With that, we will move on to, item a two, which is our compliance update on equity and development. And Edward, Devorah. Did I pronounce your name? Did I really screw it up? Good afternoon, council, president, mister Randy Schoebring, Joaquin, Norton, honorable council members. I am Edgar De Beira, compliance specialist who is part of the diversity, equity, and inclusion team. I am here with my, teammates, jam Jamie Swank and, Chao Mottella. Who's controlling the PowerPoint here?
Yeah. Hold on. Hold on. Yeah. I'm okay. It's part of the I am, I'm here to provide an update on the work that our office is doing in, three key areas, which is, prevailing wage compliance, targeted business utilization, workforce participation compliance. And, these updates reflect our ongoing efforts to improve consistency, efficiency, and inclusivity across all city and DMC funded projects. So what does the targeted, business,
program do for the Rochester community? The targeted, business program creates meaningful opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses to participate in Citi contracts. Enforce compliance with targeted business and workforce utilization goals within the city of Rochester. This program plays a vital role in advancing diversity, equity, and economic inclusion in public infrastructure projects. By doing so, it helps ensure that city resources are distributed more equitably across the community.
And, why does, prevailing wage matter? Prevelling wage laws ensure that workers on public construction projects are paid fair, competitive wages based on local standards. I would like to give you a more, realistic perspective by comparing minimum wage, living wage, and prevailing wage. Minnesota's, minimum wage is $11.13. The living wage is $22.05. The prevailing wage for a laborer on a road project is $61.32
which includes wages and benefits. This is this isn't just about pay. It's about quality. Prevelling wage helps attract skilled workers, keeps, projects on schedule, and reinvest, money back into our local economy. It's a smart investment in our workforce, our infrastructure, and our community. So prevailing wage is the minimum wage, minimum hourly compensation including, benefits paid to workers on federally state or locally funded construction projects. And workforce participation refers to involvement of workers often from specific groups like women,
minorities, or local residents in publicly funded construction projects. Targeted business refers to small minority owned, women owned, or disadvantaged businesses that are specifically included in public contracting goals to promote equity and economic inclusion. In Minnesota, prevailing wage rates are established by the State Department of Labor and Industry through an annual survey process. Rates are specific for each county.
These rates are then applied to state and locally, funded construction projects. Davis Bacon rates which are the federal rates used for federally funded projects are similarly determined through an annual survey process. Rebailing wage is determined by funding source, federal, state, or local funds. The city of Rochester has adopted workforce participation goals to promote equity and inclusion on publicly funded construction projects. These goals, focus on increasing representation of women and minorities in the construction workforce.
The city goals are 9% women and 15% minorities. The actual participation achieved from the years, 2020 to 2024 was 3.83% women and 18.21% minorities. While we have exceeded the minority workforce participation goal, we continue to fall short of the goal for women in the construction workforce. Our office is actively working on strategies to increase the utilization of women on city
construction projects to meet and sustain these goals. Targeted business participation summary from 2020 to 2024. From 2020 through June 2024, the City of Rochester invested a total of a hundred 28,751,981 in infrastructure projects. Of that amount, $8,000,717,967 was awarded to targeted businesses resulting in a 6.8
utilization rate. These goals are part of the city's ongoing effort to ensure equitable contracting opportunities for underrepresented and disadvantaged business groups. The city accepts certification from the following certification programs to verify eligibility for targeted business participation, the Central Certification Program, the Minnesota Unified Certification program, and the targeted group economically disadvantaged small business,
program. Per city council approval in November 2020, the dollar threshold for targeted business and workforce participation goals as well as prevailing wage application on DMC funded and CTCIP projects have been decreasing. Starting in 2025, the targeted business goals are as follows. Heavy, civil, road, or horizontal construction is set at 4%. Commercial construction, building, or vertical construction is at 9%.
So projects with targeted business contracting, prevailing wage, and workforce, participation goals. Sorry. Sorry about that. So the impact of the, adopted goals. BMC adopted goals in 2019 and the city of Rochester adopted goals the following year. In the year 2019 to 2024, there was a 6.8% targeted business utilization. Currently, active projects have an 8.5% targeted business, utilization. Projects with targeted business goals have been increasing.
In 2021, there were eight projects, that, we monitored. And this year we expect to monitor more than 60 projects. I wanted to discuss next the current process from pre bid to project completion. Before a project is advertised for bid, a a request that the implementing city department or DMC submit a wage determination form. I will explain the contents of this form later in the presentation. A packet is included in the bid documents which provides a detailed description of the
required forms to be submitted. During the bidding process, after the bid has been awarded, throughout project implementation and a pan project completion. Next, let me talk about the compliance software that we presently have. We are, the city is currently using LCP tracker, which is as its labor compliance software. This system monitors both prevailing wage compliance and workforce utilization compliance. Recently, thanks to City Council approval, we are moving forward with the implementation of two new systems,
the b two gs now, system to monitor targeted business utilization compliance and the the eComply system which will replace LCP tracker for labor compliance tracking. These two systems can be integrated creating a more seamless and efficient process for compliance management. This integration will, greatly support our targeted business, utilization reporting and help us meet ongoing compliance requirements more effectively.
We aim to simplify and optimize the compliance process making the tasks associated with achieving compliance goals as efficient, streamlined, and seamless as possible. We have updated existing forms and introduced introduced new ones used throughout the project life cycle from pre bid to project completion in order to simplify and optimize the compliance monitoring process. The forms have been condensed using clear concise language and short direct sentences to ensure
better understanding. Information has been thoughtfully organized and grouped by category to make the forms easier to follow and complete. This is, the pre bid wage determination form that I talked earlier. Currently, the city does not have a clear and consistent process for determining prevailing wage applicability or which prevailing wage rates apply to a project. There is, also some inconsistency in the application of targeted business and workforce utilization goals.
For example, I've seen targeted business goals for commercial or building projects set at 7% instead of the required 9%. And workforce with, participation goals for women listed as 7% instead of 9%. To promote consistency across departments and DMC, we introduced the pre bid wage determination form. This form collects basic project details such as the project description, funding amount, and funding source.
Based on the information provided, we can determine whether prevailing wage requirements apply. Identify whether state or federal prevailing wage rates are applicable. Inform the city departments or DMC of the appropriate targeted business and workforce utilization goals for the project. This form helps ensure that compliance standards are applied consistently and accurately from the very beginning of each project. We have also streamlined the reporting requirements.
Currently, monthly targeted business and workforce participation reports are required which has proven to be burdensome for contractors, subcontractors, and project managers. These reports are typically prepared manually by contractors. And to address this, we have streamlined the reporting process For contracts with a term of one year or less, reports will now be submitted at 50%, eighty %, and % of acquisition. For contracts with a term longer than one year,
reports will be submitted on a quarterly basis with a final report at % completion. If you can pull your paper just a little closer to you, then it's not gonna hit the microphone. Oh. Once the new b two gs Now and eComply systems are fully implemented, these reports will be generated through the software, significantly reducing manual work and saving valuable time for all stakeholders. We have also made an update and, introduced the waiver form for the bid process.
With this update in the bid process, we will allow bidders to submit partial or full waiver request accompanied by documentation of good faith efforts if the targeted business goal is not met. Currently, a contract may still be awarded to the lowest and best bidder even if the required targeted business goal outlined in the bid is not met. This update ensures that the commitment to minority business enterprise, women business enterprise, or disadvantaged business enterprise participation goals remain a top priority in the contracting process.
By allowing request for waivers or reductions, reductions only after determining that no bidder meeting those goal is also the lowest and best or most advantageous. The contracting authority reinforces that these goals are not optional or easily bypassed. It encourages bidders to make genuine good faith efforts to meet participation goals from the outset rather than relying on the possibility of a waiver as a fallback.
Furthermore, requiring complete documentation questions one to six and thorough justification for each yes response ensures transparency, accountability, and fairness in the waiver review process. It also streamlines evaluation by preventing incomplete or unsupported request from consuming administrative, resources. We also respectfully request that the honorable city council consider for discussion allowing the city to award the contract to a bidder whose proposal is
up to 10% higher than the lowest bid if that bid meets the targeted business goal and the lower bid does not. Additionally, we ask the honorable city council to consider this proposal at a future, meeting. We also request feedback on additional provisions for contractors who are awarded contracts do not meet the goals which they are committed to and and are not able to demonstrate good faith efforts. We would also want, to expand,
recognition of certifications. Currently, the city recognizes three out of six certifications, programs in the State of Minnesota. We are recommending an expansion to recognize all valid certifications available within the State of Minnesota which will add certifications for disabled person, BIPOC persons, and women. This, broader recognition will give our contractors a wider pool of certified companies to choose from, supporting greater inclusion and improving access to opportunities for diverse businesses.
That is the end of my presentation, and we will entertain questions. Thank you very much. Thank you for, very, valuable information. And I'm sure a a lot of my colleagues have questions regarding the targeted businesses' goals and waiver requests, so I'll start it off. So it sounds like we have those that are submitting the RFPs or bid packages are are not putting in the 9%. They'll put in the seven. So I I guess my question is,
are we not when we do put in seven or 9% into a bid package, are we getting bidders that say we can't meet that goal? Is that what's happening right now? Right now, council president, a a a bidder can submit a bid without even, meeting the goal that we set, the workforce utilization goal or the targeted business goal. So they can submit and, without any information given to the city as to why they're not meeting the goals. So that is why,
we we are introducing this waiver form so that these bidders, in case they don't meet the goals, will, give us some information why they are not meeting the goals. And they would they need they need to show some good faith efforts that they actually, exerted the participation from, targeted business businesses. So just to clarify, so you what you're, recommending for us to consider is to put that 9% in and be, clear across the board that all of our bids are asking for 9%,
targeted business goals. And then, allowing the, the bidder to give us a waiver form to explain if they're not meeting that 9%. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Okay. Got it. Okay. Council members questions? Council member Keane. Yeah. Again, I appreciate seeing the detail here. This is more right right now, it seems like we've been running this for a while. So and it's good to see the, minority numbers up where we, you know, where we had hoped. I I I projected or I I feel this is, like a a program we put in place because we had an issue,
and we're trying to resolve that issue by bringing more, minority owned and women owned businesses into the thing. Does it with that in mind, do you get to a point out in the future where you'd say, this is not working. We don't need these compliance things anymore. Or and we'll we've now helped establish these businesses and they're part of the ecosystem. Or is this something that you feel is into perpetuity? We are I think the minority goals, council member are being met. We're short on the women. Yep. And, we're we're we're, working on it. And, that is, another reason why we recommended that,
some other certifications like the WebBank Yep. Is made available. My question's slightly different, though. I I'm trying to say if, like, I I'm picturing this in my old language when we worked with equal opportunity and affirmative action was affirmative action programs were there to help stimulate the marketplace so that it corrected. And I'm and then they stop. They go away. Is this something that will go away at some point, or do you feel this is needed because if it wasn't there, these minority businesses would no longer be getting the business? I think I don't know if there's if you wanna Yeah.
Councilman O'Keehn, I think I can help in responding to that question. I think you're asking, is there an endpoint where we say we've done an an adequate amount? I actually, if just to make sure we're communicating, no. I I in my view, we we identified a problem, and we tried to create some programs to help get rid of that problem. I wouldn't say that we've done enough and we're going away. I would say the market is corrected and the and these the the businesses we wanted to see represented are now in the business. So I would answer by saying that I don't know that there's a clear cut
answer to that because our hope is that as we continue to include, disadvantaged business enterprise in the ecosystem, we will also be growing and certifying additional businesses within that scope. And so as those businesses increase, then, obviously, availability increases, that might also continue to change. But the aspiration is we would meet the threshold that we have set at this point. And, again, this is more of a policy question. Is this a program to help fix those problems we discovered and then step back, or is this the way we're going to do business into the future?
And I maybe maybe I don't need an answer here today. I just wanna say that's how I'm thinking about them, and I wanna communicate that. I would say short term, the idea was to impact the disparity that was evident. Yes. Mhmm. Council member Palmer. I I think what Mr. Keane is asking is when is it successful? When do you say we've achieved our goal and we're there? I guess that's where my thought process was on that question. My question, I only have one, is living wage of $22.05 where does that number come from? We we got that, council member from, the state of Minnesota.
That's, the living wage that they set, for this year. Okay. I've never heard that. So thank you. Other questions, council members? I guess I'm looking for a little bit more clarity to, and it speaks to, council member Keane's question. In looking at the numbers, it looks like we are in a good place with the minority businesses, but not the women. But I I I wanna have a better handle on how difficult is it when we put together our bid packages to meet those goals?
Are we having difficulty? Is that why we're suggesting, going to the next nearest, from the the lowest bid? Council president, I would answer this way. We set the goals with the intention, obviously, of impacting the disparity that we see, in our infrastructure project, but we we currently follow state standard, which is a low bid standard. So we go with the lowest bidder. But what has ended up happening is very quite a number of times, we will have prime contractors that have bid on a project that might come up
to five or 10% of the lowest one, and they're meeting the targeted business goals and making an effort to include as many targeted businesses as possible. But they might lose out on that bid because their bid is just slightly higher than the lowest bid. And so this is an effort maybe causing a little bit of frustration within that system for prime contractors to say we're making these efforts to ensure that we are partnering with targeted businesses, but then we still don't meet the bid because we happen not to be the lowest bid on this RFP. And on the other hand, we made a commitment as a commitment as a city to say this is something that we would like to do to ensure that we're setting those goals,
but we didn't set in place any parameters that would allow us to continuously ensure that we are, kind of validating the prime contractors and the efforts that are being made by those who are trying to meet those targeted business goals. Thank you. Any other feedback? Council member Doring. Thank you so much for all the information. Is there an accountability standard for, a developer who bids on a project who says that they are going to include, and meet our goals, but then don't throughout the course of the project or do we just say, okay, whatever?
There are there's nothing actually. That's why we're recommending, you know, this is a policy decision for council to make and probably we can set some sort of administrative penalties, in the future, you know, of course upon approval of council. Seeing no other feedback. I guess what I would say and kinda in line with, council board member Doring's inquiry is, I guess, I would like to see a little bit more information on the bid packages and what kind of trends there are, and are those lowest bids coming in without how much are they coming in not
meeting those goals? I do not have that, information, council president, but I have seen bids, the lowest and the most advantageous, to the city, that are not meeting the goals but are still being awarded, to to those low low bids. Okay. I guess, if I may, council president, I've kind of heard that question differently. Like, in the future, I would like to see more information. Maybe it wasn't what your question was, but I heard that is that you would like us to come back in with a little bit more information about that specific recommendation and to better understand,
you know, ten percent's a potentially large number depending on the cost of the project. And, like, I guess, the thing I'm thinking is, are we talking about if you meet 1% versus 9%, are you eligible for the full 10%? Or how would you build out a program, something like that that is an incentive that doesn't arbitrary you know, accidentally incentivize people to try to meet the targeted business goal in order to get higher on a project. Mhmm. Rather, that we're really building a system that's trying to incentivize the access to targeted businesses,
and there's a lot of different thoughts on that probably about what might work best. But it's I'm hearing you say you would like to have more information before you ask about that. Exactly the line, and you are, like, four steps ahead of me on it. So thank you. So with that, mayor Norton, go ahead. I have a quick question. So are we tracking, if we have businesses that come in and say they're going to reach a certain amount and don't reach that certain amount again and again and again, but keep being given the contracts because they're low bid,
do we know who those individual and I'm not asking for names here, I'm just looking at a concept here. If they're never meeting the goal, but there's someone else to your point that's just maybe really close to the same that says they can meet the goal and maybe have experience and history meeting the goal, do we know that? Are we tracking that, Diether chow or Yeah. Mayor Norton, thank you for your question. That is information that we do have. I think we can put together and share that back with the council just for your review to say in the last year or two,
what bids have been submitted that met the goal versus not, which ones were low bid, who maybe didn't get awarded the bid even though the difference in their bid was slightly higher but met the goal. Okay. That would be helpful. Thank you. Alright. Thank you, mister devera. And, are we ready to move on? Do or do folks want a break? I don't see a break. We will move to, the Rochester Public Library master plan study, and our presenter, I see Karen coming up and, and Tracy, and so take it away.
Yes. I'm I'm here to do the formalities. Thank you, council president, Schubertin, mayor Norton, members of the council, administrators Elms. We also have some library board members that are here hearing this presentation for the second time. We are intentionally bringing this back to you before it is in its final form. So our intent intent today is to get feedback from you, the council, and do this more jointly as library board and council. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Tracy and Holly to introduce themselves and tell you all about their draft recommendations.
Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you, council president, mayor, administrator, council members. We're delighted to be here to share our progress update. Thank you, Karen, for underscoring draft. Okay. Here we are. I am Tracy Lesneski. It's, spelled a little bit weird on that slide. It's actually, Lesneski. I'm with, MSR Design. I'm the president and CEO of that architecture and interior design firm from Minneapolis. I represent the master plan lead for this team. There is, scores of people working together on this effort to make sure that we represent all
the different lenses and disciplines that would inform a sound master plan. Susan Kent, who is in the middle there, was unable to join us because she would have needed to be via Zoom. Maybe when you have your revised room, that will be possible in the future. And then Holly Yocum is with us here. That will be possible in the future. And then Holly Yocom is with us here from Pathway Group. Good afternoon, council members. Excited to be here. I rep, I'm a partner with the Pathway Group, based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. An exciting part of this project for me is that prior to being with the Pathway Group, I was the director of community services for Salt Lake County where I served as nine years. And a big part of my work was the overseeing the operations of the Salt
Lake Library System, which had 22 libraries in our system, in the biggest county in the state, as well as a lot of history with other operations in government, parks and rec, arts and culture. So a lot of the things we'll talk about today draws on that experience over that time. And your name is the only one spelled correctly on the slide. Never happened. So I'm really excited about that. I'll let you know in our packets, your names are all spelled correctly. That's good to hear. Thank you. And I wonder if the closed captions could be moved to the top right of the slide each time, because I think that's probably going to be the least amount of conflict on each
of the slides going forward. I want to make sure that folks see the bottom as well of this slide, which shows the rest of the the groups that are involved in the effort. You'll notice that in, for instance, Krauss Anderson will be involved to do some cost estimating. Susan Kent will be, providing some operational estimating. This will all happen later in this process. I'm going to go to next slide here. Today, what we'd like to do is to share a brief update with you, share the preliminary draft draft recommendations that are resulting from what we've learned to date,
and then invite your input to help shape the next few months of work. We have another community survey coming up, and we have, another co design process coming up, and we'd like to use your input to shape the questions that we ask during those efforts. Our objectives are, in short, to provide a sound master plan that will guide the library in achieving its mission for the years to come. That result will have, much stakeholder input and be founded in what the community itself asks for and needs in order to thrive in the twenty first century.
So that's what we're starting with as our foundation. You can see this is a long process. It's a year. We're about two thirds of the way through. So where we are today is in the create phase, which is taking an initial draft of these recommendations as we're starting to see some themes arise, test them with stakeholder groups such as yours, and then, finish the work by putting some meat on the bones. So there's not a lot of detail today to share. It's pretty high level themes that we're, going to talk with you about and then hear your feedback. We've already learned some pretty key findings,
and that's, part of what's shaped the themes so far. One is that the staff of the Rochester Public Library is highly valued and its services are well used. There is an opportunity, however, to reach more people in the community. There's not a huge percentage of cardholders at this time. There are high visits, but it has a lot of opportunity to reach more people by providing more robust services, more robust, programming, not necessarily an expansion, if you will, but an reallocation, perhaps,
to provide a more calibrated delivery of services. Many council or many, community members would benefit from and have stated that they would use what we term twenty first century library service offerings. We'll define that in a little moment here for you. We've learned through many different, various, inputs that, the downtown location does present a bit of a barrier for many people in using the library's services. We'll talk about that more in a moment. And there has been a recurring theme about having more locations available for people to
access the services. So, again, we'll talk about these things in more detail. Our, recommendations will be bucketed into these four categories. Today, we'll share drafts. Eventually, we'll have more, filled out versions of these. They'll still probably stay in these four categories: identity, operations, leadership, and facilities. Identity, high level. We're going to look at how to raise the library's profile in the community. For operations, we want to align the operations better with the future needs of this community. For leadership, we want to provide recommendations around a culture of innovation and create better alignment with
what the city and the county are striving to achieve in this community. And then we want to, community. Be renovated to attract more use, and so we'll talk about that, as we go on. As I mentioned, underpinning this entire, set of draft recommendations to date is a robust reach into the community. We wanted to start with understanding what the community's needs, aspirations, and desires are, and calibrate the service offerings, accordingly. We have, conducted many outreach activities already. We have received stakeholders, and stakeholders. And then the co design process that the city and DMC have, advocated for was also used not as part of our process,
but as a separate contracted process, to augment the community, outreach that we've done as part of our own process. So you have the report from that effort in your packet as well. A through line from the community input is that the library is well loved. And there's a lot of really lovely, sentiments here on the screen from your community members. We have looked also at demographics. We want to understand what the changes are that are coming to your community and region. These are just two examples of changes in age and race coming your way. We've also looked, of course, at major, developments and things that are going to be changing the way people,
use your community, think about your community, interact in and engage in your community. We've, of course, looked at the city of Rochester's vision statement and, principles, as well as mayor's Vision 02/1950, noticing similar themes between those two efforts, as well as the, land use plan for the county. And just, again, wanting to make sure that we collect and understand as much as we can about where you are now and where you're headed in the future so that we're calibrating a master plan for the library that can meet those demands. We've also looked, at what the local and regional and national context for libraries is.
I have the great fortune of visiting libraries all across our country and actually in the world, in the work that I do, and have a good pulse on what's happening out there in libraries. And what I can say with certainty is that they are changing, and they continue to change. Whereas once libraries were quiet places, maybe, one sole space that you could access them with some pretty fixed offerings, libraries are much more now active and vibrant. They do still have books. They will have books for a long time to come. Those books will continue to be in print and digital,
even as digital continues to rise. They are community hubs. They are places where people can meet for social reasons, for learning reasons, for connection, for enhancing their well-being, to get resources to learn job skills and trades. There are places that people can access the technologies and things that they don't have access to in other aspects of their lives. So as I was saying, they are very different kinds of places than they used to be. They are for all ages, not just for kids. And many of our most vibrant communities really have embraced the idea that the library
can be central to a very connected and robust and vibrant community. There are some trends happening as well with libraries. And one is that, one of the reasons we do all of this robust engagement and understanding of what the community needs is because they're hyperlocal. There aren't any standards anymore for what a library should be. It really is what should Rochester's Library be for Rochester. And we need to reach to all of you who understand Rochester best to know what that is and what that means. We know that because everything is changing quickly,
in our world, and therefore library services need to continue to change and evolve, that adaptability is critical. So staff need to be able to adapt, and they need facilities and spaces that can adapt with them. As I mentioned, digital is on the rise, but we don't ever see print going away. And because more and more is demanded of libraries in terms of how they provide services to their communities, partnerships are critical. Partnerships are key. So we're seeing a lot more of both co located partners, with libraries and we'll talk a little bit more about that as well.
And, simply more innovative programming together. A lot of your service providers in your community are they're all serving the same people, right? We don't want to duplicate services, but we do want to services, but we do want to augment services and make sure we're providing the best that we can for your community. So, some opportunities. That we see. So first is thinking about embracing physical and digital resources, programs, and services. So thinking about how are people using the library today, and how can they use the digital collections, be responsive to customer needs and demands, and then offer resources, to allow people to create and share content.
When I first started working with libraries, I was a library board, met I was on a library board. Then I oversaw the libraries, and now I have a eight year old daughter, and we access the library in a different way. So looking at how is the next generation as the community grows using library and their services. Also, position the library as a hub for lifelong learning. Provide flexible and sustainable spaces, for the community to gather, interact, and collaborate. What we used to think as we go to a library and read a book is no longer the case, and people learn in different ways. And so how can the library continue to be that point to help people learn,
whether it's being interactive, whether it's media, people, and then spaces? As you all know, we all do our jobs differently in this day and age. The world has changed, and libraries are changing. So how can we become an active node for residents in their daily lives in which they can connect, and gather together? To spark innovation and entrepreneurship, we are seeing more and more that buildings, are opportunities for people to come together, to create learning, to create, businesses together, and to create different ways to educate, and to move forward their interest in the community. We also look at supporting businesses and career success.
People are using libraries as a hub to access information that they wouldn't be able to access in the past, and to grow and to collaborate with one another in those spaces. And then to provide flexible, sustainable physical spaces for community interaction, collaboration, and then also to access your collections that you have, and to create maker spaces. So over and over, we're seeing, as you can see through some of these pictures provided by MSR, the people are using libraries in a different way. And but they're still learning, they're still growing, and they're still serving the community. Also,
serve as a key role as a collaborator, in your social service network. While I understand that you may be able to access services at one place, that doesn't mean that everybody feels comfortable in accessing those services in in that place. And so how can you be a welcoming environment and allow some services to come in the library? And we'll talk about that as we go a little further on, how libraries are changing and making communities, government more accessible to the community, as well as other social service, networks and opportunities. We also, again, be a critical contributor, to your region. We know that the county has goals and the city has goals,
and how can the library really help you as council members, you as leaders, from the city administration and the mayor's office? How can you move forward, your community? And the library, as we've seen throughout the country, challenges. Okay. So we challenges. Okay. So we also, through our process to date, have uncovered a few challenges, some headwinds in the way of the library achieving their mission to its fullest extent. One is just the downtown realities. So there are there are some challenges for some of your community members to being downtown, whether it's transportation to access downtown,
parking once they're there, or even once they've parked in which is a very nice connected, connected, parking garage to the library, traversing the trail to get to the front door and finding their way. It is a bit of a barrier for some of your community members, and we heard that often. Couple that then with the the reality that there's going to be a lot of construction over the next several years, just exacerbating that issue for your library customers. There's a bit of misalignment about what is the future of the library here between the city leadership, the library, and all of you? We'd like to understand that a little bit more.
How can we make sure that things are aligned and we're all going in the right same direction together? There is a general lack of awareness about what the library already does for its community members. What are the programs, services, and offerings? And a lot of people, weren't aware of everything that's going on, so that's a kind of easy low hanging fruit, actually, to market better, perhaps, what is happening in the library so more people take advantage. There's some untapped philanthropic awareness and support from the community, which Holly will talk about in more detail. And then there's also a pretty prevalent ethos of wanting to use the services
library and how do we, overcome something that may not be overcomeable, and instead pivot and figure out a different way to deliver those services. So that all led us to ask the very big question. When we think about all that you have going on for your community and all of the exciting developments that are happening and your big aspirations for being vibrant and for being energetic, innovative place? That is, a an energetic, innovative place? That is what we'd like to think about next. So that's what we call the big question. And again, you'll see we're underscoring draft recommendations, in these four buckets. And we'll start with identity.
Sure. So, first, just thinking about how do you raise the library's profile in the community? So, this is increasing outreach efforts to various diverse communities. We heard over and over that there is a barrier, with the library services. So how can you continue, sort of to increase those, efforts and look at that? Utilizing multiple communication tools, and outlets to inform the public. So rethinking maybe of campaigns that are bringing awareness to what the library does to the services that they offer. And then thinking about strong partnerships for collaboration, and cooperation. And a big part of the collaboration and cooperation on services is thinking about you
don't have to do it all as the city. Right? There are organizations, whether there's nonprofits, whether there's other entities, throughout the county, the school district. But how can you bring those together so you're offering those services to the community and bringing them together without costing bringing more, sort of impact to your budget? So what does the community want? What does it need? And are there other people that you can bring to the library to provide those services? Looking at raising the profile with the city and county leadership. So, thinking about the work that you've laid out in your strategic plan, with the city and the county, and how the library can be a tool for you to sort of move that
forward. And we'll talk about some examples of that. We also think that sometimes, you know, saying twenty first century library may not mean anything to anyone in this room, you know, or, you know, throughout the city. But as we think about, you know, often we're taken on tours as, leaders, whether it's council members, whether it's staff, to say maybe we need to go towards another library. And we think that's such a great opportunity is, you know, perhaps when you're, some of your leadership are touring what the, you know, whether it's the Association of Counties, the Association of Cities, different opportunities with the downtown alliance in your community,
looking at how can you look at other libraries to say, what are we seeing in our pure cities, and how can we bring some of that to our community to move our community forward? And so we think doing a trip like that would be really, influential, for all of you to start thinking about how are libraries in other cities not only bringing library services forward, but other services in the community and making that connection. And we'll talk a little bit as we go, and give some examples of things that we're seeing across the country. And then thinking about, you know, whether it's goals of,
homeless issues in your community, whether it's goals of, sort of meeting the needs. I think of some of the presentations tonight, how can you use the library? Because most people feel comfortable in a library. That's a setting where people can walk in and feel like they belong, feel like they can learn, and feel like they're there to access information. So how can we take the goals of the city and use the library as a tool to move that forward? And we have some ideas that we'll talk about, throughout this presentation. But really starting with raising the identity of as a collaborative partner with the city and the county.
Oops, Did I go? Okay. Yep. Sorry. Next is thinking about positioning library staff as integral partners of, this with the city initiatives. I think of, you know, some people are looking at whether it's early education, whether it's reading by the, you know, the age of three, you know, how many words have kids heard. There's so many opportunities to think about the goals of your health department, of your parks and recreation team to say, how can we collaborate and bring these, entities together and move forward, within engaging city initiatives? And the library,
we think, is key to being able to do that. You know, we've seen in some cities where, the mayor's office does a library book club where the community comes together and they read books with the mayor together, or council members come to story time and help work with, you know, the different patrons and meet their community members where they are. And we'd love to talk about how can you use the library as a hub to move forward your initiatives in the city. Next is strengthening the library foundation. Oftentimes, as we look at budgeting woes, in our communities and we look forward, we see the library foundation as an opportunity to help bring more community support.
So it's not just those tax dollars, but it's that philanthropic giving. And I've had the opportunity to meet with your library foundation, and they are, I say this as I'm looking at some of them, you know, they're energetic to move the library forward. They're already doing this work, and so how can we bring together that philanthropic community to support some of these new initiatives, in your community? And I think there's a lot of, not only sort of, support from the foundation, but also I think you do have a community that if we were able to tap into that community and elevate the library, with all of you, I think you could see more money come in to help with some of these
initiatives, without having to, tax the library or tax your constituents. And we'll look at some of that as part of this practice as we come out with our final recommendations is looking at funding for some of these initiatives. Next is enhancing the fundraising effectiveness, so teaching your library staff, foundation and board how to think about giving, how to think about accessing philanthropic dollars in the community, and aligning with the friends, the foundation, and the library's mission to move the library forward. So library operations. We think there's an opportunity, to look at your collections management,
and come up with a strategy for the future as you continue to grow and how and looking at how your patrons are using your current library collection. We think there's a chance a big opportunity to review and update your job classifications, and this doesn't mean, you know, saying I'm asking you to give everyone a raise in the library department. But we've looked at your job descriptions, and we think that libraries are changing and the job description should probably change to align with, that work. Aligning annual budget with services and collections, we think there's an opportunity to look at how funds are being spent now and
then think about the future as, you know, you'll see in some of the documentations. Digital, access to digital, learning is expensive, and so really thinking about how is the dollars being spent now and then looking at the to the future. And then review and improve technology. As we all know, technology is expensive and changing every day, and we think that there's opportunities within the library system to look at your current technology, to upgrade that, but also look at how people use technology in the library and how you can better serve your residents. You know, I joke all the time, my daughter is eight and knows how to use my phone better than I do, and she doesn't even have a phone,
so I don't understand it. But how can the library be that hub to support people like me who are struggling to use technology but also, continue to increase the learning of individuals in our community? And then review and improve as needed the programming for all ages. We know that libraries are a hub for families to come together, whether it's sorry, for families to come together, for students to come together, and for people to gather, and educate themselves. And so how do we continue, to support the programming that your community desires? And we heard through our listening sessions, that they're asking for. And so that's some of the work that we'll think of,
with your library, staff. Oh, I thought I did. Yeah. Oh, there. Sorry. I didn't I thought I missed one something. So one thing on leadership is to think about a cultivation of innovation and transformation. So we think that there's a great opportunity to help your staff at the library, move forward. And, when I say that is, how do they continue, you know, as people are wanting new information, as people are wanting to learn in different ways, if our staff aren't educated on those things, then the library can't provide those services. And so we think there's a great opportunity to develop strong leaders, within your staff.
And some of this is providing them with, public policy and processes to effectively advance organizational outcomes. So, not only, you know, internally, but also externally in the community. Communications training to develop tailored messaging and persuasive communication techniques, for engaging with community members and leaders in the community and to talk about the services that they're offering. And then to promote a culture of strong external relationships that enhance the mission of the RFPL. And when I say that, you know, often people think of we used to have a rec center here,
and we used to have a library here, and people didn't cross over. And I think more and more our community is looking for those crossover, opportunities, and we'll show some examples of that in a minute. But also, a lot of this is how to think about how how to think out of the box and use services that you already have to bring to the community, whether that's partnerships at the, you know, story times in the park, piano lessons at the library with nonprofits that offer those services. There are so many different things that are happening in your community, and so how does the library, you know, work with the library staff to think outside of a box,
and to move forward opportunities for people to engage and learn in these libraries? And but doing that, again, without hitting the budget of saying, We need more staff to offer services, but to say, We have a great parks and rec department. I've toured, many times your, city and surrounding areas with parks and recreation. So how do we bring those two opportunities for growth, would really be helpful, not only to the library, opportunities for growth, would really be helpful, not only to the library but to the future of the city. Okay, so moving to facilities. We've got a few, key recommendations regarding facilities. We hear over and over about the parking issues,
whether they're real or perceived, in some cases. There is, you know, some free hours of parking. We know this. Not everybody does know that. We also know that, people would stay longer if there were longer hours of free parking. So many cities like yours would investigate validated parking or at least test that as an idea and see if people do stay longer or people do come more often. That could be another partnership with the foundation, perhaps, to expand free parking or a pilot program of it.
We think that there's an opportunity there to, at least test whether that would make a difference or not to your community members. I mentioned before dispersing services throughout the city, piloting a satellite or two or more, in growth zones. We know that since this building was built I'm pointing. I don't know if I'm pointing the right direction. That when this building was built, a lot of growth has happened in the north and south of your city, and there aren't really library services there. So targeting, large growth zones, anticipated growth zones, finding, vacant property or,
partners that would be willing to house a satellite program for a while and see what happens. It's a relatively low barrier to entry to find out a lot more about how your community would access library services and if it would expand access for your community, which we think it would. We have on here something that might be provocative, which is exploring a model of a smaller downtown footprint. I know that goes against many other studies you've done in the past. I would argue for a larger downtown footprint. The reason for this is because of what we've learned about the headwinds of being downtown, and perhaps a smaller a There is not one size fits all in terms of a model for delivering library
services. And then there was a call for expanding bookmobile, coverage. Your bookmobile is highly popular and really well used, so there's an opportunity to reach more folks through an expanded, set of hours or locations. Because satellite locations might not or piloting them might not be a, an idea that you've come across before, we did include a few examples of successful pilot programs. One is in Maryland, in Anne Arundel County. They took the approach of providing a full service, very small, 3,000 square foot, branch, essentially,
in a mall. A lot of our malls across the country have some vacant space. They might, benefit from additional foot traffic by having, an amenity like a library within them. Some cities are able to strike really good deals with those malls, to get that space either for very reduced or low cost or, free cost, especially for a testing of a pilot program such as this. A little different take is in Dallas, where they said we need a children's branch specifically. So rather than serving all ages, this is geared toward children and their families or caregivers.
And so similarly, small footprint in a mall. Many of many communities across the country, and you can see a few listed here, and shown here on this slide, have experimented with having a footprint in their airports. You have many, many visitors coming to your airport every day. This would be a way to, introduce library services to your visitors or to your, the regulars who fly in and out of here on their regular business. Colocation is gaining steam in libraries, with like minded partners or mission aligned partners cohabitating,
if you will, under one roof. An example of this kind of on steroids would be the Missoula Public Library that has a, science museum that's part of the university, a family counseling unit, the local cable access television studio, and all of the resources that that comes with for audio and visual production, a cafe, and a science based, grant funded lab, all co located with the library. The reason being what Holly was talking about is integrated services, catching people where they are in a place that's comfortable to them,
and providing a one stop shop of sorts. Housing also rose to the top of needs when we asked the community, What do you need here to to thrive? A lot of communities are are comparing not comparing pairing, housing and library. So Milwaukee, not so far from here. Easy to go and visit and see how that's working. A couple different branch libraries associated with housing developments. Chicago has some examples of that as well. And then City Hall with library or rec center with library, as Holly was saying. Another,
example of how, libraries are cohabitating to make the best use of the taxpayer dollar, bring services together that people often want to use together. You know, when you think of a whole family, spending an afternoon together, they could be doing multiple things in one location. And that's what the idea of the rec center and library, brings. And then the final slide of our draft recommendations regarding facilities is an opportunity to renovate the downtown library, both for accessibility and welcomeness, and to utilize the existing square footage better.
We think that there's actually enough square footage there if it's reallocated a little better and planned a little more efficiently. So, that would be our recommendation. We would want to, reallocate some spaces that could be better used for the public. We would want to increase the number of small meeting spaces. There's a high demand for those for telehealth, for Zoom calls, for small meetings, for study groups. All kind of reasons given for why small meeting spaces would be, useful. Curbside pickup, which was used during the pandemic, was highly popular and highly used given the parking concerns and,
and comments that we heard about coming downtown. Perhaps curbside pickup is a service that could be reinstated to alleviate those concerns. Again, that could be a pilot project. That could be something that you try for six months and see, is it actually increasing accessibility or not? And then improved wayfinding. Multiple languages, perhaps, as been mentioned earlier in your study session. Certainly, better visibility of signage, better wayfinding in general, collection naming that is more plain language, not library speak, that many people don't find accessible.
And that brings us to the end of our draft, and just real quickly wanted to share what our next steps are so you have context of where we're headed next. We will have another round of community input. There will be a community survey. We would like the questions to be informed by some of the questions and then there will be another round of co design sessions being facilitated by the partner group. By Design is the name of that company. We will finalize the report then. Once we have collected that final round of input, we will finalize the report then. Once we have collected that final round of input, we will finalize the report then. Once we have recommendations. Some of them may change, some may fall away, some new ones may arise. We don't know until we get into this work for the next couple of months. We'll add specificity, so there'll be very specific actions that we're recommending.
We will identify costs associated with what we, what we recommend, and that's operational costs and capital costs both. We will also identify a way to achieve those things. That's a big part of Holly's role here is to identify pathways to funding, strategies that she sees in her assessment that could be possibilities for achieving these recommendations. And then we'll map that to a suggested timeline. And any master plan, of course, needs to pivot. We don't know what's coming in the next several years, but we do our best to lay out something that is achievable and actionable for
the library. Thank you for your your time. Thank you. Thank you both. Questions? Council members? Council member Wahl. Very interesting presentation, and libraries have changed so much in my time. I actually worked in a college library when digital referred to toes and fingers. During eight years of education, spent all kinds of time in stacks because of, that's where you could find information. We didn't have the Internet. Now, working professionally for a few decades, it seems like most of my information gathering would come, through the Internet rather than in a physical space.
My wife, has a library degree and worked professionally as a librarian. So I, you know, I I love libraries. They have just changed so much. And you have described some of that. It it it seems like almost information gathering is is no longer, a key. Well, it's an asset. What should I say? It's it's it's not the prime mover of libraries anymore. Yes? Mhmm. I I would agree that probably that's true. Karen would probably speak to this much more collaboration, the skills that we need to thrive in the twenty first century, learning critical thinking
skills and, investigative efforts. That would be more, I think, what libraries are for. You still get information, of course. Always will. Maybe just not in the same single purpose way that you're describing. Yeah. I I just returned the poet back to the library. Did you so I I do enjoy that service immensely. And and some something that I just have to wrap my head around in the term in in the way of, the difference of how libraries are used these days. Just enormous. And and I just want to underscore it was a question, but I'm sure you answered it in the last five minutes. Each of your draft recommendations will come with,
specific cost considerations. Okay. Thank you. That's correct. Council member Fredericks. Thank you, president Schoebring. You're speaking my language when you start talking about, most efficient use of current space. I I like that. Obviously, makes sense to me the way my brain works. The parking issue, the duration of that seems like a simple fix. Like, we could go to a two hour duration and just see if that increases, usability. I think that seems like a simple fix, a logical fix. One thing one thing that wasn't brought up in this that just the light bulb
came on for me, I personally know well over a hundred people each year that have to do a a match interview on Zoom. And having a room that they could sit down and do all those, interviews in would be really beneficial to several people every year in this community. I happen to own a building right by the library and the tenants there would really enjoy that because when they're trying to be most professional and if they're in a building where they can't control their surroundings so much, it can get loud. This, that, and everything can be going on and they're,
you know, they're quite nervous and they really want it to work out for themselves. So something like that would be very beneficial to a lot of people. It goes on for months to they they do several interviews. So one person can I I I'd be guessing if I I said how many interviews they do, but they do several? So that could be a big thing. Thanks for your time. Yes. Thank you. Council member Miller. Yeah. Thanks so much for the presentation. I guess my question, really, first and foremost, is about parking and access to the library. What I don't hear in the presentation is a consideration of the bus rapid transit
line and how we are moving mode shift patterns. The library will have a transit stop right in front of it when that project is complete, giving much more access, to people along that route, and we'll expand the potential parking spaces, particularly the free parking spaces that someone could then shift to a high frequency transit line and end up right at the library with no consideration of how long that time is. So I just highlight that because that is a transformative transformation transportation project in the downtown that will ideally shift how people are accessing and the convenience of accessing downtown
because parking does have a cost. Yeah. Yes. And I'm looking forward to hearing that cost, because that is, you know, a subsidy that the city could would have to consider for how we're giving access to the library. And I I I wonder, in that vein, in other cities that are piloting expanded parking, validation, or others, are those programs income limited or otherwise qualified, or is that open to anyone? Do you want me to speak to Yeah. So I could say they've been open to anyone when they've done them. And we're looking at more and more pilot programs because people are seeing parking as a barrier. You know,
I always joke around. I live in the city that has more parking per capita, but the number one complaint at the city is there's nowhere to park, as you can imagine. And it's literally it's been studied. So it's all parking just is sometimes I mean, I always say it's the elephant in the room. But, they haven't done it, income based. It's usually, like, it's been open to all. Okay. Thank you. And I I think the missing component in the the parking conversation is the expectation that it's free. Mhmm. Right? Because it it's free to the user, but it is paid somewhere because facility construction cost, allocating that space can't be used for other things.
So I I appreciate that conversation. And I I also thought it was very interesting, in the mall conversation because if there is a place that built for ample free parking, all time day, our malls. Yes. And so it's interesting to consider how we might innovate in that space. And so I'm I'm looking forward to hearing more about that. And then finally, I guess, in the innovation, I didn't see I actually was in Salt Lake City A Couple Of Weeks ago and had the chance to visit the Downtown Library. And what I noticed there that just struck me as interesting were small retail spaces that were built into the buildings that could be used by community partners. And another element and just in the broader downtown is I often hear that there
are not, starter retail spaces. Commercial spaces are very large and expensive, and so creating those micro footprints also seems like an innovative idea I'd love to hear more about and if if that perhaps is is viable in the space. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Keane. Yeah. This has been interesting for me today. One of the reasons it's interesting though is I I consider this a huge shift when you start talking about, yes, we're now hearing that the big, like, well integrated downtown single library isn't the way to go, and branches are a better way to go.
And can can maybe we should clarify. Are you talking about branches? Or are you talking about just distributed resources, that kind of from a you mentioned early on that this was like a master plan. But I didn't know what the constraints were, whether this was additive or, or you mentioned aspirational. But I think if a real master plan really does trade offs and says but is there a major trade off that I mean, I know you're not there yet, but I feel like there's a movement away from the large, like,
like, really well funded and stocked, you know, multi language, all this other sort of stuff. I don't think you get that when you go to a branch. And I I guess I'd like to see if you'd say, like, no. We're going to have the same services just distributed. And I I guess I'm communicating that I'm a little surprised that from what I've been hearing, it's this is a major shift. Okay. Thank you. I would say it is early, to know exactly what we're going to recommend. Distributed services is a clear trend,
though. So how they're distributed is yet to be seen, I think. I hope I said at the beginning, I meant to if I didn't, that we're after what is going to be achievable and realistic and also as aspirational as we can be. We want to position the community to thrive. We want to position the library in a key role in helping the community thrive. And so far, what that means is distributed services, so that they are accessible in more locations in the city than just downtown. Exactly how that looks,
I'm not sure yet. I think satellites I'll call them satellites because that, suggests maybe a little different kind of footprint or operational lift, if you will, might be a good a good solution here. But we do need to hear a little bit more input from folks, and we do wanna understand what's on your minds too Okay. Before we can make that Yeah. In place. Yeah. I think I would just also say Yes, please. So we're not saying that the downtown library goes away. No. Right? So you still have your your main branch is what we would call it, downtown, but then it's providing additional services.
We did hear from people, you know, I have kids. It's hard to get downtown and to take them downtown. I'd love a library closer to me in my neighborhood. And we're seeing that across the country. People wanna access, you know, services within, you know, the, you know, I would say the comfort of their neighborhood. And so that's where the satellite branch comes in is to try it and see how is this you know, what services can we provide within those neighborhoods, and what's most important to those individuals? No. No. I I heard that. It's just usually those services in the neighborhoods are dramatically less than what you had
what you were able to provide in the downtown. Dramatically less. It can be a subset of, like we were showing, and maybe that's right for one part of your community. It could be a smaller, set of everything that's provided, just in a bite sized piece. We don't know yet what that recommendation will be. I would say, too, Holly, was mentioning families find it difficult sometimes to park and get to the front door. Also, people with mobility issues have issues getting to that front. That's a long walk from the parking garage.
It's not an easy one necessarily. So there's a lot of great reasons why having more locations that are more convenient to where people are living is helpful. Okay. And I appreciate, like, when I picture the timeline you have in front of us here, that idea of, like, try to get this input now. But I think if you started communicating with the idea, not just that, satellites, because that looks like a net ad. But if there really are trade offs here, I'd want those right now that are the users would have to understand that. I understand there's, like, major, like, different international languages collections.
And when I start thinking of when I think of even spoken hub, I don't think of them having that level of, like, depth. So if there's trade offs, we wanna make sure they're communicated before we start making. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. And I have, council member Palmer and the mayor, but I just wanted to kind of follow-up on, council member Keane's line. And I'm wondering if, like, the satellites, and, kinda coal coal, locations, are they can they be viewed as, like, a stationary bookmobile so that, you know,
it's not additive, but that they they know their community. They can move resources around to the different places. That, I think, would be a real dynamic. Yeah. I would say that's a big part of the satellite. Right? Is they're still able to access the collection in their neighborhood. You know? They're able to get those books there. They have story time. They have, I would say, individual places. I you know, anywhere I go, I use the library when I have meetings that I have to do. If I don't you know, if I'm traveling, I go to the library to do those things. So they would have those things there that are just you know,
whether whatever neighborhood that is, that they're able to access the same. I would say get similar services, and sometimes more because it's, you know, right there in their neighborhood. Could I just quickly clarify that, though? If you're talking about financially additive, it would be financially additive, unless you have a trade off of hours or something else at the main library. Get that operation. Councilmember Palmer. Well, I have a couple questions. I'm gonna come from a practical perspective. So you did a random survey, or what was your survey? Was it users of the library? What was the survey? Yeah. We attempted to reach as many non users as possible.
How did you do that? Well, we went to a bunch of different locations around the city. There was a Hy Vee, there was the Farmers Market You didn't mail out random ones to No. But that is what's next. Okay. So slide 57, you have a bunch of what you're gonna do next as far as surveys go and stuff. Okay. You mentioned that cardholders are falling in numbers. Is that what I heard? Karen, can you comment on card numbers falling in numbers? Well, you said it, but I believe what I said was that they're not as high high as they could be. And I can speak to our cardholders.
So, I think at the peak of our cardholders, we were around 72,000. That was when we were doing all of the schools, years ago. We no longer do all of the kids in the schools. And around the pandemic, time, a lot of people did fall off of our roles. Now we're about 53,000 cardholders. Okay. So you are falling. Remind me, who paid for the study? So this was tax levy. So we had part library reserves. Part was an additional ask. This was our decision pack request, that the library board prioritized as being the number one ask. So, it was part decision pack,
library reserves, library foundation. Okay. So the the the news media, whatever, keeps talking about branches, and you're talking about storefronts. You're talking about a storefront. Is that kind of what we're looking at? Potentially. Yes. Okay. And in the past, the the light the head librarians are always against doing anything that was not just a branch. They wanted to have a library and another library and another library to make it FAIR. Does does that And and I'll speak a little bit to that with the history. So I think 02/2005, whoever was here in 02/2005,
there was a a lot of folks that were asking about branches, branches, branches. And at that time, there was a survey that was done, again, twenty years ago, that said there's absolutely no appetite, no branches, no, don't do it. We want more, but don't do the branch thing. And then the current library that we have now, the librarians or whoever was there helped design the library. Right? We have I think we've now have folks retired that were part of the design process. I think we lost public works. I mean, you had free parking. You had an entryway. That that was been the complaint.
The entryway is too far, but it's been the complaint for twenty years. It's been the complaint for thirty years. Okay. In watching your, library board meeting, you were talking in there about active learning, the digital is on the right, training, getting into different areas. To me, that ring the bell of community, education and not really the job of the library. And so that was kind of disappointing to I'm looking at how do we fill a need, what need needs to be filled and I don't think that those are being are a need that needs to be filled by the library.
And so that was disappointing for me to read that that's kind of an area that you were thinking of. I I kind of almost go back to Mr. Wall's, description is that the library is kind of going away as we know it and this is kind of the last gasp of libraries of trying to reinvent themselves to stay open. I'm not particularly sure that know, doing that makes sense for us. And I know at one time that not too long ago we were down to six days a week. We went up to seven. What is our tax levy? About $7,000,000 We've been operating seven days a week. But you used to be six?
We have the same number of hours that we were offered pre pandemic. It used to be a very wonky schedule where in the school year, non summer, you, the hours were 09:30 in the morning to nine at night, Monday through Thursday, 09:30 to 05:30 on Saturday and Sunday, and then 01:30 to 05:30 on Sunday. I know your face is saying what our patient said. Because then in the summer, everybody goes to the lake, and the library would only be open from 09:30 to 01:30 on Saturdays and closed
on Sundays. During the pandemic, everything changed, and it was perfect opportunity to change the hours. So we took the math of all of those hours, of the open times in the sum the school year and the summer, divided those out, and and now we have sixty four hours a week on average. It's 10AM to 8PM, Monday through Thursday, 10AM to 6PM, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So And and I guess I'll just close with with the the attitude that the parking is a problem. When you say that, it becomes more of a problem. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.
So, I don't wanna go downtown because it's inconvenient. No one wants to be down there. And and, to me, we've been trying to promote parking in downtown that it is half the time the ramps are empty, or they're half empty, I should say. I apologize. And and, you know, so so somehow, you know, your marketing needs to be we're not And then I oh, sorry. That I would say that's one of our recommendations is look at a different way to communicate. Right? Because we we're not saying it's a barrier. This is what we heard from your community. When we asked people, you know, are you accessing the library or using it?
What we heard over and over is, you know, being downtown is hard. Parking, there's no parking. There's this. You know, we heard those things. So what we're recommending is that we look at the parking lot. Maybe we I think you even recommended maybe even coloring it a little bit, making it more inviting. But then we also recommended in one of those is that, like, how do you communicate that parking, you know, the first hour is free. How do you do it? It's potentially a campaign. I've seen those done with other organizations to say, no. No. You can access us. This is how you do it. And I think some of that is looking at a different way to tell the
story of the library and the access to the parking garage. We have budget coming up, and it's gonna be tough to keep it at 3% increase. So, some decisions will have to be made. So thank you. And like I said, we also mentioned, we think there's some opportunities to work with the foundation to use funding fundraising to help tell some of those stories as pilot programs too. So it does have to be Okay. We're gonna go to, Mayor Norton and then council member Miller. Thank you. Couple things. I'd just say thank you for the work that you did. Many of you know that have been around for a while, I'm a huge, fan of dispersing information out within the community.
And, I'm excited by what I'm finally hearing, which is it doesn't just have to be a branch library, it can be something innovative, something different, utilizing space that's there, partnering with other organizations. So I'm super excited about that, and I think, you know, moving ahead there can be ways to reduce costs, still get, the library services out into the community where they'll be utilized. I will say one of the things, I think Councilmember, Keane kind of mentioned it, it doesn't mean they have to be full libraries, and we've seen examples just like during the pandemic where people order things and then
can go pick it up. You can go to a library. You can use what used to be the card catalog. Right? You look online, search around, find a book that you want, and say, I'll be back tomorrow, and it can be delivered by tomorrow at your local area. It doesn't have to be a full library with services that are there or books that are there at that exact moment. Also, I I think we need to I'm looking forward to your creative ideas about the dollars and and about how we do this cost effectively because I think there's a fear that if we talk about this,
it means an increase in the levy. Right? And and it may mean we're gonna decide to spend more money on the library, and it may mean that there are different, more creative ways to do this that perfect example where we didn't get more staff and have more time, we looked at the staff and used them at different times and we have the same amount of staff and the hours are just different and they meet the community's needs better. So that's a perfect example of things that could be done to accommodate that. The other thing is with the numbers dropping. I do remember a day where all children in schools were encouraged to get a library card and everybody filled it out,
and maybe we can go back to that. You know, I don't know. I also know, and this is my gripe, was before Karen, some of us were pushed off the rolls at the library because they updated their system and if you hadn't been in for a while, when you went in, they said, sorry, you don't have a card anymore. You have to start all over. So some of it was self inflicted by the library because of the system and the way it ran, right? So I don't think we can just look at the numbers and say, they dropped, so therefore it's not being utilized, or it will never be utilized the same.
And maybe we just have to get people who didn't have a card re signed up because I was one of those those people. And lastly, where are great libraries? You showed some examples, and I I do you have a is there, like, a way to find a list of creative libraries? Because I would be interested in okay. So if you guys could provide that, that'd be really helpful. I'd love to try to look at one in a city near me or city near somewhere I might be. So thank you for that. Council member Fredericks. I will be quick. I promise. Of your 53,000
cardholders at the library, how many are used once a month? So the national community survey that we just did had this information in it, and I I can get you that number. Yes. Yeah. I I do not, but I can get I can get that date for you. Yes. Great. Thank you. And, just I I just wanna reemphasize a point that the mayor made. I'm very interested in seeing, the philanthropic and, the foundation, kind of that private sector support and, you know, what kind of estimates that you,
you can see for that and the work to get those funds as well. So thank you very much. Great. And our, next presentation, Mr. Mueller. And, I was pleasantly surprised to see that your slide deck is only 16 pages to it. So, this one may be brief. So, take it away. I promise. Thank you for having us. So, president Schubert, Mayor Norton, members of the city council, I'm Elliot Moller with Rochester Community Development, and I'm joined today virtually by Christy Trisco,
who is a senior planner for Bolton and Mank, who is the consultant that we hired to assist city teammates with this five year update. So we're here today just to provide you the information that we collected and, the few steps we have remaining before we bring this to you for consideration. Are we having some slide present concerns there? Got it? No. We shouldn't be. Oh, Christy, you wanna introduce yourself? Yeah. Hi. Mayor, council president, council members, and administrator, I really appreciate your time. My name is Christy Trisca. I appreciate being able to be digital today,
working with Bolton and Mink with, Elliott and their team on, what we're calling the planning to succeed update for 2025. And that was it for me, Elliot. If you wanna grab into your slides, I know these guys wanna get to a break and, move on to their other session moments. I wanna be sensitive to your time. Yeah. So, I guess, from my slide deck, is it a separate Alright. So just for everybody's information, but excuse me. Specifically for the four new council members on, in short, a comprehensive plan is a document that's collaborative in nature between city teammates as well
as city residents. It is a guiding document for how we facilitate future development based on, designated policies, and values that the community identifies. So, for instance, in 2018, when the plan was adopted, we sought out to enhance the relationship between land use and transportation network, design an urban environment to benefit the livability of Rochester's neighborhoods, and to strategize infrastructure spending for current and future growth. And the plan sought to do that by using these seven core principles, and I won't read them, but you can read them yourself. But broke these break down into policies that are then further broken down into goals,
all of which were, brought forward by community members, and, again, a collaborative effort. And so, before I hand it over to Christy, I just want to say thank you to Mayor Norton as well as my city teammates from all various, departments for helping us provide updated data, graphics, and figures. Again, this was a technical update, not an overhaul. We still very much believe that these seven core principles are valid for today and going into the future. So, Christy, I'll hand it over to you. Thank you, Elliot. We've got our our next slide here. You can forward it for me.
Thanks. So I just wanna take just a a brief second here to talk about our team. We've got Maura Honstein. She's our project manager, myself, the senior planner from the Rochester office. Got Sarah Swedenberg with the planner who worked with engagement support as we put some of these elements on the website so we can keep up. And finally, David Stenberg from GIS who helped us with all our mapping. Thanks. Our team approach here is is, really to, to a cohesive effort with partnership with the city.
Bolton and Mink really worked on a computer or, you know, a computer sorry, community centric approach where we work with all of our staff, I would really like to take just a brief moment to thank Transportation and Transit. We've worked with DEI, Historic Preservation, and certainly the engineers from the city. And we are very, very appreciative of all of their efforts as we've spent the last eight plus months working on this with them and and really appreciate their time and value to update to do these technical updates to the plan.
Thank you. Next slide. So kind of the key areas of our review, what we are tasked to do on this particular plan was to look at updates specifically in residential, mixed use land uses, industrial, and then what are these emerging trends. We're really grateful to finally have gotten the Maxfield housing study ready for us, which just happened a couple weeks ago. So we've been able to incorporate that into our plan, which is one of the four tenants that we're trying to do to accomplish. Then we've got our engagement pieces. With that, we looked specifically,
we started a a big workshop here in November where we had a lot of the departments show up and work through what are their key concerns and interests in this technical update and what we needed to address to get all of that in the plan. We also had an industrial, the city hosted an industrial open house back in 2024, and so we're able to talk to that group. Specifically, as we said, two of our our four updates for this, update was mixed use in really want really wanted to make sure that we,
reviewed those properties that could be used in the future for industrial uses, so we got that input. Of course, another big piece of this was, the mayor's vision for 2050, which began in 2024, and we've kinda got a a wrap up on that. That's gonna make a a big moment in this update, making sure that all of those same components I think we got over 900 responses, so that a summary of that and also the direction from that plan gets put in our update. And finally, last but not least, we're also meeting with May on the DMC, making sure that the downtown components that involve those groups,
the data, and their direction are met in this plan. I know that they are working towards getting, their five year plan update. Some of that data should be available for us this third week in April. So with that, we're gonna insert that technical information into this plan as well. Next slide is just kind of the overview of our scope. Again, we really just had those three components working on this technical update. We started this in July of twenty twenty four, through project setup. You can kind of read through this slide, public engagement, our draft plan addressing those feedbacks,
and we really hope that we're on task here to get an adoption by July of this year. Main components of this comp plan are still really following all the visions, principles, and priorities, which is the base element of how comp plans are written. So we are using the document, your visions and principles as we move forward in this update. This is, again, another graph you guys are familiar with, but, it's a it's a key component of this major plan. Then I just wanted to briefly talk about, all of the the plans that we have used
and reviewed. We've got 20 listed here. I think there are more online. So I don't I don't see we've we've we've just generated a lot of review from a lot of different documents. It's really important that each of these documents, we've summarized them. Some of that is will end up in the plan. Again, all of the departments from the city who came together to help us, you know, combine and and collate all of this information, they just could not be more thankful for them. But each of these documents, have made the list, have been reviewed, and will be in part part of this update.
Then I just wanted to talk just a a few quick minutes here about what the technical update means. We are updating we're using census 2020. We're using American Community Survey. We are using e s ESRI as update as well. And, all of that information will help us move towards a, the the final information, making sure that all of the data is updated and and is updated at present. So the last plan was 2018.
We're updating everything to 2020 American Community Survey, and the Maxfield Housing Study, which I just mentioned, is also a very key component of of all that updated data, which helps us understand how land uses will be parsed out in the future. Next slide. Thank you. Again, just some of the things that we've analyzed and looked at specifically here is the infrastructure, transportation, and transit. We've also analyzed and updated all of that data. You can see some of this information. Just taken quite a quite a bit of time to make sure that everything is
still in trend for what we need to do into the future, making sure that land uses, are appropriately sized for the future as we move into 2024. You can see here we've got some analysis done based on, you know, streets and roads and utilities, as far as city parks and even overall size. We've also got some analysis based on what really happened during COVID, what is you know, are we working from home, and you can see that that more folks are working from home and how that
changes the dynamic of community. And then we also have the, the new link system, so new transit updates. So these are some of the the new components that are happening for this update. Next slide. I think that the two other areas that that I hadn't really we hadn't started with as a goal, it certainly wasn't part of our task, but we've we've added it into. But we are adding and including a section on diversity, equity, and inclusion, emphasis and analysis. So we're working with staff on some of the topics are what are the true
cost of housing, what are our true living expenses, homeownership and how that connects to health issues, household access, and healthy foods. So we've added those sections to this plan. Thank you, Chao and Jacob, for their specific time on this. We'll have a few maps added and the text for this update. We're also working we've worked with, Molly Paz Lundgren on historic preservation and appreciate her time on that, working with historic patterns, historic preservation, and public art,
and that how that is changing and what those future goals are into the future. Next slide. Of course, we're a land planning and mapping and engineering firm, so I wanted to make sure that we had some great clean updated maps for everything. So we are updating, somewhere between thirteen and eighteen new maps for this comprehensive plan, bring bringing good GIS data back, so that we have we have all the latest information. This these maps kind of shows highlight some of the new projects, but, again, our emphasis was on residential,
industrial, mixed use, and emerging trends. We've got a few of those maps shown here in front of you, but these are the snapshots. We will be producing 11 by seventeens for the actual PDFs as the take home for this, plus we'll also have, the big maps for all of the staff. Again, helpful from all departments who came forward to review these maps, make sure that they are updated, and the GIS department that helped us generate the base data for this map. Thank you. And next slide. So just kind of next steps for us,
we're gonna confirm all the maps. Again, we just mentioned we're we've done between twelve and eighteen. I think we'll be the end of this process when we've got a few combination of maps ready. So we'll have maps and staff. We'll review that text with us as well. We're gonna share and make those revisions. We'll get that final draft plan prepared for you guys. And, again, just really wanna emphasize that this has been the city's team project. We're gonna align future growth management maps and the land use map, future land use map,
and urban service areas, as we move forward and provide that with city council. Elliot, did you have any other things you wanted to add or comments about this? No. Other than thank you. And, again, this is wrapping up soon, and it's been a lot of work. So, we appreciate. And we'll have any questions you guys have, we can answer. Great. If you have any technical questions, more to Christy, probably. But Great. Well, thank you, Elliot, and thank you, Christy. So I have some questions just on that last slide. So it sounds like this will come for adoption to the council in June or
July. So my question is with these final plan drafts draft and the, providing the council with growth management options, when will we see see that draft? And how much, lead time will we have to our, planned adoption? That's a great question, and I think we can work with you on that. Okay. Because I know it's gonna be a big document. Yeah. So, four days is usually We've actually have to. So Yes. I would I would like to report we have cut almost 200 pages out of
this this update. That's only gonna be 200. Mister miss Woodward. Council president, I think we can work on trying to get the draft out earlier for review. I also just wanna note that the the growth management map and future land use map will come at a later date. Those are gonna require some additional outreach as we're building that, and it will be consistent with the comprehensive plan. But we can work with getting the the full drift out. And it will be also need to go to the planning commission as well, so it will be kind of available at that point in time. So we can also share with council the link so that there's ability to look
at it ahead of time. That helps. Planning and zoning commission, getting it before us is always good. So, I am going to go to council member Miller and then council member Palmer and then mayor Norton and the and so council member MillerCo. I'll be concise. On slide 13, public art is listed under historic preservation. I'm glad to see public art listed, but, surprised to see it there. Any context for why why that? Yeah. I think in the plan, it's, coupled with urban design. Okay. Okay. Good. Yeah. Sorry, commissioner Miller.
Yeah. It's just it's in that particular section of the comp plan. It's it's a very long document, and it just ended up kind of in that same that same street. K. And then potentially a bigger question, but when I look at the comprehensive plan principles, I see emphasized fiscal sustainability. We have a lot of maps here. What I don't see in the mapping is any sort of consideration of revenue and cost service cost analysis. And I know firms like Urban3 are moving towards a property value per acre map.
You will see these three d maps and also looking at cost of services. We just had a conversation about where to put, you know, potential extra library services. People would like them close to where they live. And I think that missing piece of the analysis is how are we planning so that services like that are fiscally responsible in other places. And I think, obviously, the the unsaid reason for why the library is downtown is because it's the most service in many regions. It's also the densest property value. So I wonder about that element of mapping. Yeah. Christy,
I can take this. I think Great. That's a great point. I think when you look at all the maps separated, they kind of tell that story. But I understand we want one that combines that all. And so I think that's something that we can work with Bolton and Mink on. And if not, we can, city teammates can, try to, take that banner. Councilmember Palmer. Thank you. I just have a couple of questions. What I would like to have is a map for what we have for lots that are available right now for R1 and R2s. Is that going to be so we can see that? We do keep track of vacant land, but I would think that it's not publicly available.
But I'll defer to Irene or Taryn. I think that is one of those things that we are also looking at, Councilman Palmer, in terms of what's available land, and we're doing some of that analysis as well as we're looking at the max field study in terms of what those needs are and where does that align with the land that we have available. So I I hear your question of, like, what does that look like? And I think that is part of the discussion we're having in terms of what information and how do we clearly show that to the public. So the second part would be the Maxfield study that just came out or it's a draft form,
but it shows that we don't have enough of the R1 and R2. And so how is that going to be incorporated into this plan if you're going to be done in two months? Yes. So we have done preliminary analysis on acreage of low density residential, within city limits that's undeveloped as well as outside city limits. That calculation has come back showing that there is adequate land. It's just a matter of development patterns, and economics. But we would look more into it on,
you know, where that development is happening. Well, the Maxwell study in the draft says that it's we're severely slow on R1 and R2 lots. Yep. And we've seen that too with the fringe development. It's behind. But as a matter of land develop or land use, we have the land, not the zoning maybe. Go ahead, miss. I would just add on that we're I We are taking kind of the the numbers from the max field study, so we did get the updated numbers in terms of looking at what does our current you know, where where in the UDC does that do we anticipate that growth? What does that land?
And trying to calculate as we continue to grow knowing those numbers are gonna change or well, actually, that we kind of anticipate what those needs are. Are we gonna have enough r one and r two zoning? And that is part of the analysis that we are doing as part of the comprehensive plan. Perfect. Thank you. Mayor Norton. Mine is similar, but a little off. I'm wondering about the updated numbers for Maxfield. Everybody refers to them. Everybody seems to have seen them, but they aren't public yet. Is that correct? Because I haven't seen the final copies. Does anybody know? Missus Woodworth. There is a draft that has been reviewed that the housing coalition has seen.
We asked for the draft numbers as soon as we could get them so that we could incorporate them into the comprehensive plan. I think the intention is for the Maxfield study to become public probably by the end of this month into early into early May. So it is anticipated that we're kind of the coalition is looking at those and putting together how do we best share out this data because it is about 300 and some pages, but those will be forthcoming. Wonderful. And I hopefully will have a presentation on that. But the point I wanted to make has to do with not just the Maxfield. We also have your what what was put on the screen was the old strategic
plan, and this board is talking about a potential change or a new strategic plan. And I'm a little hopeful, frustrated, and hopeful that this decision by this board can be made before and considered before you make your final decision, or it's another ten years before we'll be able to discuss it again. So the timing is a little off on this, and I'm hoping either we speed up the strategic planning discussion or you hold off until you get the results before you go public. Deputy administrator Parrish, do you have any response?
President, mayor, members of council, we do have a draft that we're hoping to, be sharing with the council. We just really need to find time in the study session. So it feels like we're gonna be able to align that both with this and, hopefully, with the budget process as well. Right. Thank you. Council member, Keane? I'm gonna pass my time. Okay. Any other questions on this? It went quickly. So thank you, Christy, and thank you, Elliot. Thank you. I am going Appreciate your time. I'm gonna turn it over to deputy administrator Parrish to give us a preview of
upcoming council and study sessions. Yeah. Just a good evening. Mike will obviously take you through your closed session process here momentarily. Bigger study session, for next month as well, so a lot of conversation here tonight. On the April 28, we'll have our factors influencing the budget, outside agency process, and the draft fee schedule. So really getting grounded in the budget. So we had a lot a lot of opportunities to invest tonight, and then we'll be looking for that feedback going into the budget process about what you wanna prioritize and some of the key factors driving the budget.
It's a really good opportunity to just encourage you to think ahead, like, this is the guidance that Allison really will city administrator zones will ultimately use, to formulate a recommendation to you. So it's pretty important night, for the council that way. We also have the city council rules and procedures review. There will not be a ton of content on that. It really is just an opportunity for you to reflect on the rules if there's anything you want further exploration on, but more of an open discussion in the council's, court that evening. And then we have a closed session that evening as well to discuss labor negotiation parameters, and so we'll be looking for feedback and bringing you recommendations there.
Otherwise, May, your only study session item is a city council bus tour, and, we have a great evening, in the works for you there as well. Well, I hope the weather is nice that day. I will now turn it over to attorney Spindler Craig to, lead us into our closed session. Thank you, Mr. President. Consistent with the published agenda, pursuant to Minnesota Statute 13.05, Subdivision three, the council will adjourn to a closed session to discuss a pending litigation matter, Molly Dennis v. City of Rochester,
et al. The decision to move into Closed Session is based on the need for absolute confidentiality, which outweighs the purposes of the Open Meeting Law. I would invite the Council President to solicit a motion to move into Executive Session pursuant to Minnesota Statute 13 D. Five, Subdivision three because the need for absolute confidentiality outweighs the purpose of the Open Meeting Law. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Moved by council member Fredericks and seconded by council member Wahl. Any discussion? All in favor,
say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. We are, adjourned. And we will gather in ten minutes in, Room 104. Thank you.