I'm a 301. I'd like to start.

The February 27th meeting of the Sacramento Public Library board.

Clerk may I please call the roll.

Roger Dickinson.

Kareena Talamantes.

Bill Pluckybaum.

Katie Maple.

Here.

Mai Van.

Here.

Phil Surnah.

Here.

Patrick Kennedy.

Rich Desmond.

Rosario Rodriguez.

Yes.

Pat Hume.

Mary Jane Lopez Taff.

Mary Jane Lopez Taff.

Okay.

Rod Burr.

Present.

Kevin Spees.

Present.

Jim Reed.

Joe Little.

Here.

Beena Lefkevitz.

Here.

Nick Bloisy.

We have 12 members present.

Okay.

This meeting of the Sacramento Public Library Authority is live and recorded with closed captioning.

It is cablecast on Metro cable channel 14, the local government affairs channel on the Comcasts in direct TV universe cable systems.

It is also live streamed on Metro 14 live dot sat county dot net dot gov.

Today's meeting replace Saturday, March 1st at 4 p.m. on Metro cable channel 14.

Once posted, the recording of this meeting can be viewed on demand at youtube.com Metro cable 14.

The meeting will also be recorded by a Zoom.

A DVD copy will be available upon request no later than two weeks following today's meeting.

The full agenda including reports is available on the library website at www.saclibrary.org.

Members of the audience wishing to address the board should complete a speaker identification form

located at the back table and give it to the clerk.

Members attending via Zoom should raise their hand in the Zoom program.

Please speak clearly when addressing the board and state your name for the record.

Comments are limited to three minutes so that everyone may be heard.

Thank you, clerk.

For the Pledge of Allegiance, I will ask that Director Rodriguez lead us in the pledge today.

I pledge allegiance to the flag.

And flag of the United States of America to the Republic of America to stand for the nation and the flag of the indivisible to the regime.

You may now be seated.

Item number two, public comment.

Having no cards and seeing no one present.

I think we can move forward from item number two for public comment and matters not on the agenda.

And now we will move to item number three presentations.

Item 3.1, friends of the Sacramento Public Library.

Do we have a representative online to join us today?

Hello, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to present.

My name is Devon Graves and I'm here to represent the friends of the Sacramento Public Library, the official organization representing a community of folks across the region who love their library.

So I want to first start off by again, welcoming the new leadership of the board.

We recently had some transitions in our own leadership.

The all friends meeting took place on February 2nd at the Valley High North Laguna Library, where we elected our new leadership.

And we would like to congratulate Rachel Caldor has our new president, myself as the new vice president, Chris Paveo, who's continuing on his treasure.

And Jillian frees, who is continuing as secretary.

We're excited as we look ahead for the year to continue to work on and behalf of our affiliates and doing the good work that matters.

So a couple of things that we want to also highlight from that meeting.

We elected two new board members, Paul Lindsay of Oak Grove and Harry Roth.

So we're excited to have their expertise and commitment to join us on the board.

And we reelected a bunch of folks of continuing this commitment.

Some items that we were able to talk about was the upcoming big day of giving my co lead on that work, Diane Gregory, who's joined us here on zoom.

We are excited to be doing this work on behalf of the organization as our minor big day of giving is taking place on May 1st 2025.

And we want to thank the library for their partnership on this, especially director coil who's committed to sharing this work to patrons so that we can get those who love the library, donating to the friends because this money is going right back to some great work.

We also want to thank the library staff who've been supporting us as we continue to plan for these efforts.

And we just want to take the potentially complete completeolut decentralizationways is open to come checkout the book spin to volunteer to participate with with those efforts.

some of the exciting stuff coming up that you all are very familiar with.

So we want to thank Director Coil again for making the time to be with us and to engage with our membership.

We also heard an update from our affiliate support committee.

These are ongoing conversations to really streamline support and operations across our 26 affiliates.

Then we had our in-been and closing with our all-friends sharing with where our affiliates from across the region were talking about some of the great work that they're doing.

And we are excited to continue those efforts into this year.

Our next friends of the Sacramento Public Library Board meeting is happening on March 11th at 7pm on Zoom.

An invitation to the JPA stays open where you can come and engage with folks who are committed to this work.

But thank you so much for the opportunity to present on happy half of the organization and I'm happy to take any questions at this time.

Thank you, Devon and congratulations to you and your new leadership.

Looking forward to working with you this year on everything that is happening and whoever I can be plugged in,

definitely send me an email or share it through Director Coil.

I'm happy to jump in and participate.

Do we have any comments from our fellow directors?

Hearing and seeing none of them want to thank you, Devon.

And now we will move on to item 3.2, electronic resources overview and update.

Thank you, Director Burr.

Our collection services manager, Michelle Hartman, is going to give a presentation with Susie Murray,

who's our electronic resources librarian as well.

Thanks.

Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle Gordon Hartman, the collection services department manager.

This is Susie Murray. She's our eResources selection specialist.

I'm going to take just a few minutes to give you a quick overview of our electronic resources.

And when we say eResources, we mean all the digital resources.

So we're talking about subscription-based databases, as well as things like eBooks and eAudio Books on Hoopla and Libby.

And in fiscal year 24, it was the first time that our digital circulation of eBooks and eAudio Books outpaced our physical circulation.

And we are on pace to do that again this fiscal year.

It kind of exploded during the pandemic and it hasn't really slowed down when it comes to the online circulation.

And our physical circulation is growing a little bit every year, but it's not quite back to where it was pre-pandemic,

but it's pretty healthy. Over 4 million items physically, it's pretty good.

And I would probably be able to talk to you guys all day about the data and the different databases that we have,

but I'm just going to give a quick overview, I promise.

But this is just a quick little sampling of some of the usage of our databases that we have available.

And I just want to make a small distinction between what kind of resources we're talking about.

We have subscription-based eResources, which are things like our databases and services that they have an annual contract,

and we pay for them up front, and they're usually based on the size and number of our users.

And then we have a cost per circuit, which is like an ebook, which may circulate 17 or 18 times in a year.

It has a specific cost. It's metered for a certain amount of time.

And so you can break it down by how much it costs to circulate at each time.

And as you can see, we designate about 58% of our collection budget internally for our electronic resources.

And I want to give you everybody knows about our ebooks and our eAudio books,

but there might be a little less familiar with some of our eResources.

So these are some of our really popular ones that get used a lot of our users know about them and visit them regularly.

So Canopy is our streaming app.

It's basically Netflix for the library.

It has movies and TV shows and the great courses, and they're all available to stream for free.

And NewsBank is how we access the Sacramento Bee, both the current editions as well as historical editions.

Tudor.com is new for us this year, and it is our online homework help, which also has tons of resources for adult learners as well.

Some prep courses and testing preparation, things like that.

And newspapers.com is an archive of historical California newspapers going back to the mid 19th century.

Mango, it's our most popular language learning database.

It has over 70 different languages to choose from and that includes pirate for talk like a pirate day.

Just so you know, and the New York Times, we provide access to the New York Times cooking, which is really valuable recipes and guides that you can take a look at.

And of course, if you participate at all in our summer reading, you will be familiar with Beanstack.

It's how we track our reading for both kids and adults throughout the year, but especially during our summer reading program.

So these are the really popular ones.

Now I want to give you a quick look at some of the ones that are a little bit more specialized, a little more niche.

A lot of people are familiar with consumer reports.

They just don't know that they can access it at the library.

So if you're looking at buying a large purchase, apply it on the car.

You can check out all the information that's available on consumer reports about those things.

We have somewhat new to us resource called Maquet-Make, and it is a Spanish language-based children's story time kind of thing.

They have story books.

They have some interactive models and comics and all sorts of great things that we're just starting to grow our user ship for that one.

Value line is specific for investors.

If you are looking for information or forecasts or things like that, you can check out Value Line.

It is very valuable information, pun intended.

And Biblioboard is a really, I hate to admit it, but it's an underutilized resource.

But it is great for writers and local authors.

It gives access to the Indie author project, which is a national writing contest for folks that aren't

represented by one of the big publishers.

And it provides access for folks who are writers to get their work basically in the library so that other people can borrow it.

It's really a really neat resource.

Book Flix is for young readers.

So parents of very young readers, they have some animated story time books on there and some read-alongs to get your kids involved in reading and moving on with that early literacy.

And you open library, depending on the age of folks, you might be familiar with the children books, right?

When you're doing your car work at home, well, we have it online.

So when you're at home doing your own car repairs and you come up to something and you're like, what do I do with this?

You can check it out on the library and it will walk you through things and show you what it is that you should have.

It's very, very useful.

The last one that I wanted to just highlight is the American Mosaic.

We provide the African American experience on the American Mosaic, which brings the voice and context to the

little experiences of African Americans throughout our nation's history.

It has some really great, like primary sources on there, et cetera.

So those are just, it's just a little glimpse of some of the most popular ones we have.

We have dozens of these and usually if you need a piece of information about something,

we probably have something that can help you find it for you and as well as your constituents.

And I believe we have a list of all of the databases that are, yes, excellent.

So that's pretty much a list of all of them that you can take with you.

It has the logos of all of them so you can find them pretty easily.

And if you have any questions, we are here to answer them.

Thank you.

No, this, this was a very good overview, Michelle.

One question I have on here.

Do we have something that we can tell in terms of click rates that each of the e-resources have?

It gives us a good feel for which ones being utilized, how they're being utilized,

when they're being utilized over a one year period.

So we do keep circulation stats, usage stats on all of our databases.

Some of them come directly from the vendor and some of them we keep through our own data

keeping.

Do you?

I can say the monthly usage varies dramatically.

So we were just looking at the canopy usage, that's probably the most popular resources that

we have.

It's tripled since I started in the position a couple of years ago, up to almost 90,000,

I think a month.

And down to, I don't want to say down to, at the less used end is, the best example is

probably the African-American experience.

And so we've tried to use, I've worked with our marketing department to include the African-American

experience in the blog posts and the newsletter that go out because it is an absolutely incredible

resource that folks don't know about.

So we do see an increase in an uptick in whatever resource we put out through our social media

and newsletter channels and it will uptick for a little while and then fall back down.

You have to remind people that it's available.

And that's a good thing.

I mean, even if they're seldom used but you have like a little part where you see a

little bit of a rise, that's a good thing.

And the other question that I have is when customers come into the library, when the public

comes in, they're looking for something, they want to go to the computer, they want to

get start to work.

Do these digital icons, do they show up on the computer screen or is it something where

they have to go to the librarian to say, hey, I want to find something, what is the quickest

way to get there?

Do we offer this as an option for the public?

So on our current website, it's one of the main dividers, it's under education and

then all the way to the right side, it's online databases, it's A through Z's, you can

look at it by category or you can look at it alphabetically.

When we unveil our new website in the fall-ish, it will be a little meter.

It will probably look a little bit more like the handout that we just gave you rather than

some of the text base that we have on the current website.

No, that's good because I feel like when we do go into the, use the library, it's always

good to have something quick and easy right up front, that way it helps them navigate

a lot faster and makes the experience a lot more pleasant.

So I think that's something that we could definitely look to do.

I just wanted to follow up on the discovery.

One of my main goals has been to increase discoverability of our electronic resources and we're

doing that in a number of ways.

So working with the communications department on social media, blog posts, that sort of thing.

We also in February, we just onboarded our new catalog which includes with it, they call

a discovery layer.

So and actually I was working on one earlier this afternoon.

If there is, when you do a search, opt for a book on our website, books will show up because

there's the infrastructure in the back end to make that happen.

For something like African Americans experience or Chilterns or those, you just have to know

that it's there and go look for it.

So we're working on the discovery part of it.

So now if you do, for example, if you look up Juneteenth, if you do a book search for

Juneteenth, African American experience will pop up in a tile and you click on it and you

go right to it.

So we're building that out.

Good deal, good information.

Any questions or comments from my fellow directors?

My husband.

Director Rodriguez.

I just want to say, this is my friend.

I just want to say that wow, this is an incredibly impressive digital collections list for our

residents to enjoy in their homes or on the road or on their children's tablets.

This is a very long list of resources and so it's very impressive.

Thank you.

Good deal.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So no, thank you for your presentation.

And we will definitely be in touch on further engagement on this.

This is really good information.

So thank you.

Now we will move on item number four executive team report.

We handed over to Director Coil.

Great.

Thank you, Chair Brewer and members of the authority board.

Thank you for being here today and asking me to spend some time with you to talk about

the library.

We're really excited and thank you for your attention to the resources that we provide

electronically.

They're very underutilized in some cases and they have a lot of rich content.

So we're really glad to be able to provide such robust data bases.

And I will highlight and I spoke about this last month that some of the databases we receive

through the state library through federal funding and that is on quite frankly on the chopping

block.

There are many federal resources that we receive through the state library, lunch at the library,

databases, other programs as well.

So as we look to the federal government and their budget as those items are eliminated, those

resources will become unavailable here at the state without additional funding.

So we will keep you abreast and reprised of that situation.

I know that the state librarians across all 50 states are going to Washington DC next

week to meet with legislators to talk about the importance of the library technology and

service act, the Institute for Museum of Library Science, Services and other programs.

But more of the home front here is some very exciting things we have going on.

We've hosted a number of programs the last couple months and in the report we talk about

the Tracy, I'm sorry, Casey McQuinston who wrote the book Red White and Royal Blue.

It was made into a movie.

So if you're familiar with that, she came and spoke and was a very popular, was a capacity

audience and they have a sequel to that book coming out as well.

It's really grateful that we're able to bring such high caliber authors to the second

area for our users to take part in.

And as was mentioned, we're working on a new website which will unveil in the fall and

a coincide with that we have a new branding effort underway and our communications department

is provided some extensive information, the packet about where we're at with that project.

But that is moving forward.

We're hoping to have a modern brand to show a modern library and so we're looking forward

to unveiling that to the board and getting a great response from the community we hope

on the efforts to do that.

We're also moving forward this last week has been a week of meetings about construction.

We're moving forward with the city of Sacramento and the city of El Grove.

Here in the city of Sacramento, the Martin Luther King Junior Library project is underway.

Deputy Director of Keller was there yesterday or today?

Yesterday to look at the progress they've already begun some of the demolition in that space.

At some point we will invite the authority board to do a heart hat tour with the city when

it's convenient and safe to do that.

And similar to the El Grove project is moving forward.

I'm going to do a site visit tomorrow with that and walk that building with the staff at

El Grove.

But we're very excited about those projects moving forward and having those new resources

for the community when those projects are completed in short less than two years.

So we'll have to see how the clock runs on those.

And I think we have a lot of confidence in the cities and the builders to accomplish that.

And I'm happy to answer other questions you have about anything that else is in the

report or any services the library is currently offering.

Thank you, Director Coil.

And definitely interested in the follow up of your trip to Washington, DC with your fellow

directors.

I'm very excited about the upcoming projects, especially obviously the El Grove project

for my own reasons.

But other than that, the King Library definitely interested in that one as well.

Okay.

And seeing how that progresses.

Any comments from my fellow directors on any of the items mentioned by Director Coil?

Hearing and seeing none.

Thank you again.

Thank you.

And Chibiru, just a clarification.

I'm not going to Washington, DC, the State Library and Greg Lucas and the other State

librarians.

So I will provide information that he provides.

I'm not going this trip, which I'm kind of happy about.

I'm happy to stay here and do the work here on the ground and let the other people go

to DC and deal with the people in that building.

So but we'll definitely share information with you when we have it.

With that said, we're happy to have you here in California and we wish Greg well.

I'm not going anywhere.

So now we'll move on to information item number five.

So do we need to have a monthly financial report provided by Johnny on this?

Items 5.1 and 5.2?

Yeah, I think Chair Brewer, this is a standing item for information.

If you have a question, Johnny is happy to answer them.

But typically Johnny just presents at the mid-year and the annual budget unless there's a request

from this body otherwise.

Okay.

And it looks like we have no comments from my fellow directors.

So we'll move on to item number six, the consent calendar.

We hold on.

I thought you were just at 5.1 and 2.

What was the name of this item?

5.32.

Oh, there you are, Director Dickinson.

I'm sorry.

I did.

I did take note of item 5.3.

So I thought Mr. Chair, you were only talking about 5.1 and 5.2 there, which you got

5.3 in there.

And I do use these agenda management tools often.

So rather than spend time here with everybody about some of the features that I think are

a particular important, maybe we can have a conversation offline.

You can let me know whether some of the things that I make use of are going to be incorporated

in Civic Plus or not.

Yeah.

Mr. Dickinson, we're happy to have that conversation.

We can set up a meeting with the staff to do that.

Yeah, that'd be great.

Happy to do that.

Thank you.

And we're very excited about the features as well.

So we're hoping that the features were offering or what you're looking for.

So if not, we can figure that out.

Okay.

I hope so.

Thank you.

And apologies for the pass over Roger.

No, no, no.

No, no.

So now we'll move on to item six, the consent calendar.

We have six items up for our agenda today.

Any comments from public?

Hearing and seeing none.

Any comments from the directors on any of the items on the consent calendar?

Hearing and seeing none.

Oh, Director Dickinson.

I do.

I don't know.

I have a couple of questions on 6.5.

So I don't know if you want to take the questions and then act on it all or take the others

and then come back to 6.5, Mr. Chair, whatever your pleasure is.

No, let's ask the questions right now on item 6.5.

Okay.

And see if we can get them addressed.

The basic, thank you, Mr. Chair.

The basic question I had was why this wasn't competitively bid.

I read the staff report and the explanation.

I read the justification for sole source on this.

What struck me was that apparently you all as staff investigated a number of different possible vendors and alternatives and then ruled them out and are recommending us a sole source contract.

And so my question was why not in this instance draft the specs for whatever you wanted,

bid it and then see who might qualify to be considered.

Hi there.

Yeah, thanks for the question.

When we were looking at this, part of it was in part the Sacramento Public Library does not have a policy management system specifically.

And what we were looking for is a product that actually had a specific self attestation feature into it, which was very unique to the ESPER platform, as well as they've been closely working with other government entities that have had the same challenge that we had.

So this was an opportunity for us to take advantage of something that was shelf ready and can help us address an immediate need.

As part of our long term solution to as the Board approved in past meetings, we are also implementing the NeoGov HR system, which this will give us an opportunity to integrate both options where we have NeoGov, which will do the initial on boarding.

And then the ongoing part of it being with the ongoing policy management.

Now what also makes ESPER very unique is it also gives us the opportunity to potentially do additional policy recognition with the public and or other entities, which was a very unique feature.

Being libraries, we are kind of what I like to call the great one off. We're not only do we have to deal with the policy acknowledgement needs of our employees, but also we are getting to policy acknowledgement needs of the public because a lot of our different databases are requiring different.

So this gives us some additional flexibility, so that way in this instance why we did not go out for a competitive bid because ESPER actually meet those immediate needs and potentially future.

I don't know Peter if you want to add anything to that.

So this is a this is a contract for as long as three years.

Which is not I mean my first thought was you were doing it on the basis of it was it was filling a gap between today and when is it NeoGov or whoever could be fully operationalized.

But if this is going to be three years.

That doesn't sound like just filling a gap to me.

It sounds it sounds like more than that and I appreciate the explanation of unique features, but unless you test the market, I understand you did some some outreach and had contact with other potential vendors, but you don't unless you know everyone that's out there.

There may be someone else who could who could be respond to a bid as well. So that's still of concern.

Yeah, definitely hear what you're saying and understand that once again I go back to we are looking at a project to address an initial need, Sacramento Public Library does not have a solution in place right now and this is a solution that will help us get into immediate compliance with some issues that we have.

And in all honesty, it's going to take us a couple years to get through this. So where it may seem like the three years is a very long extended amount of time. It's going to take us a couple years just to truthfully get our ducks in a row to you know get the policy management integrated with NeoGov and then potentially for a longer term solution.

At that point, we would definitely go out to competitive bid for if we find that this is not meeting our needs. This is just to help us to get going.

And to dovetail on that our NeoGov implementation is ongoing so it's not complete and right now so it will take a next year and a half. So this is maybe a little bit of a longer contract, but it gives us the time to establish and use it and we can certainly go out to bid on the next renewal if that's if that's something that we need to do.

Yeah, I appreciate the answer and you know the presumption in the public domain as you know is always to competitively bid unless there are significant extenuating circumstances that prevent that.

And I would just say the appearance of this of having talked to other vendors and then said no, we don't think they'll do what we want. So we're making a sole source recommendation.

I think for a reasonable person raise an eyebrow and so I would just offer a cautionary note about that and and given the immediacy of your need I think that's that is certainly some justification for for sole sourcing because competitively bidding it takes time but you took some time too.

So as I say I will support the item but it is it is something that I think gives some pause.

On understand we will adjust accordingly sir.

Thanks thanks Mr. Chair.

All right so with that said we still have six items up do we have a motion to move the consent calendar.

We have a motion by director Telemontes second by director Rodriguez.

Do we do a voice for just do a do we have to roll call vote for our consent calendar.

To roll call vote to roll call vote.

Clerk may I please call the roll Roger Dickinson.

I'm Carina Telemontes.

I feel plucky bomb.

Katie Maple.

Hi.

My bank.

Yes.

I Patrick Kennedy.

Rich Desmond.

I.

Oh, Rosario Rodriguez.

Hi.

Pat Hume.

Mary Jane Lopez Taff.

Yes.

Rod Brewer.

I.

Kevin Spees.

I.

Tim Reed.

Joe Little.

Yeah.

Being a left of it.

Yes.

I.

I.

I responded for Rich Desmond as I.

Motion passes for 12 members voting.

Thank you, clerk.

Now we'll move on to item seven.

At two action we have two action items item 7.1 the appointment of the budget audit committee.

So I think we will.

We'll mention that over to director Coil.

Right now we have three members that make up the committee.

Myself.

Director Spees.

Director Vang.

And director Talimontes.

But I'll turn it over to you director Coil.

Yes.

Thank you, Chipper.

I haven't typically finding my page.

One.

Yeah.

So we.

The budget audit committee is comprised of members of this board and with the adjustment of membership

of the board we need to adjust the number and the membership of that committee.

And so the resolution before you is to have that occur in previous years has been on a volunteer basis.

But as chair you can appoint who you desire.

But I think we might want to see who has the capacity and the time to do that.

The committee is needs twice a year.

Maybe a little more frequently as need necessitates.

But it is not quite a, an arduous committee to take part of.

Okay.

So with the, with the current makeup of this, of this committee we, I guess the question comes to each of the members right now.

Do you still desire to serve on the committee or does your time constraints pretty much prevent you from serving at the times that are designated to that we meet?

Any questions or concerns from those current members that I mentioned?

Do you have to tell them on this?

Do we meet on Tuesdays or is it flexible?

Yeah. So, uh,

Councilmember Talima, we are going to establish a schedule and publish it based on the availability of the members.

So it will be based on what the committee is available to me so we can definitely not do it on Tuesday if that is the desire of members.

Thank you.

I'll say on the board.

Yeah. So what we'll do is, is just to clarify in the past, we haven't necessarily published the dates ahead of time.

We're trying to establish a schedule for the year.

Better compliance with the Brown Act.

So we'll have that, that published ahead of time.

No, that's, that's helpful because I know, I know each of our schedules.

All of us, I mean, it definitely comes into conflict when we do designate certain days.

Yeah. So having that, that advance warning definitely helps us plan accordingly.

Yeah. So, thank you.

What we'd like to do is once the committee is established with the membership, we can do a doodle poll and fear it when the best time for the committee is,

and then bring that schedule to the board next month.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Director Van.

Do you, do you still want to serve on this fund committee?

I'm happy to see if someone else would like it, but if you need someone to serve on this committee, happy to do it as long as not on a Tuesday or Monday and Wednesday morning.

I teach during that time as a state.

So, yeah.

So, but if someone is interested in, I'm happy to leave the seat open.

So yeah.

Okay.

So what that said, Chair, Chair, this is Kevin Spees. Director Spees.

Yes.

Spees, so.

Voice from above.

So, Director Van beat me to it.

But if there's anyone else who wants to arm wrestle for the position, I'm certainly willing to let you win in arm wrestle.

So, I would be fine with carrying on, but if somebody else wants it, I'm happy to open up that opportunity for them.

So, what that said, it sounds like there's an opportunity for two new spots.

Are there any interested parties?

Please don't look away. Please don't look down.

Chair, who's Garrett, Gatewood's replacement?

Joe Little.

Joe Little, I think you need to volunteer.

Garrett loves some undone business.

Yeah, I think he's got some really big shoes to fill.

Yes.

I'm happy to step up.

Okay, for sure.

And Chair, this is Mary Jane Lopez.

Top I would be happy to volunteer as well.

Okay.

Open up two spots.

You get them feel very quick.

So, thank you very much for your continued service director Talimantes.

And welcome aboard.

Chair, who's there?

Director Little and Director Ta.

Chair, if I may.

So, currently, sorry, director Wang and director Spies are both alternates to the committee.

They're not on the committee.

Yeah.

And so, we have filled the seats for the members of the committee, but not, but we still could use alternates.

Especially when we need the quorum.

Yes.

Because the last meeting that we had, we needed, we needed three to fill a quorum.

I'm happy to be an alternate.

Okay.

If you need to break glass.

But it sounds like we have, I mean, obviously, we have director Little and director Ta.

Who express an interest to be a part of it.

So, I'd like to have director Little to be that third member director Ta.

To be the alternate.

If that's okay.

And then have director Wang as the backup.

If need be.

Super backup.

Super backup exactly because you're, your ACEs.

So, is that, is that okay if we, if we did that in that fashion, if we did it in that fashion?

Yeah.

So, sorry.

Just to clarify, the committee members would include yourself.

Director Little.

Director Talamontes.

And director Lopez Taf.

And then director Wang would stay on as an alternate.

That's right.

And director Spies is being very quiet.

Do you still need another alternate?

Only, only if you're, only if you're willing to.

Because I know, because I believe in you director piece.

All right.

All right.

Let's do it.

And all right.

Mr. Chair, if I may also, if we have this schedule ahead of time, I think it would also leave you.

Some of the pressure on the alternates as well.

So, I think just to assuage the alternates, we will have that and that will help with some of the logistics.

And I think that will be beneficial for all of us.

Yes, sir.

Because things happen along the way.

And if any of us at any given time are unavailable, at least we have the full five days, 72 hours, to reach out to each other.

To see if we can fill in.

And I think that really helps.

Yes, sir.

I think that will help as well too.

Okay.

Okay.

So I think we have a committee.

It's set in stone per our council.

So, but let's read the names again just to be sure.

It's myself, director Talamontes, director Little, with alternates, director Vang, director Taff, and director Spies.

Director Taff would be a member of the board.

Should be a member of the board because we have to have the four.

Good deal.

We can have it to five if there's someone else who's desperate to join.

Oh, no.

I think that I think we've got our limit.

And this is good.

This is good for the order.

This is definitely good for the order.

So here we go.

So, yes.

So with that, congratulations to all.

Congratulations to the alternates.

We look forward to serving over the next year.

Thank you very much.

Yes, please.

Roger Dickinson.

Karina Talamontes.

Yes.

Phil Pluckybaum.

Katie Maple.

Hi.

My Vang.

Yes.

Phil Serna.

Patrick Kennedy.

Rich Desmond.

Rosario Rodriguez.

Hi.

Pat Hume.

Mary Jane Lopez Taff.

I.

Wadbur.

I.

Kevin Spees.

I.

Tim Reed.

Joe Little.

Yes.

Being a love of it.

Yes.

Nick Bloisy.

Hi.

Motion passes with 12 members.

Thank you, clerk.

Did we get a motion in a second?

No, we didn't.

And that's the one thing that's like in the middle of all this.

Celebration.

We have a motion from director Maple, vice chair Maple and a second from director Talamontes.

But we already have the votes.

But the motion is to adopt this to adopt the committee.

That's the most important part.

There has to be a motion to solidify and ratify the committee.

I do think Mr. Chair Maple, it comes.

I think since in this, in appointment of the chair, I don't know if we need to vote.

Do we need to vote?

I think we don't need to vote.

Yeah.

You have the power.

This was the appointment.

Yes.

We didn't really need to vote or do a motion for it.

So we all feel good about it.

It was.

It was a feel good moment.

And everybody got lost in the hoopla.

But it's all good.

It's all good.

But now we have item 7.2.

We're talking about fiscal year mid-year budget for 2324.

Now, Johnny can come up to the podium.

Thank you, Chair.

I'm going to solve the board.

I'm very excited to hear about the budget and audit committee appointment.

It's a fun committee.

So I'm very excited to hear about the budget and audit committee appointment.

It's a fun committee.

So lots of numbers.

So item 7.2 is the mid-year budget update for fiscal year 2425.

So I have a short PowerPoint presentation, but feel free to ask any questions along the way.

So the mid-year, please to report that there are very few minor changes to the mid-year budget.

Revenue is looking at an increase of approximately 397,000.

Expansions of 532,000.

4,000, not use the fund balance in the amount of 135,000.

And this is mainly for the three capital projects.

Three billion projects, the King Project, North Sacramento and the Elkrow Project.

And mainly these are usage for miscellaneous moving expenses, cleaning costs,

other miscellaneous IT equipment and wiring that's needed for the project.

So take a look at the overall budget as shown on exhibit A.

Revenue is coming in at approximately 64 million dollars from mine.

Expansions of 68.4 million dollars.

And you'll see a net user fund balance of 4.4 million.

So most of these usage are from Project Kerry Olvers from fiscal year 24.

And these are mainly for Kerry Olvers projects, such as the rebranded project that Director Koyal mentioned early on.

We have a software upgrade from the eating financial system to enterprise L.P.

We also have an automated material handling system expansion in the central building.

That's a big piece of equipment and also a security camera systems and audio video systems through other branches.

And then additionally 1.2 million has been requested by the City of Elkrow for usage of the supplement of fund reserve.

And we'll talk about supplement of fund in a bit more detail.

So this is to supplement the Elkrow library project.

So since then that 1.2 million has been wired to the City of Elkrow already.

So take a look at the revenues in a bit more detail again 395,000 increase from the September final budget.

These are mainly from the gifts, grants and donations that the board had previously approved and adopted from 2.1 and quarters 2.

In a model 320,000 and 77,000 respectively.

The major revenue sources are there for major revenue sources.

County property tax revenues are slated to come in at about $36 million.

City of Sacramento General Fund and Measure Your Contribution at $14.3 million.

And City of Sacramento Measure X and B will come in at approximately $7.2 and about $2.7 million respectively.

On the flip side expenditures are projected to be at about $68.4 million of that amount.

So 532,000 is an increase from our September final budget.

And off that amount is again quarters 1 and 2 from gifts, grants and donations in the model 320,000 and a second quarter of $77,000.

And then as mentioned earlier the 135,000 is for miscellaneous building improvements for the King,

the Manu Thick King Library Project, the Elgro of Library Project and the North Sacramento Library Project.

Again, these are mainly tenant improvements, the interiors, wires cleaning up and moving cars and other preparation fee for the project.

So as part of the major budget review, we also take a look at the annual supplement of funding allocation.

Back in 2019 the thorny board had adopted a reserve policy, requiring that the county fund maintain a reserve of approximately 35% for cash flow and economic uncertainty needs.

So we met with the Finance Advisory Committee, consistent of the county CFO, the CSA Sacramento Finance Directors and other finance managers and directors from our partner agencies.

So these are finance folks, so we all met and talked about numbers.

And so we looked at the June 30, 2024 audited financial statements, so things that we considered were the county fund balances required reserves, system wide improvement and capital needs and then the county's 5-year forecast.

So again, keeping the county's supplement of fund balances is mainly only for the county fund funding sources only.

So at the end of the conversation, we ended at recommending a $46,000 supplement of fund allocation into the on-incorporate areas of the county for library services and over 5 new county libraries.

So we'll take a look at how we derived to the 46,000.

So when we ended the year last year at June 30, 2024, we ended the year at 36.7 million in county fund balance.

Let's catch flow and economic uncertainty reserve of 12.9 million, restricted reserves of 7.4 million and these are including the existing supplement of fund balances donations and requests and other different maintenance costs.

We also negated the 5-year forecast need in the model 4.7 million and equipment and system wide needs of 8.6 million for IT security and furniture and fixes and so forth.

So at the end of the day, there's an available fund balance of $46,000 to be allocated to the county's supplemental fund balance.

So the supplement of fund balance is allocated based on three factors.

The property taxes, circulation percentages and population, civil-search populations.

And so you'll notice on the very left hand side, sort of county funding sources primary is funded for the on-incorporate areas of the county.

Silver-renchered condover, Elgrove, Citruside, Citigr old and Citigm Altin.

So the annual supplemental funding factor is a basic average of the three percentages.

So once we determined the supplemental funding allocation factor, we took the $40,000 that is allocable to all the different agencies.

So you'll see on the third column to the last, $185 is allocated to the Citigm Altin library, Citigm Altin gold at $1,451.

And so on. So the on-incorporate areas are the biggest chunk.

These are for the county libraries in the amount of $27,315.

And then in the green column, you'll see that these are our ending fund balances, supplemental fund balances at June 30, 2024.

So this is last year's ending fund balances.

So last year we ended the year at $6.4 million in supplemental funds.

And so the second, the third and the second to the last column combined gives you the final column of the consolidated supplemental fund balances at June 30, 2025.

So you'll notice that the Citigm Altgrove library we ended last year at $1.184 million.

But the first year 30, 2025 projection is showing at $8,886.

And that is due to the 1.1,84 million that's been transferred to the city already.

So at the end of June 30, 2025, we are anticipating a supplement of fund balance of $5.2 million combined.

Exhibit B, there are no changes to position control, so leaving at 42.5, 32.325 FTEs.

And so looking at next year's budget, the county property taxes revenues, staff is projecting an increase of 3.75%.

And these numbers are preliminary, so we will adjust up and down as necessary based on communication and conversation with the county assessor.

And then on the city of Sacramento, the budget will be a bit more of a challenge to balance the budget for the city library services.

And then on the city of Sacramento, we're anticipating a $2 million decrease in general fund and measure your contribution for fiscal year 26.

At another $2 million decrease in fiscal year 27 for general fund and measure your contribution as well.

So the $4 million, it's a one time diversion face out into two fiscal years.

It's due to the city's budget shortfalls for the two building projects, the Martin Luther King Library Project and North Sacramento Hagenwood Library Project.

And then on top of that, we've received communication that the step up increases for the general fund and measure you is likely going to be eliminated as well also over the next five years.

So that's due to another $7 million.

So looking at the revenue decreases elimination of step up increases, staff is projecting an annual structural budget deficit of about $2.2 to $3.7 million on an annual basis over the next five fiscal years.

So it's not, so this is, you know, in the long run, this is unsustainable.

So we will definitely need to dip into fund balance to balance the budget and continue operations and services.

So staff will look at the budget. We will continue to have conversations with the city's finance director and the budget team to hopefully come up with a longer term solution where we can continue to operate and have a fiscal sustainable budget.

Lastly, the city of Sacramento next year's budget measure action measure B, we are anticipating a 3% increase.

This is based on the San Francisco CPI index increase. And then CalPos, as you know, it's always on an option. So next year we are anticipating about $3.38 basis point to 21% for the employee contribution.

And then staff will be working on next year's budget fairly soon and we anticipate on bringing that budget to the board at the May 22nd, 2025 meeting.

So that's the concludes my report and I'll be happy to answer the questions.

Thank you, Johnny.

I'm going to open this up to for public comment hearing and seeing none. I want to turn it over to my directors.

Have any comments, any questions?

Thank you, Chair. Well, thank you for the presentation and appreciate. I know this is a challenging time. Obviously, you know, city Sacramento is going through our own budget challenges. Are you into, you got some of those but are you anticipating any further potential?

Harm or challenges as a result of our budget at the city or maybe the county or other places in the public libraries budget?

I think I'm being looked at. At this point, Director Maple, we don't foresee anything. I think we've lined out right now that the dipping into the fund balance over the next two years is we have the money to do that.

But the third and fourth year, it's going to be more of an issue and at that point, I think we'll see some concern. So it gives us some time to work with the city and talk about possible restoration of some of that funding and those step up increases and other avenues for that.

But it does it will concern some some very difficult conversations with the city about what the city can support in terms of library services.

Because as we can see the funding that we get at this point isn't nearly enough to operate at the level we'd like to. So it will cause some some some issues in the next couple years, but not in the immediate next 12 months.

So it's really good to have this. You know, we obviously were having those discussions at the city level and.

Depending on the decisions that the council makes, you know, we may be looking at down years for several years at the city or if we make, you know,

some difficult choices earlier on maybe we can save that off but that's completely up to the council, but just wanted to so it sounds like you're in conversations, you know, and you're in with staff about how to do that.

My other question is related to federal funding. Obviously, you know, there's a lot of unknowns right now with the current federal administration. Are you seeing any potential challenges on the line?

Yeah, thank you, director maple. Generally our federal funding comes through pass through the state library or through grants from the American Library Association or others.

So at this point we're not having that concern. The issue on the horizon that will impact us is if there are restrictions around the e-rate funding.

There have been ideas floated about modifying that as we've seen in some of the grant language for the national and down for the arts and the humanities.

That language has restricted what those programs can be used for, specifically EDI initiatives and that sort of thing.

We don't know my crystal ball isn't working, but we assume if that is also applied to other programs, it could be applied to e-rate at some point, which would then cause us to have to evaluate whether we accept that e-rate funding or not.

That happens as deputy directoricellers spoke on earlier meeting, our e-rate bill is about $2 million a year and we end up only paying about $47,000.

So if the e-rate changes and there's restrictions around that, that will cause some significant budget issues with us in the future. But again, that could happen, it could not happen.

The writing on the wall is kind of there that potential has been has been floated. We just don't know if that will grasp and move forward through that process or not.

Thank you. A certain times, but appreciate your leadership at this time. Thank you.

Have we looked at other ways to keep the budget balanced because as we're using fund balances over the next few fiscal years, the amount will dwindle. It will shrink.

Once we get to that point, that third year out on the horizon, what are we thinking about right now of how to either use other alternate funds or figure out a way to keep the budget balanced as that amount continues to shrink?

Yeah, Director Brewer, I think that this is one of the challenges of how the library is funded through the two different funding mechanisms of the city and county.

So we are having conversations about what potential other resources are available without the adequate funding from one of the parties that impacts the rest of the services because of the shared cost.

So there's a lot of other considerations also that we're looking at. It's a little too early to tell, but I will say that we are having those conversations because it is a short window for us to have those conversations, but we don't have any solutions at this point in time.

Okay, and looking at the at the at the scale, there was one table that we saw that where I'll tend was included in the mix of other cities that make up the JPA and you have unincorporated county at some point with the amount that is going to I'll tend and given their current financial state and other things going on down there at what point do we expect or have some sort of intention to.

To have intention to fold their amount into the unincorporated county balance or or do we just leave it as a standalone and continue to have that amount on the ledger showing that $148 is going to the city every fiscal year.

That's a good question, Chair Brewer, because I'll say that is still an incorporated municipality, there is a signatory member of the joint powers agency.

So until such a time as they disincorporate, they'll be listed and at that point then they would roll into the unincorporated part of the county, but they are under the current joint powers agreement, they are a separate entity and so we have to account for it this way.

That money is available for Iowton to use for library services while they're in incorporated community.

We did meet with Supervisor Hume last week about this issue and the delta, so we have had some initial conversations about the outlook of that situation, so we'll continue those conversations with him as well.

Okay, thank you so much.

Any other questions from the directors regarding the budget?

We have a resolution before us, 25-12, it's a resolution amending the final budget for the Sacramento Public Library for fiscal year 2024-2025.

Do we have a motion?

So moved by Director Talimontis, do we have a second?

Second by Director Rodriguez, all those members, do we do a clerk vote?

Roger Dickinson?

Hi.

Karina Talimontis?

Hi.

Bill Pluckybone?

Katie Maple?

Hi.

My bang?

Yes.

Bill Surner?

Patrick Kennedy?

Rich Desmond?

Rosaria Rodriguez?

Hi.

Pat Hume?

Mary Jane Lopez-Tap?

I.

Wadbure?

I.

Kevin Spees?

I.

Tim Reed?

Joe Little?

Yes.

Boena Loughkivitz?

Yes.

Nick Bloisy?

I.

Ann motion passes with 11 members present.

Thank you, clerk.

Thank you, committee.

And thank you, Johnny.

Now we'll move on to item number eight.

Reports, ideas, and questions from board members.

Are there any items?

Director Loughkivitz?

Well, first I had the opportunity to go to two schools.

You got to turn it off.

Is your light green?

It says it is.

It says it is.

Okay.

I had the opportunity to go to two schools with staff in the library

to your book first program.

And it was very exciting if you all have never done it.

It's a great opportunity to see our young people get books and be

excited and our library staff were fabulous with the students.

The other thing I wanted to mention is the county office is hosting a movie

at the guild theater called Hopeville how to win the reading wars.

This will be on April 1st in the evening.

I'm going to go to the county office.

It's in line with my advocacy around literacy, which I know you all support.

I wanted to encourage any of you that are interested.

I thought it could be a good setup for the county office coming and

speaking to us hopefully in April or May.

Thank you.

Director Loughkivitz?

Director Rodriguez?

I'm happy to be here and I do plan on downloading mango and see if I can

learn introduction to Chinese that I wanted to learn my whole life.

So keep you posted.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Any other comments?

Anything from our directors online?

Hearing and seeing none, we are now at item number nine, the adjournment.

Do we have a motion to adjourn?

Do we have a second?

So at the time of 4.08pm, this meeting is adjourned.

We will see everyone at the March 27th meeting at 3pm.

Thank you very much meeting adjourned.