ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY BOARD
343 S. FIFTH AVENUE, ANN ARBOR, MI
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2013
13-218 I. CALL TO ORDER
President Rosenthal called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m.
13-219 II. ATTENDANCE
Present: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
Absent: None
Staff: Choate, Neiburger, Nieman, Parker, Wilson (recorder)
Other: William Stapleton, Hooper Hathaway, P.C.
13-220 III. VOTE FOR CLOSED SESSION FOR OPINION OF LEGAL COUNSEL
(Item of action)
Roll call vote
Trustee Leary, supported by Trustee Murphy, moved to recess to a closed session for opinion of legal counsel.
AYES: Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal
NAYS: None
Motion passed 5-0.
13-221 IV. RECESS TO CLOSED SESSION FOR OPINION OF LEGAL COUNSEL
13-222 V. RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING AT 7:00 PM
President Rosenthal reconvened the meeting at 7:01 p.m.
13-223 VI. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
(Item of action)
Trustee Leary, supported by Treasurer Kaplan, moved to amend the agenda making item XIV. A. an action item.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
Trustee Leary, supported by Secretary Head, moved to approve the amended agenda.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
13-224 VII. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF OCTOBER 21, 2013
(Item of action)
Trustee Leary, supported by Treasurer Kaplan, moved to approve the minutes of October 21, 2013.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
13-225 VIII. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
Kathy Griswold
Good evening. I have three short things. The first one is that I want to thank you for having your meeting on a night the City Council is not meeting. I really appreciate that. Number two, at the Traverwood Library there is a step that juts out into the sidewalk and it looks like it was put in sort of as an afterthought and the quality is not very good and all of the surface cement has worn off and so what you have is the gravel underneath and water collects there. So there is either water or ice there frequently. And the other day I was pulling up and getting my CD’s organized and a man walked by with a little dog and the dog pooped and he stopped and he got his little scooper and he picked it up and he put it in the bag and looked at the scooper and he walked over and he rinsed the scooper off on the step in the puddle of water. So now you got dog feces getting walked on into the library. So I really wish you would take care of that step. The third thing is transparency. It’s been a year since the library bond and while there may not be a lot of interest in what the Ann Arbor District Library does, I think that given we’re in a room that’s setup with CTN cameras for videotaping, the library podcast some items, it would be very helpful for the public to know what is happening. An example is I’m told that Celeste gave a presentation about collaboration with the Ann Arbor Public Schools, that’s something that I’m interested in and she’s agreed to meet with me about it. But my first response was, well maybe I can look at the videotape of her presentation but I can’t because it doesn’t exist. So I was just encouraging you to be as open and as transparent as possible. Thank you.
Christina Lirones
Hi, my name is Christina Lirones and I live on East Textile Road in Pittsfield Township, Michigan. I’m actually in the Saline Library District but I do also own property in the Ann Arbor Library District. I’m here to speak to you this evening about the proposal to have the Ann Arbor District Library participate in the CIA, Corridor Improvement Act and the Corridor Improvement Authority and the TIF, the Tax Increment Finance capture on State Road. I brought photographs, can I just pass those around for you to look at while I’m speaking? Is that okay? They are just a sampling of the improvements that are already on State Road. They are not in particular order. I just went up and down the corridor and took photographs of the improvements that already exist. The road’s frequently portrayed in documents as being just a two lane unimproved road. However, I want it to be very clear that developers have built a substantial amount of improvements to the road. Its three lanes in most areas and those have been paid for by developers. There are traffic signals both at Avis, Morgan, Avis Drive and State. There is a traffic signal there that was paid for by developments in the area. There is also at the intersection of Textile and State Road major improvement that was done through special assessment district and it is still being paid for by that special assessment district as far as I know. And then around the Walmart shopping plaza, which includes a number of other businesses, Federal Express and the Saline Schools all participated in major road reconstruction in that area. It’s really beautiful, there are pathways up and down the road in a number of different areas. It’s not as it’s an unimproved road. So I really want to encourage the Ann Arbor District Library to opt out of this TIF district. I think it is ill-advised, it’s very much been rushed through. There’s been a lack of transparency on the part of the township. I do have a written statement. I’m not sure how much time I have here. What I’ll do maybe is to turn this into you so I don’t take up a lot of your time this evening. I am the former clerk from 2002-2004 and I was the treasurer of the township from 2004-2008 and I also sat on the planning commission as the chair for the planning commission for eight years. And through a real strong plan and political will we were able to negotiate with every development that went in to that area to perform the road improvements that were necessary. So I do not want to see library millage dollars diverted into road improvement in Pittsfield Township. I think that it’s inappropriate and I think that it’s unfair to the developers that have already paid their own way. I think we’ll have a difficult time getting any developer to do a road improvement in the future if we’re able to do it through a diversion of millages. I do want to see my tax dollars for the Ann Arbor District Library used for books and all the other features of the library. My daughter absolutely loves the library she is here all the time. Thank you very much.
13-226 IX. FINANCIAL REPORTS
Associate Director Nieman reported October showed unrestricted cash balance just over $15 million. Tax receipts just over $10.9 million, reflecting 95.5% of the budgeted amount, have been received through the end of October. The fund balance stands at just over $8 million. Six line items are over budget and will come back into line later in the year.
13-227 X. APPROVAL OF DISBURSEMENTS
(Item of action)
Secretary Head, supported by Trustee Leary, moved to approve the October 2013 disbursements.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
13-228 XI. COMMITTEE REPORTS
13-229 A. COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
Chairperson Kaplan reported the committee met on October 30th and received the Allerton Hill communication plan. Copies are available for the public at tonight’s meeting.
13-230 B. BUDGET & FINANCE COMMITTEE
Chairperson Kaplan reported the committee met on October 29th with Charles Waterhouse of United Bank and Trust who provided a review of AADL’s investment bonds. The next meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee is scheduled for November 12th to review the draft 2012-2013 financial audit. The audit will be presented to the Board at the December 16th board meeting.
13-231 XII. DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Director Parker reported a very successful Halloween event this year at the Downtown Library. She thanked all staff who participated.
Sherlonya Turner will be participating on a Metropolitan Detroit Medical Library group panel on how library staff is providing information to the public on the Affordable Care Act.
AADL has welcomed Raphaela Muller, librarian from the public library of Munich Germany, for a week-long visit that coincides with International Games Day.
The Library remains open on Veteran’s Day at the request of local veteran groups. Through library programming over 150 cards were created by children and were sent to veterans.
Storytimes are provided at Motts Hospital to the families of patients. We also provide information on library services available to those from out of town and information on the Ann Arbor area.
On this past Sunday, over 375 attended the Library sponsored program, Bill Harley@The Ark. It was a great event.
13-232 XIII. MONTHLY STATISTICS
Associate Director Neiburger presented October 2013 statistics in comparison with October 2012 in the new statistical format.
Director Parker stated that AADL was named a Five Star Library again by Library Journal. She noted that this status is based on the statistics that are provided to the State Library. She also congratulated the Capital Area District Library who received a four star rating and West Bloomfield Township Public Library who received a three star rating.
13-233 XIV. OLD BUSINESS
13-191 A. PITTSFIELD CHARTER TOWNSHIP CORRIDOR IMPROVEMENT AUTHORITY TIF CAPTURE
(Item of action)
Trustee Leary, supported by Secretary Head, moved that the Board adopt the tax sharing agreement with the Pittsfield Charter Township and the State Street Corridor Improvement Authority.
Board members expressed their appreciation of Township’s collaborative process in reaching an agreement. The Board further discussed the pros and cons of agreeing not to opt out of the TIF capture. Treasurer Kaplan, while appreciating the clarity of the agreement, expressed her opposition of diverting tax dollars.
AYES: Head, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal,Surovell
NAYS: Kaplan
Motion passed 6-1.
13-234 XV. NEW BUSINESS
13-235 A. SCIENCE PROGRAMMING
Sherlonya Turner, Youth and Adult Services & Collections Department Manager, presented information on STE(A)M which is incorporated into AADL’s core programming.
STE(A)M (Science/Technology/Engineering/(Art)/Math) is hands on activity and live exhibits geared towards K-5 grade children and is provided in conjunction with several local partners.
Over the past 18 months STEM library programs were attended by 2211 children and 1188 adults.
13-236 XVI. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
Don Salberg
My name is Don Salberg, I live on Lexington, Northeast Ann Arbor. I must say I’m very disappointed by the Board deciding not to opt out of the State Street Corridor Improvement Authority. Actually when the proposal was first put before you, I sensed a lot of skepticism on everyone’s part. A lot of good questions about the value of and the worthiness of such a joining such an authority and I even communicated in writing to some of you. I never did get a response back that was supportive of this, so I actually expected that you would turn this down. I think basically number one you’re being unfair to the voters who voted for the millage to begin with, as I did. I did not hope to have any of this money given to other authorities. I’m saddened by the amount that the DDA takes from the millage and what this means is that even though it may be a small amount now as property values go up it will become a more sizable amount. And for some of the older people living in Ann Arbor, for some of the older people living in Ann Arbor on a fixed income, taxes is a significant burden for some of them. And when you go to increase the amount of money that you need to have for whatever purposes, you’re going to have to ask for more because you know that some of it is going to be taken through this State Street Corridor Improvement Authority. So that taxpayers will have to pay more than they would otherwise. Furthermore, I’m not so sure what you are getting out of this and I don’t think that it can clearly be more usage of the library because I think that people that want to get to the library now can get to it and will get to it. And I don’t see that any profits from developing the 40% undeveloped property down State Street, whether it’s apartments or houses. I don’t think the profits from that are going to be shared with the Ann Arbor Public Library. So this is sort of, in my mind a lose, lose type of situation. I’m very disappointed in the decision that you have made. Thank you.
13-237 XVII. ADJOURNMENT
Director Parker requested Board permission to clarify a point of fact. She stated that tonight’s meeting date was not changed; it was originally approved by the Board as a regular business meeting.
Trustee Leary, supported by Secretary Head, moved to adjourn the meeting.
President Rosenthal adjourned the meeting at 8:23 p.m.