At a recent meeting, the River Forest Public Library Board discussed a property-tax levy report from the Cook County Clerk's Office.
The River Forest Public Library Board of Trustees adopts policies to govern library programs and operations.
Below are the minutes from this meeting, as provided by the board.
Meeting Minutes: Regular Board Meeting: June 21, 2016
Call to Order: At 7:29 pm President Smedinghoff called the regular meeting of the River Forest Public Library Board of Trustees to order. The roll was taken:
• Trustees Present: Bevan, Calabrese-Berry, Crowell, Hill, O’Connor, Smedinghoff and Zobel.
• Also Present: Sue Quinn (Director), Joanna Bertucci (Materials & Business Services Manager)
Visitors and Guests:
• Mrs. Patt Chase
• Ms. Barb Smith, League of Women Voters
Minutes May 18, 2016 – Regular Board Meeting -
Discussion: Trustee Hill asked the Board to review the process for posting the RFPL board packet and approved minutes to the website. Trustees agreed that the entire packet would be posted on the website, including unapproved minutes, prior to the board meetings. Approved minutes would be posted after the meeting as was stated in the May 18, 2016 minutes.
• Trustee Hill moved to accept the minutes of the May 18, 2016 regular board meeting, with the removal of the question mark (?). Trustee Crowell seconded the motion and a vote was taken.
Ayes: Bevan, Crowell, Hill, O’Connor, Smedinghoff and Zobel Abstain: Calabrese-Berry
May Treasurer’s Report
• Warrant List: Trustee Hill moved to accept the May warrant list. Trustee Bevan seconded. There was discussion on the following items:
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Expenditure of funds to SWAN to cover the ILL Lost Materials Expense. Staff member Joanna Bertucci explained that the RFPL is billed quarterly for lost ILL items (items that RFPL patrons damage or lose and do not pay for themselves.) Ms. Bertucci also explained that the SWAN ILL billing process works on a debit/credit system. The paid amount is a net total which reflects credits owed to the RFPL for items that patrons of other libraries have lost or damaged and debits owed to other SWAN libraries by the RFPL.
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Question regarding payment to Evanced. Director Quinn advised that this payment covered the annual cost of our calendaring/scheduling program, as well as our summer reading tracking system.
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Question regarding Opt2mized Networks contract. Director Quinn explained that this contract covers hardware and network support for the RFPL, as well as our WiFi hot spot manager for 3 years.
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Question regarding payments to Alarm Detection Services (ADS) and Illinois Alarm. Director Quinn advised that the library pays two building monitoring services quarterly. ADS monitors the RFPL fire panel and Illinois Alarm handles our burglar alarm system.
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Question regarding the payment to The Ponzio Company (New Nine). Director Quinn explained that this was a payment towards the completion of our website project. The website came in under budget, at about $13,000.00. For an additional fee, New Nine will be delivering a staff page to our website in the near future.
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A roll call was taken and the motion carried.
• Ayes: Bevan, Calabrese-Berry, Crowell, Hill, O’Connor, Smedinghoff, and Zobel
• Revenue Report: Trustees commented that there was little revenue for May 2016, as property tax collection has ceased.
• Expense Report: No questions
• Balance Sheet: No questions
Communications
• Patron Suggestions for May only included materials recommendations and were not included in the report.
Director’s Report
• External Partnerships
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Director Quinn met with David Seleb, Director of the Oak Park Public Library to discuss the possibility of a joint library board professional development program. Ms. Quinn and Mr. Seleb are hoping to offer a session for Trustees in Fall 2016.
• Policies
- Director Quinn and Joanna Bertucci met with two human resource professionals from the Management Association of Illinois (MAI) on June 20th. The session was very informative and the representatives provided more information on the benefits of our MAI membership.
• Finance
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Director Quinn and Joanna Bertucci met with Fernando Rivera, Assistant Vice President – Retail Banking of the Forest Park National Bank on June 16th to discuss the creation of a second money market account for our capital reserve funds. The creation of this new account will allow for better tracking of our capital reserve funds, as they are currently co-mingled with our operations reserve funds. The interest rate on the new account is.40% on $100,000. After the RFPL transfers excess funds from the FY 2015-16 budget, we anticipate to have over $250,000 in the capital reserve account, which would then increase the interest rate to.55%. All accounts at the Forest Park National Bank are insured up to $250,000 through FDIC. The Bank buys bonds to collaterize accounts over $250,000.
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The RFPL was given the new rates for health and dental insurance from the Village of RF. Each benefit plan offered experienced a slight increase. The annual increase to the RFPL will be about $1200.00.
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Director Quinn received the property tax levy report released by the Cook County Clerk’s Office. The EAV for property in River Forest declined by 3.5%. For FY 2017-18 we may (?) have to levy $2,200 less than we did in FY 2016-17. Director Quinn suggested that at some point in the near future the RFPL may be operating at a deficit and encouraged the Board to start reviewing future transfers into the capital and operations reserve funds at the end of the current FY.
• Building and Furniture
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Director Quinn received two bids for the repair or replacement of the damaged flat roof over the front door. A final bid is forthcoming. Director Quinn will prepare a recommendation for the July 6th meeting of the facilities committee.
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Director Quinn received a third and final bid for re-carpeting the second floor. Director Quinn will prepare a recommendation for the July 6th meeting of the facilities committee.
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The library book drop has been ordered and should arrive within the next three weeks. The Bookdrop will be shipped to Roosevelt Middle School, where it will be stored until it is ready to be installed by D90’s construction crew.
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The library will be participating in the garden walk on Sunday, June 26th. The RFPL Children’s room will be hosting a program for families with children.
• Other
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Director Quinn will be attending the Village of RF Traffic and Safety meeting on June 22, 2016.
Library Snapshot
• Key Performance Indicators
- Joanna Bertucci, Materials and Business Services Manager, reported that the Board did not receive a Key Performance Indicators Report for May 2016, as the Board has not yet approved Strategic Plan Goals. Draft measures and objectives will be presented at the July
Board meeting. A memo to Trustees on circulation trends of the previous 5 fiscal years is forthcoming from Ms. Bertucci.
New Business
• Committee Reports
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Facility Committee:
• Trustee Calabrese-Berry reported that the committee met in June. The committee reviewed the following projects: DVD shelving replacement, roof repair, and second floor carpet.
• Director Quinn and Joanna Bertucci met to review the Capital Reserve spreadsheet provided by Engberg Anderson in 2010. The itemized list in the original document was re-organized into building, furnishing, maintenance, and IT needs. Each list was further sorted by work completed and remaining. Next steps include adding cost data to completed projects, review of work that remains by the facility committee, and drafting projections of cost for remaining projects.
• Trustee Calabrese-Berry congratulated Ms. Mary Kay Akers – Stiff, Manager of Adult Services on her election to the LACONI Board as Vice President.
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Finance and Development Committee: No report.
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Policy Committee
• Trustee Hill reported that the policy committee met in June and brings forth three policies for approval.
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Staff III: Professional Development
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Trustee Hill advised that there were no substantive changes to the policy and the primary work was cleaning up the language. After discussion, it was decided that the first paragraph of section III – B would be moved to the second paragraph of section III – A.
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Staff IV: Accidents, First Aid, and Unsafe Working Conditions
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Trustee Hill advised that there were no substantive changes to the policy.
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Staff VIII: Sexual Harassment
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Trustee Hill advised that work on this policy included the removal of procedure from the policy. Trustee Crowell questioned what happens if there is an employee who sexually harasses the Director. Trustee Bevan explained that no policy is necessary given that all employees are “at will”. Depending on the severity of the alleged harassment, the Director would be in a position to dismiss the offending employee. Therefore, it was agreed that no change in this policy to address harassment of the Director is needed.
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Bringing the policies forward from committee, Trustee Hill asked that the Board approve the changes to staff sections III, IV, and VIII with discussed changes to section III. The motion passed unanimously.
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Collaboration Task Force
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Trustee Calabrese-Berry reported that the collaboration task force did not meet in June and will reconvene at the end of summer 2016.
Other New Business
• 2016 Resolution Authorizing Non-Resident Library Card -
Trustees reviewed the non-resident library card resolution. -
Trustee O’Connor moved to approve the resolution, Trustee Crowell seconded the motion. A roll call was taken and the motion carried.
• Ayes: Bevan, Calabrese-Berry, Crowell, Hill, O’Connor, Smedinghoff, and Zobel
• Library Director Goals for FY 16-17 -
Director Quinn reviewed draft library director goals for the upcoming year.
Old Business
• Trustee Calabrese-Berry informed the Board that the Executive Director of the Illinois State Library, Anne Craig, has resigned to accept the position of Executive Director at the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI). The Secretary of State, Jesse White, will appoint a new Executive Director in the coming months.
• Trustee Bevan offered options for the creation of separate email accounts for Trustees for library business. Director Quinn will check in with the RFPL IT consultant regarding use of the RFPL domain name to set up new email addresses for Trustees.
• Trustee Smedinghoff informed the Board that there will be a meeting of the RFPL Foundation Board on Tuesday, July 19th.
Adjournment
• At 8:45 pm Trustee Hill moved that the Regular Meeting be adjourned. Trustee O’Connor seconded. All approved and the meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully Submitted, Deborah Hill Secretary
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