh, like if they're hosting an event there or No. Or like collaboration.

Meeting agenda item. Like, if they are going to be talking about the dog park, the the usage of the libraries, you know, the library. It has something to do with our library situation.

Probably happens often. So their most recent agenda is the first one I've looked at because it's the first one I've been present for. So I I would think that it appears often. So what we can do maybe, Ruth, is would you be able to inform the board just Yes. Maybe pass along that information?

Yes. Just the Parks and Rec Commission is what you're looking for.

Then you need meetings. Do with the library. Like, if it's you know, with the Valencia Park, we don't need to know. Right? Because there's no library. We we are interested in specifically library. Okay. So, obviously, main library and hung library.

Okay. I will keep track.

Thank you. Yeah. I think I know what you're saying. Sort of like on the council reports, if the library appears on a council agenda Oh, as an item

Because

we'll we'll let you know. So I think it's similar to that. Be involved I got you.

With If there's an action item with

anything Got that have to do with the library.

Okay. Thank you. Thanks for going on that journey with me. I think I get what you're asking now, and we can do that.

What I think also too, because there's a shared responsibility for sustainability between both library board of trustees and Parks and Rec. And what as we get through or go into the weeds of budgets and things like that, I mean, also too, we have a shared responsibility with its success as well. So we're reliant though, also on the marketing efforts and their plan for use of the hunt. So we have a shared relationship, and so I think if there's anything like that I mean, obviously, as we want to grow the use of hunt, it's very hard to have someone walk the property for a beautiful wedding while they're listening to a dogfight. So that's something that is distracting.

We actually are going to be utilizing hunt for, the uncorked event this year, which we're very, very excited about.

I don't wanna interrupt, but we're kind of off topic. I'm sorry. Topic is the point of order right now is the the fee schedule.

So Okay.

I mean, if we wanna agenda something else for the future meeting to talk about this, but I think Ruth's got the

okay.

Yes. I we have direction to look, for future parks and rec agendas related to the Hunt Library. So I, I will keep track of all that and send it out to the trustees as as it applies.

Well, think I bring this up only because sorry. Okay.

Just a

moment. It's hard for and and, you know, the interim, you know, director Gong while the request was made. So I just want to bring it back with the request so that you can follow-up with the request because my fear is with the budget situation. Right? Hung Library was closed for ten years.

That was due to budget situation. If we're going through the cycle with the budget situation, I don't want HAN to be as a piece that to be considered to be closed for budget reason or whatever reason. And when we are not in charge of marketing the place or get a place to be utilized, but we see that that is our library and that's why, you know, I would want to see how the city can promote the library to be utilized so that the library can be sustained for the community. Okay. Let's move forward.

Alicia, I I wanna thank you very much for the dedication you did to this was you that did this document?

It was a cumulative effort.

I love it. Mhmm. I we I know we've worked specifically on a lot of the wording that's been in here for the last couple of years, and I think that this is super clear. And I love I love all the changes that went into it, and I agree with the taking out the Osborne a. But I think you guys did a really you hit the nail on the head this time, so it was awesome. So fantastic work on this on this speech Thank you.

I'll pass that on to the other people that helped.

Do we hear that there's no public comments? Alright. So do we wanna go ahead move to a motion?

I move to approve the library fee schedule. I second.

Alright. Let's vote for it.

Carrie Prellitz, absent. Jennifer Sarvis? Yes. Megan Watson? Yes. Lisa Wozak?

Yes.

And Salim Chen?

Yes. So the next item is our mission and vision statement. Let's hear from our director.

So interestingly enough, when we spoke about this at our February meeting, I was present but as a member of the audience. So I did get to hear the discussion on this. So, excuse me, that along with Beatrice's notes and assistance with, from Ruth. We have the, previous versions here and at the very end with some red line notations for what's new, we have the proposed so the page where it says for the 04/23/2026 meeting, this is a culmination of the conversations that have, happened up to this point. So I'll let you take a moment to review that. And if we need to come back at this, we can, but this is where we're.

Do we want to see if there are any public comments before, we listen to the trustees?

No one is approaching the podium. This would be the time to raise your hand in Zoom. Oh, if you'd like to speak, please go to the podium. And, again, on Zoom, if you'd like to speak to this, please raise your hand.

I apologize. I need direction. Thank you. Okay. I have no problem, by the way, with the mission statement verbiage or the vision mission statement or vision statement verbiage.

None. My excuse My question or my suggestion or my observation has to do with why do we have a mission statement and a vision statement? Most places I've been associated with, and I could I could be wrong, have a mission statement, which is to me more like goals. To me, either maintain the status of where wherever the group is or looking forward. Goals need objectives to achieve those goals.

And in my opinion, the vision statement is the directions to implement the vision mission statement. So my very humble suggestion is to consider eliminating the verbiage of vision statement and append amend that no. Excuse me. Append that to the mission statement, a document that could be molded or changed however the group sees to forward the mission statement. That's my only comment. Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you. Did I hear last time that, someone talk about one is, why and one is what? Yeah.

So That's

I think we had a long conversation about the the idea that a mission statement is, like, who we are right now, and the vision is, like, what we are going to provide in the future or, like, what we want to become. And I think the way that we kind of threaded that needle was that our mission statement, what we have here, is very much the, like, broad, and then we kind of dive down into the details with that vision statement. But I absolutely agree because I think that the average person sees this and goes, those are two different things. Like, it's just kind of one thing. I don't know if there is a legal reason why we have to have it defined as vision and mission.

I would be fine if it was just this is our our mission statement. But, I mean, I really like how we have it written. I really like what we came up with. But I'm also not opposed to the idea that it's just kind of one thing.

I I feel it's good to have two separate one to differentiate, like, what you say. Right? You know? I'm yeah. I I feel that I would prefer half the two, a mission statement and a vision statement. Sorry. I But we can move forward. So

I love all the hard work that Yep. You guys have put into this. I think you took every single one of our notes and really combined it and really added these together to make them exactly what we were all saying. So, like, that is not an easy task. We've been working on this.

We usually do this in January. This is our, like, thing that we just approve and move on, but maybe add an Oxford comma. And this has been an entire restructuring, and I love that the mission statement is so concise that it's something that people can really harken back to anytime they're making a decision for the library, that that mission is first and foremost in their brains that if they are doing something and they are keeping this mission in their mind, that they are doing right by the library. And they can feel confident in the decisions that they're making. And I think that that's a really important thing for a strong mission statement.

Our mission statement before was very lengthy, and I think that it's really nice to have something so concise that every single person, staff, and everyone working at the library can just know in their heart that if they've got this gut check, that you can just check-in really quickly with that mission. And if you're doing that, then you're doing right by the library. And I love that our vision is really that forward thinking. It's got those those bolded things with the it's just it's lovely, and you guys crafted something together. Everyone put into it is just I think you took every one of our comments, and you guys took it so seriously, and I I love it.

So should we, pick adoption?

I just have one question because I know that we talked about making sure that the oh, gosh. What is it called? The freedom of speech, freedom of press, the library bill of rights, all that stuff, that still will be after the mission statement. Right?

That was our original

Yes. Because it's not reflected in that final

version. Correct.

Okay. Just making sure.

Yes. We can certainly include that on the same web page that those two items are on.

Okay. Yeah. I really love how concise it is. It's making me think of, like, the things that schools that we make the kids, like, memorize and, like, repeat, like, their school, like, credos and stuff. It's like this sentence, because it is just one sentence. Very long sentence, but a sentence. Yeah. That you could absolutely, like, remember and puts everything together.

Love it.

And credit to all of you for, again, going on that journey because putting something like this together, you wanna include everything. You wanna not have it be too lengthy. I recall somebody mentioned liking the bullet points. I think that was really it really makes it more digestible. And I agree. I think the mission is sort of like your elevator pitch. It's your who we are and your vision is how we get there Or and so and and, you know, those can change over time as the world changes.

Oh, we visit every year. Yes.

Yeah. So it's I think it works well for for now.

I move that we approve the April meeting, updated in red, mission statement and vision statement with the addition of that after this can remain after the mission statement section from above as our mission statement

for the year.

I second.

Carrie Prellitz, absent. Jennifer Sarvis? Yes. Megan Watson?

Yes.

Lisa Wojzeb, absent, and Soo Ling Chen?

Yes. So our next item I'm sorry. Are you commenting on the next item or this item? You want to make comments on this item?

I just wanted to be clear in the record that I applaud all the work put into both statements. They're wonderful.

I

just think that my original statement was we don't need a formal vision and excuse me, vision statement. It's it it implements the mission statement. That's my only point.

Well taken. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. So the next one is the Public Libraries Foundation supplemental electronic resource funding.

Very excited about this, as you all know. We have an allocation from the city budget that we intend to maintain for next year's budget as well that will be for $30,000, and that is for library electronic resources. That does not stretch quite as far as it did at the time that we originally allocated that amount. But we have assessed that the greatest areas of need for electronic resources are, homework and job readiness assistance, language learning, supporting continued reading and reading recommendations, and media literacy. This was an extensive process that we saw input.

We looked at what resources were available at other local libraries in an attempt to both ensure we were selecting the most high quality resources as well as some diversity of resources from, the other local libraries to fully complement what's available to our patrons. And we got input from all of the staff as well as from some members of the public and volunteers. Some of you actually participated, and we really appreciated that. And so we assessed for usability and accuracy and a lot of different aspects of these resources. And, of course, we also assessed for cost.

The highest ranked resource for homework and job readiness was brain were brain Brainfuse's JobNow and HelpNow. Since we decided that those were the most core of all of the resources, we are allocate we're using this part of the city's allocation for those resources. For the language learning, the Mango Languages was the most popular by far amongst that that assessment. And we felt that while the city's allocation can afford the primary unit, that it was very important for our community to also include the American sign language component for it. That is at an additional cost.

And, yes, I caught that. Yes. That is at an additional cost, and so we've asked the foundation to cover that. The primary amount is the 7,600 for Manga languages. The additional amount is for $1,200, and that portion we've asked for the foundation to cover.

For the reading recommendations, there's a really unique, system called Novelist, which if you liked our mystery date program and that kind of book matchmaking process, this is a resource that does that for any book, including ones that we don't necessarily have in the library yet, but we can get some recommendations there, that helps people find, if you like this, you will like these. Kind of I mean, this has existed since before Netflix had their algorithm, but it's a similar kind of recommendation queue. The primary aspect of that can be covered through the city allocation. However, we also wanted to cover the aspect that plugs directly into the catalog. So as you're looking for resources and you wanna see, okay.

So you're recommending that, but does the library already have it? That aspect we've asked for the foundation to provide additional coverage for. The city allocation will cover portion of that, but not all of it. So we've asked the foundation to cover a portion of that. And then lastly, in the current era, one of the things that we get the most requests about is assistance in determining the factual accuracy of information, certainly amongst media literacy.

As you know, the library is commissioned to support all forms of literacy, including media literacy, and so we had looked for resources that could help support that not only within the library, but that we could also make available to our local school districts and classrooms. Ground News offers a unique product for this that helps look at media bias as well as potential blind spots, but also provides information like who funds this resource so that you can have a little bit more information there. The other things that were very unique about ground news versus any other kind of product are that it also has the ability to have a curated local feed, which provides Fullerton specific news, which is very unique and not something anything else I found offered, and it is within OverDrive. One of the issues we had with past electronic resources that patrons told us is they want things within overdrive because they love overdrive, and they don't wanna have to leave it. So we look for stuff that's available through overdrive, and so this offers that opportunity.

And while this is beyond our capacity of the city allocation, whereas an individual subscription for it costs about $60 for a year even with discounts, the price that we're able to get is less than 2¢ per person for everyone in the entire city of Fullerton if they have a library card. So we felt like that was worth asking the foundation to cover. These resources were all presented at both the February and March foundation meetings. February is an introduction and March to make the specific request to support these items, and the foundation were very happy to support these items.

Thank you. Can you explain again the Mango Languages? Is it only for English and sign language or any other languages?

They have, I think, over a 100 languages in there. And it's so user friendly of all of the languages. And we had people who were who had high fluency in other languages also test that language back and forth. And of all three language learning platforms that we looked into, it was the most accurate as well as the most user friendly. So we also very much considered that.

So if I want to learn Korean or French or Russian

Absolutely.

Just come to the library.

Like, endangered languages too, which is really Like, a lot of ones that are, like, you know, not very many people speak it, so it's, like, to help encourage more people speak it. That's really cool.

Yes. But

it's more in-depth than Duolingo, which is, like, the fun, gamified version. Yeah.

Yeah.

It also doesn't have ads in it, which is very nice, too. And it's very usable on mobile devices too, which is how a lot of our patrons use library resources.

I will say on the fun side of things, I I believe it does also include Klingon. So It does?

Interesting. Various things to help I don't know if it does, Velvet, but it is very user friendly even for younger language learners. And so that is something that is also very, I know that language learning is something that is very important at many of our schools in Fullerton. This, while the students can all learn these languages in schools, this is also something that parents and other family members can then use to support that so that they can learn languages along with their children.

Great. And you said the ground news includes local news. So the local news, does it come from Observer or any other

I don't know that I've

seen the Observer, but it includes things like articles from LA Times, Fullerton, OC Register, and Daily Titan I've seen Oh. Also. I don't know if they include the Observer, but there are over 50,000 news sources that go into it. So

Great. Thank you for sharing.

Of course.

Any public comments that we have for this one?

We no longer have any members of the public on Zoom. So should there be anyone who'd like to speak in chambers, please approach the podium.

Any trustee comments?

I am so excited for all of these things. Not only, obviously, the Mango languages. I'm so, so excited. I've already been telling people about it because I know that some of the other local libraries have it. I'm like, you guys, don't have to pay for Rosetta Stone or anything like that. But I'm so glad that you decided to ask the foundation to add the ASL component because I think that that is so important. What I'm excited about because when you started talking about the Novelist Plus, I was oh, no. Is this some AI driven algorithm? And it's, like, first thing on their website is, like, human powered. And was that what you were I Yeah.

That's what I was I was like, oh, please don't be yeah. So I'm really excited about that. I think that that's a great opportunity. And I'm so happy that Ground News is included because not only have I been bombarded with advertisements on, like, every podcast and YouTube video that I watch, but it is actually an amazing resource. And if you haven't checked it out, highly recommend. The blind spot part is really, really cool because you realize how you're kind of in a bubble with your news, and it shows you things that you might not see otherwise. I really, really am glad we're gonna be offering that to our patrons.

I'm gonna second the the the internal Libby suggestion has moved entirely to AI, and I know there's a big backlash on that. And to have something that's not is fantastic. I know that getting a book recommendation from a person in person is, like, a big barrier to cross, for a lot of people coming up and talking to a librarian and being like, I really like this one. And it's bearing your soul to someone, and to be able to do it in the privacy of your own home. But to continue reading and to continue, you know, consuming literature that you love and the types of things that you're really interested in or even sharing something outside of your comfort zone is really nice, and it might be that door that opens to then having the human conversation with the librarians.

So I I'm super excited about that one. I tried out the JobNow one and thought that it has incredible. I write resumes as part of my job. And I the templates that they had on there and other things were really incredible to get people started. So these are fantastic resources that you've narrowed it down to and that you selected, and thank you to the foundation for all the help and support. That's awesome. So I do you have comments?

I was

gonna ask. Anyone want to make a motion?

I'm I move that we accept the the funding.

I second. Great.

Ruth, could we take a vote?

Carrie Perlix, absent. Jennifer Sarvis? Yes. Megan Watson? Yes. Lisa Wojzeb, absent. Suling Chen?

Yes. Thank you. And with that, we're gonna adjourn tonight's meeting. Thank you all for being here.