West Chicago Public Library Board of Trustees met April 22.
Here is the minutes provided by the board:
A. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m. by President Conradt.
B. ROLL CALL:
TRUSTEES PRESENT: Nancy Conradt, President; Richard Bloom, Treasurer; Diane Kelsey, Secretary; and Tom Tawney, Member.
STAFF PRESENT: Ben Weseloh, Library Director; Margo Burkhardt, Public Relations Specialist; Amanda Ghobrial, Adult Services Manager; Amanda Hanson, Librarian; Gabe Cardenas, Circulation Services Manager; and Jason Rock, Information Technology Librarian.
C. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES:
1. Board Meeting - March 25, 2019: Mr. Tawney moved to approve the Minutes of the Regular Board Meeting of March 25, 2019; seconded by Mr. Bloom. Motion carried by unanimous voice vote.
D. RECOGNITION OF THE PUBLIC: Dan Brandolino, Midwest Mechanical. E. PUBLIC COMMENTS: None.
F. AGENDA - ADDITIONS/DELETIONS: None.
G. TREASURER'S REPORT:
1. Approval of the Bills for April 2019: Mr. Bloom moved to approve the expenses in the amount of $149,372.44; seconded by Mr. Tawney. Discussion was had regarding two blank fields, one for staff travel and one for Fitzgerald Lighting, exterior R&M. Mr. Weseloh believes those line items were residual from the March list and should be removed.
Roll Call Vote - Yes: Richard Bloom, Tom Tawney, Diane Kelsey, Nancy Conradt. Motion carried.
2. Financial Statements for March 2019: Mr. Weseloh reported on the Financial Statements during his report, Item I-2.
H. COMMUNICATIONS:
1. FY2019 Illinois Public Library Per Capita Grant Award Letter
I. REPORTS:
1. President: The Trustees will schedule a meeting to perform the Library Director evaluation. This will be set under Item K-2.
President Conradt congratulated the newly elected trustees including Tom Tawney, Corrine Jakacki, and Pat Weninger. Ms. Conradt also was elected to a new term as trustee.
The Meet the Candidates' web page on the Library's site received 50% of the clicks on the site during the month leading up to the election. Discussion was had regarding the Library web page linking with other West Chicago municipal candidate listings during election seasons, which would be consistent with the Library serving as a community source of information; as well as the various municipal entities in the city creating candidate pages for their respective candidates on their respective sites.
President Conradt discussed the Strategic Planning Committee which existed in 2012 and the consultant who was engaged at a cost of $10,000.00. Three goals from the Strategic Plan were: Flexible spaces, outreach to the community, and staff mobility inside and outside the library, not tethered to a desk. That strategic plan
has been successfully put into effect by the Library. Discussion was had regarding again forming a Strategic Planning Committee. When the new board meets in May, Ms. Conradt will appoint the Strategic Planning Committee.
2. Library Director: Mr. Weseloh stated the fiscal year elapsed for the financials is 75%. Funds were transferred from the Corporate Fund over to the GASB 54 Emergency Fund. The Per Capita Grant funds were transferred to the Corporate Fund.
Most of the broad sections of personnel/administrative expenses and administrative technology are running under budget at this point. Line items running over budget include marketing and promotion -- newsletter and Constant Contact; and facilities and operations -- janitorial service and snow removal.
Sealcoating will be performed over Memorial Day weekend. Multiple repairs were made to the HVAC system during the year, and interior R&M is over budget.
Utilities of gas and electric are running under budget, as is trash collection; the telephone utilities are running over budget due tariffs on the emergency circuits. A wireless communication transmitter was installed on the fire panel, and ADT installed a wireless transmitter for the burglar alarm. The cost for the circuits has gone up from $512 per month to $788 per month. Professional services are running slightly over due to legal review of documents and contracts.
First Security was onsite March 26, 2019. Mr. Weseloh discussed adding card swipes to many of the doors throughout the building. He is awaiting three additional proposals for card swipes to gather information for planning projects for the next fiscal year.
The new fleet of copiers were installed; the faxes are not yet running. Pace System has completed installation of the three additional surveillance cameras. That project is officially completed.
The elected officials will be sworn in as trustees at the May board meeting, Tuesday, May 28th, at 7:00 p.m. A photographer was hired to arrive at 6:30 p.m. to photograph the trustees for placement on
the Library's website.
The City of West Chicago has begun discussion on Census 2020 from the city level. They are looking at formulating a Complete Count committee to help inform the public and aim for full participation in the 2020 census. The City has asked the Library to partner and potentially co-chair the committee, the first meeting being held in May.
The Statement of Economic Interests is a key requirement for library individuals to complete. Three trustees have not yet completed their statements, which are due by May 1st, otherwise there is a fee that is assessed to the Library.
a. The completed projects list was provided to the Trustees.
3. Department Managers: Short oral reports were provided for the following departments: Adult Services, Young Adults, Circulation, Administrative Services, Technical Services, Youth Services, and Information Technology. Some information was as follows:
Adult Services: Four computer classes were held -- two in English and two in Spanish -- in March, with a total of 35 attendees.
Young Adults: On two Saturdays the ACT and SAT exams were proctored by Library staff. Twenty four teenagers participated in the exams.
Circulation: The District has a total of 15,597 card-holders; which is 52.12% of the District's population. National Library Week is in April.
Technical services: 1,699 items were added to the collection in March.
Youth Services: Off-site outreach programming had 312 attendees participate; a total of 584 attendees participated overall in both off-site and on-site programming.
Youth Services: A new partnership was formed with a local business, On Point Dance Academy -- they provide a free dance lesson for anyone who attends story time.
IT: Nearly 30,000 connections were made to the Library's Wi-Fi during the month of March, including 1,136 unique clients, with an average of 110 clients per day. Website visits were 6,383 during March; and 1,125 computer bookings were made.
4. Finance Committee: Mr. Bloom reported the Finance Committee met March 28 at 12:05 p.m. Present were Richard Bloom, Chair; Diane Kelsey and Tom Tawney, Members; Ben Weseloh and Maureen Bajor, Staff.
The February 25 Minutes were approved. The salary Schedule was discussed at length to address the increase in minimum wage which takes effect January 1, 2020, through 2025 with incremental increases. The Finance Committee will make two recommendations to the Board at the May meeting:
1, the salary schedule currently runs on the Library's fiscal year July 1 through June 30. The minimum wage increases will run on a calendar year with the exception of the 75-cent increase which will start July 1, 2020. The Committee will recommend the salary schedule timing run on a calendar year beginning January 1, 2020, to coincide with the five-year schedule of minimum wage increase.
2, the Committee will recommend salary schedule revisions to pay grades and/or the reflection of the COLA increase.
The Committee discussed critical projects to be budgeted in consideration of the level of current reserves. One project has $120,000 set aside for implementation. Other expenses were discussed; revenue projections for the '19-'20 budget were discussed, including the City informing the Library of a 4 percent decrease in the PPRT distribution. The final figure has not been received on the tax revenue levy.
The Committee will again meet in late April or early May, and plans to have the working budget available for the May board meeting, or the June board meeting at the latest. The meeting adjourned at 2:20 p.m.
5. Policy Committee: Mr. Weseloh reported that the Committee discussed the personnel handbook. The handbook will be reviewed in sections, about four sections at a time. The entire handbook will be brought to the board when the review has been completed.
The Committee discussed the combined emergency and disaster manuals and possible formatting changes. After additional work by the committee, the combined manuals will be brought back to the board for recommendation and approval.
The Internet policy was discussed at length. Staff will be making recommendations on changes to the policy to make it more flexible for people to access the computers and the Internet. This policy will also be brought to the board when the committee has completed its work.
J. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: None.
K. NEW BUSINESS:
1. Building Automation Systems (BAS) and VAV Box Upgrade Proposal: Dan Brandolino of Midwest Mechanical stated a handful of VAV boxes are obsolete and parts are not available for repair/replacement; the company recommends upgrading to the latest architecture protocol. A document was provided the board which includes more technical detail.
The Library has approximately 44 VAV boxes; the current budget is insufficient to replace all the boxes. As certain parts of them fail, some parts can be salvaged to repair boxes downstream. Eventually all boxes will need to be replaced.
Mr. Brandolino recommends the board first replace the chiller, which is past its technical useful life. No permits are required for this type of work. The Library is not a taxable entity, so Midwest is not going to charge sales tax.
Mr. Bloom moved to accept the proposal from Midwest Mechanical for a new building automation system and upgrading some VAV boxes for a total cost of $113,745; seconded by Mr. Tawney.
Roll Call Vote - Yes: Richard Bloom, Tom Tawney, Diane Kelsey, Nancy Conradt. Motion carried.
2. Set a Date for the Library Director's Evaluation: Mr. Bloom moved to have the evaluation for the library director on Wednesday, May 8th at 7:00 p.m.; Seconded by Mr. Tawney. Motion carried.
3. Appointment of a Nominating Committee for Board Officers: President Conradt appointed Richard Bloom and Diane Kelsey to the nominating committee.
L. CLOSED SESSION: None held.
M. RETURN TO OPEN SESSION: No Closed Session held.
N. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned by President Conradt at 8:03 p.m.
https://wcpld.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/WC-Lib-April-2019-searchable.pdf
Alerts Sign-up