HomeMy WebLinkAbout1993-08-09 MinutesMinutes
Fayetteville Public Library Board of Truatees Meeting 8/9/93 at 4:00 p.m.
Attending: Charles Kirchen, Carol Phillips, Anne Prichard - Trustees;
Linda Harrison - Fayetteville Public Library Director; Karen Duree -
Ozarks Regional Library Director; June Jefferson, Susan Sisson -
Library Staff
Absent: Jeff Koenig - Trustee
Carol Phillips called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. The Board still lacks a
President and Acting President Koenig was unable to attend.
The Minutes were approved after the following corrections were made: in the Minutes
of July 12th change "find" to "fund" in the second line of the fourth paragraph on
page 1 and "8" to "3.8" in the second line of page 3.
There was no correspondence.
Harrison presented the Statistical Report for July 1993 and the Financial Report as
of 7/31/93.
Harrison then reported on her meeting with Kevin Crosson and Cheryl Zotti last
Monday at their request to discuss the Library operations budget and CIP requests.
Crosson requested some clarifications so he could defend, or decide whether he
wanted to defend, the Library requests in a meeting with other City Department
Directors. Harrison explained that the operations budget included nothing new
except the newer pay matrix and that was easy for all of us to understand. Crosson
asked Harrison what her second preference was after the $25,000 allotted for books
and she replied the roof.. The amount hehad in his papers for the replacement of
the roof had a $2,000 typo so $2,000 more will be budgeted for the roof. He thought
he could probably round up another $2,000 in 1994 to go with that $2,000 for a portion
of the card catalog that the Library requested for the Children's Department. New
carpeting will be reconsidered after the City Administration gets new carpeting.
They briefly discussed future plans for increasing Library millage and Harrison told
him that she did not think this was the year to do it with the City Sales Tax and
the County Sales Tax and the School millage vote. She reminded him that if and when
the Library can manage to increase the millage it will beanother two years from the
day of that vote before the Library will see any benefit from it.
Duree added that depending on what time of the year you vote on it (a Special Election
being possible instead of a General Election) one could end up with more of a time
lag than before. All depends upon what time of the year it is actually voted on.
If the vote is on January 1st, it is not going to be levied until the following
November. Some plans need to be started now for talking to the Washington County
Library Board, for convincing the other county libraries that we need to raise the
millage and for discussing how this need will be presented to the public. A lot of
planning must be done long before the actual vote. If we are talking about a vote
during the Primary in May or June (less than a year away) many discussions must take
place behind the scenes before the public is asked for an increase. The actual
campaigning takes place just before the vote. The Boards of the County libraries
as well as the County Library Board will be involved. No other library in the
County is in the straights the Fayetteville Library is in. They are not feeling
pinched. We need to discuss why we want the other libraries to go along with the
millage request. Fayetteville needs it but does Springdale? If they do not know
they need it they are not going to be motivated to campaing for it. Springdale
is talking about a building expansion but it keeps getting pushed back. It may be
another five years before Springdale gets around to it. At some point they are
going to need more money to operate their library. Everyone will have to be..
convinced that it needs to be done.
Kirchen asked if the Springdale Library building will be considered a City building.
Duree answered yes, their building is owned by their City. One of the main concerns
is how the millage increase can be sold to the public when no additional services
can be promised. We are saying that we need to take up the slack because the City
does not want to give us any more money but wecan not present it that way. It must
be presented in a positive way for the voters to want to vote more money when there
may not be many changes in the services received.
Harrison reminded us that the voters think they have already voted two increases in
Library support.
Kirchen added that this needs to be explained and clarified as part of the campaign.
Duree remembered that when we talked about restoring the millage we talked about
extending library hours, which we did at the smaller libraries. But the increase
received in Springdale and Fayetteville was absorbed into their budgets. The City
cut back those budgets and there could be no increase in hours for either library,
which is where the bulk of the patrons are served. The same thing could happen
again: additional millage is voted for Washington County, Fayetteville receives
more allottment money from the County millage, and the City of Fayetteville draws
back and says no more money - same budget as last year - with no appreciable gain.
Jefferson noted that the only thing that is obvious to the public right now is the
empty shelves. The public also has to wait longer to get their copies of requested
books. Previously, we could have purchased another copy of a title in demand. Now
when there are 30 requests for a title, many patrons have to wait for the one or two
copies to be used by all the others. We will be able to document this.
Duree repeated that unfortunately people think they voted to alleviate that problem
when they voted for the Sales Tax. She was open to suggestions of how to sell the
millage increase to the public. They should receive something more or different.
They donot want to know that the City is not going to give money anymore so the
County has to vote a millage increase.
Jefferson spoke of the signs that say "These books have been paid for by the Friends
and Regional" which means "These books have not been paid for by the City".
Phillips asked if there were any good news on the horizon? When might the Library
receive something a little better than only $25,000 for the whole year?
Harrison replied that next year the Library will receive $50,000. The Library received
$70,500 in 1991 and was budgeted to have had $61,000 in 1993. The Library has already
spent the $25,000 for this year.
Duree projected that if the millage increase is passed in 1994, it would not be
collected until 1995. It has been the practice of the Washington County libraries
not to use money until it has been collected - not even to budget that money until it
has been collected. This means money can not be spent until 1996. The millage will
never be enough but that does not mean we should not ask for it. She was willing to
make arrangements with the Washington County Library Board to talk about the
millage, present Fayetteville's problems and see if something can not be done.
Phillips appreciated that offer. She emphasized that a full Board is needed
before we can discuss it all at one time.
Harrison reminded the Board that it was time for her annual evaluation.
Phillips stated that the Board has always had this evaluation at a separate
meeting. She encouraged the Board members to complete the evaluation before the
next Board meeting on September 13 and suggested having the evaluation at 3 p.m.
prior to the regular Board meeting at 4 p.m. Any further discussion could take
place at 5 p.m. Harrison will be filling out her own evaluation.
Kirchen moved that the meeting adjourn, Prichard seconded, it passed and the
Board adjourned at 4:25 p.m.
Submitted by,
Ale (MLa-t.c
Anne Prichard, Secretary