Good afternoon, everyone.

At the time of 306, I'd like to convene uh Thursday, August 28th, 2025 meeting of the Sacramento Public Library Authority Board.

Um Clerk, may you please call the roll?

Roger Dickinson, Karina Talamantes, Phil Pluckybaum, Katie Maple, Mai Vang here, Phil Cerna, here, Patrick Kennedy, Rich Desmond, Rosario Rodriguez, Pat Hume, Mary Jane Lopez Taff, here, Rob Brewer, Kevin Spees, Tim Reed, Linda Budge, Linda Budge.

Yes, she's muted.

Tanya Kraftchuk.

Here.

Nick Bloyce.

Here.

And Linda Budge.

Here.

And we have a quorum with eight members present.

Thank you, Clerk.

Now we have the meeting statement.

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

It is cable cast on Metro Cable Channel 14, the local government affairs channel on the Comcast and Direct TV Uverse Cable Systems.

It is also live streamed at Metro14Live.sackCounty.gov.

Today's meeting will play Saturday, August 30 at 4 p.m.

on Metro Cable Channel 14.

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

The meeting will also be recorded via 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 at the library website at www.sacklibrary.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 very much.

And now everyone please rise if you are able so we can do the pledge of allegiance.

Salute.

Pledge.

Hi, Pledge Allegiance.

The United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God invisible with liberty and justice for all.

May please be seated.

Now I'd like to move on to item four for public comment on matters not on the agenda.

Seeing that we have no cards up here on the dais, we will move on to presentations.

Sorry, I did want to be added on there.

So speaking of brief uh I wanted to invite some folks.

Uh, may can you please come up to the dais or to the lectern and state your name.

Yes, thank you so much.

Uh my name is Urbus Orozco.

I am here representing uh organization Empowering Latino Futures, and we are putting on uh the third annual Sacramento Latino Book and Family Festival.

So I'm here to invite folks.

Uh Maybank's office has been helping us a lot this year, so we're very grateful.

It's a district eight.

It's in district eight this year.

So uh we're moving it from Sacramento City College out to Valley High School, which is next to Consumers River College.

We're inviting the community to come out.

We're still taking vendors and uh would love to uh see more uh help and support from um some of uh the members here as well.

Karina, we we uh we got your uh your support as well, so we appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Uh but yes, thank you so much, Phil.

We'd love to have a conversation with you to see how how you can.

How you approach my office.

I have not.

Um, you need to do that.

Yeah, we can we can do that.

Um so because of everything that's been happening right now because of ice and everything, uh we were trying to decide if we should have the event this year, and uh about like two, three months ago is when we decided okay, we're gonna uh go ahead and do it because nobody's gonna you know take our joy, our community joy away.

So um thank you.

Thank you for that.

But uh we'll go ahead and approach um them.

I would like to give you some of these if it's okay.

Yeah, yes, hand them to Heather and we will gladly take one.

Go ahead and write that down.

And then yes, thank you.

And then uh yeah, we'll have Delotus Huerta there, and we're expecting several thousand people as well.

We're gonna be having uh Gracie Scareño, she's uh an United States Air Force uh veteran she's gonna be talking about uh her experiences and uh her books as well as uh David Aguilar he writes for um Madlock as well as um several other shows uh we want the community to come out and there will be children's activities throughout the event uh we will be having readings it'll be bilingual uh we'll have a live mariachi music and performances so thank you all so much and I hope um to contact some of you on here on the board as well so thank you thank you you made it just in time I was getting ready to move that train forward so I appreciate it and I remember you coming being here last year and and talking about the the festival and we was at the telling of the meeting and you're unable to do it because we had already adjourned so I'm so glad you made it early this year yes and your schedule allowed you to do it and so no we really appreciate you being here talking about the festival talking about the benefits of the festival and why the festival is needed and I like that it's in it's at Belly High near Consumers River College it's Elk Grove adjacent as well a neighbor um with director of Vang's district and so even though it's two separate cities we're both serving the same community so thank you so much for being for being here today and talking about this.

Yeah we were able to get a few thousand people last year about from four to five thousand people at Sex City College we're expecting it to to be a few thousand people this year as well so um we we would love the outreach from you all as well and seeing how you can all support us fundraising communications outreach that sort of thing you got it awesome thank you so much I'll go ahead and uh be reaching out to some of y'all's offices all right okay thank you thank you so much for the uh okay all right I like this um please please start give provide your name and and your and your presentation to us today I guess that's me I'm doing it for the uh friends of the library okay so you'll so you're giving out order chair you have Kira whose hand her hand up first so that's that's what I was referring to oh sorry so for Ciara please state your name and and your in your comment please start hi sorry um apologies I have had some bandwidth issues um can everyone hear me yeah we can hear you um okay perfect so my name is Kira Thornton um I'm a citizen of Sacramento and proud library cardholder um I'm here today to express some concerns about the proposed capital improvements projects um specifically as it relates to the branches um um that provide accessible polling places during elections um I don't think I have to remind everyone here that um elections are important we have some very important elections midterms coming up um and that's Sacramento uh 75% of Sacramento voters uh cast their ballots at a library excluding ballot drop boxes um so of the of five of the six capital improvement projects currently listed on the website don't have an end date um and four of those six start in 2026 those same four um have previously all been drive through voting locations which if you know Artendimic Carmichael North Highlands Antelope and Sylvan Oaks are all closed um what does that mean for accessible voting options for our disabled and elderly voters um and I just worried because that can be out of only six total drive through voting locations in all of the Sacramento library's offerings, four of those will be closed um that's a 67% reduction so uh the other thing I want to point out is that 2026 is uh re-election year for the sixth congressional district.

And if the um and if the recting that is gonna be um those impacted branches will be spread among not just district six but also district three, which is also up for election.

So the reason I bring this up is I'm assuming best intentions.

I know my branch needs some of these capital improvements, but things don't occur in a vacuum, and closing all six of those branches that provide accessible voting options and ballot drop-offs through the drive-thru.

Uh we'll disenfranchise elderly and disabled voters.

And it just in our political current political climate, it the optics are leaning towards voter suppression.

And I know that's not what anybody wants.

So, like it or not, libraries are political, reading is political libraries are funded by taxpayer dollars and voting takes place there.

So I wanted to bring it to the board's attention because the board has responsibility to address these concerns, whether that means moving those locations to other libraries in the area or something else.

But um, I just wanted to bring that to the board's attention and ask that they um come up with a plan to redistribute those branches voting resources ahead of the midterm elections in 2026.

Thank you, Cara.

Uh Director Cerna.

Did I have you?

I have you on the on the lineup.

Thank you.

Um, chair.

I just wanted to um make sure that uh it should I depart at roughly 3 40 that we're gonna have a quorum.

You got okay.

So yes, all right.

I see nodding heads, thank you.

Um Rod, yes.

I need to leave it for.

Okay, you got it, Director Budge.

Do we have any other public comments not on the agenda?

What's on the agenda?

Hearing and seeing none, I'd like to move on to the next item for friends of the Sacramento Public Library.

I saw that uh Devon's not on, but we do have a report coming up, so you are up.

Okay, hi.

Um, my name is Pam Whitley.

I'm on the uh the board of the Friends, I'm the president of the Rancho Cordova Friends, yeah, and the manager at the booked den.

Um I was the fourth in line because the others couldn't do it, so I guess I'm their fourth choice.

We're doing this.

Um I want to thank you.

You're the longest term resident at the library, so you got it.

I am thank you, Linda.

Um, and I want to thank you for the opportunity to report on behalf of the friends.

Um we haven't had a meeting since the last July uh or the last JPA meeting, but our next one is coming up in September, and we um have a host of committee meetings, which I can attest to that where the members have been engaging in critical conversations related to the operations of the organization and support for the affiliate branches.

You'll have to bear with me because I'm reading a lot of Devon's notes here.

Thank you, Don.

Um the upcoming friends of the Sacramento board meeting is scheduled for September 9th at 7 p.m.

on Zoom.

The meetings are open to the public, and we welcome anyone to join in.

We will be discussing the regular reports related to the book den, the membership finances, excuse me, communications and affiliate support.

We will also be discussing a proposal to enhance financial support amongst the affiliate friends groups.

Um the big day of giving check presentation.

We will be presenting a check to the library at the September JPA meeting.

Um, according to Devon, you should wear your Sunday best and be ready to commemorate our record-breaking fundraising achievement with a photo.

I'm retired, I don't have Sunday best anymore.

Um, FSPL membership.

As we enter the end of the 2025 calendar year, we are confident in our membership members.

Our July reporting indicates that our overall membership numbers continue to increase.

We added a total of 100 new members in July, and as a side note, most of those came from the booked in.

We have made some changes there.

We have gotten uh some immense social media um involvement thanks to one of our customers, Holly, and to one of our volunteers, Marita Hill, who have put us on TikTok and Reddit and everything.

And we have just been going crazy with memberships.

And we've also gotten a lot of younger members, younger people coming to the booked in uh buying books, and we're really happy about that.

That uh coming up.

Um, we had no idea this customer was doing a video for us, and it just uh it's it's made everything go crazy, but our memberships have gone way up on that.

Um, I just want to thank the library and the JPA for continuing to encourage community members to join the friends, and thank you for this opportunity.

Thank you for the presentation.

Thank you.

And um, if there's a way for any of the directors to get uh heads up on when the Friends Library um Friends of the Library meetings take place, or you know, the the affiliates within the larger framework, that'd be great because I know I've been wanting to participate or sit in on some of those meetings, but um it's just getting the right coordinates and then have that mesh in with everything else.

But I'd definitely like to sit in and participate in some of those meetings and upcoming months.

The library can also help coordinate that.

Thank you, Jared.

Thank you.

Thank you, Deputy Director Keller.

Um, so any other comments from any of the directors on the well or online.

Hearing and seeing none, we can move to executive team report.

Deputy Director Keller, you are up.

Well, thank you, everyone.

I'd like to draw your attention to the executive team report.

I will be providing some key highlights from this month's report.

Uh, over the summer, uh, we hosted a series of job interview skill workshops in partnership with capital storytelling workshops were offered at six branches this summer to provide skills and personal histories to improve and expand job interview skills.

It's a very successful program.

Three more are scheduled for the Sacramento County Jail in September, which marks really an important partnership that we have in the community.

Uh, summer reading challenge 2025.

I'm excited to say that there were over 23,000 readers who participated this year.

Uh please note that next month we'll providing a presentation to the board.

And just as always, our numbers are continuing to um increase every year because Sacramento is in fact a community of readers.

Our very successful lunch at the library program ended year number 12.

Lunch at the library is provided through a grant through the California State Library.

This year we served over 11,284 free meals at 13 locations.

That's a 9% increase over previous years.

Most, I think most exciting of this is over 2,000 teens applied for our 64 interim positions.

What really just highlights the need that we have to have more opportunities for teens for internships.

Uh, but it's very exciting opportunity for them.

Uh, we also partnered with Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services who provided 900 free food boxes to families.

Since 2013, more than 130,000 mills have been provided to Sacramento County residents.

Uh, book first is in year nine on an over 26,500 free book distributions to 13,035 first graders and 197 schools has occurred uh this year.

Cumotive total since 2016 is 170,000 plus books.

We really do appreciate the friends of the Sacramento Public Library who have really been the exemplar for this program and have helped make it as successful as it is.

Uh, talk a little bit about facilities and construction projects, which everybody knows is uh my favorite.

Uh that's been uh we've had uh recent meetings with council member Eric Guerra's office about the Colonial Heights Library.

This month it is anticipated that the city of Sacramento will be taking the project to the council for approval.

City of Sacramento has been working with their insurance provider to settle the claim.

They also have a scope of work.

Additional work outside of the construction of the community room has to occur, including ADA enhancements.

City of Sacramento do believes once it's been approved by city council, it'll take about three three to four months for the library to be complete.

Please note when the library is complete, Sacramento Public Library still has to do some outfitting of the space.

So we will definitely try to get it open as soon as possible.

A couple other kind of key construction highlights.

Both the Martin Luther King Jr.

projects and Elk Grove Library projects are proceeding.

We recently attended site walks, and it's amazing how close they are coming to fruition.

Please look for in summer of 2026 for us to start making some announcements about their uh reopenings.

Um also I'm happy to report that last week we handed over the former Sacramento News and Review Building to the City of Sacramento, so it can be repurposed into the North Sacramento Hagenwood Library.

Construction is anticipated to take 12 to 14 months, so it is very possible it too will open in 2026.

And uh finally, um there are many projects that have been funded by the state of California's building forward infrastructure grant program specifically for county locations for ADA enhancement, HVAC, and roofing repairs.

We are working very closely with the County of Sacramento and the Registrar's Open Office to ensure that these sites will be open during voting.

And um finally, um, there is one item that did not make its way into the report, and that was the 50th celebration of the Southgate Library.

Back in August 11th, 1975, the Southgate Library first opened its doors.

And in 1979, a little young Jared uh was taken to story time by his grandpa.

And so South Library has always been a series of firsts for me.

It's where I first my library story started.

Uh the first story time I went to, the first book I never returned and received fines for, was from there.

So it was truly a wonderful celebration with the entire community coming together just to celebrate libraries.

I really want to give a special shout out to directors Dickinson, Lopez Taft, and Kennedy for attending.

It truly was a wonderful celebration that brought everyone together and just truly showed the impact the libraries make in our community and the true love that the community has for them.

So that is my director's report.

Does anybody have any questions?

Any comments or any questions from any of the directors for for this month's comment?

This was a really good report, really comprehensive, a lot of good news, especially with the summer eating program, the summer lunch program, what we're doing on the libraries, how we're how everything's being paced.

Um, and I really appreciate what we're doing with the food bank, Sacramento uh Family Food Bank and services on the on the meals being provided and for providing job opportunities or internship opportunities with the teens.

That's great stuff.

Congratulations and thank you.

Uh Director Lefkovitz.

Yeah, I I want to dato everything you said.

Um I did I also had a chance to do book first, which was fabulous, and I want to do it again next this come this year, the school year.

And just wanted to comment on your summer jobs for teens.

I I really appreciate your leader you guys' leadership on this, and I want to challenge all of us, all of these public institutions here to I I know most of you probably offer some kind of teen summer work experience, but I want to push us all to do more because our young people need that exposure, and it helps them do constructive things in the summer, and hopefully they'll be our employees one day.

Thank you.

Rod, Mrs.

Linda.

Yes, Director Budge.

I'm not sure how to on this system, I'm not sure how to raise my hand.

Um, no, I just want to congratulate the library for um for yesterday's celebration.

And I was really sorry that I ended up at the last minute not being able to attend.

There was a wonderful article in the V this morning talking about the um Dolly Parton grant.

And um, and it sounds incredibly positive, and I'm extremely proud that they were able to pull that off.

No, thank you.

Thank you for for mentioning that.

I because uh that was that was given really good attention, really good uh coverage on the news last night, and that was very that was awesome to see.

Seeing the connection on how on what we're doing here at Sacramento Public Library and serving all the communities throughout Sacramento County is very is very important, and anything that we can do to help spread that word, please let us know.

Thank you.

I love the stories that were in the B this morning because there is no better way for a child to start off than to have somebody read to it from age six months on at least.

Even if even if Jared was was 11 when he first visited the library, um that's fine.

Reading to a child is really the most important way you can start them off on the road towards um appropriate literacy.

That's right.

So now we can move to item number five information.

So hopefully we have all had a chance to review the information.

Any questions that we have of Mr.

Johnny?

Um uh uh in this time.

Does anyone have any questions?

Seeing none on the well, what about online?

None online.

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

We have seven items on the consent uh calendar items for for today for consideration.

Um do we have any questions from the from the crowd?

Anyone in from the public?

Hearing and seeing none, do we have any questions from the directors?

Director Dickinson.

Thanks, Mr.

Chair.

I did have a question or two about uh item 6.3.

So I don't know if you want to have me ask those questions and then uh presumably take it as part of uh consent calendar or pull it and take the rest of them uh your pleasure.

You know, right now let's let's keep it as part of the consent calendar, unless you feel it's too controversial to be a part of it, we can separate it.

Uh definitely ask questions.

I don't I just I was curious about it.

Um so I'll just ask a couple questions if that's your pleasure.

Please do.

We won't necessarily extract it.

Uh I just uh I was curious about the vehicle wraps from the standpoint of um whether or not uh in either the submission or discussions of what the wraps would look like, it will be clear that the vehicles belong to the library system because lots of times um vehicle wraps can can be advertising, they can be lots of different things, and what you lose is the identity of the entity that actually um uh owns and operates the vehicles and provides the the service.

So that that's really the core of my question.

That is really a terrific question, and I agree with you.

Many times with vehicle wraps, the intention is lost.

As part of our new branding and our logo, it will be very prominent that they are Sacramento Public Library vehicles.

Um in the future months, we will be able to share with you what our new brand and our logo looks like and as well as concepts for what the branding uh what what the wraps look like on these vehicles, but it I I assure you people will know it is Sacramento Public Library.

Okay, well, I appreciate that that assurance because uh you know, wherever we go, we want people to to know that that we're there, and it's us and providing the service uh uh of the library system.

So I'll look forward to seeing the the designs, but I I appreciate that you're uh very aware of the issue.

Yes, thanks okay.

Thanks, Mr.

Chair.

No, thank you.

Thank you for asking this question.

That was very timely.

Very helpful to get those uh get that addressed to Director Budge.

Yeah, I'm glad I'm also glad right Roger asked the question because I was on the board when they changed the logo to this current SAC lib, and I've never thought that people really knew what that was supposed to be.

So I'm eager to see what they come up with next.

Okay, I promise you it's amazing.

I just can't share it right now.

Thanks, Jared.

So now we have Director Lefkovitz.

Yeah, just real quick.

I first wanted to just call out how happy I am that we're doing tutoring assistance.

And I know you and I have been communicating, but I did want to share with the board up here that one of my questions, thoughts was to the extent we can work with the provider to capture some um more detailed data on who the users are, i.e.

younger kids versus adults.

And then the second was around um looking at any outcomes that could be documented.

Um, particularly for our case K 12 students.

I know they're mostly high school students, but if we're gonna invest in tutoring to the extent we can just see what kind of outcomes we're getting to make sure we're all you know happy with the return on investment, if you will.

But we absolutely need tutoring in the community, so thank you for that.

No, thank you.

And you know what, we're we're we're definitely exploring what data sets we can collect also within what our privacy requirements are as libraries, and um, so we are definitely looking at that.

And we do do uh some outcomes after uh certain programs, and so we can also look to see what we can do in the future too.

We used to have a little method we called project outcomes, where we were to randomly survey end users on products that they used and how it's impacted their lives or changed.

So we're also working towards that.

Good deal.

Uh additional questions from directors.

Hearing and seeing none, I'm looking for a motion and a second.

So moved.

Roger got it first.

Okay, they're right.

Motion by Director Dickinson, second by Director Talamantes.

Clerk, maybe please call the roll.

Roger Dickinson.

Aye.

Karina Talamantes, Phil Pluckybaum, Katie Maple, Mai Vang.

Yes.

Patrick Kennedy, Rich Desmond, Rosario Rodriguez, Pat Hume, Mary Jane Lopez Taff.

Aye.

Rod Brewer.

Aye.

Kevin Spees, Tim Reed, Linda Budge.

Yes.

Tanya Kravchuk.

Yes.

Nina Lefkovitz?

Yes.

Nick Blois.

Aye.

And motion passes with 10 members voting.

Uh measures uh consent calendar passes 10 to 0.

Thank you very much, everyone.

Now we'll move on to item numbers eight, um, which is reports, items, uh reports, ideas, questions from board members.

Uh, director Dickinson, I see that you are in the queue.

No, you have nothing.

Director Cerna.

Uh no.

Director Talamantes.

I think there's no request in the queue.

Okay.

So it looks like everything is clear, the queue is clear.

Move on to the to item nine, closed session.

There are no items.

So at the time of 3 36, I want to thank you all for being here.

Uh, today's August 28th edition of the Sacramento Public Library Authority Board is now adjourned.

Be safe, everyone.