No preview available
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-09-09 MinutesBoard of Trustees Meeting Fayetteville Public Library September 9, 1996 Present: Board members: Mark Burdette, Steve Singleton, Maury Roberts, Michael Thomas. Library staff: Linda Harrison, June Jefferson, David Johnson, Grace Kerr, Lolly Maxey, Mary Jo Godfrey, Lynnaire Hartsell, Melanie Stockdell. ORL Director Karen Duree, and Theresa Ewing of Boatmen's Trust. a 1. Call to order: Thomas called the meeting to order at 4:05 pm in the Fayetteville Public Library Meeting Room. 2. Annual Report on Library's Retirement Plan: Theresa Ewing of Boatmen's Trust reported on an overview of the retirement fund performance. She said Boatmen's is managing the plan as a balanced portfolio, which is a mixture of 50% equities and 50% fixed income. Ewing referred the Board to the Investment Policy and Guidelines Statement in the packet and asked that someone on the Board sign these. and give Boatmen's a copy for their files. Ewing said as of June 30, 1996, 93% of the portfolio was in the Balanced Fund, and 7% was in a cash equivalent which was a Money Market. Boatmen's tries to keep a little liquidity for pay outs for terminations. Ewing pointed out on page 11 the types of investments made by Boatmen's. Burdette asked if the Board could get a list of the particular stocks and bonds purchased, and Ewing said she would get that. Thomas said he thought we had asked for that before and never got it. Thomas asked what the criteria was for deciding what was a smaller or larger stock. Ewing said some of the things that go into that designation are number of years in existence, and net worth of the company. Roberts asked if any of the holdings were a Mutual Fund. Ewing said no, that the Balanced Fund is considered a collective fund, which is managed specifically for a retirement fund account. Singleton asked how large the fund itself is. Ewing replied the library account is approximately $155,000. She said Boatmen's received possession of the assets of 2-6-95. For the rest of 1995, the return was 10.89%. For the first 6 months of 1996, the return was 4.44%.. Thomas asked if we could expect the same return as last year. Ewing said it is impossible to know what the market will do. Roberts asked if the holdings were ever shifted between stocks and bonds, and Ewing said she didn't know for sure, but they might not ever be shifted. She said Boatmen's policy is to never go more that 15% on international stocks. Burdette questioned the performance numbers on page 11. Ewing refered him to the paragraph under the chart which says the fund was established in 1994 and the numbers in the chart for 3 and 5 year returns are reflective of similiar accounts and not the actual library account. The numbers on page 9 are the actual numbers for the library account. She also noted that Boatmen's fee is 1%. Thomas asked if that 1% was from the withdrawals column on page 9. Ewing said withdrawals are pay outs for terminated participants. Burdette asked if Nations will absorb Boatmen's Trust. Ewing said Boatmen's Trust will retain its name, and she did not anticipate any changes. 3. Approval of minutes: Roberts moved to accept the minutes of 8-12-96 and 8- 26-96, seconded by Burdette. Thomas said to add to the minutes that Burdette moved and Roberts seconded to return to regular session. There was no business acted on that was to be made public, and Burdette moved and Roberts seconded for adjournment. All voted AYE to accept the minutes with the additions mentioned. 4. Correspondence: Harrison reported on (1) a letter from Mayor Hanna stating that the City will not give the library any more than the $5000 offered at this time to fund the pay matrix. Thomas said he was going to meet with Mayor Hanna to determine a plan to identify other sources of funding, (2) a memo from Duree about Washington County Board meeting to discuss their budget, (3) a set of clippings which name individual library staff and board members, (4) clippings about Friends library sale, (5) information about programs in the Children's Library, and (6) press releases about amnesty week. 5. Librarian's Reports: a. Statistical and Financial Report: Harrison gave the statistical and financial report. She noted we received interest on our long term development fund of $5792. She said it is reinvested back into the fund. b. Automation Project: Johnson said the bids for the electric power and the data communications construction project were made available. The deadline is 9-12x96 for submitting bids, with a deadline of. 11-1-96 for completion of construction. The ad has appeared 3 times in Legal Notices. Johnson said he heard from Jimmy Hill and Beaver Electric would not be able to participate in the bid. Two other companies that have expressed interest are D & C Electric and ETI. Johnson said Pat Rhodes, who comes highly recommended by Jeff Koenig, of ETI met with him on Friday. D•& C dropped off the deposit and has looked at the building. The one absolute deadline is December 1 for the site preparation for ORL's data communication room. Johnson said ORL has received all of our information for the large hardware bid that will be going out after approval. He said we have pulled from all of our hardware needs those things which fit in well with the larger ORL bid. We are going to itemize a bid for the particular custom pieces we need for our system. Thomas asked when the bar-coding will begin. Duree said the data base should be ready by February with the bar-coding to begin in March.. Johnson said he checked on the usefulness of the 286's that Roberts had said were in VA surplus, and the processor speed is not what is needed for the library. c. Amnesty/ Work Week: Harrison said the staff went through the library cleaning shelves and discarding books, and had staff and departmental meetings. With amnesty, we had 277 volumes returned with a total value of $3788. d. Report on 1997 Budget "news": Harrison noted the final budget sent to the City. Singleton said he was disappointed that the format didn't allow for us to itemize very clearly what the incremental dollar amounts were for under personnel services for new circulation personnel and new people to reinstate the evening hours. Singleton asked how long its been since the staff had a "cost of living" increase. Harrison replied 2 years and 9 months, and this was not considered a "cost of living" increase but a matrix adjustment. Jefferson explained how the city determines the salaries for specific jobs. Singleton noted that any employee needs an increase in salary every so often just to keep up, and he felt it was long overdue at the library. Stockdell asked the Board if they wanted information about the budget added on to any other articles in the newspaper, or should that be a press release itself. Thomas and Singleton both said they felt it better to add the information on to other articles as ofter as possible. 6. Trustee's/ Committee Reports: a. Alternative Funding: Singleton said it is time now to schedule a meeting now that we have identified some target items for fund raising. Harrison and Singleton agreed to meet on Wed. Sept 18 at 9:00 am. Singleton said he thought fund raising efforts should be coordinated with the Friends, so we are not working against each other. Johnson said he would call Anne Pritchard and ask her to appoint someone to do this. Thomas said he thought Ray Shipman waould be good for this. b. Long -Term Planning: Roberts said he was going to meet with Jefferson and go over the User survey and look for trends that our customers want. c. Volunteers: Burdette said the volunteers met before this meeting with Genie Donovan and the supervisors. We are going to do evaluations of the volunteers and also give the volunteers a chance to evaluate their work, their supervisors, etc. There was discussion at this meeting about a new list of jobs for the volunteers from the library staff. The Books on Wheels project is still waiting for a number of how many volunteers there are for this program, and to set up training dates. Burdette said he felt like the library should recognize the volunteers. He said a party that would recognize the volunteers and be a Christmas party for the staff would be good. Discussion continued about when, and where to have this party. Burdette said there ws a donation of $135 by Merrill -Lynch that was specifically for entertainment. Thomas said he thought it was a good idea and he felt the Board members should support this financially also. It was decided that Harrison and the staff should decide when and where to have this party. Burdette reminded the Board to turn in their volunteer sheets. 7. Other Business Duree brought up th.Draft Recommendations on suggested changes in library laws. These changes will be discussed at the convention of the Arkansas Library Commission in Little Rock September 30. Duree suggested the Board members read this draft and if they have any thing they feel strongly about they should attend the meeting or write to Mary Dillard beforehand. One of the things Duree questioned was on page 3 item 4. It is unclear in a situation like ours with a regional board, county board and, city library board what the administrative powers of the city board would be. Thomas asked the other board members to give him some input and the board should send a letter before Sept. 30. Jefferson asked Duree what the major differences were in this and what we have now. Duree said there are many gaps in present Arkansas law concerning regional and county libraries. These changes are an attempt to fill in some of these gaps. Maxey asked the board for permission to serve cookies at the benefit that will bedonated by the Smokehouse. All agreed. Maxey reminded the board to come to the benefit Saturday September 14 at 2:00. Roberts referred the board to the library policy manual to personnel policy number 17 which states that the board may designate other holidays for staff. Roberts moved that staff members birthday's be treated as a holiday, and if this falls on another holiday or a day in which the library is closed, the staff member may elect another day of vacation. Burdette seconded. Singleton added that he felt this should be at the discretion of the supervisor. Harrison said she felt this should be changed to one personal day, because some people may not be able to take off on their birthday. All agreed to this change. Roberts. said he felt this is a small token of appreciation to the staff for their service. All said AYE. Harrison said the staff thanks the board for their appreciation. Singleton brought up a previous discussion about the rent that ORL pays FPL being the same since 1992, while the expenses for utilities and janitorial service have risen. Singleton asked Duree what she thought about this. Duree said when the current rate was set Steve Davis had done a study of the cost involved in maintaining the area. She said it is probably time to do another study in light of the increase utility and janitorial costs. 8. Adjournment: Burdette moved to adjourn at 5:40 pm, seconded by Singleton. All AYE. Respectfully submitted by Carolyn Diemente.