Monterey Public Library Board of Library Trustees Meeting - February 27, 2025
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Monterey Public Library Board of Library Trustees Meeting - February 27, 2025
The Board of Library Trustees met on February 27, 2025, for a regular meeting. The meeting featured a presentation from the new bookmobile coordinator, approval of the consent agenda, and a lengthy discussion on library advocacy, facility needs, and future planning. Trustees reviewed progress on a bookmobile locker order from Australia and heard an update on the capital improvement request through NCIP.
Consent Calendar
- The Board approved the consent agenda, including minutes, the activity report, and a request for appropriation of $63,000 from the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for the purchase of library lockers, which are being manufactured in Australia and have a 12–14 week shipping time. Trustee Moreau asked about the timeline and why it would take 14 weeks if materials were already on hand. Library Director Brian explained that the lockers are being built and shipped from Australia, and a concrete pad and power need to be prepared at Station 13. The motion passed unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public were present or provided comments.
Discussion Items
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Bookmobile Coordinator Presentation: Matt Petriello, the new bookmobile coordinator (since July 2024), presented an update on bookmobile operations. He reported that the bookmobile visits 11 regular locations, including community centers, retirement homes, and schools. On Tuesdays, he visits El Estero, Hilltop, Casanova Oaknoll, and recently the Alvarado farmers market on the first Tuesday. Wednesdays include La Mesa and Montecito Park. Thursdays serve retirement homes (Merrill Gardens, Park Lane) where carts are wheeled into lobbies. Fridays are school visits to San Carlos, Bayview Upper and Lower, and Monterey Bay Charter School Foothill campus. The bookmobile carries about 1,000 items, rotated monthly. Average customer interactions are 600 per month (400 from regular stops, 200 from school visits). Petriello also described STEM programs (stomp rockets, fossil digs), outreach events (Trunk or Treat with Toy Story theme, back-to-school bashes), and volunteer contributions, notably Judy who curates large print and audio books for retirement home patrons. Trustees asked about adult visitation (about half of visitors are adults), school selection criteria (schools often reach out, especially those without libraries), and capacity. Trustee Silvera praised the bookmobile as a "community center on wheels" and noted the excellent volunteer support.
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Library Advocacy & Facility Needs Update: Director Brian provided an update on the advocacy efforts begun in fall 2023. A subcommittee (Trustees Silvera and Moreau, friends Doug Holtzman and Jerry Jamona, and Brian) had worked on messaging and priorities: increasing collection budget, adding staff to support Monday hours, making the teen librarian position full-time, and addressing facility needs. Recent developments: Chair Silvera and Trustee Moreau met with the city manager and assistant city manager last week. The city manager committed to funding immediate facility needs (e.g., electrical switchboards, distribution panels) but urged the board to articulate a long-term vision beyond maintenance. Brian presented that the current facility needs are roughly $7.5 million, while the Group 4 plan from 2020 envisioned a $30–40 million renovation/expansion, now likely higher due to cost escalation. The city manager suggested a potential 50/50 partnership with NCIP for capital projects, or a three-way split with the Friends and Foundation raising a third. Brian recommended the board hold a special session (retreat) to review past documents, reaffirm goals, and decide on a vision—whether to pursue the large Group 4 plan or a more modest $7–10 million campaign. Trustees discussed the need not to reinvent the wheel but to compile existing materials and present a unified message to the new city council and mayor. They agreed to dedicate the March 27, 2025 regular meeting to this topic, with all other agenda items postponed, to review the Group 4 report and other documents, and determine next steps for advocacy and NCIP engagement.
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Other Items: Trustees noted the successful Chocolate and Wine fundraiser by the Friends and Foundation, which raised significant funds. The library director mentioned ongoing recruitment for an assistant library director, with the board chair involved in initial interviews. Trustee Moreau reported attending an NCIP meeting to learn the process; they plan to attend future meetings and seek partnerships for library capital projects.
Key Outcomes
- The Board approved the consent agenda (minutes, reports, CIP appropriation for lockers) unanimously.
- The Board agreed to hold a special discussion-focused meeting on March 27, 2025, to review past facility and vision documents (Group 4 plan, current needs) and formulate a strategic vision for library capital improvements, to be presented to city council.
- The Board will consider forming a new ad hoc committee for vision planning at the March meeting.
- Trustees will continue to engage with NCIP by attending meetings and developing relationships to improve future funding requests.
- The library director will circulate the Group 4 report and current facility needs documents to trustees ahead of the March meeting.
- The city manager committed funding for immediate facility repairs (estimated $250,000–$300,000) as part of the budget process.
Meeting Transcript
After it's Thursday for the twenty seventh. I call those meetings on the Monary Public Library Board of the Library Trustees to Ord. Yes. Trustee Joshi.org. Remote commenters will be muted until it is your turn to speak. Hi everyone, I'm Matt Petriello. I'm the new bookmobile coordinator. I started July of last year, so still fairly new, but I feel like I've gotten a good handle and gotten to meet a lot of the community and form relationships with them now and friendships with them. Um I have a presentation up behind you guys uh with some pictures and a little bit of info uh to start off with about stops and stats. I visit 11 different locations regularly. Um so on Tuesdays, I have every other week I visit different community centers where I do story times before having a stop open at El Estero and Hilltop community centers. And then we also go to Casanova Oaknoll. And then recently we started going to the first Tuesday of the month uh Alborado uh farmers market. So next week, if you guys are there, I will also be there. Stop by and say hi. And then on Wednesdays, we go to La Mesa in front of their fleet division, and then also the Montecito Park, and then on Thursdays, we go to the retirement homes. Uh in the picture on the right hand side there, that's at Merrill Gardens. And then we also go to Park Lane. And what we do for those stops is on the bookmobile. We have carts that are able to be removed from the bookmobile, and we wheel them into the lobbies, and that's getting us a lot more traffic and basically free advertisement for the bookmobile. Um, there's a lot of patrons that are new or that have gotten library cards recently that weren't aware of us previously visiting, and now that we're just in their lobby in their face, um they're more inclined to stop by and give uh us a chance and get our numbers up. And then on Fridays, I do my school visits. So I go to four different schools at the moment, and those rotate through. And then on the bookmobile, we carry around a thousand items. We rotate those out each month to add uh more items. And then on average, we have 600 customer interactions every month. About 400 of those are from our regular stops, and then 200 of those are from our school visits. Uh so story time in schools, like I mentioned, we rotate every week, and I visit El Estero and Hilltop on the left hand side of that picture there. That is Brian giving uh dressed up as the Grinch, doing story time during winter, uh, reading the new uh what was do you remember the title? Is it like Grinch for the Grinch School of Christmas? But then yeah, the sequel. Uh and then I visit four different schools throughout the month on the right hand side. That is us visiting San Carlos. Uh so we do have classes that come out and check out items, but then this class, they like to come on and grab picture books, and they all do a little reading time outside of the bookmobile and then bring them back on. Um so I visit San Carlos, I visit Bayview Upper and Lower, and then also we started going to Monterey Bay Charter School Foothill campus. Um, so going to a lot of different parts of Monterey. Monterey Monterey Bay Charter, technically a little bit outside of it, but still Monterey. And then a little bit about our programs and outreach. So every other month I've been trying to do a STEM in the park program, uh, focusing on science technology engineering and math. And so on the left hand side, those are our flyers. We have the rocket launch coming up in in March. So we'll be doing stomp rockets and seeing who's in fly the farthest and uh have make a little competition out of it. And then the one next that was one that I did recently in January. That was a fossil dig. Um so I used Plaza Reparis and Sand and put a bunch of shark teeth and uh different like ammonites and other types of fossils. So then the kids were able to either take it home as a take-home activity or um they're up the right-hand picture uh where they're at the table, that was them participating in that activity. I've also done a um program in combination with parks and rec. So we also where they have the ice truck company with the like shaved ice and all of that. So we did uh make your own brain stick, and then we also did a water physics activity um with PBC pipes, and then we also do a lot of outreach. So the bottom picture is us at the trunk retreat where our theme was Toy Story and we had a big sling dog all the characters and then we also go to like back to school bashes uh for the different schools and table there and try to get our numbers up and advocate for the library and then I also wanted to just give a big thanks to the community and our volunteers um standing by the tree there that's Judy she is like the backbone of the library and also the bookmobile she helps curate and select items for the bookmobile for especially the large print and the retirement home communities she has been providing audio books for one patron Pat Allen for a long time and they really rely on her.
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