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MINUTES
OCPL Board of Trustees’ Meeting
June
14, 2006
Central Library
Board Room
4:00 p.m.
ATTENDING: H.
Bonner, R.
Strauss, S. Jones,J.
Suddaby , J.
Kianka, P.
Mautino, D.
Lankes, K. Wojslaw
ABSENT: H.
J. Hubert, E. Sullivan
ALSO PRESENT: J. M. Latham, M. DePietro, K.
McCaffrey, P.
Bouck, G.
Cox, P. Elliott, S.
Jensen, D.
McGraw,
E.
Loftus, T. Riehlman, R. NaPier, H. Sammons, K.
Park, L.
Williams, G.
Sanford
Ms. Jones called the
meeting to order at 4:00 p.m..
WELCOME
Ms.
Jones welcomed everyone and had everyone introduce themselves.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Mr. Strauss moved for approval of the minutes of the May 17, 2006
meeting.
Ms.
Suddaby seconded.
Ms.
Mautino recommended a change on page 2.
Mr.
Strauss motioned for approval of the amendment.
Ms.
Suddaby seconded, the motion carried unanimously.
ACTION ITEM
Resolution: 06-10 Ms. Mautino moved the following resolution:
Resolved, That
the OCPL Board of Trustees approves the expenditure of $975.00 from the
Margaret Slocum Fund, to purchase a digital camera, a rug, and a picture book
display unit for Children’s World.
Ms. Wojslaw seconded, motion carried unanimously.
EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Meetings
Ms. Latham mentioned she had
lunch with the Onondaga Citizen’s League, which was honoring the League of Women Voters.
Ms. Latham attended the PULISDO annual meeting in Saratoga
Springs.
Ms. Latham congratulated Mr. Sanford and Mr. Pfeiffer for the
successful completion of the network upgrade.
Ms. Latham mentioned that OCPL will be the lead agency in CNY
Reads. She thanked Ms. Loftus who offered her services to coordinate this
event.
New Business
a) Retreat
Ms. Latham
gave a report on the success of the first annual OCPL Systems Retreat. Member
directors, branch managers, unit heads, and senior staff gathered together on
June 9th at Camp Brockway for a day of information sharing and
brainstorming. They focused primarily on system services, which everyone had in
common.
They reviewed the legal requirements, how system funds are spent, and
what amount of subsidy the county provides. They also discussed the impact of
flat funding at the state level and how increase in staff and benefit costs
impact the ability to continue services. They organized into small groups,
brainstormed their priorities and came up with five. They are: Delivery and the
enhancement of delivery services, ILS, expert services support, marketing, and
leverage purchasing power.
Pam McLaughlin from Syracuse University was the facilitator. As a
result of the Retreat OCPL will pursue a two-year grant to support an advocacy
marketing strategy applicable to OCPL as a whole, and will pursue a common book
contract.
b) CIP
Request
Capital Improvement
Request (CIP) - The request includes all the funding for the ILS conversion as
well as support for software applications, training, and local member hardware
purchases. At this point, the total cost will be $859,000. Ms. Jensen will
provide the Board with a breakdown of the costs.
OCPL received
approval of the CNY Community Foundation grant application to support a
communitywide survey. Ms. Latham will meet with KS&R to strategize the next
steps.
Old
Business
a) ILS
Ms. Latham reviewed the ILS
comparison spreadsheets.
The RFP
process nominated one vendor: TLC/CARL, who were also, originally, the lowest
cost Unix solution. There is strong advocacy at the county legislative level
for GIS/POLARIS, a company with one of their two headquarters in Liverpool, NY.
The third offer now on the table is from the merged Sirsi/Dynix company. Based on our current contract, Sirsi/Dynix
will provide a free upgrade to either the Sirsi Unicorn product, or the Dynix
Horizon product. They have also
modified the hardware configuration to support our operation at the most
reasonable cost. The Sirsi/Dynix offer
is at this point the best solution for the costs involved, in the opinion of
Ms. Latham.
Ms. Latham
understands that the GIS/POLARIS product is attractive politically but advises
close monitoring. She advised the board
that any decision in favor of GIS/POLARIS includes all the necessary funding to
make it work in a system of this size. As the system grows, the cost of GIS/POLARIS will increase. The county legislature must understand that
conversion costs, for example, are higher due to the complexity in moving from
a Unix platform to Windows. The network
design required for Polaris is more extensive – and expensive – than that
required for either of the other two vendors. There is also the fact that no one else is developing in Windows.
Ms. Latham asked the Board
to weigh all the elements when revisiting their decision, that the Board
advocate for a good solution for all of our libraries and that we try to at
least to resolve this issue in a timely way.
b) Budget
Ms. Latham mentioned that
Ms. Jensen and herself met with Ms. Mignano, Mr. Mareane, and Mr. Seitz from
DMB to discuss the budget request authorized by the Board. They asked for some
clarifications and made some recommendations. Ms. Latham and Ms. Jensen are
continuing to work with them on their proposals.
Ms. Latham mentioned this would
be a good time to advocate for the library budget. Ms. Cox will provide the
Board with a contact list of the
Education and Libraries Committee members.
c) Internet
Filters- Public Hearing
Ms. Latham
explained the e-rate subsidy. OCPL will qualify for a 90% discount. In order to
qualify, OCPL needs to:
1) Install
Filters
2) Have an
Internet Use & Safety Policy
3) Have a
Public Hearing
Ms. Latham
asked the Board to approve in concept the draft of the Internet Use and Safety
Policy and a motion to hold a public hearing for this purpose.
MOTION: Mr.
Lankes moved that the OCPL Board of Trustees authorize a public hearing on
Internet filtering with the expenditure of up to $100.00 to publicize such a
meeting as a legal notice to the public.
Ms.
Suddaby seconded, the motion passed unanimously.
STAFF REPORT
KyungJin Park - New Hires/Vacancies
New Hires: Deb Bendig, OCPL’s Systems Librarian will begin on July 10th.
Vacancies: Ms. Park mentioned that OCPL lost two Central staff members: Peg Duckett,
Public Information Specialist and Mike Craven, Driver/Messenger.
COMMUNICATIONS
Foundation: Mr.
Kianka mentioned the Foundation recently sent out approximately twenty-five
letters to perspective board members and has heard from two so far.
Government Relations: Mr.
Strauss gave the following highlights from their last meeting:
Ms. Strauss reminded everyone to please send thank you letters to the local and
state Legislatures for the significant increase in library funding this year.
CSEA SIDEBAR AGREEMENT
Ms. Latham explained the background
history of the pilot sidebar agreement between
the Union and the County.
Ms.
Sammons thanked the Board for giving her the opportunity to speak on behalf of
the staff. She explained her involvement with the Union and wanted to give the
Board a sense of where the Union and the membership are coming from on this
issue. Ms. Sammons reviewed the agreement, the letter from the Union stating
they would like to cancel the agreement, and correspondence from the Executive
Director.
After
much discussion the Board encouraged further conversation between the Union and
the OCPL Administration to try to resolve this current agreement until the end
of 2006 and to report on it at the July meeting.
OCPL ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Mr. Strauss mentioned they are
revisiting the by-laws. Ms. Ripka is putting together a survey to determine how
to increase participation by member libraries.
Mr.
Strauss mentioned the annual “Trustee of the Year” Award nominations deadline
is August 7th.
Ms.
Mautino suggested that the Board or a Board committee and the OCPL Advisory
Committee should meet and have a joint session.
MLDA
Ms.
DePietro mentioned they are in the process of revising their bylaws. They have
renamed MLDA to “Onondaga County Suburban Libraries” (OCSL).
Ms. DePietro
mentioned that they felt the retreat was a great idea and a great time to share
ideas and for visiting with each other.
Liverpool
roof referendum has passed and the Marcellus library is working on a shared project with the town.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
At
5:25, Ms. Mautino moved to enter into executive session for purposes of
personnel discussion with possible action to follow.
Mr.
Strauss seconded, all in favor.
Ms.
Wojslaw moved to adjourn the executive session.
Resumed
in open session at 6:25 p.m.
MOTION: Ms. Mautino moved that the OCPL Board of trustees accepts the report
from the Management Committee regarding the annual evaluation of the Executive
Director and charges the Management Committee to see the evaluation process
through completion.
Mr.
Bonner seconded, motion carried unanimously.
MOTION: Ms. Jones moved for an appropriation of $1,000 from the Trustees
fund to provide one year support for the Executive Director’s professional
development initiative and facilitating community and constituency
relationships and the granting of five additional development days.
Mr.
Lankes seconded, motion carried unanimously.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr.
Kianka motioned to adjourn.
Ms. Jones adjourned the meeting at 6:25 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Hugh
W. Bonner
Secretary