I will call the Thursday, June 26th meeting of the board of trustees of the Grand Marray Public Library to order. We'll start with a roll call. I'm Sarah McNast trustee and secretary.
Helen youth, a visitor, Sue Mloone, trustee Gary, city council. Dave Mills, um, county commissioner, Kevin Labbor, trustee, Nancy trustee, Amanda Saint, library director.
Stacy Dreward, library friends. Thank you all. Um, since we do have visitors, we don't usually have an open forum on our agenda, but we should. So, we're going to add that before we get into the meeting. Um, we're going to follow the same guidelines that the city and the
county do. The public is invited to speak at this time. Open forum is limited to one half hour. No person may speak more than 5 minutes or more than once. Each subject will have a limit of 10 minutes. Board members may ask questions of the speaker. With the agreement of the board, such matters
taken up during the open forum may be scheduled on the current agenda or future agenda. Can we adjust that? We can. Would you like to? I would say five minutes is plenty per per item. Yeah. For each subject even.
Oh, not per was that easy. Five minutes per person, 10 per subject. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can I buy a vowel? So, if you would like to speak, we would be happy to hear from you. I would. I'm I am concerned um really with your
decision making in relationship to the funds that have been donated to the the library friends. I'm very much concerned about what the intentions of those funds have been and how you might be uh making
a decision to use them in a very large way. uh which would leave you with um what I would consider an inadequate con cushion for our current circumstances with our government support for
libraries or lack thereof if you want to call it that. Um I am I am concerned also at the same time of the libraries um staff in particular being um
being untrustful. I think right now that is the the best description I can put on it that they are untrustful of the library as a safe place because
wise it's been established that there's adequate um access for this size space and um the library staffs
are not as permanent as the libraries are. and what I feel and I say feel because I'm I can't give you an intellectual argument about it
but um I do feel that at the current time library just that that the library itself is going to need all of our thinking all of our
all of our very good thinking to come up with some way to keep it going. And I feel the I do all this feeling. But um when I was visiting with Amanda this past week, I uh I walked through the
library and I saw where the new solution to the greater sense of of safety which comes in my mind from looking at it and I'm a visual artist so I'll have to say that looking at it and I
particularly like architecture. So um you're you're not going to make the place safer by putting a door any place that was suggested. Mhm.
That's you are not going to transfer you're I mean it would be wonderful to give the staff a pill because I'm I feel they've been extremely ruffled and and that it it is important that they get a sense of safety but
I have to put I have to put the library before the staff. I do and I tell you we have some staff members I love very dearly. So, I mean that it isn't it isn't that but if they don't feel safe. Now, I did walk with Amanda and what I
thought were some suggestions that might be encouraging um because um I don't think the signage is particularly good in the library to to let a person know where to get out of
here. Mhm. And I think that that would be a heck of a cheaper heck of a cheaper way to go at least to see if it would reach some or give a better sense of safety for those who do not feel safe
just at that. I don't know how many minutes I've used but I think that's what I want to say. Thank you. Thank you so much for if any Yeah. If anybody has question, I'll be happy, but I won't stay for your whole meeting.
Uh, you use the word untrustworthy or untrustful. Mhm. Um, I didn't quite catch the context of who is who is being untrustful or who is being seen as untrustful.
I was talking person I wasn't talking personalities. I was talking about the staff not trusting like the code. Okay. I mean the code is I mean that's a okay like you know um if there there needs to
be no I didn't mean personality untrustful. Well our policies that's what I was trying to figure out is you our current policies are are the way we're being perceived that. So okay but you does
that make sense? what I'm what I'm talking about but they yeah they don't trust the code which but I don't think and and therefore I don't think any other aspect which um any other thing
that's been offered as a solution will make them more trusting. That's what I believe and I I think before I would spend lots of money for it and it's not my decision of
course I'm I'm not even on it but I'm trying to caution that the money may have been given to the library for um for a reason other than
what is your fa what the what is being faced currently. Okay. Thank you. No more question. These are things that have come up. We Okay. So I'm You're not completely
It's not a completely new thought. Well, I I could demonstrate that I'm an 86 year old woman and that I don't think that I would worry about getting out of the library. I mean, I can say that, but that's uh we haven't put me to the test
yet. You could be our test person. No, but thank you very much. Thank you so much for Yeah. Nice looking group here. Lovely group. start. We got to act.
All right. Next up, we have the consent agenda which contains um approval of the agenda for today, approval of the minutes from last month, and approval of the payment of bills. Do we have any thing we want to pull out of the consent agenda? Are we good to move
forward with that? I'd make a motion to approve the consent agenda. I would like to second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I oppose. Motion
passes unanimously. And now we have our library friend. We're so glad you're here. Thank you. Well, thank you. Yes, this is kind of a new thing where we're trying to give the library board regular updates as to what Library Friends is up to. So, um, I'm
here today to just answer any questions you might have. Um, I can go over the current list of board members because, um, there have been some changes recently. Um, Jan Smith has stepped down from Library of Friends. She's been on
the board a really long time and served very honorably. Um, and so I just want to give a nod to Jan Smith for all of her work that she has done over the years. Um, our current board is Agatha Armstrong, who has been on the board for
a very long time. Um, uh, I think she Agatha has the longest tenure of anyone. Um, Joanna Larson is our treasurer. Jack Miller, um, has been on and off the Library of Friends board for a number of
years. Andy Lar is our secretary. Uh Beth Blank, Kelsey Kennedy, and Cindy Seo are also serving as well as Carl Solander. So we have a nice full board
um of library friends um which is good. Yes. Okay. So, I've got Agatha Gelano, Jack, Andy, Kelsey, Jack, Beth, Beth, Link,
and Andy is A N D I L A R S E N. Um, and so you probably know that we're very involved with the used book room at Odds and Ends. um that has been a primary fundraising
tool for library friends and it's been very lucrative. We have um board members and others who volunteer their time there in the book room. Andy Larson heads up that effort. Um and um it's working out very well in terms of
fundraising. Um, the library friends used to have just one big book sale and this is sort of like having an ongoing book sale which is nice because we don't have to store books or do anything like that. Um, so that's a great partnership.
Um, we uh provide grants to the school libraries and as well as the Gram Public Library. We do not um uh solicit uh
grant applications from anyone outside that group. Um we just keep it with the uh public in the public realm. Um and let's see. Um,
I know that Amanda had a question and a request about the summer book picnic and so Carl and Jack are going to step up and great do that and possibly Cindy. She wasn't sure. So, we'll have some
helpers for that. Um, that question is if I could get some volunteers to help with summer reading picnic this year. Yeah. Yeah. And so if we have a heads up, we can almost always come up with some helpers for events and things.
And we meet once a month. And um let's see. I guess I'll just open it up if you have any questions for me about recent grants to the library or anything like that. We love the book room.
I was wondering how it compares to the big sales they used to do. Like what does it look like comparatively? Good question. So, we do not get uh any funding for sales of books. It's just
the volunteer hours. Okay. Um but I can tell you that having the book room consistently makes up for 10% or more of odds and end sales. So, we're helping out there, too. Um,
and the volunteers who work in the book room seem to have a good time. And it's kind of recycling, too. You know, we're not we're doing our best to not contribute to wasting books or throwing books away,
that sort of thing. Well, and so, um, in regards to, uh, Helen's concerns, she said friends of the library, but I don't think she meant the group. I think she just meant people who support the library, but that's
Yeah. Yeah. But it was it caught my ear and I was like, wait. And so, do the friends and I probably should be more familiar with this, but do they are there like stipulations on the grants like you cannot use it for a door or something like that? Well, we work
closely with Amanda. Um, and the library friends will always discuss a request. Um, and um, so recently we helped out with the new staff computers. So, it was really good to be in a position to be
able to help with that. Yeah. And that seemed very much within our realm. Um, thank you. Capital improvements and things like that probably aren't. So, we wouldn't probably ever fund a new door if that were ever to come into question.
Um, but a lot of programming support and um seasonal reading activities and author visits and things like that. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. That support of the staff
computers was huge. A big lift for us. Meant a lot. That's great. Yeah, we're very happy to be able to help. Um the question I have for you is sort of related to what Helen brought up,
which is the um uncertainty about the federal scene in terms of library funds. And so that's a conversation that, you know, we can just start here tonight. But um
you know do keep library friends in mind if there is a some kind of a funding gap due to the federal budget cuts or anything like that. you know, I can't promise that we can
make up the whole deficit, but but there might be, you know, something that that can be helped as a stop gap, right, until things straighten out. I think I I should say
sort of related. Um a while ago, I'm trying to think maybe six weeks ago or so, I uh attended via Zoom um a meeting that featured the I can't remember her name now. She's the She is head of Yeah.
the regional arrowhead. And she at that time felt she said guardedly hopeful uh that and she said her her what she
said actually was things are okay now and we will try to remain hopeful. She didn't see anything catastrophic happening right away. Now, that was six
weeks ago, so word only knows. But yeah, we we try to follow it or track it, but if we do miss anything, please let us know. Okay. In case we miss any news about that. It's hard to keep up.
Yeah. Well, what just uh well, I was just going to say what percentage um again I shouldn't I have lots of numbers floating around in my what percentage could be at risk our budget yours? None. Yeah, that's what I none of our
operational budget, right? That's all city and county funds. But um the ALS though Arrowhead Library system does have state and federal funding. Yeah. Mhm. So the way this picture looks as I'm being told is that the federal
dollars go to the state and that's Minnitech. So they do like ebooks Minnesota and they do for example the thing I would be most immediately concerned about is the career system for men link the interl loan system that
goes throughout the state and but then as those federal dollars impact the budget that they have at the state level could that then have an effect on what is requested of regional library systems? Yes. Could that then
affect how much the Arrowhead Library system is requesting from the county? Absolutely. And then does that affect our bottom line? It could. That's kind of that would be the tier and um hopefully we'll sort of see the dominoes falling as to what what that would look
impact could look like. Good to know. Yeah, that's what I thought but wanted to make sure. And um and just you know this is not of course I greatly value libraries, our
library and the system as a whole. Um um and and so um other federal cuts that certainly are happening are affecting food assistance and um
health insurance um for lower income people. And so those impacts are being picked up by the state and and would go to the county as well. And it's a much more significant like dollar amount. Um
and clearly impactful for for people's lives um very immediately. Um and um and it's and it's rough, but our state is a pretty awesome state and and you know
really doing some big lifts and figuring and canering and all that. Um and um if it did come down to ALS needing more funds from our community, I think our community is extremely supportive of the library, too. still would be willing to
up our game in whatever way we needed to. But it still is if odds and ends had enough volunteers to open up more days a week so we can just volunteer our time at odds and ends and then just put it towards the friends. Volunteers always needed.
Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Well, thanks everyone and we'll send another emissary a few months down the road and thanks for all you do. Thank you for the public library. It's easy. Yeah. You are on the board as well or you just you're representing
them? I'm the chair. You're the chair. Okay. You didn't mention yourself. Yeah. Thank you. [Music] We have your report, Amanda. Okay.
So, I tried something a little bit different in my director's report this month and showed a bar graph of hip visits. And uh in May this year, we had 3,378 visitors. And I'm already looking
forward to Jan's visits and hopefully we'll provide that next month for you. If there are other sorts of tables or statistics that you're very interested in, then I'm open
to suggestions so you can see what's happening in the library. Summer reading program launched on June 9 and it lasts until August 16th and we have the reading blogs for participants
and they earn incentives for reading. And then we also have four special events. One of them already happened and that's the Brodini comedy magic show. It was fantastic. We had uh youths lined up around the perimeter here waiting for
their turn to be tricked by Broaddini and it it was so great. Um, the next one that we have lined up is with the Children's Museum or the Minnesota I think it is the Minnesota Children's Museum and they're
going to talk about fossils. And I think that may be the Science Museum. Science Museum. Thanks, Nancy. I didn't write it down in here. Now I'm kicking myself. But so they're going to talk about how how they distinguish the fossils one from another. And I think they have a giant floor puzzle where they assemble
the skeleton. And that one will happen in July. I think it's dinosaurs. What did I say? You said fossils and and it is fossils, but I think it's a dinosaur fossil. Yeah. Oh, good. I mean, which is really amazing dinosaurs, you know. It's
going to be good. It will be dinosaur. Well, if you're a little boy especially, well, maybe a little girl, too. The fact that it's a dinosaur is very significant. I wanted to recap some of the adult
programs that have been happening. Ryan had uh Charlie Maguire doing Going to Bartalina, Songs and Stories on Commercial Sailing on the Great Lakes. That was in May and we had 72 people. Wow. 24 attended Moving Words, which is that
multire um discussion from the Minnesota 2025 Minnesota book award finalists and Stacy moated that that was very good. And then on June 4th, 67 people came to learn all about the scenic route
building Minnesota's north shores with Dr. Arie Allaninan. So, the programming is doing really fabulously and that relates later on to our conversation about budgeting. Uh, Tufty Book Drop, I was going to get
rid of it. The volunteers, we we weren't able to offer a consistent service for the few people that were using it, but I was able to partner with the bank manager and she's going to bring the books up for us. Great. Good. There we go.
Carpet was cleaned. Um, the Duth Superior Area Community Foundation has changed its name to the Boreal Waters Community Foundation. And an update on the emergency exit project is that I've now reached out to
six different contractors searching for uh quotes on the second location over here to the to facing Highway 61. So, still in progress. Any questions for me?
Okay, great. Thank you so much. Oh, I have a question. Sorry. Can we I really I think the bar graph is very informative and I was wondering if we could have um like how far back do we
have just compare because ju looking at the two right years it's like uh oh kind of you know there's some significant you know visitor drops um and so I was just like
wanting more perspective on that. So you'd like to go back, you'd like to see six months, but three or four years in a row back. Yeah, I think that could be helpful if it's not too ownorous. But I'm not demanding it, just asking. Well,
that would show us what had happened through the pandemic. Yeah, that's true. Um, we'd have to go back to 2019 to see what was happening before then. Yeah, true. Do you have a preference or like goal here? No, just more perspective. So, okay. Um,
anything off the top of your head to say why this might be happening? A lower attendance visitors? Well, and is it that much lower? I mean, the It really isn't except in March. I don't know that it's that significant except in March where it is
almost 10%. [Music] Oh, we've got the numbers. I was looking at the bar graph trying to estimate. Mhm. Well, maybe not. May, you know, but it's just consistent, right? Consist
consistently lower. It is consistently lower. That is true. I'm not alarmed, but I'm just curious, you know, maybe one year back because go back further than we have the flood year. The other thing I would say, do
you know what happened this year? This was a terrible year for flu. Absolutely. I know in our family, young people, old people, everybody in Grand Marray was coughing, any kind of illness. But, you know, I I had the flu.
I was at the clinic and they said, "Oh, yeah, there's flu. There's paraflu. There's stuff we don't even know what it is." I yeah I suspect I obviously I don't know but I suspect that has something to do with it because
there were things that I would have done librarywise and other I I just stayed home either I wasn't feeling well or I was feeling sort of well and I didn't want to go out and expose myself now that I'm better but I I I really
don't think that that should be underestimated. Right. No, never. That's why some perspective from a couple other years would be useful. I think sickness happens. Maybe starting at let's see what about starting in 22.
I mean I don't know yet. What it's co yet? When did we call the 21 23 which time? I don't know. Do you think it's really valuable to go back before the pandemic?
Because I'm just thinking it's kind of like life started over after the pandemic. Yeah. I don't know where there's value. That's just as perspective. But maybe we could go back to well 22 we were
it was pandemicy but it wasn't really officially pandemic. 22 23. I don't think it would be worth it to go back before that. Yeah. I don't I don't have a strong um I have I have nothing specific in mind
except for a desire for perspective. Okay. Or we could just say going forward. How about that? That would be I'll take that feedback and thank you very very much and let's see what I come up with. Okay. Yeah.
All right. And then in communications, we've got the fund statement. And then we have old business to cover with the reserve funds and financial policy K. I'm missing the first page.
Uh that's actually does anyone want to copy? Okay. Okay. Send it around. I was looking this around too. Okay. Okay. So, for anybody who wants it, sending around financial policy K.
I'm also sending around a page from the balance sheet that was in your packet from this is the April balance sheet for the restrictive fund. Yeah. Okay. So we are making decisions about how to
move forward with the 215 fund. We um within the 215 fund there are two buckets of money. There's something also called the 215 or the restricted fund which is how it's referred to in our policy. And then there's another one
called the Hazel Matthews fund. The 215 fund is negative70,64.68 in the cash account. In the money market for that account, there's $70,874.7. We've been spending from the restricted
fund or the 215 supporting public facing library service. uh services. They're doing a really good job of being intentional and responsible using those funds and and improving the library and um the monies
are all being spent from the one bucket and not both. And so um when so we have Okay. Do you have your balance sheet in front of you? Yes.
the very first line. So part of this is understanding where are the numbers where do we need to look to understand how much is available and what's going on with the with the money. Um G2510 cash you can see that number
that is the first bucket of money. That's the 215. Right beneath it is the money market. Then if you look further down, there's the 10104 cash reserve
and it says 278,87155. That is in the second bucket which is the Hazel Matthews bucket. Meanwhile, um, if you look further down, because this is a balance sheet,
if you look all the way down to the last two lines, you'll see ASDF. One says carpet, one says library improvement. These are assigned money. The 38,55
is the carpet sink fund, which we have in our budget every year, where the county and the city each give us $1,000 per year to make sure we can replace our carpet at some point. I'm not sure what the library
improvement assigned fund is for and still need to connect with the city to find out about that and about restricted fund B which is a little higher up. So my understanding, what I'm being told is the amount that
we have available right now in the 215 proper in the whole thing is the negative. It's not negative. This is a balance sheet. It's listed on the page as um 1993088. But we also know that this was done in
April and that there's spending happening. So the numbers are fluctuating. Okay. Is this helpful? Yes. Do you have any immediate questions or should I just keep giving information
and we'll see how it it lands? Okay. What I think our goal is for today is to look at our policy and how it relates to spending and
ultimately one of the goals is to like zero this fund or um balance the 215 and one of the ways we can do that is through managing the policy. So you had other policy based questions for me to research. What I confirmed is that
um one of the questions is about the reserves. Both the operational fund and the reserve fund currently say that we're going to keep six months operating expenses in each one. Mhm. And you wanted to know,
are we mandated to do that? Is this a city requirement? What flexibility do we have? You have flexibility. The um what is recommended is that we keep 25 to 50% of operating expenses
on hand in reserve. It's not a requirement. The board gets to choose what you're going to do with your money, but it is strongly encouraged by the city that you maintain 25 to 50%.
Um, in particular, Kim recommends that you continue to do that in both funds. Okay. Um, good practice.
And I'm also wondering if it's how the money is spent goes into the operational fund and how it is spent back out. So I still have some questions to ask. Um if I look at the
see if I can help with this at all. I look at the expense sheets and I'm looking at the 211 instead of the 215. Okay. So, it's showing that we have um
306,51411 after these monies get applied. So, the May I I am understanding that the May sheet this 306,000 would be at the top or in the cash. Um,
6 months operating expenses is 237,000. There's 306 in there now. So, is that is that how it's You said I'm I'm not being articulate. Are you following my thought, though? So, six
six months is 237 of that. I believe that the city does the first set of deposits and they deposit um six equally their their share their 50% of our operating money comes in um six times
once per month for the first half of the year and then the second half of the year at some point in the fall I believe the county distributes their 50% ask great questions and I'll I'll have a
followup for you. So, it's 50% split between the two that we're saying is is what? 25 to 50%. In each in each 100%. Right. That's why that's why Dave
is wondering why. Yeah. I get operating 100%. beyond that it's kind of like well how come so and I don't need an answer now by any means just sure so um from
so we get a regular you said um city does first six months of the fiscal year county does six months so we get a monthly influx from either one of those every month they don't county is six months no the county has one sixmonth
lump in September in the fall. So if that was late, we would need to have enough money to carry us if the county was behind. And similarly, if the city was to pick up late in the start of the year, we would need to have enough money to carry us until the city
funded. And I think it's important to to have that money. You've said it's best practice, but certainly given the uncertainty of the times, it's good to have that there
just in case. Now, it's right now. And you said 25 to 50%. I guess I'd go with 50 given the uncertainty of the times. Yeah, I'm I'm most familiar with 50% just period. Yeah.
Well, uh I think I mentioned this earlier that if we are 9 months into our budget and we haven't got anything from the county or the city, there's more problems in this society than
so I um that that you know uh we're not functioning anymore as a society. Um so to say we need six months in each one is yeah I think is I mean that's
uh that's a prepper move of apocalypse to that we need a whole year we have six months in this one this and we have a whole year that the county or the city is not going to pay us for a whole year what the what to fun for this to
function is is pretty filed. So, um if we want to keep in bold, I would maybe suggest that in our reserve funds and the restricted funds, we would lower that to 25%.
So then we would have 9 months. We'd have 6 months in the reserve in our cash fund in our bank of operating funds and we'd have 3 months in our reserve fund. So that would give us a 9month window if
it came to that and that's just a recommendation. They said that we we still can we can still zero that policy out on on the restricted funds. The restricted funds though are also often where we're getting the best
return on on our investment. So they're our best source for replenishment. So keeping those funds high gives us more flexibility because we have more money then coming in to spend on capital projects. Is that really true? That was one of the questions is looking at this
with Amanda the last month. Um if you look at the grammar investments um uh eight um you'll see this any expenses you see
there where um the 4M fund has got 150 oh wait let's not use that one yeah 400 400 m fund has87,667 $7.17 in it. And if you look up on the
that's in the bottom portion of that sheet and on the top portion of that sheet, you see that it's earning 2.81%. That's less than that's less than inflation. Mhm. And I don't know the what the city's
policy is or how governments work, but I know that the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ has $17 million in their endowment, and they do this. They've got we're going to take the percentage here and percentage
there, and they expect 9 to 9 to 11% in on all their investments. And if they don't get it, they yell. when they can well part half of it in UC UCF but it's with the church so that's a little bit
easier to get besides the president there comes all the time from St. Louis the other one's with one of the more big ones but you know that's how they work and
The church here benefits a little bit on that because we have our uh investments and the $185,000 at UCF funds that's earning x number of dollars. We get
$3,000 a year in dividends and then some of it's plugged back in. So we know it it helps us run too and it's not making the our checking account also has a interest it's an interest varing checking account
but we only get very little on that. Mhm. So there might be an So um multiple parts of the conversations happening. Um some are very practical. Here's how I'd like to change the two the the policy
and then maybe having goals about investing and growing the money are are happening also. Yeah. certainly growing that would be nice and how much I mean who who does that investing who makes it too well I I
don't know we in the discussions about what is the Hazel fund and how much money is in there and what and what are the rules now because the when it was established the uh city was and the and the library
board fought for a couple years over who's controlling out. Um but uh it just it we haven't been able to get all the meetings. Do you know in the city what happens to
all the where if we if you get tax money in what happens to it? Right here it looks like it's going into a money market account at 2.8%. you know, and right now if I were to take $5,000 that I've got in the bank
and put it in a money market, I can get four and a half% right here. So that's less it's less it's less liquid and I don't know how liquid you need. there's pretty significant restrictions on what
municipalities can invest in. And so, you know, I don't I don't know what the rate of return is, but all I think all most many of the counties invest in what's called the magic fund. The magic fund. Yeah, it's an acronym.
Minnesota something something. Is it magic? pretty much what has been recently. The return has been much higher than what we budgeted for. And Brady always budgets conservatively and but it been it's been really good lately
which has been really nice to have some flexibility with our budgeting and levying and Okay, that's the county. Does the city invest in that too or can it? Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know. I I don't remember hearing about it. Yeah. Yeah. have to ask him
see what but also where do these ones fall into can these be directed to uh possibly throw a monkey wrench what do we have a policy of moving funds
from cash reserve into restricted fund if we were going to I don't know if you can move operating tax dollars into Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Right. You could go the other way
and that might also be part of the conversation. I noticed in the policy that um in the 211 it says, you know, if you drop below 3 months operating, you could take cons and you could consider action to replenish the balance. And how would you do that? Well, you have a 215 that's
got money for the purpose. Except the 215 can't be spent for operating expenses. Oh, that's true. So, why would you do that? Yeah, that's kind of the whole like wait like I'm all about having a capital reserve fund um to you know for a
replacement schedule you know it'd be very nice to have everything on replacement you just clockwork but it's maybe harder to develop that schedule um and then I'm all about having reserves for operating
but um I'm not all about well I don't know I'm not personally and maybe publicly I'm not uh necessarily all about the return on investment with our dollars
because what those dollars are for is for serving um they're and if if the service needs more dollars that's what you know the levy and all that's for. So, you know, we had a fair
I think it was right around the time Amanda you were maybe first hired. I don't recall 2017 there was yeah I'm bad with dates but there was a little bit of a halaloo about this like we're not getting the best return on our money and and it had to do with the superior and
all all of that that was um okay um and one person left the board because of it um and and you know was I was new on the board and new to city council and I didn't really know anything and still don't but um
went to Mike and asked like well what why not why wouldn't we do that and that's kind of how he explained it is like let's keep the public in the public library um and that has to do with the operating and the costs and everything else is kind of like
bonuses right and I can relate to wanting to maximize the bonus um but but ultimately it's about that service right it's it's I always think about um it's
not like a retirement account where you are putting it in and you were hoping to maximize it so that you will one day be able to have this lump of money. This is ongoing. Yes. I no I so I think well there's two two sets of things to talk
about here. It's the 211 is the tax money. Let's say that and then you've got the 215 which isn't. Mhm. You know, they have more you have more discretion with the 215 than you have with 211. Yes. So, one of the interesting things if you
go back through the history when the Hazel um Matthews passed away and and there was money that she wanted to give to the city, not to the library board, to the city for the library and to the hospital
group. And that money, the conservator, you know, before it was got released had the money someplace and then there was a uh he got essentially sued and taken to to court because he didn't put the money
in an interestbearing account. And then he had to he was fined essentially the the interest. And so then over a period of time he paid back $17,000 in interest. and what was there and that was split between the church or the
library well the city and and the hospital let's stay with Hazel for a minute because that was the other thing you sent me off for um with the Hazel Matthews fund the will stipulates that you can you
legally cannot use Hazel to reduce support right and um what we found was that the historical principle, how should I say this? That is the docu that's the agreement
that you need to be concerned with in terms of how to direct policy. Does it lessen support from a government public base? Okay. Um now there has been past
policy that protected the principal and only allowed the board to to spend the interest. Um and the historical so then the histo principle if you were choosing to follow that you would want to know the principle. The principle as far as we
can tell is $141,838. Say $140,000 would be the principal. The current policy does not mandate that you are doing that practice anymore. And
in terms of whether there are any other legal obligations or you know what what else do we need to know about Hazel to be able to make decisions at the board level about this policy? The wills the will is it. Um Mike had
advised that um because my records go up to 1990 trust that the boards before you were informed of current resolution or city board relations and
that the policy you have is telling you what's important. The policy that you have says to follow the will. Okay. May I suggest something? If we decide that the stipulations and I'm just
saying if I'm not saying this is how it is. If we decide that stipulations of the will let's say are no longer relevant to our stip our situation. It is possible
to because I um I belonged to a church in the Twin Cities that had a large fund that uh someone had left to the church and the particular purpose of that fund was no longer
relevant to what the church was doing. And the church was able and this is something you have to do legally. You can't just wake up one morning and do it. But they were able to change the um reason for the fund or the
orientation or the purpose of the fund and they were able to do that legally. That's just something I throw on the table. It's possible. Whether we want to do it, whether we need to do it is another question. There's almost no restrictions. There's no restrictions.
They just No, I'm just I'm Excuse me. I'm really confused about all of this. So, the will says it can't be used to lessen the operating expenses of the library provided by public funds. Okay. Full stop. But the policy has additional
restrictions. Okay. But the will itself does not. Right. Oh. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying that, sir. I guess I'm a little slow on this. It's a lot to take in. And a clarification question with the
original uh the base of 140,000 Mhm. plus change is that reflected in uh then the 215104 cash reserve $276,000. So just about half of that money is the
principal of what she has given. I don't think it's only hers. No. Yeah. The 278 is Hazel Hazel. Nothing else in there. Okay. That's all hazel right here. Well, but it doesn't separate the principal
from any interest. No. Okay. That's our what I'm being told. That's our Yeah. to maintain a principle and to use the monies, you know, to use the monies differently that any bequest left
by anybody else plus donations would be used according to B number one account 215 restricted fund. And then Hazel was directed to be used for these possible uses not limited to staff
development, exploration of trial, demonstration services, etc. was a board policy. It was a board choice about how they wanted the monies used. Okay. And can be changed. Ah, that could be
changed. The funny thing is it's like I believe every single one of those things should be supported by public. So it's like dang it can't do anything. Well, and we were talking last time, Dave, about the the policy stipulating
that the board was going to carry $10,000 insurance deductible in the reserve in the 215 and not in the operational funds. And so then there's the argument of is it operational if you only do it once in
a great great while, right? No, because still I feel that you know if you did need it that's still something that should be covered by municipalities just so it's just kind of a conundrum in
my mind and doesn't make anything any easier for me but I think we can work through it. We can change the policy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, do you want to hold it like
rule some things out? Do you want to keep the principal of Hazel only protect that and only spend the interest or can we take that off? Is that in this? That was in a priority. It's just it's just in just a
table right now. Yeah. It's not in current practice. It's something that prior boards have done. It it doesn't based on her will. Doesn't sound like that that needs to be protected. Yeah, let's stick with the will.
It is a very conservative approach and I can respect it. It's just not what her wishes were. Back in 1988, 1989, there were six or seven different lawyers fighting over that goal.
all making straight my thigh including Don Davidson. That's that's Ann's friend. Um, do we in order to balance out the 215, do we
need to move money from Hazel Matthews? Is that something we need to be able to think about? Is that not clear yet? I need you to agree that the two buckets
of money are one. I mean, do you know what I mean? So you have the op we have the option of what Kim calls draining the 215. So if you look on your cash there's the negative cash amount of 70,604
and then there's the money market that can be used to cover it. But then you have zero monies in the bucket we call 215 which is where we do where you're directing me to this policy is saying you know do all your programs and your shows and your furniture and all that
technology and your another method that we another way of talking about this is just the policy agreeing that it's all one money and then it doesn't it Hazel and the 70 it doesn't matter they're all one and another way that we had talked
about this is there were a list of expenses that I've had over the last um however many um months that some of them could be coded to Hazel to offset. So then you'd be taking like half of the money out of the 215 money markets and
half of it out of the Hazel, you know, like the if you considered airsource if you kept the policy as it is, we could like recode the airsource heat pumps as an exploration or trial demonstration of new service. or we could find the monies
that were very clearly consultant fees and assign those to Hazel Matthews to free up to make this number less. That seems really easy to me because you said her earlier last week last time that most of the time you just put in a
straight 215 and don't think about whether it goes to Hazel Matthews anyway. So let's just have you rethink it. I'd like to see us clarify in the policy that Hazel Matthew funds can be used for
more things just like 215 so that it's clear instead of trying to any reason not to consolidate there's not given the current discussion the Hazel Matthews bequest in the language that's in it is identical to
the remember I passed out um that's right the other wills they they're all the same language so you would not be treating it any differently than other monies that you had? You know, um it it just almost seems like there should be a different group
making decisions about those funds because what we do is decide about the operating budget and all that. So that's what our concern is and then someone wants to do something outside of it. I mean, I guess we can be doing
that, but it just gets so murky between what's the normal operating and what's not and what's the normal needs, you know? Um, it's very it's a very strange. I'm not saying we should do have a separate. It's just like that's how it
seems. Like it's just a really weird thing for us to be making decisions about spending funds that are not to be used to supplant municipal dollars. It's just like what is it balloons or I
mean like it's it seems like frivolous things that I don't know it's just very strange. Well, if you think of operational and capital as different. Yes. Yes. Then I feel like that gives me a little more guidance on what we should be spending.
Things that we would be capitalizing can be used by 215 216. Yeah. No, I mean I could it's kind of like rationalizing it though like because again the capital improvements should be funded you know.
So it's just this should the cap the capital improvement you know the that should be part of the operational costs I think and I think that conversation um I think that was a large part of conversation in 2011 when the renovation
was happening of well you have Hazel Matthew funds aren't you going to use them well no this isn't this is a public dollars issue right yes well And then I go, I don't know, maybe this is a stupid question again, but I go
back to that idea of changing the orientation of the fund, doing it legally, and just saying that would be um folded into the 250. There's no legal
definition of what the pen should be. It's not like It's not like the donator said it can only be used for choir. I know, but it can only be used for things that are not paid for by uh think it would be a heavy lift to get
it to be able to use it for operational and I think that would be counter to what Dave's point is which is that there is a public obligation to maintain the public library and we don't want to lessen that. Well, that's true.
We could just use it for pride programming because for what? I'm sorry. Right. That was a joke because there was push there was push back. Um, really good. Is there I wonder if the language can be changed to some sort
of like I understand what you're saying, but it's almost like if we run out of money, can we use it or can we use it for things that are not currently covered by public funding or
some such thing that would That's that's in the number three under D balance to be considered to keep uh operating in catastrophic circumstances. Mhm. So, okay. Well, it is in our policy
that the city and the county go away, we can take out that money and keep the library going. We'll check out a book. So, it is it's it's in it's folded into the policy right now. Yes. Okay.
Well, do we consider it catastrophic circumstances? If I don't know, we need say there's another flood and the the building has to be redone. That's catastrophic. Yes.
So, that's just operating. Yeah. I would suggest that we treat the Hazel Matthews fund the same way we do the 215 general. Um, so I don't know if the best way to do that is to mirror under our policy
what we have or to adjust the policy to say that Can we just uh change the language of one account 215 restricted fund parentheses includes
Hazel Matthews fund and we just renew account 216? Yes, we're the board and that's our policy. Okay, let's do it. Um, do we need if we're doing a policy change, do we need to have it Oh, we have it on the agenda. It's on the agenda. on the
agenda so we could make the change today. Okay. So, what are you moving Kevin? I had one other thought though. Um sometimes um it has not yet been my experience but I believe in the past
there has been push back from I believe the county as far as right there's that automatic 5% match increase and anything above that was That could be arguably
the ask if not met could arguably be something that's not covered in saying if we had an operational budget that required a certain amount and the county and city didn't agree to fully fund it, could we use 215 funds in that
case? That's a great question. Okay. But again, that hasn't been in my Yeah, actually that's kind of what I was thinking that I did not express articulately, but yes, that would be great. It would
seem like it should. So, so in the B it says money from Mr. Contra to be used in such a manner does not lessen any substitute monetary. So it's so it's so to your point, we can use it for that because it isn't lessening the support
if they deny us, right? If we ask for $5,000, they deny us the $5,000 over the budget, they're not going to give it to us. So it doesn't lessen their support if if we just fill it in. Yeah. But it does substitute. It does substitute. I would not. So that's not in the will.
That's just the policy again. So that's the will. Oh, that will. Yeah. You know, maybe we should have the will language right in there. Maybe we should fold that in so it's really clear. We don't have to think about the will. Is it already there? I think that's what B
is. Yeah. Amanda, what were you going to say? If I were to revise this policy today based on the discussion that we're having, I would put a big X through Hazel Matthews and it would be gone. You would never see it again because you'd be
treating it exactly exactly like the other bequests. Mhm. However, if you wanted that statement about monies not being used to lessen support would become a primary statement under restricted funds. Another thought
I had is maybe instead of having here's the restricted fund. Um, and here's Hazel Matthews. Our two buckets would be assigned and unassigned. So unassigned funds would be this is all the money we have available to spend on projects. And
we know what that number is and we can clear. Could you please look at your D sheet? Look at the bottom last three lines. The first one is the unassigned Hazel Matthews 199. Underneath that are two assigned funds.
One's 38505 for carpets. Right. So in your policy, do you not have would you would you have a capital fund section that says insurance PC replacement carpet any
operational reserve if you were thinking of three months and then you would say above and beyond this any monies left over could do all the things that we've been using them for. I'm just wondering about like I want us to be able to look
at this number and know how much we have spend for projects. [Music] So that was B under Hazel Matthews. I was B under Hazel Matthews. Yeah. So taking that and putting that also the
future so that Oh yeah that's right said so that's what probably and to directly answer you Amanda yes is that is that what we're talking about
here maybe I think so yes so B would go in addition so it become F or it go under one of the It says I don't think we need to focus on what the letter would be just um we would have
we would start with like capital fund we the board are maintaining this amount in our reserve account for these purposes insurance replacement PC replacement carpet whatever you're choosing and I think you can decide that today so I
have some direction and then the next thing would say above and beyond those amounts that we're reserving. Funds can be used in all of these ways so long as they don't lessen lessen
support. I think that's a great idea. It simplifies things even I understand it. Same. And so then I don't think we need to tell Kim whether she needs to move it
from the top or the bottom of our accounts here because it's all one. Do we need if we're going to do that? Do we need a motion or [Music] someone more articulate than I could please move that?
just punch a thing on it. I would move that we remove the Hazel Matthews policy as it stands for restricted fund and um move it into the 215. We just have the
215 account and all those funds. Are we saying no? We're saying that it's just available or are we putting those dollar? Are we actually physically moving the dollars? They already exist together so we don't have to physically
move them. Well, there we go. So, we're just going to say the truth and it's all done. But her suggestions are a different language than what is in here. Maybe. And I thought that I
thought they were good. So, we need to have those. Do you want the full language? Maybe someone should write this up and then we should move on it. Maybe you're just directing me to come back with a new policy. Yes. To vote on Yes. And then we can vote. Yeah. I think
having the exact language is probably a good call on the final. You guys don't want to word smith everything right now. I got my laptop. Okay. So, can you make that make that motion? So, we don't need to move. So we can just direct. We can just direct them. Okay. She'll come back
and then watch. All right. Got it. Feel free to use AI. As we're speaking, I'm watching it like go like this and then back up and go forward. Okay. Is it Are we feeling good about that then? Yes. Yes. Okay.
I think I'm going to slip out before we start the next thing. I'm having such allergies here tonight. We've got a quorum. We should be good. Thank you. Listen to me sniffle here the whole time. Well, Sue, I hope you feel better. Oh, it's just one of those things that
happens. Well, do you have any parting thoughts or No. Are you comfortable with I It's all good. Okay. All right. Before we before we move on, I did want to clarify what what y'all want in the capital fund. What do you want to protect? Yeah.
What are you trying I think we need to establish a capital replacement schedule before I know what should be in. But that's a not necessarily a small
feat, but open to other people's thoughts. Oh, that's that's right. So that's five. So instead of instead of just saying the balance should not drop below six months
operating, you want an actual number for what it would cost to I want to separate capital and operating and have a capital replacement schedule. Um and then ensure that we have the funds to support a capital replacement schedule. Yeah. And that we Yeah. either we have it or we
work at it continually. Say it again. He wants to ensure that to see a capital replacement schedule to ensure that we have the funds to support that capital replacement schedule or or more just to see what the capital
replacement schedule would look like. Yeah. And then we can decide what kind of funds we want to hold in reserve given what our capital needs might be. So when you thinking capital replacement though, you're thinking shy of the building which would be thinking like
shy of replacing a building. Oh like but like which is kind of a weird point because it's metal and but yeah those types of things you know like yeah furniture any heating. Yes sir.
We we had $900 worth of repairs last year because of the wind. Touch. Yep. Yep. So that's and it's not and the insurance deductible that's insurance for the building. It's like
that would be when when our building flooded flooded we had an insurance deductible. In fact they were trying to give us two. Okay. I I just mentioned insurance again. I don't want to go off subject,
but um the condo and it's not a library, I know, but still the the condo had double insurance this year. I mean, it it doubled from 17,000 just Yes. to 35,000.
Almost there. And I've heard that some churches have done that. And it seems to Minnesota is apparently one of the most expensive states for insurance because of the weather, wind and tornadoes and
storms, etc., etc. So, I just bring that up because we really have to be serious about insurance. I think even though our premium is is almost doubled, we still have the same deductible. Oh, okay. But yeah.
I I just want to bring up the point with the capital replacement schedule of again what we talked about earlier is I think what is what is the public's responsibility and what is this board's
responsibility to replace the roof to replace the carpets to you know I mean we could keep we could try to build up a million five so that we could build a new
one in the next day. But then again then the I mean and the county and the city will also go thank you very much. But you know what is their responsibilities and what is you know my my uh my inkling
for capital explor replacement schedules is okay something comes in and knocks it down. city, county pay for the building, we pay for the artwork, we pay for the chairs, we pay, you know, our, you know, those kind of things. So,
I think that's a little bit of a conversation, too, cuz yeah, uh what you're pulling on earlier cuz yeah, we I don't think it's our responsibility and we can look at it in their things to make sure that RIP is replaced. That is the cities and the county's
responsibility. Mhm. I mean, we can help facilitate things along by their daily value, but um but as so just just a addendum to the capital placement schedule, what we see
as the board as our responsibilities with these funds and what is the county and and the city's responsibilities for capital replacement. Mhm. I think you're taking great action when you're
looking at um projecting a a budget that moves programming, which is now a standard part of the service we provide and moves maintenance of the landscaping into the operational budget. If we're going to be having recurring
expenses, it shouldn't be eating away at contributions to do special and precious things. I agree. Which is a nice segue into our budget discussion. Yes.
Those big sheets. Oh, yeah. I've got that. You put them on a big one. There's Yeah, there's more. So, this budget reflects what we asked of you last month, which was to put programming in. Yes, it does.
It also makes an adjustment here um from the city that we need to do a44% increase on the payroll for states family medical leave act payments and then we were a uh encouraged to reduce
library maintenance um by $200 just based on their It's a vegetable increase. Yes. And it's uh [Music] Well, the county
they they automatically budgeted for a 5% increase in rescue for 1.8. No, not automatically. We are obligated to pay the 5% if it's requested. Okay. Up to up to five. Okay. If the city
approves it at that. Yes. There's a series. Yeah. Yeah. So that's where the battle is, right? Wet noodles at 50 pieces. Does anyone have any budget questions or concerns?
I saw that number. Yeah, that's great. It is. It is great. Nobody can complain about that. Yep. Well done. some it seems impossible [Laughter]
but uh yeah so do we have to formally approve it? Yes. I would make a motion to approve the budgetive here and I will second. Any further discussion?
All those in favor? I opposed. Budget passes unanimously. Okay. Send that over for us. All right. And I would be happy to come with you to the city council meeting when they approve it. Great. Thank you.
When you present when we present it. When we present it for approval. It's a great deal for a wonderful library. Yeah, when you really think about everything that this little library does. All right, the bylaws.
Anybody need them? I've got some better. both the power of opinion. I'd like to say that I looked over them and I do think they really reflect what
we do and um and there's um one type of and duties of the city of Grand Marray and its governing officials. One of them is negotiating union contracts. Not contracts.
Yeah. Contacts. It should be contracts. I understand. Budgets not so much. The AI isn't so great. Pardon? Maybe this context. Um, I have an addition
for you to consider. As came up today, we don't actually have a process for welcoming visitors and their feedback. And um, so today I shared with Sarah the city language for open forum.
In your meetings, you might want to express what the public's expectation can be for public forum. And I can just use the language we use today, which is borrowed from but adapted for trustees. That would be perfect.
So that could be under article six article four readings section five. Yeah, actually. Yeah. Or section section four and then section five would be Robert's rules of
order. Whatever. Okay. But that's a good catch. And I really do like the fact that we have, you know, what what the city does, what the trusted do, what the county
does. So, a couple points there. Um, this was drafted with our the intention the board would say, "Yes, we love this. Now, go ask the city if it matches their
thoughts and feelings." Um, you can approve it. And then Dave, I was wondering if you can think of any other duties for the county and its governing officials.
They do adopt the operational budget. And I think about things like the city now owns the building at times that we would go to the county and have discussion about what it is we're doing here. Um but I don't know if they have a formal
role. This is what I've seen in practice additional additional formal not that I know. Okay. So what I'm what I'm providing is just in practice what have I seen? I haven't gone and talked to city county and asked them and what
do you do? Uh I'm not seeing under board of trustees um anything that gives us any authority
over the reserve funds. It does it's not under fiduciary responsibilities under fiduciary responsibilities. The closest thing we have is work with the library to ensure the library building the grounds meet requirements of total library ability. Um, and you're
supposed to keep a reserve fund, but it's there's really nothing in there that says anything about the reserve funds. And so to your to your point back there,
if we if we the trustees aren't going to be if that's above our pay grade, then we need to assign that. What about D? Ensure that adequate reserve funds. That's operations. That's operations. That's just for operations.
And so make another one that says so manage manage. So it be F. It would be to solicit uh manage contributions. So do you feel like that's different than E? Yeah. Use
contributions in combination with levy funds contributions. Wouldn't that be for development purposes for development of services supporting personnel? personal development of all Cook County residents. Yeah, again it's using levied
contributions in combination with levy. We have the capital we have the capital fund and the operating operating funds is the is the levied step. So we need a se separate capital fund.
I guess I was reading it kind of in the same way that um the other language that we had that said, you know, it's there. It's not going to replace. So, we've had the the levied funds have come in. There's a gap. So, any contributions we
have, which is our fund, those are contributions can go into that gap. Yeah, that's how I'm reading this, right? That those are those contributions. I don't know if we have to break out the language because we've got the money now, but we may not have
what we don't have. I am reading it the same way, Michael. That's I'm reading it as operational only continuing. That's development of service versus supporting personal
development. It doesn't say anything that we personal development. That's it doesn't county residents and it's really talking about any of the things that we do as a library. It it doesn't hit facilities or maybe we need to just change the back
the that last part of it supporting personal development and for the benefit of all Cook County residents rather something like that. Just a suggestion.
You're saying explicitly saying capital. Yeah, because right now this this there's nothing in here that says that so city could come and say the reserve funds, we're going to bring them back into the city because you guys have no there's nothing in here that says that
we have any anything to do with them. Contributions. Yeah. Is it like um manage the libraries, donations, gifts, and reserve? I I'm there's so many redundant words here. 215 and 215 restricted,
unrestricted, like what's assigned, unassigned. Um, I would say managed libraries. I can redefine the word contributions. Are you determining whether the use of
those funds is appropriate capital versus, you know? Yeah. me guys because in our aside policy does spell out that we can't use it just to hire
you somebody in willy-nilly but you also you set pri spending priorities with those monies Mhm. [Music] Manage and oversee reserve funds as spelled out by policy. It does say the
ensure that adequate reserve funds are maintained. That's in the operational side. Yeah, I I think it's fine. I think it's good to explicitly spell and I'm fine with the language that go
to finance library operations in an emergency and be good stewards of gifts and donations. Would it be a combined? We can I I would submit we say manage
financial policy operations, research funds, endowment and other funds and gifts as as uh spelled out or not spelled out in policy K. Just repeat it. Just repeat it. Yeah, that's all that's
all we're asking. Suzanne manage manage financial policy operations restricted funds and doment friends you don't want to refer to us like a policy in your bylaws you okay like
manage um provide yeah manage restricted funds endowments and other funds and gifts. Yeah. Mhm. I'll stop. There we go. Right. And then maybe for the benefit rather than supporting
personal development, which sounds kind of Well, I think you can just stop it there. You don't even have to. Oh, yeah. That's fine. Yeah, actually because Yeah. Otherwise, it's No, you're right. I think that's good.
Just leave that. Just leave that out. I u I'm afraid I too need to leave for a family obligation. You want something? Yeah. Do we want to? Hold on. Where are we on the agenda? Could we table bylaws, come back to them next
month? Yes. And because I would like us to get to the security policy. Yeah. Thank you. With the additional language. With the additional language. So, you have a proposed security camera policy has been
reviewed by the city's lawyers or Yeah. And they did not have any heartburn over it. They they changed it. They changed it. Yeah. So, there's a lot of input in here from them. Okay. One addition I would like is under number five, audio
recording. At no time shall the Grand Marray Library, including any person or contracted service, intentionally use library surveillance cameras that have audio recording capabilities. I want to add enabled, especially with the home systems that we're looking at. Those
features are in the product, but should be enabled. But yeah, it it came back from legal counsel. This is what this was there. This was theirs. Change number five.
I'll make a motion to approve as amended. Second. All right. I'm sorry. What was your I just want to add the word enabled. Yeah. Okay. All right. We have a motion
and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Well, one one tidbit. What's up? Um, with the with the Blink system,
it it is uh when it says the batteries are going to last six to six to nine months, they're expecting uh 20 to 30 hits in a home, not five 600 hits a day. Um I uh my batteries usually
last about 3 weeks uh and then I have to replace them. I I bought rechargeable ones and just cycle through them and just cycle through them. Thank you. But you can see that the battery needs to mic. Yes, it'll show a little it'll show a little
battery bar on it. Having reached the end of the agenda, the meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone. 641.