Great.

Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to the Wednesday September 9th, 2026 library board meeting.

We are starting just ever so slightly late at 6.03, and we can start with the roll call.

President Amar Saru Ordena.

Present.

Strickler is absent.

Board member Battle.

Present.

Board Member Gibbons.

Board Member Conji.

Here.

Or present.

Great.

We'll move on to item number two, non-agenda public comment.

Anyone may speak for three minutes regarding any matter not on the agenda.

Okay.

Just see.

People could actually call in now.

Yep.

I do not see anyone online nor in person.

But let's just go.

Yeah.

I'm going to open it just so we okay.

So we are the only participants.

There is another non-agenda public comment section at the end.

If someone picks this up later, we can move on to the consent calendar.

We have 3A, which is the draft minutes of this, the special and regular library board meetings of July 8th.

And then 3B, which is the financial reporting reflecting financial year 26, 27, July and August expenditures.

And 3C bills for ratification for the months of July and August.

If anyone wants to make a motion, that'd be appreciated.

I'm going to accept those documents as they cool.

Okay.

We can move on to agenda item number four, which is receiving our report from our brand new library director.

We're so excited to have you here.

Thank you for your coming.

Thank you.

Let's get to know you more.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I appreciate the warm welcome I've received here in Alameda, and so pleased to be here in the library director position.

And would be remiss not to give a uh heartfelt and deep gratitude to Barlow Romero for his work in the interim director position, uh, which is uh not his first time in the seat.

Uh he's been incredibly generous with his knowledge and his time uh with me, and I am just very grateful.

Um he's definitely made the transition a lot easier, more stability for staff, and uh started me on really excellent strong footing, good foundation.

Um so just very grateful for Marlon's assistance.

Um I've now met with all of you, um, so I really appreciate you taking time out of your very busy schedules.

Um they always say if you if you want something done, ask a busy person.

So I know we've got busy people in this room, and uh really appreciate your time um getting to know me and telling me a little bit about yourselves and your excitement and passion for public libraries.

So um just so grateful for your service uh to the city of Alameda and really uh very pleased to um be to be here with you.

Um so I um probably won't do too much of a background since I've met with each of you and shared, I think uh in a lot more detail about my background.

Um but I will just share that I am you know rapidly getting up to speed at the library, uh familiarizing myself with our policies, budget, and our strategic plan and really hitting the ground running on projects that are mid-stream.

Um, one of the main things there is uh working on implementing strategic plan committees, which were uh conceived prior to my arrival, um, and then uh we've done a little bit of tweaking on them in the content, while it in particular through the lens of measuring and implementation.

Um so we are in the final stages of forming those committees.

Um we just want to make sure that folks who um put their interest in uh are aware of some of the changes and updates so that it's still something that reflects their interest and their passions to get involved.

And then once we form those committees, we do plan to launch those on October 1st, which we will be closed on that day.

It's a Thursday.

We're closing for all staff meeting and the staff appreciation picnic that the city hosts that same day, and also taking advantage of the fact that it's often hard to get groups from each of our libraries together in one place.

So we'll be doing some uh we'll be launching those strategic plan committees, setting norms, setting expectations, and then releasing those groups.

The intention is for those groups to be staff-led groups.

Um, and they'll kind of have their margin orders from our strategic plan.

These are the um strategies and objectives that we feel these groups are responsible for moving forward, um, and then an opportunity for them to take stock of the capacity to move these things forward, maybe look at some of the low-hanging fruit projects and goals and get some of those started and start to build a plan for their work through this fiscal year and beyond.