The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About1997-12-12 MinutesBOARD OF TRUSTEES SPECIAL MEETING Fayetteville Public Library December 22, 1997 Present: Maury Roberts. Steve Singleton, Michael Thomas, Mark Burdette, Louise Schaper, Lolly Maxey, Lynaire Hartsell, and Carolyn Diemente. Burdette had moved to go into Executive Session, Roberts seconded, and all voted AYE. There were no announcements from this session. Singleton moved to return to regular session, Roberts seconded, and all voted AYE. Thomas relinquished the chair of the meeting to Burdette. I. Call to order: Burdette called the meeting to order at 3:00 pm in the meeting room of the Fayetteville Public Library. II. Agenda: (1) Financial reorganization, (2) policy changes, (3) goals and objectives, and (4) patron survey. III. Financial reorganization: Schaper presented a summary of the financial accounts of the library. She requested that the Board consider consolidating some of the accounts and move them to Merrill Lynch, because they have excellent reporting, online access to balances and transactions, 596 interest on the daily balance, and a debit VISA card to eliminate some of the small charge accounts. Schaper said she had spoken to Jerry Rose about Trent Trumbo handling the account at Merrill Lynch, and Rose had said there would be no conflict of interest in him doing so. Burdette said there would be no way for Trumbo to do anything different with the money than anyone else. The Board requested Schaper get a letter from Rose for the library files. Schaper recommended closing the account at McIlroy as much as possible, closing the account at Nations, moving these assets to Merrill Lynch, and opening a checking account at Bank of Fayetteville. THOMAS MOVED THAT THESE ACTIONS BE TAKEN, ROBERTS SECONDED, AND ALL VOTED AYE. Schaper said she wanted to be sure that the new account could handle direct deposit of payroll checks, and asked that the motion be amended to include this. THOMAS MOVED TO AMEND THE PREVIOUS MOTION TO INCLUDE DIRECT DEPOSIT OF PAYROLL CHECKS, SINGLETON SECONDED, AND ALL VOTED AYE. N. Policy changes Schaper presented some existing policies and drafts of some changes she would like the Board to consider. (1) Longevity — PA -30 Schaper recommended that this policy be eliminated. She felt that rewarding employees should be based on merit and not longevity. Hartsell said she has never worked in a system that was based on merit, so she is uncomfortable with the concept, and would hope that the Board, Director, and employees could come up with a policy that is equitable and fair. SINGLETON MOVED TO RECIND POLICY PA -30 -LONGEVITY- AS OF 12/31/97, THOMAS SECONDED. Roberts asked how many employees were expecting this payment, and Hartsell said 5 or 6, however some are part time and so their award is pro -rated. In practice this award was given every year on the anniversary date after the particular amount of time worked. Hartsell said she felt that this policy had been continued because the employees are not highly paid, and this was a nice perk to reward them for staying. Schaper said she would like to have more merit based perks, such as more vacation. ALL VOTED AYE TO ELIMINATE POLICY PA -30. (2) Policy PA -11 Evaluations Policy PA -11 states that all employees are evaluated on their anniversary date. Schaper said she felt if we go to a merit based system that all employees should be evaluated at the same time as a basis for comparison. Hartsell said she had always been told that performance evaluations were not supposed to be comparing one employee to another, but comparing that employees performance this year to his performance last year. Schaper said her recommendation is that the Library Director may request to review an evaluation with a supervisor before they are reviewed with the employee. So if there is a situation that the Director feels is being handled unfairly, there is a safeguard. The Board may also review the Director's evaluations. Schaper said that there is little opportunity at the library for upward promotions, so the person who is really doing a great job should be able to get a little more money. Thomas said the City gives a bonus to these employees. Schaper recommended changing the policy to all evaluations being done at the same time. THOMAS MOVED TO ACCEPT THE CHANGE N POLICY AS RECOIVIVIENDED BY SCHAPER, AND ROBERTS SECONDED. Singleton said he felt there should be a definite time for evaluations. Thomas recommended the 4th quarter. Singleton said he felt if we are going to have a merit based system, we need to build into our budget calculations enough money to actually be able to reward people more that a cost of living raise. THOMAS AMENDED THE MOTION TO MAKE ALL EVALUATIONS LN THE en QUARTER, ROBERTS SECONDED, AND ALL VOTED AYE. Schaper said the problem is how to implement the merit system, and what to do in the interim year that will be fair. THOMAS MOVED THAT ANY DECISIONS MADE IN 1998 ABOUT PAY INCREASES WILL BE 9 RETROACTIVE TO THE 1998 ANNIVERSARY DATE, ROBERTS SECONDED, AND ALL VOTED AYE. (3) Policy PZ The change recommended to this policy is for paper reduction. This policy states that all employees are given a copy of the policy manual to keep. Schaper said she would like to have the manual available, and have all new employees read it, and sign a statement saying they have read it. They could have a copy if they want, but they would not be required to take one. Schaper said the updating of these manuals is cumbersome, and she would rather just have a manual in one central location. Singleton would like to discuss the language on the statement the employee would sign with the City personnel officer before passing this. THOMAS MOVED TO TAM F THIS TIN IJL DISCUSSING IT WITH THE CITY, SINGLETON SECONDED, AND ALL VOTED AYE. (4) Meeting Room Schaper said she felt this policy needs further discussion. Maxey said she would like clarification of the policy concerning charging admission to events held at the library. Maxey said her impression was that the library, as a non-profit organization, could not charge admission to a program. However, there are other non-profit organizations in town that do this. Schaper wanted to know if we could make money from the meeting room by charging 'for-profit" organizations for using the room. Schaper recommends not charging a non-profit organization for use of the room, but would like to charge a "for-profit" organization. Schaper also suggests that we not have the requirement of being open to the public. ROBERTS MOVED TO TABLE THIS PENDING FURTHER STUDY, SINGLETON SECONDED, AND ALL VO1ED AYE. (5) Policy PA -9 — Hiring relatives. Thomas said policy PA -9 states that Fayetteville Public Library cannot hire anyone who is a relative of anyone on the City Council or the Board of Trustees of the Library. Thomas said he discussed this with city personnel who said this policy goes back to the City Manager form of government which is no longer in existence. THOMAS MOVED TO STRIKE THE PHRASE rKOM THE MLANUAL THAT THE LIBRARY CANNOT HIRE RELATIVES OF THE CITY COUNCIL, SINGLETON SECONDED, AND ALL VOTED AYE. The part of the statement about hiring relatives of the Board of Trustees will still stand. Roberts noted there are several policies that need to be revised. Schaper suggested taking one policy at each meeting and discussing it. V. Goals and Objectives Schaper collated all the suggestionsgiven by the Board at the previous meeting. She said the suggestions fell into several specific categories such as (1) facilities, (2) public relations and an increased presence in the community, (3) develop and /A empower the staff, (4) volunteers and the support of the Friends, (5) work processes — streamline and simplify the procedures of payroll, budget, financial accounting, etc., and (6) planning — goals and objectives. Schaper said she would like to refine all of these suggestions and come back to the Board with a document that can be used to prioritize our goals and objectives. VI. Survey of Patrons. Schaper said she met with Dr. Molly Jensen of Dell Laboratories which sells Sally Hansen nail products and markets to Walmart, and Dr. Linda Nelson who is the Director of Research for the Ozark Guidance Center. They are willing to help us on a volunteer basis with a survey. The consensus after much discussion was that the best thing to do is a questionnaire to our existing customers. They said it would be very expensive to try to survey non-users. Burdette suggested calling people not in our database over the phone. Schaper said we know we are going to open more hours, the only choices are when and which hours. The main thing we don't want to do is alienate our existing loyal customer base. The best use of money might be in an education program after the decision about the hours is made. The primary question we have is what hours the patrons want us to be open, or when the patron might be most likely to use the library. The questions about the service might be phrased in a report card like format of A, B, C, or D rather than a like - dislike format. Roberts said he would like to know what percentage of our patrons work and cannot get to the library when we close at 5:00. VII. Adjournment: ROBERTS MOVED TO ADJOURN, SINGLETON SECONDED, ALT VOTED AYE, AND THE MEETING WAS ADJOURNED AT 6:00. Respectfully submitted by Carolyn Diemente. //