September Library Trustees Board Meeting

BOULDER CITY LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING
September 21, 2011

MEMBERS PRESENT: Amy Carvalho, Gary Berger, and Valerie McNay.  Also present: member of the public Kathy Hicks, Library Director Lynn Schofield-Dahl, Reference and Electronic Services Librarian Deanna Duffy.

The regular meeting of the Library Board of Trustees was called to order at 7:01 p.m. by Chairman Amy Carvalho.

I. CONSENT AGENDA: Matters considered routine by the Board of Trustees and which may be enacted in one motion. Any item, however, may be discussed separately per Board member request. Any exceptions to the Consent Agenda must be stated prior to approval.

Lynn requested to move Report/Discussion/Action Possible Agenda item 3 up to 1 so that Kathy Hicks does not have to stay for the entire meeting.

Valerie asked questions about the Boulder City utility bills, the Star Insurance refund, and for an update on the increase in debt service money.  Lynn explained that the Boulder City utility bill is for electricity, water and sewer.  She also explained that the first few workers comp insurance premiums each year are paid based on an estimate of the number of hours employees will work.  Then that amount is adjusted to match reality.  Lynn also stated that the debt service money is coming in and with the increase we will have enough money to make the debt payment.

Gary Berger moved, and Valerie McNay seconded approval of the Consent Agenda with the change to the Agenda, the minutes of the regular meeting on July 13, $21,964.46 in vouchers for the previous month, submitted prior to and at the meeting, $618.26 in checkbook expenses for the previous month, submitted prior to and at the meeting. Motion carried.

1. ADOPTION OF AGENDA.

2. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF JULY 13, 2011

3. EXPENSES FROM PREVIOUS MONTH.

II. INTRODUCTION OF NEW TRUSTEE: Ed Barrow

Lynn reported that while Ed has been appointed by the County Commission, the paperwork has not been finished yet.  Ed will be introduced at another meeting.

III. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION: Items raised under this portion of the Agenda cannot be acted upon until notice provisions of Nevada’s Open Meeting Law have been completed. Therefore, any action on such items must be considered at a later meeting.

No comments from the public.

IV. STAFF REPORTS:

1.  There were no additions to the staff reports.

2.  Lynn distributed change pages with updated financial information.

V. REPORT/DISCUSSION/ACTION POSSIBLE:

1. Boulder City Social (Discussion, Action Possible) – Lynn Schofield-Dahl

Kathy Hicks started Boulder City Social as a page on Facebook, and then expanded to a website for people who are not on Facebook.  The focus of the site is general information about what is going on in Boulder City.  There’s a newsletter, garage sale listings, job postings, etc.  After that she started a section for Shop Local listing local stores.  Kathy is now selling cards that get the carrier a discount on items at various local Boulder City stores.  She is selling them as a fundraiser for the site.  The cards are available online, but she is also trying to get them out and available around town.  She is interested in having them sold at the library.  We would get $3.50 from each $10 card.

Amy Carvalho stated that she will abstain from voting on this item because her business does participate in the promotion and makes money off the sale of the cards.  There was then discussion about whether or not her abstaining from the vote would mean there is no quorum. Consensus was not to vote this month, to table the item until the next meeting where there will hopefully be more board members.

Gary pointed out that the discussion of whether or not to sell these cards was going in the direction of procedure rather than policy.  Pulling the discussion back to policy, he said that he is concerned about the appropriateness of it.  Selling fundraiser discount cards that support local businesses doesn’t have a direct tie to what we do as a library.  He feels that book sales are appropriate because there is a direct tie to what we do.  His concern is about the appropriateness of it and the precedent it sets.  He is also concerned about the accounting.  He likes the idea of the discount cards, and the idea of buy local.  He’s just concerned about the appropriateness of the library being involved.

This item is tabled until the next meeting.  Kathy Hicks left.

2.  Report from the Policy Committee (Report only, no action required) – Gary Berger They are still discussing personnel aspects of the policy manual. This meeting the main topic was exempt and nonexempt employees, including discussion of state and Federal. What they are looking at doing with some of the new policies is to grandfather in current employees and start the new policies with new hires.  Gary reported that they are getting better job descriptions and better equality between positions. This will also lead to an organizational plan which the library has not really had before.

1. Discussion of Library Director Evaluation (Discussion, Action Required) – Amy Carvalho

Amy would like to not do staff member surveys this year.  She feels that it’s the trustee’s responsibility to know what is going on in the library.  She would like to use the same evaluation format as last year though.  She will send forms out to all the trustees, and then next month they can discuss what they have written, and formalize and consolidate their evaluation.

Valerie would like to get staff opinion, and she would like the board to discuss the subject.

Gary asked Lynn for a list of the best employee, worst employee and an employee who has good days and bad. He’d like for Amy, or someone she designates, to talk to those three people and get their thoughts/opinions about Lynn and how she does her job.  He thinks that would be a good way to get representative feedback from the staff.

Amy expressed concern about that method.

Gary also stated that whatever feedback they get from staff should be weighted lightly in the overall scoring.

Gary’s next suggestion was for trustees to sit down with various staff members and talk to them.  Not just about Lynn, but also about the library.  He said to pitch it more as a library staff/board member get to know each other kind of thing, rather than part of an evaluation.  Amy said that she is fine with this.  She thinks it’s the kind of thing the board members should be doing informally all year, not just during Lynn’s evaluation.

Valerie said that she’d like to see that kind of staff interaction listed in the trustee handbook as a responsibility of the board members.

Amy mentioned that there is still no new job description for the Director.  She still has Lynn’s draft from last year and they will be working off that.

Amy also said that she will not be asking Ed for his opinion/evaluation for Lynn because he has not been here or had any experience as a board member over the last year.

Lynn asked for a list of times that Gary and Valerie are available to talk to staff, and then she will post a list for staff to sign up.  She mentioned that Mondays and Fridays are bad because the library has fewer staff members on those days. Gary repeated that he wants this to be an informal part of the evaluation.  That he was thinking about grouping ideas and concepts together and report back on trends in staff responses rather than what individual staff members had to say.

Lynn will email the board members the evaluation form that was used for the staff members, so that they can see if and get some ideas.

Amy would like to see the evaluation process finished in November at the latest.

VI. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION: Items raised under this portion of the Agenda cannot be acted upon until notice provisions of Nevada’s Open Meeting Law have been completed. Therefore, any action on such items must be considered at a later meeting.

VII. ADJOURNMENT: Amy Carvalho adjourned the meeting at 8:42.