TUESDAY, December 10, 2013
4:30 PM
LOCATION: Meeting Room, RFPL, Bellows Falls, VT
Board members in attendance: Jan Mitchell-Love, Hope Brissette, Ray Massucco, Deb Wright, Pat Fowler, Carolyn Frisa, Elayne Clift and Laura Senes.
Staff in attendance: Emily Zervas and Samantha Maskell.
Public attendees: Barbara Stickney, Arnold Clift and David Gould.
Press in attendance: Susan Smallheer (Rutland Herald), Chris Garofolo (Eagle Times) and Allison Teague (The Commons).
1. Call to order 4:40 PM
2. Public Comment: One member of the public asked about an update on the board looking into raising the non-resident fee so it would be in line with the amount paid by taxpayers. This will be discussed under the Finance Committee. One member of the public asked about where meetings are warned, and commented that he found no warnings for the Personnel meeting on November 25th. Meetings warnings are always posted at the town hall and on the kiosk outside the town hall. They will now be posted on the bulletin board in the vestibule of the library. Another member of the public commented that it is difficult to hear if more than one person is talking at the same time.
3. Approve minutes of November 12, 2013 trustees’ meeting minutes: Ray Massucco made a motion to approve the November 12, 2013 trustees’ meeting minutes with the following changes; Ray Massucco’s name will be removed from list of those in attendance on 12/10/ 2013, Ray Massucco’s name will be removed from #8 as having attended the state workshops, #5 will be changed from Director’s Monthly report to Librarian’s Monthly Report, and Ray Massucco’s email that was discussed during the meeting will be added as and addendum to the minutes. This motion, seconded by Deborah Wright passed with 7 in favor, none opposed.
4. Share new library director job posting materials: Tabled until next week after the Personnel Committee has time to complete the job description and members of the board have time to review the job posting and description.
5. Discuss next steps for DOL paperwork for terminated library director. Executive Session (if necessary): Jan Mitchell-Love received and email from Chip Stearns asking if we wanted to appeal the benefits for unemployment for the terminated library director, which would be due by the end of the next business day, 12/11/13. Hope Brissette made a motion to have the department of labor look into an appeal on the terminated library director. This motion, seconded by Deborah Wright did not pass with a vote of 2 in favor, 5 opposed, no abstentions. No executive session necessary.
6. Librarian’s Monthly Report
a. Report: Emily Zervas and Samantha Maskell presented the monthly report. The staff has initiated a fundraiser to adopt new library items. This year’s calendars are for sale for $12. Shelving is installed and volunteers have been helping with shelving books. More shelving volunteers are welcome to call to schedule a time.
b. Financial Reports: Deborah Wright asked a question about insurance costs, as over half the insurance budget has been spent and we are not quite half way through the fiscal year. Emily Zervas and Samantha Maskell will ask Mary Van Hartesveldt and let the board know.
c. FY15 Budget: Tabled until next meeting.
d. Other: We receive about $2700/year in non-resident fees. Presently Westminster elementary school students must pay non-resident fees to use the RFPL. All other WNESU school students receive free student library cards. Ray Massucco moved to extend free student library cards to all Westminister public school students PreK-grade 6. This motion, seconded by Deborah Wright passed with 7 in favor, none opposed, no abstentions.
7. Committee Reports
a. Building-Hope Brissette: The committee has not met. Nothing to report. Will set-up a metting.
Pat Fowler on neighbor’s concerns: Pat Fowler received and email from David Kersula with complaints about noise from the compressors outside the library and the outdoor lighting. There is a need for noise screening, and for the light timing and direction to be fixed. The building committee will meet with the staff to take care of these issues.
In attendance: Jan Mitchell-Love, Hope Brissette, Ray Massucco, Deb Wright, Paige Pietrzak, Pat Fowler, Elayne Clift and Laura Senes (by phone).
Public in attendance: Joel Love, David DeRusha, David Gould, Wendy O’Connell, and Arnold Clift
Press in attendance: none signed in
Call to order at 4.37 p.m.
4. Share new library director job posting materials: tabled from last week. Deb Wright moved the following: “I move that the job posting for library director be submitted to the VT State Library listing sites, as well as all other appropriate posting locations, immediately, to be available online no later than 12/20/13.” Hope Brissette seconded. After discussion, including input from the public, the vote was taken. The motion passed with seven (7) in favor, none opposed and no abstentions.
A discussion followed on the Search Committee for the new director.
Laura left the meeting at 5:32 p.m.
6. c. FY15 Budget: tabled from last week. Mary Van Hartesveldt joined the meeting by speaker phone.
The trustees went over the FY 15 budget. Included is a 2% cost of living increase for staff. There is a total of a 3.5% increase or $11,234.00 increase. A discussion ensued over the amount allocated to fundraising on the proposed budget, the 2% staff increase, and the amount for legal bills. Elayne spoke in favor of staff receiving compensation. Then Emily Zervas went through the budget line by line noting, among others factors, that repairs and maintenance are going up. Pat Fowler made the following motion: “ I move that we approve this budget.” Elayne Clift seconded. More discussion followed. A member of the public noted that if the budget passed the board, both the Friends of the Library and the Board of Trustees should fundraise. Ray Massucco mentioned the possibility of a capital campaign. The vote was taken: the results were two (2) for, two (2) against, and one (1) abstention.
6. d. Other. Pat Fowler updated trustees on the People’s Bank annuity. The check will be mailed, the funds will be deposited in the TD bank account, and we will reinvest funds.
6. d. Other. Did not discuss financial compensation for Emily Zervas and Sam Maskell for their performance of co-director duties on top of their work in their regular positions.
7. Committee Reports
c. Finance: the following was mentioned: the part-time staff benefits in rescinded 2012 Personnel Policy – this has been sent to the Finance Committee for discussion.
d. Historical Collection: no report as Carolyn Frisa was not present.
e. Policy – reminder: bylaws meeting (for all trustees) on January 7th, 2014. Ray Massucco proposed that we move the trustees’ meeting to January 7th and the bylaws meeting to January 14th. All present agreed to that.
f. Personnel – no report
8. Old Business
a. 2014 workshop with Amy Howlett – the group decided on a Tuesday, January 28th date from 4:30 to 7:30 with either a potluck dinner break or people brown bagging their dinners. The snow date would be Tuesday, February 4th.
9. New Business
a. Thank you to Highway Department – Elayne Clift will write this and send it to the chair to sign and send out. 10. Review agenda items for next meeting and meeting date. Current meeting date is Tuesday, January 14th at 4:30 p.m. in RFPL’s Meeting Room. This trustees meeting has been switched to January 7th at 4:30 with bylaws meeting taking place on January 14th at 4:30 p.m. Both meetings will take place in RFPL’s Meeting Room. Hope Brissette and Paige Pietrzak left at approximately 6:15 p.m.
9. New Business – Emily brought up two more new business items.
b. Emily would like to ask Wendy O’Connell to fill in on desk shifts on an as-needed basis at a salary of almost $13.00 an hour. Those trustees still present thought this was a good idea since Wendy has worked at the library and would require no training. As this would cost no money (Wendy would fill in for part-timers who would not be paid when they could not work or for full-timers who would be taking vacation), no vote was necessary.
c. Emily would like to replace the current adult computer table which is not ADA compliant. Since Gaylord’s is having a 20% off sale through 12/31/13, she would like to move ahead with the purchase. As there was not a quorum of trustees left, a vote on this could not be taken. Emily is going to check to see if Gaylord’s will extend the sale until the January 7th meeting; if not, trustees can hold a special meeting to vote on this before December 31st.
11. Executive Session (if necessary) – none needed
12. Trustees’ Comments: Pat is disheartened at the workload of her committee work. Jan thanked everyone for coming out to meet despite the snowy conditions
13. Adjourn – the meeting was adjourned at 6:58 p.m.
These minutes respectfully submitted by Laura Senes and Jan Mitchell-Love on December 19, 2013.