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Home My WebLink About1997-08-22 MinutesBOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING Fayetteville Public Library August 22, 1997 Present: Board members: Mark Burdette, Steve Singleton, Nancy Hendricks, Maury Roberts, Michael Thomas, ORL Director Karen Duree, Library personnel: June Jefferson, Lynaire Hartsell, Lolly Maxey, Mary Saxon, Carolyn Diemente, and Ann Prichard. I. Executive session called by Roberts at 3:00 on August 22, 1997, seconded by Singleton to discuss matters relating to the Director's position. No decisions were made at this session. Roberts moved to go into regular session at 4:00 August 22, 1997, seconded by Singleton, all voted AYE. Regular session called to order by Thomas at 4:00 in the meeting room of the Fayetteville Public Library. II. Approval of minutes: Burdette moved to accept the minutes of the July 21, 1997, meeting as submitted, and Roberts seconded. Jefferson stated that in accordance with the FOI Act the Board needs to give the Secretary the times of call to order and adjournment, and which Board members made the motions to have the Executive Sessions and adjourn, and who seconded the motions for the Executive Sessions held on June 20, June 25, and July 1. Thomas said he would get that information. Thomas also stated that in every case the press was notified of the meeting times, and notified afterward if there was any action taken or not. All voted AYE to accept the minutes. Thomas read a memo to the Library staff and volunteers expressing the Board's appreciation for the extra work and good job being done by the staff in this time of transition. III. Budget Jefferson explained the various parts of the budget materials received in the packet. The current budgetary environment 8-19-97 is the context in which the numbers on the following pages were decided. Some of the percentages in this section were given by the City. Roberts asked about the 9% increase in postage costs. Jefferson said this reflected an increase from $.32 to $.35 for postage. Thomas said he liked the last paragraph in this section about the library being a service organization and felt this should be used in the submission to the City. Jefferson said the main thing in this budget is to maintain the good service we give. The need has increased for trained staff to implement the automation technology and to act as navigators or intermediaries to the public on the public use computers and OPAC's. In the "Future needs" section Jefferson pointed out that growth is still occurring area wide. FPL serves an area much larger than just the city of Fayetteville. With an online catalog and.internet access, not only will we be serving patrons that live outside Fayetteville, but some people who don't even come into the library who can call in and access our catalog. Jefferson went on to explain the budget numbers. Singleton and Burdette questioned the figure under salaries and wages. Hartsell said it was her understanding that this number was extremely out of line with what we would normally expect because of the money being paid out to a resigned director, people filling that spot for the interim, and for as long as it takes for the new person to learn the job. Jefferson said there is no other fund account for severance and payment for staff doing dual duty in the interim. Jefferson said the increased amount in the column of salary contingency was addressed in the long-term development discussion. The salary contingency should be an amount that is there for payout if all vacation and sick leave is taken in one fell swoop, or other such circumstances as have occurred. The recommendation for salary contingency is $64,588. 1997 costs related to personnel changes and concomitant expenditures are projected to total $53,607 over the budgeted $737,967 (see Actual 1997 column on budget summary). The big increase in staff is needed to show patrons the new system, and for a while run dual systems. Singleton said he felt the main objective should be to reopen the evening hours. Jefferson said by having automation, we now have multiple stations where we can offer the patrons service, and these will require extra staff. Also we need more staff to reregister the patrons. We will have six OPAC automated catalogs, two public use computers where people can do word processing, two electronic databases, copiers, and printers. We need at least two people at the information desk to answer questions of patrons who walk up and need assistance finding something which takes that librarian away from the desk. These librarians also answer questions from phone inquiries, which may also take them away from the desk to find the information requested. We will also need librarians to assist patrons in learning how to use the computer, and also to explain what they are seeing on the computer. We will also need someone who can assist in the event of machine breakdown, paper jam in the copier, printer problems, etc. The number of in-house use of materials and reference transactions, both of which have the potential for reference librarian intermediation, is 1 1/2 to 2 times the circulation. FPL is a research supporting library. These numbers have been attained by surveys done for 7 years. Hartsell pointed out that FPL has three separate and distinct service areas that have to be manned at a level that provides security for both staff and patrons as opposed to the Springdale and Rogers libraries which are all on one level. Burdette asked for a breakdown of the increased money needed for personnel services. Jefferson noted the difference of $61,000 in salary contingency. Burdette said he felt this amount is too large. Jefferson said this actual cost this year is $53,607 which is quite a bit more than the $3300 that was budgeted last year. Budgeting the $64,588 this year will keep us from being in this situation in the future where severance will have to be paid out of Long-Term Development. Thomas said he felt the salary contingency should be smaller. Jefferson continued with Workers Compensation increase of $500 which is a Municipal League projection. The unemployment insurance is the same kind of projection. The Retirement Savings Plan is smaller because we have lost a high paid employee who had a large contribution, while the new person will not be eligible for a year. The increase in health insurance comes from a 15% increase in premiums and must include a projection of four more FTE's who may need full family coverage. The next two items of life insurance and medicare are the same increase because of new employees. The salaries and wages increase reflects the severance ($19,000), the 5% matrix adjustment ($27,000), four additional full time employees ($65,000), coverage for the interim positions, and the time it takes the new director to learn the job during which dual salaries will have to be paid. Burdette said he felt 30 days was long enough for this dual salary projection. Jefferson and Hartsell said two new people will be to just keep us up, and two more people are needed because of the automation. Jefferson said the number of requests for materials will go up. Saxon said having four more FTE's is the only way we will ever be able to open the evening hours. Roberts said we made a commitment to automation, and providing this new level of service is important to him at this point. Singleton said he felt the increased hours should be a priority. Hendricks had to leave at this point, and said she agreed with Singleton about increased hours being a priority. The numbers that were agreed to for personnel services were (1) a salary contingency of $3500, (2) salary overlap of $4000, and remove the $19,000 for severance since this will come from Long Term development. This gives a figure of $835,000 for personnel services which will include four new FTE's and increased hours. Singleton said he felt our priorities should be (1) the 5% pay matrix increase for all staff, (2) add enough staff to allow us to reopen evening hours, and (3) extra people to cope with automation and increased workload. Discussion continued about other items in the budget. The office supplies increase of 3% was a figure from the City budget book. Everyone felt that number will probably be higher because of the automation. Jefferson said the increased office supplies relating to automation will come from long-term development this year and then after that we will have a better idea of the needs in this area. Burdette suggested putting $1800 in column 5210 for small equipment such as fax or adding machines, etc. Singleton asked where money would come from if computer parts went bad. Jefferson said maintenance of small equipment. Burdette said to add $100 per computer or $3000 for maintenance of small equipment. Thomas asked if we have master surge protection. Jefferson said each machine has surge protection, and we need to get telephone surge protection and are getting a price from ETI. Burdette said with all changes discussed the total comes out to approximately $955,000, which is about a 20% increase. All agreed to this figure. IV. Other Business Jefferson brought up another unpredicted cost. Hartsell said we have 13 ports to access the regional system, and we need 15-18 ports during high traffic hours. This requires a one time cost of $1900 a piece for the license. Duree said these may not be needed, so we need to wait and see how the traffic is to see if we need more than 13 ports, and that the price may be lower. She said there were some problems during the time when all the libraries were barcoding, but that was an unusual situation. On July 25, the Board approved an expenditure of $2150 for additional wiring and cabling as per the memo from Maxey and Hartsell to the Board. Duree commented on the memo from Stockdell about press on the library closings. Stockdell had stated that ORL had done "significant press" on the library closings, and Duree wanted the Board to know that ORL had done no press, and anything the papers had reported they had found out themselves. The Springdale paper had done more reporting on the closings, and so had focused on the Springdale Library. Singleton moved that restoration of evening hours be a priority on the budget form "Goals and Objectives", and Burdette seconded and all voted AYE. V. Adjournment Burdette moved to adjourn, Singleton seconded, and all voted AYE. The meeting was adjourned at 7:00. Respectfully submitted by Carolyn Diemente.