Leach Library Trustees - Regular Meeting

Thanks for coming tonight. Um it's 7 so uh it looks like it may just be the four members that are up here. Um we are going to get started with uh a pledge and uh at 7 o'clock. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Hello. I apologize. I can't account for um two missing members of the board. Um but just to get started, um we expect that tonight's meeting will be very brief. Um we just had a few things that we wanted to kind of get done. Um, thank you again while we're, you know, getting started with this. Thank you again to all the people that, um, volunteered, uh, for our election process. It went really well. Um, thanks so much to all the towns folks that donated their time. It's a very long day. Um, and it was very, very exciting to see that the voter turnout is increasing um, a little bit more year-toear. So, um, keep up the good work. It was really great to see people's faces. Um, congratulations to Erica and Asra. Um, members.

So, yeah. So, um, the first thing that we're going to do tonight, um, is what we call a board reorganization. So, um, every year after the election, um, the the positions on the board, um, get reorganized. So, we nominate new folks to take on some jobs. Ultimately, the hope is that um each year new people will volunteer or um accept the nomination to take on different responsibilities so that it's not always falling on the same people to do the same tasks. Um and it's great because it makes everybody kind of responsible to to learn the ropes for all the things that need to happen to make a successful board. So, we have to nominate a chair, a vice chair, a treasurer, and a secretary. Um uh and also I'll just mention um that we are going to be accepting the resignation of um Liz Thomas at tonight's meeting. Um so we'll probably just need a motion to do that. Um on the 10th of March, she um submitted a letter to town council um marking her resignation from the board effective immediately. So um I don't know, do we want to make a motion? Um I actually have a letter to that. So we should get through the reorg first.

Sure, we can do that. Um so let's start with um a nomination for chair. Um I would like to nominate Nancy Hendricks for the role of chair for this for the coming year. As for PO, I second. Okay. And discussion. Where do you want to go to right to a vote? Okay. Let's take a vote. Roll call. Aero. Yes. Beth Marco, yes. Nancy Hendricks, yes. Erica, yes. Motion passes. Well, thank you very much, Madame Secretary. Um, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, anyway, so, you know, it's no secret we've had a bumpy year and we've we have a lot of work to do um this year. So, on that note, I would accept a motion for a vice chair or a nomination for a vice chair, please. Um, I would make a motion to um have Beth Morocco fill that role. The Beth Morocco has been nominated. Vice chair. Is there a second? Azra Po second. So, the motion has been made by Erica and seconded by Azra. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. All those opposed.

Motion passes. And Beth is our vice chair for the upcoming year. I would now accept a nomination for our secretary for the following year. Um, I would like to nominate Erica. Motion has been made for Eric Lowi to be our uh secretary. Is there a second? Uh, Azra Po. Second. Motion by or seconded by Azra. All those in favor, please say I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. We have a new secretary. Yep. I would accept a a a nomination for treasurer, please. I'd like to nominate Azra Pelo. The nomination has been made for Azra Pelo to be our treasur. Is there a second?

Erica Lowi. Second. Seconded by Erica. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. All those opposed. We have a new treasur. Ladies, welcome to your roles. We have work to to get to. Um it's going to be a busy year. And um I would also now like to accept the uh resignation of Liz Thomas. And I do have her letter here. We do have some members um our new members of the board did not were not privy to her le her letter.

You all have heard me say a thousand times I don't like documents at the meeting without anybody having them. But there was just no other way to do this. Um if anybody from the public would like to uh read um Liz's letter, it is up here for you. So, may I please have a motion to accept Liz Thomas's letter of resignation? I so move. Motion made by um Erica. Is there a second? Second. Second by Beth. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. I.

All those opposed, please say nay. Motion passes. And we have accepted um Mrs. Thomas's uh letter of resignation. at a future meeting, we certainly are going to recognize all of our outgoing um members board of of the board of trustee and thank them for their service. So, I would like to open our meeting up for public comment. Is there anyone here that would like to make any public comment? Please come forward and state your name and address for uh the record, please. Mr. Bushard, congratulations. Dan Bushard, uh 8 o drive on to I'm sorry. Can you say that one more time because I have to write quickly. Dan Bushard, 8 Oonnell Drive, your lays on to the town council.

Um I just want to say that um the progress at the library is phenomenal and I think it's great how Donna has been keeping us everybody in the council on the l in the loop telling us every week the progress that's being made and I just want to say thank you on that. Uh, I'm still your lison. Good. So, um, looking forward to a much better year this year. Thank you. Um, we all are. Um, Madame Chair, I know you're aware of the, uh, lawsuit from one of your I am. And that has been resolved today.

It has. I have documents on that, too. And the town has prevailed in it. So, if you have anything, feel free to reach out. You know how to get a hold of me. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Thank you. Anybody else?

Good evening. David Gint for Darrow away. Uh, first of all, I just want to congratulate Azra and Erica on their election to the board and to compliment them on the way they ran a simple, clean, resultsoriented campaign. I'm optimistic that their addition to the board will be positive, both for the library and for the level of discourse in our town. I hope the new board will treat all who come before it, including library patrons, staff, and interested towns people, with the respect they deserve. I understand that some members of the previous board had differences of opinion as to how the library should be run, but there was no excuse for how people were treated. Even simple things like looking at speakers when they are talking rather than reading phones or computers can go a long way in showing respect for one another. I trust that you will all work together to make the library what we want it to be.

Thank you very much for that and good luck to Thank you very much. Thank you.

Anybody else for public comment? Seeing none, we will move on to new business. So, one of the things that we um really need to do this evening is to assign our um subcommittees. I did speak with our attorney, Hannah Dvau, earlier today, and I talked with her specifically about our personnel policy and our bylaws, and I said, "My goodness, there have been so many varieties of each. I think that we need to bring both of them back and revisit them and just start all over." And she agreed. So, um, I think we'd like to at this point talk about individuals who might want to serve on the personnel policy subcommittee. Is there any interest if you signify by raising your hand? We need two people. I see Erica and I see Beth.

Thank you very much for that. I also spoke with the attorney about our bylaws and she agreed that there had been so many varieties of our bylaws and we've all talked about our bylaws in the last year as being living documents. So, we're going to revisit those and finally get those um um passed. So, are there people here that would like to serve on bylaws? I'll do bylaws. Okay. So, we have Nancy and

Azra for bylaws. The other item that I did discuss with our attorney is that you know now that we are in a union environment and we need to form our um negotiating team to negotiate with the union and the attorney Hannah Dvau suggested that historically in her experience the people that go to the table are the chair and the vice chair unless the board feels otherwise. Um Beth would you?

Yeah. Okay. So, the negotiating team will be myself and Beth, and we need to um send her some some dates. I'll send an email on this in terms of where our availability for negotiating. She did say that the sooner we get to that um for the be the better. Um ask a question. Yes, absolutely. So, is this um negotiations that you have to do every year? No. Or Okay. Generally speaking, and you know this may be a different atmosphere with this particular union. I won't know until we get to the table, but generally speaking, you negotiate a contract for three years. Okay.

Um, we als Oh, yeah. Speak into your microphone. Pull the microphone closer. There you go. There you There you go. Okay. We can't be shy. got to speak up. Okay. Um, we also need to discuss our process for our new trustee and we did speak with Cheerston last week and there is indeed a process. We need to get an individual seated within the next What's the matter? Nope. Oh, okay. All right. I thought she was going to tell me I was out of order. I was god I just started.

Good. Um, so we did speak with Kristen last week and there is a process or and actually spoke with the uh town manager as well and we need to get a new trustee seated. We have up to 60 days. So there is a little bit of a process. So Cheerston will be posting the position tomorrow and she's also going to be posting the position for a variety of other positions that need to be filled as well. And she did indicate that there is some space within the course of the application to ask questions. So my question to the board is, is there anything specifically that we might want to know?

Um, Madam Chair, I would love any perspective trustee to answer questions about their prior experience with libraries. Okay. And their prior experience um particularly stewarding public services in a formalized um board environment. Okay. Thank you very much for that. Anything else from anybody else? Um, I would be interested in um what they know of the needs of each um as they currently exist. Okay. And keep in mind there might not be room for all of this, but we'll streamline it 100%.

And Azra, anything on your mind? No, I think the shorter the application the better. Yep. Okay. The only thing on my mind would be um how indeed does an individual intend to support the library uh the library itself and the board of trustees. So that would be my question. Okay. So with um the board's blessing, I just need a nod of heads. I will get this information to Kirstston tomorrow. Is that consent? Okay. Very good.

Excellent. Okay. Moving along. We have reports. So, renovation and building update, Donna.

Yes, thank you. Um, so I sent you the latest update on Friday. Um, and I had some notes to add since Friday. Um, the two of the rooftop units have been um cleaned and those areas were for the children's room in the lower level. Um the main reading room that which is the larger rooftop unit is still in process um or progress as of right now. Um all of the filters um have been replaced by our HVAC company. Um the staff still are not occupying the building at the moment while they're in the middle of cleaning for the big area. Um we hope we actually hope to be back in the building tomorrow, but I think it's looking more like Thursday. Um we are still um keeping an eye on building temperatures but those um have remained steady. There is there are additional um heating units in the building right now just to ensure that temperatures stay okay while the units are off. Um the flex duct replacement is going to move forward after the town council voted to authorize funding for that last night. So I appreciate that. Um, I do have to clarify on the amount that was um approved because I'm not sure that the amount included um enough funds to cover the bonds that um town count the town manager um requested from REARK. So, I am working on clarifying that. Um that may need to be brought back to the council at their next meeting. Okay.

Um working on that. The children's room ceiling tiles, some good news there. Um we originally were thinking we would have to present a estimate to replace all of the tiles in the children's room. Um but it's actually after Envir Advantage um tested cleaning one of them, they came out really really good. Um so we actually think we're only going to have to replace a select handful of them that um have lights have recess lighting in them. That's good news.

Yeah. So it's good news. Um I'm we haven't confirmed yet, but it's looking like it's going to come in right at the allowance that RER had planned for. Um so we're hoping not to have to bring back a request for more funding there. Um I do have an electrical quote to present that is related to the ceiling the children's room ceiling tiles which I can get to in the quotes later on. Um the mold testing we are waiting on a final report still from indoor doctor but um so far the results have come back better than expected. Um not obviously perfect but still better than we were thinking they might. Um today I forwarded you the results that I got from the testing which was more of the historical look at four locations in the building. Um, and that result also came back better than expected and we don't expect that it's going to add any additional recommendations based on those results. So, that's good news. Um, I was hoping to have the report for you today. It's now they've pushed it out till tomorrow. So, once I get it, I will share it with you. Um, I think that's it for right now. The only other change that I sent out this afternoon was related to the insurance claim.

Um, We It's not a final number yet, but the initial amount for the um pipe bursts repairs to the building um look like they're going to come in around 130,000. Um I'm hopeful that it's actually going to be higher once um Rearch's estimates come in to compare um to what the adjuster came up with. And I just wanted to note that that number does not include any loss of content. So like the furniture um will be a bigger cost that will be added to that. Um but yeah, look things are progressing I guess is my my update overall. Thank you. That all sounds good. Thank you very much. So yes, questions from the board.

I just wanted to ask, do I understand correctly that staff will be able to work from the building? You're expecting by f by Thursday, Fridayish. Yeah. So um last Thursday is when staff had to vacate the building because of cleaning. We previously were able to go over and like get things out of the book drop and process some materials and clean them over there. Um, and we have had to leave the building since Thursday of last week. So, we're hoping to be back in by Thursday of this week. That's amazing. Thank you. Any other questions from the board?

Thank you again for all these updates. I know the entire community is grateful that you are just so on the ball with this because this could be really disastrous if we didn't have somebody as organized and efficient as you are. So, thank you so much.

So, my only question to you is the same one I asked you the last time in the midst of pulling things out and it sounded like sounded like you got good news in the the children's area today, but not you haven't received any news that there's something that we weren't expecting. Um there have been some things that we were expect not expecting um such as what's been brought to the council for additional funding. I think um I noticed I noted later in my update that some things that are forthcoming are that the board and probably with council as well is going to need to decide if um the areas outside of the scope of the insurance claim

um should also receive like carpet replacement and painting at the same time just to kind of get it out of the way or if you would rather look at like a CIP request and stage it out a a little further and gradually. Um, that's going to be something that we're going to have to look at. The I just don't have numbers to present to you to to um consider that yet. I hope for April um the April 2nd meeting to have some more information on that. Um the other thing is that the initial mold results are showing that there are some areas that need some remediation, but not to the extent that we were initially thinking. Um, but there's still going to be an additional dollar amount that goes along with that, of course. Okay.

So, those are the unexpecteds that we know about right now. All right. If anything really big that's unexpected comes along, I hope that you'll email it to us. Yes, absolutely. Okay. Perfect. All right. Thank you for that.

Okay. Old business. I do um have a couple of items. So, um, as Mr. Buchard mentioned the lawsuit with the town of Londereerry and our colleague Moy Ryan has been settled and um a declaratory judgment in favor of Ms. Ryan has been denied and the town of Londair prevails. And if anybody would like to see a copy of the complaint, I have it. Um and the other thing just in case you should be reading about this in the newspaper is that this was a lawsuit filed by MOA as an individual. So, the library board of trustees bear no financial um responsibility in in this particular um lawsuit. So, I just wanted you to know that. Um I also wanted to talk for a moment about our our uh legal fees in terms of negotiating with the union. I did speak with uh the town manager today and I was thinking that our town attorney would be able to help us with negotiating and um there certainly is assistance but it's certainly comes with a price tag. So we need to get some information um in terms of cost not only from our town attorney but Hannah Dvau who has been assigned to us in terms of what cost will be as we sit down and negotiate the contract with the union. So, um, in terms of business, that's an item that we need to address. Um, and does anybody have any other old business before I move to contracts, quotes, and future items for agendas? Any other old business?

No. Okay, great. I don't think so. Okay. Not sure where it would fall in. All right. Would you like to talk about contracts and quotes? Sure. Um, so I just wanted to note um that the quotes I'm presenting tonight, they could be um put off until next meeting if you'd like some more time to think about them. Um, they aren't of the highest importance to need need a decision tonight. You know, I would say since we have unless the board feels differently, since we have two newly seated trustees, if if you're not if you don't need votes on them this evening so that our new trustees can go over them and bring we'll bring them back at the next meeting and then if anybody has any questions at that point, is that acceptable to the board? Yeah, that will be

Would you like me to still present like a context for them?

I do. Okay. Y um so the first one from Marquee is our um electrician that we typically use for the building. Um this is the one related to the children's room ceiling tiles. Um, so something that was brought up as a staff ask um, at the time when we were thinking we would have to replace all the ceiling tiles was um, right now in the children's room there are um, like hanging lights like the long ones above that match the shelving locations that are um, all angled. Um, and we would like to move them to be more perpendicular to the walls. Um, and in order to do that, there is a cost for the electrician to move them. Um, but it is kind of good timing to do that where they're already going to be in the building um to do work related to the cleaning. Um, so that's why we I'm bringing this quote to you. Um, it isn't like an absolute need, but we do think that in doing this work, it would eventually free up some more space in the back of the children's room just because the shelves won't be angled. So there um we're moving kind of everything forward um if that makes sense. I I was hoping to have a picture for you, but I wasn't able to get into my email for some reason. Um and I also wanted to note, let me look at my notes real quick. So, um, something that could happen is either the staff could gradually work on moving the shelves to match the lights. Um, or if the board decided to go ahead and do the carpet replacement in that room at the same time, the shelves could be put back in that location after the carpet is replaced. Um, so either way, we would make it work so that eventually the shelves would align with the lights again. Um, so any questions there before I move on to the next one?

Any from the board? No. Okay. Okay. No. Um, next one is from Flag Works. So, this is a second quote. Um, the repair, the initial repair that the board approved at the last meeting has been completed. The flag is back up and in good condition. Now, um this is more so that while the repair was taking place, they were noting to me that um our flag pole is very old and could use some upgrades. Um y

it's not as someone who's uh used or tried to put the flag down at half staff and such, there's definitely been issues with even that um process. Um and this would help us in that sense. So, I would say that this quote is not necessarily like high priority. You could put this off even to the next fiscal year if you wanted to. I just asked them to get an idea of how much it would cost. Um, they also recommended a larger size flag than what we've been flying. Um, so that's on here as well um to get a bigger flag. So, that's that one. Um, third is basically an option um to get some more book carts um or book trucks, however you refer to them. Um, these would be very helpful at our temporary location and we could also use them still when we reopen at the library. Um, I'm recommending a quantity of somewhere between two and four. It is more cost-effective per unit the more you buy. Um, I will say that so we bought three of these in 2023 and when I compared the cost for what we paid 3 years ago, the cost has increased by 30%. Um,

wow. And I imagine that is only going to keep getting more expensive. Um, I also initially brought this request to the friends. Um, and they since this is more of like what they would consider an operational cost, um, they asked me to bring it to the board first. However, they are open to considering sponsoring one cart if the board decides to get at least one other one. Um, so I would bring it back to the friends to decide on that. Yeah. And they could get a plaque on cart. Everyone loves plaques. Right now, this would be the carts would be in addition, not replacing any carts or anything like that.

Right now, we're talking about in addition. I do think there are some like when we go back to the library eventually um there are some that are in really rough shape where we could decide to let some go and exchange. Um but right now we're we're needing all the cards we can get. So yeah, any other questions or comments? Nope. Nope. By the board? Well, thank you very much for that. Good work. Thank you.

Okay. Um I do have just a few other items that I want to kind of tee up for the board before we adjourn for this evening. Um as we said, we have work to do this evening or this year rather. Um but I do want to just let the board know that we have um with Beth's help today. We've kind of put together a list of things that that uh need to come up soon, sooner rather than later. So sometime in the month of April, we are going to be discussing our code of ethics. Beth has been asking for one for over a year and it's never found its way onto the agenda. So, it will for certainly for certain be on our next agenda. The board will have an opportunity to review it and our expectation is that we'll come back to another meeting and should be approved by the end of April. We certainly need to discuss our financials. We have um things have gone sideways for quite some time. We need to get our financial house in order. We should appoint a committee to work on that and decide which which jobs are relative to us as the treasurer and which jobs actually go back to the staff so that we're not overburdening our staff with um jobs that that we should be doing. And that was Beth's perspective and that I thought that was a good a good point. If we're going to pursue the Robert's rules of order, we need to discuss that and make sure that we're sticking with it. We want to make sure that we add our second public comment. We are going to start approving our draft minutes in a timely manner. Minutes simply cannot go on and on and on forever. So my my ask of the board is when the minute when you receive the minutes, read them, digest them, come to the board meeting. If if someone has spelled your name incorrectly, mis quoted a time or a quote, let's make that correction and get them approved and and get them posted. Banking

signatures. We have a new treasurer, so we need to get to the bank as as or yeah, this way. Sorry, that way. Um, as quickly as possible to get the signatures changed on our bank. And our attorney has also asked us to set aside some time to start training uh for to attend a training with her in terms of how to interact with our union and make sure that um everybody is coming to the table and leaving the table in a manner that is productive and professional. She also asked us to find some time very quickly to schedule a non-public. So, I'm asking the board this evening to pull out your schedules and let's get a non-public scheduled if the board is available um next week.

Madam Chair, may I ask um what room space you would need for that meeting? Does not have to be large. Okay. We could do a small meeting. Yeah. So, what is everybody's availability next week? That would be the week of Monday, May 23rd through Friday, May 27th. Um, we do have the 91A training on Wednesday. On Wednesday, if we want to have a really long night together. Nope. Nope. Um, I am wide open on Tuesday. I could also do Thursday or Friday. I could make Monday work, but it's a little trickier. Yep. Okay. So Tuesday,

the only evening that wouldn't work for me is Thursday. The only that would not that would not Okay. So am I hearing Tuesday? T Tuesday I I um am I'm available 5:45ish and later. Okay. Okay. So if we said six o'clock for a non-public Yeah. Okay. So I will speak with the attorney and see if that's a six o'clock if that works for her. She said sooner. So, I'm hoping that she's going to be able to get down here. And she did say that that will be a posted meeting. Okay. And um do you need any staff available to be present at that meeting for any portion of it? I don't know the answer to that question right now, but I will get it and I will get back to you.

Thank you. Okay. So, that's six o'clock on March 24th. Okay. And um yeah, we it doesn't need to be a big room. It's a a small room is fine. Okay, I'll find a room for you. Let us know. Okay. Have we touched on everything that we wanted to touch on this evening? Is there any other business tonight that anybody would like to bring forward? I just had a quick question about um the director search if and I I understand if we're going to approach that more on the second on the meeting on the second. I just wanted to know if that's where that goes on the radar for our deliberate. We haven't even discussed that as a board. It will come up. Thank you. We certainly haven't forgotten. You can be sure of that.

All right. Thank you. So, but it is absolutely a priority. Yes. Thank you. Yep. Anybody else have anything they want to talk about tonight? No, we'll just um touch base about the action items and the committees just to get those going amongst us. Yes. Yes. 100%. Yes. Okay. Then I think that we're adjourned for the evening. Thank you everybody for coming and we will see you next time. Meeting is adjourned.