Library Advisory Commission - Regular Meeting

Good. Alright.

Okay. Sound check. Okay. There we go. Alright. So good evening, everyone. It is 07/16/2025. Meeting of the library advisory commission is called to order. Would the secretary please call roll in determination of a quorum, please?

Chair Golterra? Present. Vice chair Meeker? Present. Commissioner Gabbitt is absent. Commissioner Laverne Davis?

Here.

Commissioner Nicole Davis?

Here.

Let the record reflect all commissioners present with the exception of commissioner Gabbitt with an excused absence.

Okay. Let's all please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Ready to begin.

Nation under god, indivisible, liberty, and justice for all.

Okay. Let's go ahead and, move on to the approval of agenda. Commissioners, are there any changes to the agenda? Seeing none, I may I call for a motion and a second, please?

Motion to approve.

Second.

Okay. One, we have a motion and a second, so let's please vote.

Motion carries unanimously, four zero.

Okay. Let's go ahead and move on to the administrative update. Mister Roussellis, are there any staff updates? Yes.

Thank you,

Chair Ulterra. First, I'd like to invite up our finance director, Javier Carcomo, to present on the library budget for fiscal year twenty five-twenty six and twenty six-twenty seven. As we stated last meeting, we we wanted to inquire deeper into where's our budget, you know, where does it come from, what's the status, and if there's any potential cuts. And and Javier, mister Carchombo, I should say, will will give the presentation.

Thank you, Marvin. You can call me by my first name. That's fine. Good evening, Chairperson Galtara, members of the Library Advisory Commission, city staff, and members of the public. Public. My name is Javier Carcamo. I'm the director of finance for the city Of Murrieta. I am really pleased to be here today. I appreciate the invite and share with you a little bit about basically an overview of the library's districts fund. And I have to say that working with city staff, primarily with the library, has been pleasant every single year.

And they really take into account what's considered to be a budget, that is the spending authority that city council has given us for the entire year. And they take that very seriously. And I know that when they come forward to me when they're asking for a budget for a very specific item, whether it's an anticipated cost or an increase in level of services, I know they have done their due diligence to find budget within. So it's always been a pleasure working with city staff. So with that being said, I'm gonna provide you with an overview of the Fire, Library District Fund.

And so, as you know, the city, follows a biannual budget process, meaning that we prepare a budget covering two fiscal years. The overall city budget includes over 100 funds. And so tonight, we were just talking about one specific fund. And the library district fund is considered to be one of the top five funds within our budget. The revenue budget for fiscal year 'twenty five, 'twenty six, which is the upcoming fiscal year, is approximately $3,900,000 that Liberia's primary source of revenue is property tax, which is projected to be approximately $3,100,000 for fiscal year 2025, 2026 and approximately $3,300,000 for, fiscal year twenty twenty six, 'twenty seven.

This increase from one year to the other is primarily, due to the increase in the assessed values of properties within our city. That's usually in the Prop 13. There is the maximum 2% increase. But it also includes, new development, new housing development, or office development within our city. And therefore, you see an increase.

That increase, if I recall, is somewhere between 56%. The property tax, as you can see, is expected to account for approximately 79% of the libraries district fund, revenue for fiscal year twenty twenty five, twenty six and 93% in fiscal year twenty six, twenty seven. It is important to note that for fiscal year twenty five, twenty six, the budget includes a onetime revenue, or projected revenue, let me say approximately $540,000 which is driven by private donations, which will be dedicated to the library's children's expansion project. Without having that one time donation, the property tax makes up again about 93%. In addition, miscellaneous revenue is projected at approximately $171,000 for fiscal year twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six and one hundred and sixty three thousand dollars for fiscal year twenty twenty six-twenty twenty seven.

This category, of revenue includes investment income, donations from the Friends of the Library and library fines. And lastly, revenue from charges for services is generated through cost recovery, primarily for the library, passport services. Moving on from revenue into the expenditure budget, same table, I just updated the graphs. The adopted budget allocates approximately $2,200,000 for personnel fiscal year, representing about 63% of the total expenditure budget. The operation and maintenance portion of the budget accounts for roughly 25% of the budget.

And this covers expenses such as book and media collections, contract services, utilities and building maintenance. Internal service charges, the next most significant cost there is approximately 11% of the the budget, are costs that one department pays to another department within the city for shared services. Instead of each department sharing the cost for things like insurance cost or IT cost, The city has centralized a team, a department to provide those services. Eventually, that cost gets allocated out to all departments based on how much they use those services. Okay.

This table, identifying identify your expenditure budget. In additions to the library district fund budget, in this case of $3,400,000 there are funds or budget, for library services in other funds. General fund includes approximately $26,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty five, six. These are primarily like onetime money, for additional requests, submitted through, the budget development process. Measure T has or funds approximately $149,000 This is primarily for two positions or two full time equivalent positions.

I believe these are four part time positions, that we have with the library that we just added, last year. And so the total, if we look comprehensively, the total budget for the library department services is approximately $3,600,000 for fiscal year twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six. Subsequently, for the following year, that is also approximately $3,700,000 with the library district fund of approximately 3,500,000.0 and $155,000 from the Measure T. The personnel cost, which I shared with you, was approximately $2,200,000 a year. That funds approximately 20, I'm sorry.

That funds approximately 20.59 FTE out of the library district fund. As I shared with you, there are two point zero FTE measured from Measure T for a total of 22.59. The 5.9 primarily is part time positions. Measure T has been a significant revenue source for the city since it was adopted. It does provide funding for two full time positions directly charged to the Measure T.

In addition to that, the Measure T transfers approximately $92,000 annually on or in this case, in year one fiscal year twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six for a total contribution of approximately $241,000 In year two, again, the positions, the Measure T funds is approximately $155,000 and there is a transfer in for Measure T directly of approximately $37,000 which makes up total contribution from Measure T of approximately $183,000 Operating budget reserve balance. The CDs has established an operating reserve of approximately, not approximately, a 25% operating reserve for all funds, or correct myself, operating funds. And so that includes general fund, measure t, fire district, community services district, and library, district funds. And so the the policy established a 25% requirement. Historically, we'd like to maintain that approximately 30% instead.

So it's unofficial, but that has been, directed from our city council to establish somewhere around 30%. So for the fiscal year 2526, the library district fund has approximately $747,000 set aside as operating reserve. Measure T augment that amount by additional $281,000 and, for a total of approximately $1,029,000 in reserves. That I made that I double checked my math again with the, before the presentation, and that is exactly 30% of the library district's operating expenditure budget. For fiscal year twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven, it increased significantly from $1,029,000 to $1,058,000 That increase, again, is based on the expenditure budget.

As the expenditure budget increases, that 30% requirement reserve requirement increases as well. And so the library, again, has $747,000 set on the side. Measure T added, $310,000 for fiscal year twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven for a total of $1,058,000 Moving, from the operating budget, talk a little bit about the capital improvement plan. The library has quite a number of projects projects in the pipeline that staff will be working and likely be very busy with executing some of these capital improvement plan projects. The most significant one we have today that is a higher priority and it is also city council's Tier one project is the Lightbridge Children's area expansion project.

This project was estimated to be $7,100,000 This is an estimate. We're waiting to see, the final request for bids, from firms to determine what the actual cost will look like at that point in time. So these numbers, I guarantee you, 100% is going to change. Funding sources that we have right now is a $3,500,000, from Measure T asset loan to the library development impact fee fund, okay? The library diff also has approximately $1,500,000 of available balance that will go towards the project.

Part of that balance, part of the $1,500,000 is also the requirement for the state grant as a match component. I believe it was about $750,000 And so that is part of the match requirement as part of the grant. And again, the state grant that we receive is approximately $1,500,000 I talked a little bit earlier about the donations that we're trying to gather, and that's approximately $540,000 in addition to the, library children's area expansion, we have the library flooring and soundproofing that is $634,000 of Mr. T funds that we have set on the site for that project. Library rain drainage mitigation, this is for the it's the

Heritage Room? Yeah. Yes. Right.

It's a it's a project that will replace all the, like, the concrete areas of the Heritage Room where it's currently draining into the library every time it rains.

And so we have set aside, again, $500,000 for Measure T. Again, these are estimates until we actually get construction RFPs or RFQs submitted. Library community room and tech, we have set aside almost $67,000 from Measure T. Library fire alarm replacement, I think we want to do in conjunction with the library expansion to make sure that we have or maintain the same fire alarm system in place. That's $150,000 from the general fund.

And lastly, we have approximately $50,000 towards the library public address system. So this is a PA system, also, derived from the Measure T fund I'm sorry, general fund. So there are some of these projects, that are funded by several funds. Some of these are in the pipeline that we're, we have issue request for proposals or request for, qualifications for constructions. Others are not started yet.

But it is funding that we have set aside for those projects. With that, that's all I have for you in regards to both the operating and CAP project. Again, appreciate the opportunity to be here and share with you more about the libraries, both operating and CAP projects. And with that, I turn it over to you for any questions you may have.

Actually, I do have a question. It just has to do with, Measure T. Is there a sunset date on Measure T funding? I know we approved it as a city to fund various pieces of city projects. Yes. Does it sunset at any point?

The answer is no. It does not sunset. There was no sunset provision within the ballot. The measured T or the half 1% district sales tax is a general tax general revenue tax, which can go towards any of the city services. However, I think part of the efforts to get this passed, back in 2018, 2019, it was promised that a majority of it will go towards public safety.

We have kept that promised, as well, but are approximately 25%, 26% that goes towards other city services. Okay.

And the other part of this, I hadn't heard before. Was Measure t is coupled or probably the wrong word, price matched, better term for it, I guess, where whatever we pay for Measure t, the grant pays for another, like a is it a matching financial situation? I think that's what I heard. So if you're buying I don't know. Let's say you're doing the project that we have going on in children's library. If we use a certain amount of money from measure t, is it matched by this grant? Like they make up another part of it?

No. Or did I hear that wrong? I hope not. There is no match requirement with the Measure T. Again, it's a sales tax revenue source. Just so for instance, if you buy something out of a store, it's 7.75% sales tax. Out of the 7.75, the city gets 2%, the regular sales tax and then the 1% Measure T. And so there is no matching requirement. I think what you might be referring to is the grant from the state. That one does have a match requirement.

It's 1,500,000 grant. And I think they require us to match 50% of that, which is I think that's the number I kind of share with you about 750%.

Yes. That's what I heard. Okay.

Okay.

I learned something new every month.

I learned something new every day. And and just to share with you, the library district fund is is balanced. It includes all of the services necessary to provide to our community. The budget that was established, we worked very closely with the staff at the library to identify what services they need, what products they need, their collections, number of books, so on and so forth that they need. Based on that budget and it's established, our my goal is to review ensure that we do have a baseline budget.

And then we identify what the revenue source is. And then we determine whether or not we have a balanced budget or not. And so it includes for the next two years, services to be provided to our communities and our patrons that we serve. It includes fully funding for all the 22.59 positions. We have strong reserves, as you can see, 30%.

If there is a change in the economy, and there is an impact on any of the revenue sources, we have the operating reserve that can offset that loss of revenue. I think one area that, I think is important to note is that property taxes makes up 93% of the budget. Usually, when there is a recession, property tax assessment valuation tends to delay for a year or two. And so there's not such a huge impact right away, but subsequently, there will be. But that provide us with the opportunity, the time frame opportunity for us to adjust as necessary or utilize our operating reserve to make up that loss of revenue.

For the operating reserve, are there rules when you can use it? Like do you are there certain triggers or certain lines where you have to cross before you can actually use the reserve?

Yes. Primarily is when there is a loss of revenue associated with a recession economic recession. And so we cannot use reserve for ongoing cost, but we can use it primarily for that.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. It'd be awful tempting to use it for ongoing costs, wouldn't it?

Probably not a good practice.

Any Yeah. Other questions from the commissioners? Seeing none, thank you, Javier, for the excellent presentation as always. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Next, I'd like to invite up, Kevin Kuhn, president of the Murrieta Public Library Foundation, to give us an update on all the fundraising that Javier is talking about. And also, at the last meeting, commissioner Nikki Davis had mentioned, coming up with fundraising ideas, to discuss. So this this would also be a good time, to bring it up, with Kevin here as well.

Whatever you feel comfortable.

I haven't sat before, so this is fun. Thanks for letting me be here today and update you on kind of things that are going on with the Library Foundation. I think it's important to start with the positive news. We have had just a lot of different events. I really wanna congratulate the library staff for helping out with a lot of that.

The foundation is not very large in in the number of people that are represented on the group. So we really need a lot of help these days from the library, and pretty much everybody here from the library today, has helped in one way or another at numerous events that we've been part of. I think Father's Day event this last weekend. I know that I was seeing donations coming in via Venmo, which is great. I couldn't be there, so we're really appreciative to to the staff for helping out with that.

Yeah. And I don't know if you've seen you know? So so I think the the key thing to know is we've really tried to be present as much as we possibly can at events around around the city. So that's everything from your rate of market nights to this Father's Day event here this last weekend. If you can think of it, we're we're trying to be there in one way, shape, or form, you know, to make sure that the community knows that we need their support and to find ways for them to, you know, give even a little bit.

And I think one of the things that we've really been focused on and excited about is maybe we're not always getting the amounts of money that we'd we'd like to be seeing coming in, but I think the thing that is exciting, especially you can see this on our GoFundMe a little bit. We're up to about $5,000 in donations there, is we've got we've got a lot of people voting with those small small dollar donations. Right? So it's showing that there's a lot of people that are, even if they can't donate larger amounts, excited about what we're doing and want to get behind it in whatever way that we can. I know in Javier's presentation, it said that we'd like to get to that over $500,000 number.

We're still short of that. So we're still doing everything we can to get out in front of the community. We appreciate all the donations that have come in. We've actually had if you saw if you were there or saw some video of some previous city council meetings, we did some check presentations with one of our foundation members who donated 25,000. We've we've done one with the the woman's roundtable, the rotary club.

And so that's been, I think, really neat to see bigger groups get behind what's going on. We've also done Melvin and I and other team members from both the library and the foundation have done a lot of different presentations. I think one of the ones that I was most excited about, and we wish we could have done, I think, a few more of them because we have something like, what, 12 plus schools in the Marriott Valley School District as we got in front of a few PTSAs before the end of the school year and had, I think, some really eye opening conversations with, look, people that are gonna be most affected by this project, right, especially at elementary schools. Right? Those are the those are the parents and the kids that are gonna take advantage of this expansion in more ways than, you know, than parents of kids that might be in high school at this point.

Right? So we've seen some donations roll in as a result of that. You know, we're hoping we can get in front of a few more of those groups, as we get into the new school year. We certainly appreciate the partnership with the Murray Valley Unified School District to help us get in front of as many people as we can. But yeah, we definitely have made some progress, and we're hoping to make even a little bit more.

Basically, I'm here to help to continue to get the word out about the project to make sure that we can have the community come together in as many ways as possible to support this. If you have any ideas of groups that you think we should get in front of, we're certainly open to doing that and hearing hearing your thoughts there. I think we did do I wasn't there. We did a presentation at the Colony, a little while ago, and I think that was well received. And I know we did just one at the Gem of the Valley Association. And were you there for that?

Yes. Gem of the Valley Art Art Association.

Yeah. Yes. So we're, you know, we're we're getting out in front of groups you'd expect us to be out in front of and maybe in some cases, some groups that, you know, maybe you wouldn't expect. So, yeah, we're we're really excited about, you know, kind of seeing the the the progress move forward. We just wish we could see it, you know, happen, you know, at at at with even greater donation amounts, if you will. Yeah. I think that's a majority of what I wanted to just update you on. We we appreciate the support that we've we've received thus far. We're looking for even a little bit more support. We wanna do our part.

You know? I mean, I think the thing that I've always tried to say about this project is it's a way to cement your legacy in the city of Murrieta. I mean, this is you know, when we talk to businesses, when we talk to groups, right, anyone that donates, your name will be there forever. Right? This is not a you know, this is a building that's gonna be there be there hopefully for a very, very, very long time knowing the cost of how much this is all gonna be when when we finally get down to it.

So I know Javier had mentioned that we, you know, we we aren't sure about the the numbers as far as the cost, and I'm sure Melvin has shared that as well. So, you know, we're it just shows that the work that we're doing is is really important. We've gotta make sure we've got as many people as possible to get behind the project. But I think the thing that I'd wanna just continue to advocate for is, you know, even if you can't donate large amounts for those that are watching online or will watch this later, you know, any amount is really meaningful because it's important for us to show the number of people that have kind of voted with any dollar amount that this is a project that they care about and wanna see move forward. So so, yeah, that's kind of my update.

Yeah. Just to interject, I just wanna thank Kevin and and the rest of the foundation for the hard work that they've been doing. You know, all of them their entire board is is is of is on volunteer basis, so they do this out of their heart, their their their own time, you know, their own efforts. So really thank you for for what you guys are doing to help us, you know, improve our community for the foreseeable future for our generations to come. So thank you for that. So I wanted to open it up to the commissioners to see if there's any questions, comments, ideas, anything related to the fundraising piece aspect of this project.

Well, I have some questions and comments. There oh my gosh. Sorry. Will there be a booth at the birthday bash?

Yes. That's correct. Yes. We had we had a booth, as Kevin was mentioning, just recently at the Father's Day car show, we'll be doing the same at the birthday bash as well for the entire duration.

Is it possible to get that video that we saw last meeting?

Mhmm.

Does I think if I saw the booth at the car show and was very excited, and I was, like, showing my boys. I think if there's like a visual, even if you could do like the renderings on like big foam core boards Mhmm. Or like the video playing, like, I think there's something about being able to see what it's gonna look like that can really get people excited because it is so cool, and I think if there's any way that people you know, it's like, oh, an expansion, cool. But it's like, no, this is a really epic expansion, and if there's any way we can get visuals at event, especially like the birthday bash, is gonna be target audience. I mean, it's

Yeah. I think that's a fantastic idea. Thank you for bringing that up. That's a a great reminder to have those impact visuals. Right? Birthday Bash, I don't know if we have access to electricity, but I believe we can bring some poster boards. We do have post renderings on poster boards. So we'll bring those.

That would be cool.

Thank you for the feedback.

Yeah. Of course.

Now will there be children at the booth? Any children?

You mean staying with us at the booth? No. Mhmm. No. Pretty much it's just gonna consist of library staff. We have a few city ambassadors that will be there as well. It's pretty much us engaging with the families and telling them informing them about the project. Sometimes we do have interactive pieces where it draws children to the table, but we don't have children sit there with us throughout the entire duration.

Ask a question because children are good advertisers. Absolutely. Believe it or not, they can use the charm on me, for instance. So

Oh, absolutely. That's a that's a very valuable piece and and we've kind of used well, don't wanna say used children. We've we've invited children to come to our booth with interactive so we have, you know, the there's this Tetris thing where you kinda balance it out. I don't know if you're avid Costco shoppers, but it's in it's it was at Costco. We we put that out there at the at several market nights. So we've been at at the last, I think, five or six market nights, and and we've utilized that Okay.

There. Alright.

I have a fundraising idea too. Is there any place like a wall or somewhere in the expansion where we could do, like, ceramic tiles that families could come paint together and charge them, like, $25, something to, like, do the tile, maybe even 50 since it'll be on there. And they can come. We can you do, like, a fun family night, and we can invite vendors, like, preschools and, like, food trucks and, like, vendors to come that you guys wouldn't have to pay for. And then it could be like a family fun night and they can do a ceramic tile and it can go up

on a wall, and we can have like

a big wall like mural almost with everybody's tiles. It'd be kind of an inexpensive sort like of, like, cost, and then they can pay to have their name on there instead of, like, just being seen as, like, a sponsor. They can be, like, families of the library or something like that. I don't know if there's a space for it, but might be, like, a fun thing.

I I mean, I I like the idea. I mean, I think we've we've the way we thought about it thus far is kind of in the more traditional way. Right? If you donate at this level, you get this big fatality. You donate at this level, you get this big fatality.

You get to be in this specific, you know, section with the people that donated more, right, which is the more typical thing. But I like the idea of tying into my daughter just finished her last year at Coal Canyon, and every year at Coal Canyon Elementary, the kids I don't know how much longer they're gonna be able to do this, but they all do a handprint tile, and then those tiles from the, you know, 2025, you know, all go in a section on a building somewhere. And this is the twenty fifth year or something like that, so they're they've got 25 of these spots where, you know, the the kids' handprint is there kind of forever, which is really really cool and neat. Right? Yeah.

So I kind of I kind of thinking of that a little bit when you're saying that. Yeah. So I like the idea of making it a project too, not just dollars, but something that you can kind of work on together. Anyway, we can talk with the library team about, you know, what might be possible there. And, you know, certainly, the one thing that's always neat, and we've tried to be doing this a little bit more. I'm not there for all of these opportunities. But as we have more and more you know, certainly more recently, the idea has been as we're having kids and families come in for story time that we're making sure they know about the project. And so, hey, you're coming in for story time. You already like to come to the library to do projects. How about, you know, maybe paying for one of those projects for once and then getting that project to kinda go up on the wall?

That would be that's kind of what you're thinking about a little bit. Right? So I I really like that, but I think we should talk about more about logistically, you know, how much space we have and then how do we get the things. But I like that idea a lot.

Okay. Mister Rosales, we may we have your update now.

Okay. Before Kevin goes on, again, thank you to the foundation. And then I also wanted to mention, we also have a secondary support group as well, the Friends of the Murrieta Library. And they've also committed to contributing a significant amount. So I wanted to thank both of the groups for assisting us to get this project done. So thank you.

Thank you.

So actually, before my update, I actually wanted to invite Ashley to come up. She's our youth services librarian. She is going to go over kind of potential furnitures, fixtures, and equipment. And so I wanted to qualify this with, you know, if the project is coming in over budget, this is kind of like one of the areas we we would see some of the cuts. Hopefully not, that's where the fundraising really comes into play. Right? So I'll let Ashley speak on what could potentially go in there.

Thank you. First of all, welcome. This is my first time meeting most of you guys, so good evening commissioners. I'm going to update you like Melvin said on the FF and E update. I think I'm a really good person to do this because I was actually there on opening day staff in 2007. And when we opened up the doors, the supervising librarian at the time, Beth Jones, said, Oh, look, we've already outgrown the children's face. And that was eighteen years ago. And we've had a lot of changes since then. Oh, look at that. I'm finger heavy.

Okay. I don't have to go over, you know, population because I'm sure you guys have heard it over and over. But, the population has grown by almost 35% since we opened. And according to that map, you can see all the new developments coming in. I live here in the historic downtown area.

So I see a lot of those buildings going up. And just those three dots right there and then the one closest to us on the upper left, they're gonna bring in around 1,000 approximately new youth to us on top of the already 35% population growth we've had since the library has opened. And then that's not including the very top one that's technically in Wildemire and one that's down on Jefferson near Temecula. So, we're going to have a lot more growth. I mean, they're already here and we're already experiencing it, not to mention the other libraries or a lot of other communities.

People live next to another library, they pass their library to come to us. So with that, the furniture that we already have in the library has been there since 2007. So the furniture you see has already has been, for the most part, opening day collection. So we are still gonna go with that vendor because it has stood the test of time. And kids, kids are kids, they're not gentle on furniture.

They explore hard and they play even harder. So we're having these two sections, right? It's for birth to grade six or to age 12. And that basically means we have to plan for toddlers and preteens. I have a 10 year old. She's acting like she's 16. If you're listening to this, I'm sorry, kiddo. But it's true. And so, we have to prepare for both of these sections to be utilized by multiple age groups. So, babies and toddlers need a place to explore safely.

They have to have social interactions. They have to learn how to play nice with each other and how to share. And also, we have to have age appropriate spaces for their books. We're talking about Eric Carle. We're talking about the Berenstain Bears and all of that good stuff. But then just in the next, you just turn around right now in the preexisting space, and you are looking at Harry Potter. You're looking at older books that may not beI don't know the right word for it right now because, you know, everybody's staring at

me.

And I know there's a camera on me. But, you know, you turn around and you don't want a kid opening up a large book and reading about something, especially in the nonfiction. So, we really do want to have those separate areas for them, especially for the preteens. They don't want loud screaming babies and toddlers who are learning how to be good citizens. They want to focus on academics and to have a sense of belonging, Especially during summer, right?

They don't have their friends at school. It would be nice for them to hang out at the library with their friends and their adults, respectively, in their own cool area. So, how does that look? So, you're going to see on the screen, you're going to have the play table that will be going in the toddler baby kind of space towards the very back of the expansion. But then in the existing space, there is the preteen area where they just want to be kind of alone, aloof, kind of I'm too cool area.

And that's gonna be the huge difference. On the toddler side, not only are the kids gonna be loud, but you're gonna have their adults. Adults are gonna want a place to have other adult conversations that they haven't had for a while. You want their children to learn how to gain independence. And all of this can be done in one space where the preteens don't want to feel like babies. They're finally growing up. They're finally acting like teenagers. And they need that place not to look so kiddish. And right now, if you were to look at an older rendering, we've kind of covered the end of stacks a little bit to make it a little bit more cooler space for them. They don't want to be surrounded by kid toys at UC.

So that age separation is going be very important. Also, a big adjustment is going to be the computer needs. It's just the way of the world right now. Right now, all the children share the same computer space. So, you have toddlers learning how to use the mouse for the first time. It's really cute because the kids call the computers iPads or tablets, not really computers. So that just shows the evolution of where we're going. They're also playing on ABC Mouse and PBS Kids, right? So they're learning about the alphabet. They're learning about their colors.

But right next door, you're having a preteen doing state reports, learning how to type reports, learning how to do a little bit more harder, like common core math and stuff. And it's a little bit hard because when the older kids do want to do recreational games, they're on Minecraft. They're on whatever is equivalent to Roblox, we can't have because it's downloadable. We can only have web based games. But think about what Roblox offers compared to ABCmouse.

And I don't think anybody wants them too close together. Also with that is we need a space for the preteens to spread out. They need to lay out their binders and reports, and they need to have their parent with them. Okay, this is how you do citations and everything. We can't have that right now because our space is so tight.

So we're gonna need space for them to spread out and their parents to sit next to them or their tutors. Whereas in the little kid space, those are gonna be learning how to use the mouse, touch screen, everything, and the parents can still be right there with them if they need help. However, they still get that one on one time. And playing and studying. Everybody learns in their own way, but children like especially toddlers, we want them to learn through their experience, learn through their play.

That creates noise. That creates loudness. And the preteens need their time to where they can focus on their studies. That comes with cubicles or smaller styles that have barriers on most of the ways so they're not getting distracted. You know, squirrel and looking the other way. Want to go over on the computer. My friends are on the computer. But here in some of the spaces, they can crawl up into a little area, hang out, read a graphic novel. And then when it's time for them to go to their tutor, they can slip into this restaurant style booth, hopefully, and can get one on one time with their tutor or even with their adults. And basically, the distractions have become very minimal.

One thing is what they both need is a multipurpose room. Our multipurpose room, or what we're going call our story time rooms, is very important to them. Right now, as much as I'm very lucky and very blessed that we have the community room, we do have to share it with adults. No offense to us adults in the room. But this is set up for presentation styles, right? Very dark wood. The lights can turn dim so we can watch a presentation. The only natural light is coming in from the doors. That's not really inviting to young children, especially in story time. I've watched a lot of kids walk right in excited, see the darkness of the room, turn around, and run out.

It's not really inviting, and it's not really meant to be inviting because if we had child sized tables and artwork on the wall, then when city agencies need to come in and use the community room like it's intended for, it's not gonna fit. So it serves its purpose, but we need a dedicated space where they can come in and they can sit down on the table and do fine motor skill practices or even learning how to use scissors in their own space. If they were to try and do that now, they couldn't sit down in a chair at a table. It wouldn't fit. It would be kind of awkward for them. So, a lot of times, we do things on the floor. So, in this multipurpose room, we're going to have tables that fit them. That reminiscent of school. That's light and airy. We can have their artwork on the wall.

We can have the manipulatives out and ready for them to go where they can go ahead and take things right off the shelf, play with them, clean up, and put them back, and get them ready for that school time. And then what the staff needs. So you can actually see right there in the children's staff photo. Up on the end stacks right there, there's cute little cutouts of bugs and Really adorable. But now since we put up the new tie dye designs, they get really more popular interactions from kids.

But this is what the staff needs. Right now, the children's reference desk is the first thing that you see when you walk in. So we are naturally the first desk people come into. Hey, you have any tax forms, passports, commission reports, anything that you guys need? They come to us first because it's the first staff area that they see, which means that you have somebody that a parent or an adult doesn't know come walking up right up next to their child because they're wanting information and we're helping a child find a book.

Also, on top of that, our sight lines aren't visible. We can only see maybe 25% of our space, which is not conducive for families with multiples or a good eye line of who's in the children's space and who's not. If you were to look at the floor plan, you can see that the design team moved it into the middle. So now we're not only having eyesight of the existing space, but we're also able to see the existing space of that. So we're gonna have to redo the reference desk, which we would like manifesting standing and a sitting desk because we're constantly on our feet at all times.

So, to get up, that just takes a few moments, but we would like a place where we can just jot out into the aisles and help somebody as needed. But this will help us stay on the floor and see everybody and get to know the families. Sorry. So that's my recap. We've taken into consideration how we're going to evolve in this next eighteen years as somebody who has what Katie says, like historical context.

Just bleeps like a marquee whenever I have information that can help. This is going to take us beyond hopefully the next eighteen years, and we have to be ready to evolve. Just have to let me get to the next slide because you're going to see. You'll see at the very top left is maybe not those type of shelves, but what we're interested in is the wheels because that's how we can evolve. And then just some outlooks and everything like that. Things that can be easily, you know, when people I'm losing my train of thought. Like, Oh, pretty. Because I want the tree so bad. Look at that really cool tree. But that's what we're gonna try and go with is the earthly theme to do the Santa Rosa plateau.

But we just want things that the kids can feel like this is their space. We're literally teaching kids how to be the next library patrons and library supporters. Hopefully, one day, they're up there with you guys. And so that's just some of it. I can keep going on. But I'm like, do you like this chair or that chair? So I decided that's how I kind of wanted you guys to kind of get a personal viewpoint of what we were thinking of. So I think I'm done rambling. Get the hook.

Thank you, Ashley. Before I open it up to questions, I just wanted to throw out there. Ashley was really one of the first impetuses of us applying for the California State Library the Building Forward grant. When I first started as library manager back in January 2022, that was one of the first things she presented, like, what do what do we really need in in the children's area? And so she's done a lot of the hard work, a lot of the legwork, a lot of the research. And we've used a lot of that in our grant proposal. She was really instrumental in getting us the 1,500,000.0 grant. So I just wanna say thank you, Ashley.

Aw. Thank you. Oh, thank you.

So with that, before

you rush off, I wanna

open

the I'm trying. Questions, comments, anything from the commissioners?

I do have a question. Great report.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ashley. You mentioned the housing complexes. We have many new ones in Marianna. So I was wondering if you gave any thought to maybe going into the housing complexes? Maybe a common room and having maybe a little reception for the residents and

That would be really good, especially fundraisers since we have I think one of them like the Max here on Jefferson has just opened. And I know they're getting ready to open the one. I just know them by pokestops. Jefferson and Ivy is also opening up. And the one on Adams, I think, is a little bit further along. But that's something that we can all talk about. Talk about it with Katie. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Everyone loves donuts and coffee.

I know, right? I know a good place right across the street. Thank you guys so much.

Appreciate it.

All right. Last but not least, my regular library update for you all. So let me get it out here. A few things. We've been talking a lot about the library expansion project.

So I have great news. Our bid for a general contractor has finally been released and published on Planet Bids. And so the closing date for that is July 14, which was really crucial. There was a lot of work to get up to this step, and it's really thanks to our new municipal services director, Brian Crawford, who really spearheaded this whole project in terms of getting that bid out. So with that, we will be evaluating the bids once they come in.

And we will go with the typically go with the lowest responsible bidder. So once all the bids are evaluated, we will then go to city council on August 19, with the selected bid and with the hopes that they approve the bid, and we can move forward with construction, on the project. With that, construction is now estimated to begin in September of of twenty twenty twenty five. So we are getting closer. So and, again, it's thanks to the help of the foundation who is are raising these crucial funds to get all of those cool things that Ashley has shown you all.

Right? And so if the bids come significantly higher, there's probably gonna be places where we will have to to cut. I think we've cut as much as we can from the building, and so the next potential place is obviously the furniture, fixtures, and and equipment that was well, that was just shown. So hopefully, don't have to cut too much or not at all and get all of the cool things that we hope for our kids. But that is the the update on the expansion project.

Our summer reading challenge has begun. It it was it it was launched on the ninth, June 9, and it runs through July 19. And it's it is for all ages. So even you all can sign up for the adult summer reading program. Basically, kind of the gist of it is, you know, participants will pledge to read five books, complete activities, and then you come back and get some incentives with a prize wheel depending on your age.

I think the adults get to play Plinko. So if you guys love Plinko, this is the summer for you. So, there's also weekly drawings with book reviews, as I said, weekly incentives, and the children, have some sort of grand prize, which I'm sure Ashley knows what it is, but I I don't. So it's a it's a surprise for everybody. It's a grand surprise.

But the success of the program has has been apparent. We've got already 900 890 children registered, and we've just opened the the program just last week. And so we're expected to suppress surpass last year's total of 2,271 children. So we're really excited about that. And that just goes to show, you know, how how important library is and something fun to do while preventing that summer slide, making sure that kids continue to read while they're out of school.

And so the Children's Department has already put on eight programs just in one week. Thank you, children's department. They've been they've been fantastic. I think one of them was a story time or not a story time, a dance party, I should say, with about 300 participants in the garden. So it was one of our biggest attended programs in in the library. So so so thank you to the children's staff for for for for doing that. Teens and adults, they also have a whole slew of fantastic programs, more than they 've done in the past. So we're really excited about that as well. And so I mentioned the friends of the library. They without their generous funding and support, we wouldn't be able to do the summer reading program in its entirety.

Right? So so we really thank them. They fund the summer reading program each and every single year through the the bookstores that they operate, one at the Los Alamos shopping area, and then also right here at our at our library. So so thank you to their their generous donations throughout the years and continuing through the years. Speaking of the friends, they're having their general meeting tomorrow, June 17, at 1PM in the community room for all those interested in attending.

Another next update is the ZipBooks program is still continuing. If you do not recall, ZipBooks is a grant funded program that allow patrons to request books that are not in our collection, have them shipped to their house, and then when they're done, they get added to the collection, you know, so long as they meets the certain criteria. And we have about $6,000 left in the grant fund, so we anticipate that we should be done with those funds in early July. So if you haven't gotten your request in, now is a good time to do so. We are also doing lunch at the library.

This is another grant funded program that we are providing fun fun activities, programs, performers at the summer lunch site Murrieta Elementary of for MVUSD. And I believe that this year, they're doing free summer lunches at at different schools as well. They started at Murrieta Elementary, I think, last year, and now they've they're starting to expand. But we provide the the the fun stuff to do at Murray Elementary. So it's free nutritious lunches from, I I believe, 11:30 to 12:30, and it goes Monday through Friday.

And so we we go there on select days and provide some some cool programs, all funded by the California State Library. And so that's being coordinated right now by our circulation department, so thank you to them for for coordinating those fun activities. We just completed a fun, well, I sense a fun, but a an all staff training on deescalation. It was entitled transforming security, making libraries safer through compassionate deescalation. And so we had all of our staff attend that, And so that was very informative.

And if I could drill it down into a nutshell, it's basically kindness and relationships. Right? And so every time somebody walks through the doors, you know, you you build that relationship with them. And so if for some reason there comes time to enforce a rule, you have that relationship to to go off of, which is a de escalator as opposed to coming straight to a person and saying, look. You're breaking code number one of the of the rules and conduct, right, which would be kind of an escalator.

So so that was a great training. Another update in regards to staff training is I will be attending the American Library Association conference in Philadelphia from June. So hopefully, you can come back with some good ideas. And then last but not least, we had a discuss we were gonna put a discussion item, for you all for your consideration for our privacy we we drafted a new privacy policy. However, it's still in the drafts in the works, so we will bring that to you at the next commission meeting. So that's the end of my report. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Mel, great report. The $6,000, I think you mentioned, that you used to buy the books. That's money is restricted?

That's correct. Yes. So that's actually $6,000 that is left over from a $33,000 grant. So we got $33,000 to fund the ZipBooks program, which is, just restricted for that use only. And so we have $6,000 left in that program.

Okay.

Great question. Thank you. Okay. No other questions. I'd like to pass it over to you, chair girl, Tara, or, madam secretary.

I think it's me. Oh, you? Okay. Thank you.

I could rock paper, scissors for you, Gretchen. I'll probably lose that too.

Gonna lose that.

Let me

figure out where I am here. Sorry. I'm so mesmerized by, you know, the the presentations mister Sells, every year. I'm sorry. Every month, I look forward to what you have to tell us, as long as you don't mind us poking some fun every once in a while. It kind of bums me out about the cuts that we would have to make. Sorry. I'm going back to that just for a second. It just seems like they'd so so minimal. Why would we just cut anything? You either go all in or why are we going at all?

Well, that's a hope. Right? So hopefully, we can we can just go all in. That's what we're gonna propose.

Right?

So Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Okay.

I have a question. Sorry. Sorry. I have a question. Would it be helpful if we were all at the city council meeting where you present the final numbers and get approval?

Absolutely. I think any community support, especially from our commissioners. Right? Because you all represent the citizens of of Murrieta. Even making a public comment, would be very helpful at that meeting. What

date is that on? August 19. August 9? Nineteenth. Nineteenth. Yeah.

Okay.

I should say I shouldn't recommend you to do a public comment, but you're you are allowed to make a public comment. Thank you. Thanks.

Melvin told us to come up here.

Yeah. Okay. Back to serious time. Alright. At this time, we will, we will take public comments. Speaking of, any person may address the library advisory commission on any subject pertaining to city business, which does not relate to any item listed on the agenda. Normally, no action would be considered or taken by the library advisory commission on any matter not listed on the agenda speakers are limited to three minutes. Madam secretary, do we have any non agenda sorry. There was more public comments.

Thank you, chair. We do not have any non agenda public comments.

Okay. So let's go ahead and move on to the consent calendar. All matters listed on the consent calendar are to be considered routine by the governing body and will be enacted by one motion in in the form listed. There will be no discussion of these items unless before the governing body votes on the motion to adopt specific items are removed from the consent calendar for separate motions. May I call for a motion and a second, please, to approve items one and two on the consent calendar?

I move to approve the to the items on the consent calendar.

And I'll second that motion.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. Please vote.

Motion carries unanimously. Four zero.

Okay. Let's go ahead and move on to the commissioner member announcements. Commissioner member announcements is the opportunity for commissioners to provide miscellaneous reports and announcements. Let's see. I'm sorry. I just I'm distracted. I see an opening parenthesis and then no closing parenthesis, so I wasn't sure where to end here. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Vice chair Meeker. None today. Thank you. Commissioner Gabbitt is not here today. Commissioner Laverne Davis.

As, Mel had mentioned, and I think mister Coon, we did have a presentation at the colony. So and it was very well received. So thank you for that.

Commissioner Nicole Davis.

None. Thank you.

Okay. And none for me this month either. Right. Future agendas. Okay. So let's continue with commission member request to add items to future agenda agendas. Excuse me. Commission members request to add items to future agendas as part of our meetings and is the opportunity for commissioners to request particular item or items to be added to the next meeting agenda. Vice chair Maker, would you

No. I think you guys do a great job already. There's nothing I could add that would make it better. So thank you.

Commissioner Gabbitt being absent. Commissioner Lillipurn Davis.

No. They've done a great job. Thank you.

Commissioner Nicole Davis.

Agreed. None. Thank you.

And none for me as well. And lastly, you may okay. With no further business then, may I ask for consensus to adjourn the meeting? So, let me go back here. Commissioner Meeker.

Yes. Concur.

K. I. Is that what you were asking me? Yeah. Okay. Each commissioner should respond with I. I.

Okay. I.

Are we all eyes? I. Okay. This meeting is now adjourned at 06:56PM.

Oh,

that's Oh, make a motion to fix the clocks.

Just kidding.

Don't listen

to that.