Carbondale Public Library Board of Trustees met Oct. 14.
Here is the minutes provided by the board:
Statement prior to start of the meeting.
The Board President determines that an in-person meeting is not practical or prudent because of the statewide COVID-19 disaster. This meeting is being recorded.
Call to order.
Roll call.
Introductions, audience and visitors. Visitors are asked to introduce themselves at this time and present any issues they wish to discuss. Visitors wishing to address specific agenda items will be granted two to five minutes at the discretion of the President, not to exceed a total of twenty minutes. The Library Board may cut short any comments that are irrelevant, repetitious, or disruptive. (Id. at 1425-26).
In the webinar environment participants may type questions or statements into the Q&A at this time and may request access to speak during this portion of the meeting via the Q&A or by using the hand raising function.
Present.
Don Prosser, President
Susan Tulis, Vice President
Roland Person, Secretary
Julian Pei, Treasurer (1)
Philip Brown
Joyce Hayes
Barbara Levine
Chastity Mays (1)
Harriet Simon
Absent.
None.
The number following the Trustee’s name indicates the number of absences this fiscal year.
Visitors.
None.
Staff present.
Diana Brawley Sussman, Library Director; Gwen Hall Grosshenrich, Finance Manager
President’s report.
None.
Secretary’s report.
1. Approval of September 9, 2020 minutes. Barbara Levine made a motion to approve the minutes with minor correction. Joyce Hayes seconded. Roll called: 9 yeas. 0 nays. 0 abstentions. MOTION passed.
Correspondence and communications.
None.
Financial report.
1. Approval of bills payable up to and including bills due October 16, 2020 to November 15, 2020. Include bill not listed: add $5,000 to Hoopla using funds donated by the Friends. Susan Tulis moved to pay the bills. Harriet
Simon seconded. 9 yeas. 0 nays. 0 abstentions. MOTION passed.
2. FY21 budget amendment decreasing grant funds and construction expenditures. Julian Pei moved to approve the budget amendment as presented. Susan Tulis seconded. 9 yeas. 0 nays. 0 abstentions. MOTION passed.
3. FY22 levy and preliminary budget adoption. Details:
General Corporate Fund Tax: 1,001,175
Social Security tax: $34,339
Tort and Insurance Fund Tax: $33,379
Medicare tax: $8,031
Total property tax levies: $1,076,824
The General Corporate Fund Tax includes the library’s General Fund, Audit Fund, IMRF, Building/Maintenance Fund, and Special Reserve Fund.
This represents a $0.00 increase in our property tax levy. This is a 0% increase. We have done salary projections through FY25 in order to make every effort to keep our levy low while meeting the minimum wage increases. We also acknowledge the financial impact of the COVID crisis on businesses and families.
Carbondale residents see a fantastic return on their investment in the library. The average reader checks out 41 books (movies & other items) per year worth $934. Our biggest reader checks out 1,176 books/items per year worth $26,789! We also conduct, on average, 500 programs per year, provide Internet access, and so much more!
Roland Person made a motion to accept the FY22 levy and preliminary budget. Susan Tulis seconded. Roll called: 9 yeas. 0 nays. 0 abstentions. MOTION passed.
4. Acceptance of the financial report for September 2020. The board offers kudos to Gwen Hall Grosshenrich for preparing the bills from home while under quarantine. Susan Tulis made a motion to accept the report. Harriet Simon seconded. Roll called: 9 yeas. 0 nays. 0 abstentions. MOTION passed.
Librarian’s report.
1. Building and grounds maintenance discussed.
2. Further deliberation on whether to close the library on election day and associated staff leave policy. Roland Person made a motion to remain open on election day. Harriet Simon seconded. Roll called: 5 yeas. 4 nays. 0 abstentions. MOTION passed. Policy to allow employees to have a paid day off to work at the polls in an official capacity. Roland Person made a motion to accept the policy. Susan Tulis seconded. There was lengthy discussion. Roll called: 5 yeas. 2 nays. 1 abstention. 1 absent. MOTION passed.
3. Revision of Insurance policy for personnel and consideration of whether to give part-time 20+ hour/week employees with one year of service the option to purchase dental and vision insurance. Barbara Levine made a motion to allow qualifying part-time employees the opportunity to purchase dental and vision insurance at no expense to the library. Chastity Mays seconded. Roll called: 9 yeas. 0 nays. 0 abstentions. MOTION passed. Philip Brown made a motion to adopt the policy revisions. Joyce Hayes seconded. Roll called: 9 yeas. 0 nays. 0 abstentions. MOTION passed.
4. Per Capita Grant requirement: Discussion of Serving Our Public chapters 5-9. Ch. 5 Building maintenance: the board feels we do a phenomenal job because we have a full time person. Ch. 6: Discussion brought to light the fact that we need a designated meeting spot and attendance takers in case of fire. Someone needs to be responsible for directing the public as well. We need a staff review of system shutoff procedures in case of earthquake. Ch. 7: We are above the 12% of budget recommendation for collections alone; other services could also be factored into that figure. The board discussed censorship. We have never had a request to ban a book that went all the way to the board. The issue has only come up 2-3 times in the past 10 years and the patron has always been satisfied and withdrawn their request after a discussion with the director. The much greater threat to freedom of speech has come up recently at the federal level with the President’s executive order to ban diversity training, and at the local level in response to that order with John A. Logan College’s immediate cancellation of programs like Hispanic Heritage Month until they could review all programs from their diversity office to ensure that they are censored in accordance with the executive order. We discussed filtering. Our library filters the Internet for pornography. We’ve not seen anyone unable to obtain information of any kind due to the filter. The Illinois Library Association has consistently defended local control for libraries to make their own decisions about filtering. Ch. 8: We do a great deal of resource sharing with area libraries (including materials and knowledge). Ch. 9: We have a reference librarian, and there is always a librarian on staff.
Committee reports. Unfinished business. New business.
Other.
1.Patron behavior. There was one incident in which a patron was banned for threatening behavior and destruction of property. Susan Tulis made a motion to uphold the ban until and unless there is further action from the board. Philip Brown seconded. Roll called: 9 yeas. 0 nays. 0 abstentions. MOTION passed.
Adjournment.
Adjourned at 5:51 p.m.
https://carbondalepubliclibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/October-2020-minutes-Carbondale-Public-Library-Board-of-Trustees.pdf
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