Carbondale Reporter

The Carbondale Public Library Board of Trustees met Sept. 14 to suggest pay raises for non-union employees.

Here are the meeting's minutes, as provided by the board:

Carbondale Public Library Board of Trustees

Wednesday, September 14, 2016 Meeting Room

4:30 p.m. 405 West Main St.

MINUTES

Call to order.

Called to order at 4:30 p.m.

Roll call.

Introductions, audience and visitors. Visitors are asked to introduce themselves at this time and present any

issues they wish to discuss. Visitors wishing to address specific agenda items will be granted two to five

minutes at the discretion of the President, not to exceed a total of twenty minutes. The Library Board may

cut short any comments that are irrelevant, repetitious, or disruptive. (Id. at 1425-26).

Present.

Barbara Levine, Vice President (1)

Joyce Hayes, Secretary (2)

Don Prosser, Treasurer (3)

Julian Pei (1)

Roland Person (1)

Harriet Simon

Sharifa Stewart (1)

Susan Tulis

Absent.

Philip Brown, President (2)

The number following the Trustee’s name indicates the number of absences this fiscal year.

Staff present.

Diana Brawley Sussman, Library Director

Gwen Hall Grosshenrich, Finance Manager

Visitors present.

None.

President’s report.

None.

Secretary’s report.

1. Approval of the August 10, 2016 minutes. Minutes: Roland Person moved to approve minutes with one

correction ($85-90 should read $85,000 - $95,000). Susan Tulis seconded. MOTION passed unanimously.

Correspondence and communications.

Received at thank you card from the Harvey Welch Golf Scramble for purchase of a tee.

Financial report.

1. Approval of bills payable up to and including bills due September 16, 2016 to October 15, 2016. Julian

Pei moved to pay bills, Joyce Hayes seconded. MOTION passed unanimously.

2. Acceptance of the financial report for August 2016. Larger bills include magazine renewals and other

subscriptions, as well as recent masonry work. No property tax money has been received. Last year the first

payment arrived on October 6th. Don Prosser motioned to approve the financial report. Susan Tulis

seconded. MOTION passed unanimously.

3. Discuss FY18 levy and budget priorities. The board suggested that the Library Director look at the City of

Carbondale’s raise for non-union employees. Some were not sure whether an overall cost of living increase

for all staff would be necessary, but asked the Library Director to make arguments as necessary for staff and

resources as needed. They are concerned that the total real estate value may go down this year, causing taxes

to go up—a deterrent to homebuyers. They asked her to create a budget that only raises the levy if, and to

the extent that, it is absolutely necessary.

Librarian’s report.

1. Building and grounds maintenance and construction.

a. Progress on south wall of the Brush building. Harlan Bohnsack completed all bid documents and plans.

The pre-bid meeting will be 9/27/16 at 2:30 p.m. The bids will be opened at the bid meeting on 10/4/16 at

2:00 p.m.

b. Masonry repair on roof. The project cost more than anticipated, but the work performed was well worth

it. There were problems likely stemming from both original construction and subsequent maintenance,

including missing flashing, crumbled mortar and mislaid drip edges. The masons were able to remove and

relay each stone by hand.

Other: We are switching suppliers for cleaning products, paper supplies and rug maintenance, which will be

more convenient and affordable.

2. Insurance. The board decided by consensus to increase the library’s property insurance deductible from

$1,000 to $2,500 in order to decrease the premium.

3. Social work internship program. Our social work internship program has become a vital community

service. More public libraries are developing social work programs as an extension of their information

services. Oak Park Public Library recently added a full time social worker, partly motivated by the need to

develop a more effective security model. In our program’s first year, students were supervised by professors

at SIU who volunteered for this extra duty, as we do not have a social worker onsite. SIU’s professors are no

longer able to do this. They helped us to locate a licensed social worker with whom we can contract for

supervision (for around $2,600 per year). This is very affordable in comparison to other library programs

and services. The board agreed by consensus that we should pursue this option to continue the program.

4. Discussion about the library’s role in finding solutions to violence in the community. We discussed this

briefly. The library is involved in many efforts to alleviate violence and to develop solutions to community

problems. The Library Director participates in community forums, co-chairs the Sparrow Coalition and

Nonviolent Carbondale, and the library’s programs promote cross-cultural understanding. Reading literary

fiction has even been shown to increase empathy and to reduce prison recidivism. Barbara Levine

commented that she believes we do a great job, “over and above,” on this issue.

5. Per Capita requirement: review Chapter 6, “Access,” of Serving Our Public 3.0: Standards for Illinois

Public Libraries, 2014. The board discussed the chapter. The library meets every point on the access list. We

could consider investigating standard #15 (improving access for those who cannot travel to the library).

6. Other. None.

Committee reports.

None.

Unfinished business.

None.

New business.

None.

Other.

None.

Adjournment.

Adjourned at 5:27 p.m.

Next Board Meetings for 2016 (all in Public Library meeting room, 4:30 p.m., second Wednesday of each

month): October 12; November 9; December 14.

Respectfully submitted:

Joyce Hayes, Secretary

Prepared by: Diana Brawley Sussman, Library Director