ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY BOARD
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2005
05-156 I. CALL TO ORDER
Vice President Murphy called the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m.
05-157 II. ATTENDANCE
Present: Cahill, Greene, Kincaid, Leary, Murphy
Absent: Head, Surovell
Staff: Neiburger, Nieman, Parker, Soave (Recorder)
Others: Jim Greene, Dykema Gossett
05-158 III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Secretary Cahill, supported by Treasurer Leary, moved to approve the Agenda.
AYES: Cahill, Greene, Kincaid, Leary, Murphy
NAYS: None
Motion passed: 5-0.
05-159 IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF MARCH 21, 2005
Secretary Cahill, supported by Treasurer Leary, moved to approve the Minutes.
AYES: Cahill, Greene, Kincaid, Leary, Murphy
NAYS: None
Motion passed: 5-0.
05-160 V. CITIZENS' COMMENTS
There were no citizens' comments.
At this time Director Parker introduced the new Youth Services Manager Karrie Waarala. Director Parker also noted Ms. Waarala is a regional Grand-Slam poetry winner and as such was invited to lead a poetry slam program at the Neutral Zone this past Saturday.
05-161 VI. FINANCIAL REPORT
Associate Director Nieman took the floor and reported the following:
Tax receipts remain at about 99%. It's expected that we will receive delinquent township and municipality tax checks from the County through the next couple of months.
The fund balance at the end of March is just over $9 million.
There are currently six items where the actual is over budget. Line items "legal" and "utilities" are both expected to be over budget for the year, with the remainder of the items coming into line.
With regard to the Pittsfield branch the monthly expense is starting to climb and will continue to climb as construction moves forward. It was just under $300,000 for the month of March.
05-162 VII. DIRECTOR'S REPORT
In addition to her written report Director Parker also reported the following:
Circulation for the month of March broke the record for a single month. In addition, as of the end of March, we have exceeded last year's circulation for the entire fiscal year - another record.
05-163 VIII. COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. PERSONNEL
Vice President Murphy reported the Personnel Committee met to discuss the Director's evaluation.
B. FACILITIES
Trustee Kincaid reported the Facilities Committee met to discuss issues related to the Pittsfield branch Bid Package 2 and the Midwestern Consulting contract as proposed in the Resolutions being offered under New Business.
05-164 IX. OLD BUSINESS
04-207 A. UPDATE ON PITTSFIELD BRANCH
The Board was provided with the first of what will be regular monthly progress reports provided by Skanska USA on the Pittsfield branch.
Associate Director Nieman reviewed the report and provided the following update:
The schedule shows the branch opening February 9, 2006. We are currently on schedule.
The earthwork and concrete foundation were done in March. Today, they started putting the concrete beams in the floor.
The budget is still set at $5.7 million. If the proposed resolution for contracts on tonight's agenda is approved, 99% of the $5.7 million will have been bid out. We are a little under budget. Since the frost laws came off, there was $40,000 set aside for winter conditions that wasn't spent.
A detailed schedule as well as a budget was included in the monthly progress report.
Director Parker spoke of the benefits of having the new branch located across the street from the Arbor Hospice and Home Care.
05-165 X. NEW BUSINESS
05-166 A. RESOLUTION TO ACCEPT RECOMMENDATIONS FROM SKANSKA USA TO AWARD CONTRACTS TO PERFORM WORK AT PITTSFIELD BRANCH
Trustee Kincaid, supported by Trustee Greene, moved to approve the Resolution to Accept Recommendations from Skanska USA to Award Contracts to Perform Work at Pittsfield Branch.
AYES: Cahill, Greene, Kincaid, Leary, Murphy
NAYS: None
Motion passed: 5-0.
05-167 B. RESOLUTION TO AUTHORIZE DIRECTOR TO CONTRACT WITH MIDWESTERN CONSULTING FOR REZONING AND SITE PLANNING SERVICES RELATED TO THE TRAVERWOOD PROPERTY
Secretary Cahill, supported by Trustee Kincaid, moved to approve the Resolution to Authorize Director to Contract with Midwestern Consulting for Rezoning and Site Planning Services Related to the Traverwood Property.
Secretary Cahill addressed the benefits of hiring an outside contractor for these services, in particular because of the need to work with the City on rezoning the property.
Director Parker reported that Midwestern Consulting is estimating it will take 19-30 weeks for the process to be completed.
Treasurer Leary raised the following questions and concerns with regard to site planning:
It is only specified in the proposal put forth by Midwestern Consulting that a traffic study will be conducted on the Huron Parkway / Traverwood intersection. However, it's possible that the new branch will have an impact on the Plymouth / Traverwood intersection as well. It is in the proposal that they can conduct additional studies for an additional cost, which we would have to do if the City requested it, but is the assumption that this is the only traffic study that we'll be required to complete based on something the City has already told us?
Director Parker stated that there is a traffic light already planned for the intersection of Plymouth and Traverwood. If that light goes up before we complete the building, we may need to do another traffic study.
In addition to the issues related to cars there are issues related to people walking. It is Treasurer Leary's hope that whatever planning takes place will take into account the needs of pedestrians to cross streets that aren't signaled.
Treasurer Leary shared her opinion that Traverwood is an exceptionally wide street with hardly any traffic on it. The center lane is hardly ever used, except for the end where it's used for a turning lane. Given that parking is going to be an issue, when it gets raised there can be two ways we can talk about it: one is to make better use of the impervious surface known as road, and another is possible parking sharing with the businesses across the street.
AYES: Cahill, Greene, Kincaid, Leary, Murphy
NAYS: None
Motion passed: 5-0.
05-168 C. UPDATE ON AUTOMATION SYSTEM MIGRATION AND AADL.ORG WEBSITE
Director Parker took a moment to acknowledge Janet P. Smith as chair of the automation committee.
Eli Neiburger, IAS Manager, took the floor and reported the following:
We are on schedule to move to the new automation system July 5th. The biggest impact is going to be the brand new catalog with many new features. Because of the significance of this change and because we view the catalog as a service of the Library website and not necessarily its own separate thing, it made sense for us to revisit the website as well.
There are two parts to this project, there's the automation system migration from DRA to Innovative, which is going very well. All of the processes to migrate have been tested and we haven't run into any pieces that we won't be able to move over to the new system.
Some of the most exciting new features are that patrons will be able to see how many holds are on an item before they request it and they will also be able to see where they are in the hold queue.
Credit card payment and resolving account issues online is also a new feature.
Director Parker reported that due to issues related to the MiLE system, the service will go down during the migration and we are not sure for how long it will be down.
Other items that will not migrate will be overdue fines and pin numbers. However, with regard to pin numbers, the new system will allow individuals to go online and set a new pin number instantly. We will no longer be serving as intermediary.
Some of the services we will be able to provide with the new system that we haven't been able to with the current one are:
Records within households can be linked. The permissions for privacy will remain, but now the circulation clerk will be able to see the entire household at one time. An individual, however, will not be able to go online and see any other account information other than his or her own.
Personal check-out histories will be available should a patron choose that service. Only the patron will be able to access this information, staff will not.
For those patrons who do not have or have not elected to use our email
notification system, we've purchased a module that will allow us to send out an automated phone message for advanced due dates.
The second part of this project is a new website design. We've hired a design company, Skidmore Inc., to work on the website design along with a couple of different groups of internal staff members and some focus groups comprised of community members. In addition, the Technology Advisory committee will be consulted and general staff input on the final designs will be sought. The results of this process will be presented to the full Board at the regularly scheduled meeting in June.
05-169 D. DISCUSSION OF 2005-2006 BUDGET
Associate Director Nieman took the floor and reported the following:
The operating millage is proposed at 1.6 mills. As we've done in the past, we plan to continue to leve more than that using the overage for building projects.
He took last year's tax base and increased it by 3.5% and that's what the revenues show. It's conservative, but it's also coming down from the other end due to the Headlee Amendment and we won't know what the effect of that is until late May or early June when we get all the information from the county.
All the other revenue projections are based on current year actuals.
Items of note include:
$95,000 for two new staff positions for the Pittsfield branch. This is assuming a March 1 opening date.
$25,000 for the new salary schedule.
Employee benefits cost increases.
Purchased services, including $42,000 for OCLC, $7,000 for payroll services and $30,000 consulting services.
Utilities, which includes four months worth of costs for the Pittsfield branch.
The materials budget is limited to an overall increase of 8%.
Supplies and capital outlays depending on the amount of the expenditure go back and forth.
The biggest decrease we will see is in software licenses because of the new automation system.
In capital outlays a few items have been left in for Downtown including: new shelving for AV, new carpet for the west side of the 2nd floor, new carpet in youth area and the replacement of all south side windows that have broken seals.
05-170 E. VOTE FOR EXECUTIVE SESSION AT THE MAY 16, 2005 BOARD MEETING FOR OPINION OF COUNSEL, DISCUSSION OF REAL ESTATE AND LABOR NEGOTIATION PREPARATION
Trustee Kincaid, supported by Secretary Cahill, moved to approve the Vote for Executive Session at the May 16th Board Meeting.
A roll call vote was taken:
AYES: Cahill, Greene, Kincaid, Leary, Murphy
NAYS: None
Motion passed: 5-0.
05-171 XI. RECESS TO EXECUTIVE SESSION FOR OPINION OF COUNSEL, DISCUSSION OF REAL ESTATE, DIRECTOR'S EVALUATION, AND LABOR NEGOTIATION PREPARATION
05-172 XII. ADJOURNMENT
Vice President Murphy adjourned the meeting at 8:09 p.m.