The Thursday, September 25th, 2025 meeting of the Sacramento Public Library Authority Board.

Clerk, maybe please call the roll.

Roger Dickinson.

Karina Talamantes.

Phil Plucky Baum.

Katie Maple.

Here.

Mai Vang.

Here.

Phil Cerna.

Patrick Kennedy.

Rich Desmond.

Rosario Rodriguez.

Pat Hume.

Mary Jane Lopez Taff.

Here.

Rod Brewer.

Here.

Kevin Spees.

Tim Reed.

Linda Budge.

Here.

Tanya Krabchuk.

Here.

Ina Lefkovitz.

Here.

Nick Blois.

Here.

And we have a quorum with eight members.

Thank you, Clerk.

Now we go on to 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 for 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, September 27 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 on the library website at www.saclibrary.org.

Members of the audience wishing to address the board to 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 so much.

Everyone, please rise if you are able so we can stand for the national anthem.

Right hand over your heart.

Ready, begin.

I applied changes to the five of the United States.

And to the refineries, one is under God.

You may please be seated.

Now we'll move to public comment on matters not on the agenda.

We do have a card from Martin Rosenberg.

Good afternoon, board members, and thank you for allowing me to speak.

I'm one of the thousands of clothing library patrons, but reft by the loss of our beloved local library branch and deeply saddened by the news of further delays in repairing and reopening our library.

I commend library director Peter Coyle and his administrative team for their good work concerning the restoration of our branch library, and I support their ongoing efforts to encourage city of Sacramento officials to do their part to see to it that our library is repaired and reopened at the earliest possible time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Thank you again.

Thank you again for for being here today and sharing your sharing your perspectives with us.

I mean definitely want to take that to heart.

And so now we move on to item three presentations.

Friends of the Sacramento Public Library.

I see the team here, the nucleus here, and they have a nice little gift here waiting for us.

Take it away, Devon.

Yes, hello everyone.

My name is Devon Graves.

I serve as the Vice President for the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library.

And we do have a nice gift for you, but before we get to that fun part, we do have a report that we wanted to share, the latest updates that the uh friends have been working on.

We met in September on the 9th as a board and we worked on some particular items of interest that we wanted to share with you all.

First, want to thank um Director Coyle for attending and sharing a report on behalf of the library.

We also um discussed some of the work that our committees are doing.

One thing the booked in um on September 13th held a um book sale and they had a coffee truck there.

So definitely stay on your emails and stay up to date when the book then is doing their sales, one of those being an upcoming antiquacarian cell book sale, which is going to be October 19th.

Um we also uh discuss some of the work that our affiliate support committee is doing.

One of the issues that our affiliates have been um trying to work on is dealing with um succession planning.

So when we have members at the local level that um for whatever reason step down, we want to make sure that we're sharing sharing that institutional knowledge.

So giving a huge shout out to our board members and and affiliates who are engaged in those conversations.

Um we've been working on some communication work amongst the affiliates.

We send out a survey to members to get a sense of what communication looks like and where we can go.

And so we've been working on um looking at the data and seeing what we can learn from those um findings.

And then um we've been making sure that we are um serving as system board officers as liaisons to our local affiliates, and so shout out to my colleague Diane Gregory, who has been uh leading those efforts and making sure we are um staying up to date with that.

Um the only other big thing that we wanted to make sure to update you all.

Um, we did approve a resolution um honoring the life of a recently passed member, and that is Barbara Munro, who was very involved with the um uh McClatchy Friends and has been very involved as a uh donor not only to the library but to the broader Sacramento region, and so we passed a resolution honoring her life and service to the friends and to the library.

And then um lastly, and I get into the most important thing is talking about that gift that we have for you all.

So I invite my colleague Diane Gregory, who uh co-chaired the efforts for our big day of giving to um give a couple remarks and then present the check on behalf of the friends.

Hi everybody, I'm Diane Gregory, treasurer of the McClatchy Library and board member of the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library.

I also served as the co-chair with Devon on the Big Day of Giving campaign this year.

And uh we had we were very successful, and we are able so the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library are able to give the Sacramento Public Library a gift of more than 120,000 raised by people in Sacramento and far beyond.

So um without further ado.

Here's Ms.

Giant Chatter.

And Barbara Month me, Mr.

Chair, if you're holding the I'm taking also one, two, three.

All right, thank you.

Yes, tell me uh what I need to send in the case.

Catch me out first.

Yeah, you go here.

Right.

Okay, thank you.

Don't try to touch that we'll say, I just like to hear first.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just want to say, you know, just as always a huge thank you.

Um without the work of all the volunteers of the friends.

Um this this couldn't happen, the work that happens day to day.

It's really a community effort.

I know that you know that better than any of us.

Um so please continue to keep us involved.

Let us know how we can show up for you and help support the effort so that that's on the fundraising side or literally physically showing up.

You did say a coffee truck, so you know the way to my heart.

If you say coffee, I will be there.

Um just this really grateful thank you so much.

Um, I also want to um express a deep gratitude to the work you guys do.

Um, I know a lot of your money that you raise helps our students in our distribution of books to our young people, and so um again, just thank you so much for contributing to helping young people and adults be able to read.

And also, I'm glad to come to a meeting if you just reach out to me and ask, I will be there.

So thank you.

Congratulations.

I mean, that is a that that's those funds will go into the right places and be very effective for for the community.

And um, I know you guys uh reach for goals every year that you want to uh strive and achieve.

Uh, please let us know how I can also help.

Um, it's like if uh not if you twist my arm just right, it turns it it turns into a jackpot real fast.

But um, but but thank you again.

This was this was amazing work.

Um, it is definitely symbolic of the work what the friends do throughout uh Sacramento and throughout the county, and anything that we can all do and continue to do together to help increase readership for the public and getting books into the hands of people, uh that's that's all better for the cause.

So thank you again.

So now we move on to item 3.2.

We have a summer reading and lunch at the library update from Amanda Falk.

Hello.

Hi.

Hello.

I'm very pleased to be here to celebrate this year's success of summer reading and lunch at the library.

You have the numbers in your report, and you can also see them on um some lovely slides prepared by our communication department.

So I just want to take a moment to recognize that the 12%, not five, not 10, but 12% increase in summer reading participation, and the thousands of meals served for lunch at the library are the direct result of the hard work of library staff, both in the branches and many of the departments of the library.

Um takes many departments the support of our wonderful friends uh to make these things possible.

Um, under the leadership of Youth Services Manager Christy Ham, and with the hard work of the youth services specialists and and of course branch staff, teen program coordinators were selected and paid for their work.

Nearly 260,000 books were read, and over 6,000 medals were awarded to readers of all ages this summer.

These experiences reinforced a sense of connection and community, with one participant saying of lunch at the library that being welcome at lunch made them feel like family.

The medals reinforced kids' identity as readers again this year, with reports that some kids wore them to school.

And in fact, there was one fourth grader who came to collect theirs after learning that all of their friends would be wearing one on the first day.

They didn't want to be left out.

So there are so many of those wonderful moments as you'll see in your report and on the slides.

Um, and they're all made possible by the great dedication of our library staff.

Um, a number of those moments have been captured and shared with the community on our on our social channels by our hardworking communications team.

Um, and if just a few, just a sampling of those stories have been included in your report.

Um, I hope that you'll all join me in being incredibly proud of the continued excellence of summer reading and lunch at the library at Sacramento Public Library.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions or statements from the directors?

Hearing and seeing none.

Want to thank you again, Amanda.

And now we move on to item 3.3, the Sacramento County Office of Education reads literacy initiative.

Becky Sullivan, you are now up.

Hey, thank you so much for having me.

I did not bring you 120,000.

But I did bring everyone a swag bag, so you have a little goodie bag at your place up there, and some extras for the folks that couldn't be here today.

We'll leave those there.

I'm Becky Selvin, and I am the director of K-12 English language arts at the Sacramento County Office of Education.

And about three years ago, we launched an initiative called Sacramento County Reads, and I'm here to give you an overview of that.

Um, and I have the clicker.

All right.

Here we go.

So this is uh this data is a year old.

It was from the spring of 2024.

The 2025 spring data has not been publicly released yet.

That typically will come November, December.

So what you can see here is um the green and the blue.

And that is the statewide standardized test that is given to every student in California and public schools in grades three through eight and 11.

On the right side, and you can see actually on the left, that's California overall, about half of our students are meeting or exceeding standards.

The test is built on our state content standards.

And on the right hand side, you can see how we did in Sacramento County.

It's a little bit lower.

Most people want to say it was the pandemic.

Oh, I'm telling you, the data was not so hot before the pandemic either.

So really it just sort of exacerbated it and called to our attention that things it didn't get better, got a little bit worse, and we need to put this countywide initiative in place so we can press on teaching and learning, families, and then community outreach.

Okay, a little bit more about the data.

Um, here you can see by grade level, again, the green and the blue is the meet or exceeded.

And in this one, you can see by our student group data.

Okay, so let's get to the good stuff.

Here's our initiative overview.

So Sacramento County reads stands for rights, equity, access, diversity, and success, because to us, all means all.

All students can succeed, all students have come to school to learn, and we can get all students proficient in reading with excellent instruction.

Okay, so there's three buckets to our initiative, and you see in the graphic on the slide, we have teaching and learning, we have family engagement, and we have community partnerships, and right at the center of that are our students, all means all.

Around that, we have uh a district advisory, LEA advisory, we have an internal SCOE team that meets regularly because it's not just my department that's part of Sacramento County Reads, it involves many departments across our organization.

And then we also have our communications marketing and outreach.

We also have a mission and a vision statement, and we also have goals.

And one of our goals is to uh convene a community of practice, and we yesterday we had about a hundred leaders from across the county, and actually we reached beyond our county.

We had some San Francisco unified people attend, we had Yuba County Office of Education, Sutter County Office of Education, El Dorado County Office of Education come to learn with us along with our 13 school districts in the county and our countless um charter schools.

So all of our work is grounded in the science of reading.

You may have heard of science of reading, it's a little buzzword right now, but actually, science of reading has been around for about 50 years, and there is a very, very strong evidence base as to how we teach students how to read.

And in your uh swag bag, you actually have that science of reading defining guide.

And underneath that, you'll see there is a model called the simple view of reading.

And the simple view of reading tells us that word recognition times language comprehension equals reading comprehension, and it is simple, it's a simple way to look.

Notice that it's a multiplication problem.

So if you have strength in word reading, a 1.0, and you have strength in language comprehension, a 1.0, you will come out a proficient reader, 1.0.

But if you have a weakness in either side of that equation, you will have less than one in reading comprehension.

So a strength in one does not make up for a weakness in the other.

We have to work on both.

Another way to look at it is this metaphor that we uh is known as Scarborough's Reading Rope, the researcher hall of Scarborough.

And it's essentially, it's very similar, but with some more detail on it.

So at the bottom portion of the rope is that word recognition strand, and that is taught to mastery.

So we typically teach those foundational skills in kindergarten, first, and second grade, and then we expand them into morphology and other areas up through fifth grade.

So that's taught to mastery.

And if you think about yourself as a reader, you can decode pretty much every word you encounter.

But at this point in your life, and probably really since elementary school, most words you look at are sight words.

You can just read it when you look at it.

That's because you went through all the stages of learning.

Up at top, you see language comprehension.

Language comprehension continues to grow our whole lives.

We are always increasing our background knowledge, increasing our knowledge of text structure, increasing our literary knowledge, increasing our vocabulary.

And so when we become increasingly strategic in our comprehension, and we become increasingly automatic with our foundational skills, you can see the rope getting tighter and tighter, and that is how we produce a skilled proficient reader.

And again, you have to have both sides of the rope, just like in the equation.

So this serves for us as a guardrail.

All of our decisions around our materials and speakers that we bring in and work that we do, it's all grounded in the science of reading.

Okay.

We adopted, or our our board, we adopted a resolution for our Sacramento County Reads Initiative.

And we also went to our 13 districts in the county and we talked to them about our resolution and we asked them to create their own.

And many of them did come up with their own resolution focused on student literacy.

So here's that first bucket teaching and learning.

Our community of practice that I mentioned earlier.

We right now we're doing it three times a year, but the first year we did five times a year.

And we started with literacy as a human right, and we ended the year with guiding principles.

Also that year, we had a focus on multilingual learners and literacy, multi-tiered systems of supports, and that's where you have that.

You might have heard of tier one instruction, you intervene in tier two, and some kids, like five percent of your students might need a little bit more something different.

And we also worked on assessment and what belongs in a comprehensive literacy assessment system.

In the second year, which was last year, we had four communities of practice, and we uh oh, I should also let me go back one slide.

I should say the guiding principle session with Kareem Weaver is what led us into our board resolution.

So we took all that guidance from across the county, and that helped us with our draft.

Okay, our second year uh we had the um very fantastic and wonderful Anita Archer, who I in she's in her 80s now, and if you have never had the chance to see her, seek her out because I don't know how much longer she's gonna be out doing presentations, but she uh is a literacy expert and also a student engagement expert, and she also is an expert in interventions for our older students who are struggling.

So she came to talk to us about intervening with our older students.

Terry Nolan is a leader in the country around uh literacy leadership.

Linda Cavassos came to talk to us about our multilingual learners, and then Tariqa Butler is a specialist in family and community engagement.

And we also did a partner community fair or a community partner fair that afternoon.

This year we are focused on the reading difficulties risk screener.

It is new law in California that every district in the state had to adopt an early literacy screener and give it to every student in grades K2.

They had to adopt by last June, and this fall, everyone is launching into this screener.

And let me tell you, tension is high out there because there's so much to put in place when you're pushing out a district-wide initiative.

You have to train your teachers, figure out who's gonna give the screener.

Most importantly, what do you do with the results?

It cannot be used for high-stakes testing, it just gives you a flag.

This kid flagged for this, which could put them at risk for reading failure.

So, Daniel Silberstein, uh, who is from the uh Department of Education, the Diagnostic Center of Northern California was with us all day yesterday talking to our uh teams from our districts that came about why is it important to screen, and then what do we do with the information?

In January, we have Christy Austin coming to talk to us about liter uh adolescent literacy success, and then we have Sarah Brown coming back to talk to us about those multi-tiered systems of support for district and school-wide success in the spring.

Okay, so we do a whole lot in teaching and learning.

We also go out into our schools and districts, and we support them with coaching, with professional development, with professional development planning.

We have a countywide ELA, ELD, English language arts, English language development network that we run.

We also run a transitional kindergarten kindergarten network for TKK teachers.

Our early learning department does professional development around joyful literacy, and that's building the capacity of our county offices in California.

Uh, we are running a, I'll talk about it in a little bit.

We are running a statewide grant, the literacy coaches and reading specialists educator training grant.

We're working with 800 schools in 250 districts across the state.

And we are also part of our contract for the literacy roadmap where we are uh just published the literacy content blocks in grades TK through five with the Department of Education, and then that support for the screening uh for reading difficulties and more.

It's the N more category that keeps us up at night.

Okay.

So that Literacy Coaches and Reading Specialist Educator Training Grant.

This is a five-year grant.

There are two cohorts of schools in our county.

We have 19 schools.

It was based on their unduplicated student population, so very, very high diversity, not based on their student achievement.

And we are providing technical assistance.

I also have 12 county office hubs across the state.

And we are partnered with three universities as we are offering credentials, reading specialist credentials, reading language arts uh added authorization or a bilingual credential to those schools that are participating heavily with us.

There's a third cohort coming on board in January, and so we're adding 11 more schools to the grant in our county.

And I'm leading that project.

We have two new things we've launched this year.

One is called Getting Reading Right, and this is a training series for educators in grades K6 or 612, and it's a 10 session series based on the science of reading.

And they're coming all year to this, or we'll also come out to them in their districts.

And on the right, we're back to that screener again, that reading difficulties risk screener.

We're offering monthly office hours and really on demand support for anybody who needs it, they can drop in, and we're doing a little bit of training, and there's more to come with that.

All right, the family and community engagement buckets, equally as important.

Last spring, we hosted a movie screening, and it was held at the Sophia downtown movie uh called Hopeville, and this was um produced by a man named Harvey Hubble, and it was his own personal journey about a child with dyslexia, and in the 1950s, they didn't know what to do with him.

And he has he has ended up a filmmaker.

Um, but it was um, you know, they just didn't have the resources and the screening and assessment that we have today.

So we hope to do another one this spring.

Uh we are out and about at festivals and family nights and book gives a giveaways, and September is literacy month, and so we I think every Saturday this month.

Hi, yes.

Yay!

Oh, yay, okay, good.

Um come out tomorrow, come dance with uh in Oak Park tomorrow with us at the literacy festivals.

Um we will tomorrow's the last one that we know of, and we are doing book giveaways and many of the things that you have in your bag.

We're giving out and um even like our personnel department's gonna be there with hiring information and um our early learning department is gonna be there.

They're also doing giveaways, and I think there's four or five departments just from SCOE that are gonna be there, so it's gonna be a great day.

Okay, we're very excited about this.

So we are partnered with the Dolly Part and Imagination Library, and so far we've had 2,800 age zero to five children that are signed up to receive a book every month in the mail addressed to them up until they're five years old.

So we're so proud of that, and it's really it's really exciting, and I think it's just gonna keep growing.

Okay, community partners.

They came to our spring session that we had last year, and we let them set up tables and share their wares and talk about how they can be a support to all of our school districts that are in the county, and you can see there are many, many of them.

We couldn't do it without them.

We also have a coffee in community, coffee.

Uh, it is virtual though, bring your own.

Um, and uh we have three dates uh coming soon, and people just drop in on Zoom and we talk to them about the initiative, what's going on across the state in literacy, hear from them and how they might support us and we might support them.

And then we also have communication and outreach.

We have a newsletter that you can sign up for.

Those are the different areas of the newsletter, and we were very proud to um highlight Sacramento City Unified School District in our newsletter that just came out at the beginning of September because they have put an intervention teacher in or more, one or more in every elementary school in the district.

So uh we wanted to make sure that we spotlighted that in our district spotlight.

We also have a web page which you can visit, and there you can find lots of different resources.

We also have fact sheets that we've produced.

I think we've done maybe up to eight of them so far, different aspects of literacy that you can learn about.

We also have a YouTube channel, and we have three videos with more to come.

And lots of social media.

And that is our overview.

If you ever have any questions, you can reach out to me at my contact information on that final slide.

Great presentation, Becky, and thank you.

This is this is really good stuff.

Really excited about uh the the uh the event in Oak Park on the 27th.

And I really am intrigued with the coffees, the virtual coffees.

Um is this the first time that this will be conducted?

The coffee and community.

I'm not sure when we started it, but I know we had it last year because we're headed into our third year of the initiative.

But I will get Pete the dates and the registration link for that so that you can sign up.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll email you later.

Vice Chair Mabel.

I just wanted to say, while I do often just spontaneously dance, I was dancing on this occasion because I'm very excited about the event on Saturday in Oak Park, which is the community that I represent.

And then one that uh Councilman Vang grew up in as well.

Um and I just uh I'll be thrilled to stop by and say hi.

Yes, please do.

We'll be in blue shirts and we have our we'll have a tablecloth on the table so you can find us for SCOE.

Nice.

Yeah, thanks.

Director Mora.

Hi, thank you.

I just wanted to say thank you.

We okay.

I think now my microphone is on.

I just wanted to say thank you at the Nathomas Unified School District.

Yesterday we went over an early literacy initiative plan.

And part of uh the plan, I I know our staff mentioned looking at the at the county's uh initiative to have some kind of collaboration.

Um and so I know it's a welcomed framework for school districts across the county, including our own.

It's all it's all fresh in my mind right now.

We were going over the Dibble screening um and just uh a lot of other things, but uh I look forward to now myself maybe attending more of the events that are happening with the community engagement side of the project, or I should say the initiative, but thank you.

Yeah, that'd be fantastic.

And we actually filmed yesterday's um session with Daniel Silberstein about the screener.

So uh as soon as they have it ready, you can email me, but it'll be on our YouTube channel when it's ready.

Okay, yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

Director Leckford Lichflitz.

Well, first, thank you.

Um I'm very proud of SCOE for and your team for the work you guys are doing.

I you were sharing with me that we are really a leader among in the state around literacy, the SCOE staff.

So I'm that's makes me really proud.

Um a few thoughts.

I I know you went quickly over the first few slides, but I did want to call out to say that we should all be outraged and disturbed by this data that 56% of our kids in this county are not reading at grade level.

Um that has implications for kids across their educational lifespan.

We have a I don't know if you all know, but the county office of education runs the juvenile hall school and the school for kids who've been expelled.

We have four schools that we run.

Just about every and most of those young people that come to us are teens.

Most of those young people are reading at a third grade level.

So this has implications across a child's life.

And the other slide that I I know you went quickly by is that our low-income students are black and Hispanic students, our foster youth are well below that 56%.

So I just want people to feel a little outraged and to figure out how can we act to change this.

And I know SCOI has created a great roadmap, and we know it takes a village to get this work done.

They're really focused on helping teachers teach the in an excellent way.

So kids are learning and not behind, but it takes all of us.

Um I wanted you, I wanted to ask the question for us is um on this board about thinking about so the library does a lot of things already that support literacy, the the book giveaways, the I know you have um programs for the the little munchkins learning to read zero to five.

Um I mean, just the library in itself is uh is an um a strategy to help improve reading because it gives more people access to books and other things.

But I I do really want us to think about both as cities that you represent and as a library board, like what what more could we be doing to support this kind of community-wide effort to get every young child and truthfully their parents being able to read.

Um, I know things like particularly if you're sitting uh representing a city or the county.

Um how are what are ways we can continue to help give give people access to diverse books?

Um so I don't know if that's uh a direct donation from the city or the county, or if it's um, you know, up making sure that community centers all have access to books in them, or what are we doing to help create tutoring programs for our kids in our communities?

Um how are we supporting families in teaching in learning to help them teach their kids how to read?

Um and then just raising awareness in your in your districts around how about this reading crisis, because I think once people see the data, it's it's hard not to want to act.

So anyway, I don't know the answer to those questions, but I'm challenging all of us here to to think about that and to figure out how we can uh continue to work with SCOE from the different um areas of influence that we have to make sure that every kid reads in this county.

I don't know if we have a deadline goal yet, but um we we need to do something.

We need to keep do more, keep doing more.

So yeah, thank you.

We won't stop.

There's that there's that magic window of time uh instructionally, where uh for me, I always people always say, Oh, we need a reading by the end of the third grade.

Nope, end of first grade.

We need kids reading 60 words correct per minute by the end of first grade, or then they are already behind when the text gets a little bit more complex when they get into second grade.

But once you get out of third grade, if you're behind, now we're talking very expensive interventions and lots of extra time.

And that's one thing teachers don't have is extra time.

So we got to get it right the first time, and K1 is critical, and then that zero to five, all of the oral language development that we want happening in the home and in preschool, and yes, they can start working on sounds and letters and and um all of those pre-literacy skills through play.

But we need to build up that oral language because that plays so much into their uh literacy success later on.

It does, it really does.

Uh Director Kravchuk.

Thank you so much for the presentation and for all the work that you've put in on this.

Um, I said on the San Juan school board, and just this Tuesday, we passed our own resolution that is modeled after SCOE.

So thank you for Bina for coming and presenting that to our um board and also just for the work.

I know that San Juan, um, we had some teachers and some representatives that participated in that initiative initially.

Um we're just grateful to be part of that, grateful for um the acknowledgement of how important early literacy is and your commitment to this work.

We are fully committed.

We are we're we're seeing the impact of um not just COVID, but also um, you know, what's going on in our community and how important reading is.

So just want to echo uh some of the things that have been said and really grateful for the work that you've put in.

And as Director Lefkovitz said, um, if there's something else that we can do, if there is something that we on this board can do, I don't think it's common for library boards to pass resolutions, but maybe that would um just be a great thing for us to do for my colleagues to consider.

Um, and and please let us know if there's something else that we personally or collectively can do to support reading is equity, and it's of utmost importance.

Yeah, thank you so much.

You had a big team at the community practice yesterday, and one of the videos on our YouTube channel features uh several of your uh district team members, teachers, and district office folks.

So thanks.

Director Taft.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

I I was very um I echo Bina's sentiments of outrage.

You know, those statistics are terrible, they're quite grim in the city of Citrus Heights.

We have um we're organized into neighborhood areas and neighborhood associations, and we have particular interest in supporting our schools and the charge that I continually um give our volunteers are register as a volunteer at the school, read to kids, have them read to you, and that has been something that's really um been taken on by quite a few of our neighborhood groups, our our social um civic organizations, and I think that's that's an effort that can be definitely called out and um uh scaled to other communities.

It's a very easy, you know, if you're retired, um it's an easy ask of someone to read and listen to students read.

Thank you.

That is so fantastic.

And I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a little tip to bump that up even a little bit more, then have them talk to them about what they're reading.

I've noticed that even in my own daughter who's a ninth grader.

When I talk to her about what she's reading, she her comprehension just really deepens.

So why do you think that character has that look on their face?

What do you think they're gonna do next?

Why do you think he said that?

So start engaging them in that talk about the books would just really like put a little icing on your cupcake.

Love it, thank you.

Sam part of that learning comprehension and reading comprehension and having those conversations, even at a younger age, it helps it helps the students in terms of being um an active listener.

And that really and helps and helps them engage and gives them more confidence in commun in interpersonal communication.

Yeah, it's something that's that can is definitely important.

Is while on the subject, Director Levkiss, you raised a good question, and I'm wondering are there any strategies that are being employed with any of the school with any of our school districts within the county and learn and employing some of these strategies to help reach down to the the younger grades, kindergarten one through five or one through six to help them in this to to raise the the level of readership.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, most of our school districts have a robust professional development plan, and uh it could be that they're doing it in-house, or it could be that they are doing uh virtual trainings or they're bringing trainers in.

And if I think about the state as a whole, it's really a knowledge gap in our profession, because when you know better, you do better, you become a better consumer, and you're a better implementer of what you have.

Um so all of our school districts have robust materials in their classroom.

Uh, and so it's about understanding the purpose of why you're doing what you're doing, because they're all based in research.

So if you know why I'm teaching a particular lesson a particular way, or just the art of teaching how to monitor my students, how to give them some feedback, don't let them practice incorrectly.

All of those things, classroom management plays into it too.

Um, all of those things are worked on by the school districts.

A lot of them also have coaches that are going into the classrooms and watching instruction or doing demonstration lessons, and we support with all of that as well.

And we we're also some of our school districts, like San Juan is a big district, Elk Grove is the fourth largest district in the state, uh, have robust departments within their school district where we're more um on a consulting basis where they reach out to us all the time.

And then you have like Elverta and our COE, uh tiny one school school districts where we actually might go out and actually do work in the school.

So we take on a variety of roles to support their professional development.

Are we seeing uh more success with the smaller school districts with the one school districts or as compared to the larger ones like Elk Grove?

Uh I I would have to pull their data up.

I know Elverta just had a big jump in their data, um, but everybody everyone can always get better.

Umgrove's data looks good, um, but they also have some pockets where they are pressing on instruction as well.

We could talk about this all day long.

Matter of fact, uh definitely want to follow up with both you and Bina at some point so we can learn so we could have these discussions and learn a little bit more because as students, especially with today's technology, we are very good in we are me and my age group, we're learning how to do more things on our devices.

Right.

And reading is so fundamental, understanding directions and these devices are user-friendly, but for younger ages as we are trying to make that connection, um, especially what with our with our younger with our youth.

Um just trying to figure out and look for ways to help bridge the gap because um we really cannot afford to allow the the sub gaps to become wider.

Yeah.

Because if we're raising the standard um for for for reading proficiency, uh rising tide lifts all ships.

That's right.

Yeah.

Um there's a saying, let me see if I'm gonna get it right.

Um, we might we might all be in the same storm, but we're not all in the same ship or boat.

Yeah, something like that.

Um, but so my brother-in-law teaches high school.

We I just was chatting with him on Sunday evening, and what he's noticing is that no one's talking to each other because they're they're talking to each other like this on their phones, um, not in class, but in general.

And so he's noticed a little dip in just the communication back and forth skills because they just type to each other all the time, or they send a video message and they're not actually engaging with each other.

Um, and that's gonna impact lots of things too, I think.

It creates a residual long-term effects that we all want to avoid.

And so that's why I definitely want to follow up with both of you at some point.

Yeah.

So we could really have a discussion and create some sort of action plan that could be beneficial for all the kids in in Sacramento County that could ripple effect throughout the entire state.

Yeah.

Definitely appreciate that.

Um any other comments or questions from fellow directors.

I see a hand.

Tanya's hand, is that maybe.

Oh, that's like that's the cursor hand.

That's a little grabber hand.

I'll just wait better.

But thank you again.

Uh this is very helpful.

And really, thank you for having me.

Thank you.

Yeah, thanks.

Thanks.

I'll be intense.

Okay, thank you.

So now we'll move on to item four executive team report.

Today we have Deputy Director Keller giving the update, unless Director Coyle has lost the game of Rochambeau.

I I think uh Chair Brewer, I I think I always win that.

Um but thank you all for for having um us here today and and taking the time to to hear from our guests and and the staff here on the library.

Um I have a couple things from our written report that I'd like to just highlight.

Um, and the first is that we have had we have had and will have uh some 50th anniversaries of some of our libraries.

Uh last month the Southgate Library celebrated 50 years of serving the community, and next week the Rancho Cordova Library will celebrate its 50th anniversary of serving the community.

Um so on October 4th, from 11 to 2 at Rancho Cordova.

We'll be having a 50th um birthday celebration at that library and invite the community members who are interested to attend.

I know that we'll have a member a number of our authority board members and other elected officials present, and we're looking forward to that.

Um we're also excited and pleased that uh we've been invited to the Taste of North Sacramento this Saturday.

The Friends of the North Sacramento Hagenwood Library have this annual fundraiser and they have extended an invitation to a number of the staff to attend, and we appreciate that and the great work that they do.

Um I've had the pleasure of attending the last uh two or three years, um, and it's always a great event with some really good food.

So we're really happy for um for that group for organizing that effort to support their community library.

I'm also pleased to share that uh next month.

Uh New York Times journalist and Pulitzer Prize winning author Jody Cantor will be appearing on October 8th.

Uh they were one of the co-authors of um of the Pulitzer Prize winning uh I guess reporting um on um uh beginning the Me Too movement.

And so we're happy to that she'll be coming and speaking on on her investigative reporting and uh the subsequent um outcome of of those efforts.

Um I've had the opportunity to hear her speak before on this topic, and it's uh it's a fantastic um enlightened uh evening.

So I'd encourage those who are interested to register for that at our website, SACLibrary.org.

We're also happy to again partner with the county uh to be voting locations for the special election that is coming up in November.

Uh there's more information in your packet about that.

Um in previous elections, there has been more um more sites and more um drive-through service, but this uh election is going to be simply in person uh with some vote locations and some ballot drop-off, uh no drive-through drop-off uh at this uh election cycle.

Uh we're reserving that for the uh larger election in a couple of years.

Um but we're also we're very happy to support the county in the effort for our residents and voters to be able to participate in that democratic process.

Um and there are a number of things highlighted in the in the report regarding our facilities as you're you're aware, and and for so that for the public's information.

We do not own our facilities, they're owned by the member jurisdictions, so work closely with them on a number of projects.

Um, locations that are under renovation are listed here.

Uh we have a I'd say a little bit more than a handful of locations that we'll be having HVAC and ADA repairs over the next couple months.

Um we work very closely with the county and the other partners to minimize disruption of service by combining projects together.

Um this will necessitate some closures of some libraries for some periods of time over the next year for these work this work to be completed.

We will do our best to minimize disruption to the public, but ask for some understanding as uh we want to make sure that the buildings are safe and so some of that work can't happen when it's open to the public.

So we will do our best to work with our partners to expeditiously accomplish those work so that they can um be used by the public for their purposes.

But I think that we will all appreciate the upgraded air conditioning at a number of the locations when summer hits next year.

So a little pain will be will be worth the reward, I think.

Um and we are moving along with our member jurisdictions for our renovations and reconstruction projects.

And the North Sacramento Hagenwood Library, the city has erected some fencing, is beginning some work.

We'll be working on the roof fairly soon and some other um other items with that.

Um and the Del Paso Heights Library remains closed for a parking lot upgrade uh that is uh beginning uh very soon, and we hope to have that work completed in early fall.

Um I'm I'm happy to answer any questions you might have on any items in here or if there are specific questions about our our facilities, we'd happy to answer any questions from the authority board at this time.

Thank you, Director Um Coyle.

Vice Chair Maple.

Thank you, Chair.

I just want to quickly say thank you for the update.

Um and I also want to acknowledge um uh Mr.

Rosenberg and your public comment regarding um Colonial Heights Library.

Um I did reach out to staff um at the city today and ask for for them to brief me on on the status, because I I personally do not know um what the status is of the library getting back open, the permits, all of those things.

And so I've asked for that.

Um we'll be talking actually after this meeting.

Um so I appreciate the promptness of our staff to get back to me.

And so hopefully we'll have some more concrete answers soon and and we can arrange some future meetings.

So I just wanted to provide that update.

Thanks.

Great.

Thank you, Vice Chair Maple.

And um we continue to work closely with this city on that.

We'd happy to partner with you on that.

Um it is uh it's it's a different it's a different situation because it involves uh insurance and a renovation, but um we look forward to having those conversations with you to see what progress we can make in in ensuring that building opens quickly.

It has been a year since it's been closed, and um as I've said before, there's nothing worse for Library than having a library not open.

Um it is a high priority for us, and we are prepared and uh the library stands ready to uh to work together and accomplish a timeline for reopening um as far as we're able to partner with the city to make that happen.

Director Coyle, has there been any notifications to the residents in the areas where the or where some of the work is going to take place over periods of time.

Um has there been notice notifications that have gone on to the immediate neighbors near the library so they know what's about to take place?

Um Chair Brewer, I I can't speak for I can speak for the library.

We have not done that.

Um I don't know if that's required as part of the permitting process or not.

Um and I I'm not I'm I don't think Jared and I are qualified to answer that question.

We can certainly reach out and get that information for you, but I I don't have any frame of reference to respond to that, unfortunately.

Okay.

No, the reason why I asked is because like um just in the very off chance, you have folks, they know their library is shut down, but they're not aware of how long it will take.

And so you go on uh two months, maybe three months.

Uh the community may get a little impatient and saying, hey, when is this going to happen?

Or did you guys shut down my library?

And that was the reason why I asked that question.

Sure.

Yeah, Chairbrew, I can say that uh from the library's perspective, uh we have sent out individual notices to users in the area based on their their library card and their address to let them know that it is closed and with some updates of at the beginning.

Um we don't typically provide more updates than that.

Um I think uh Deputy Director Keller might have more information though.

Yeah, and we do send periodic update uh email updates to our subscribers about closures of library facilities.

We have also created a library facilities page on our website that provides current status of all locations because we do have quite a few closures right now due to grant projects in addition to the Colonial Heights Library.

Okay.

Now this is good to know.

Um chance um I run to um one of our patrons in Sacramento and they'll ask me.

They say you're in everything, Brewer.

What's going on?

And so I want to at least direct them to the library site so that they at least know the updates.

Because if I don't have it offhand, the the website is always a good resource, or I could just pull it up on my phone and share it with them in real time.

Yeah, and and Chair Brewer, this um the website is updated using the information we provide to the authority board.

So that information will be updated after this meeting.

So the most current stuff is always available to the public that the board has as well.

Thank you so much, guys.

Thank you.

And just quite quick question.

Um for libraries that will be closed X amount of months.

Is there like a threshold by which you then provide like bookmobile services at that site or some kind of alternative for families?

Yeah, Director Lefkovitz, uh there isn't a threshold.

Um we did plan for some additional services uh in the areas of Colonial Heights.

Um and then when Martin Luther King closed, we also expanded that to that area.

Um we unfortunately don't have enough mobile service fleet to cover all five locations that are closed.

So we're doing the best we can to spread those resources out.

Um but our mobile service and our outreach uh plans were part of the closures, um, and that's included providing additional story times and other things at some community centers as well as appearances at farmers markets and other things in the community as well.

Yeah.

Okay.

Any additional questions from directors?

Hearing and seeing none, I want to thank you for the report.

It is very thorough and definitely appreciate the information you shared with us today, so thank you.

We'll now move on to item number five information.

We have no information items.

Number six is our consent calendar.

We have one item, the action summary.

I would like to open it up to comments or questions from the public.

Hearing and seeing none.

Any questions from the directors.

Hearing and seeing none, uh, now I will look for a motion.

And a second.

Move approval.

First by Director Budge.

Looking for a second.

I'll second.

Second by Director Vang.

Um Madam Clerk, can we please call the roll?

Roger Dickinson, Karina Talamontes, Phil Pluckybaugh, Katie Maple.

Aye.

My Vang.

Yes.

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

Yes.

Rod Brewer.

Yes.

Kevin Spees.

Tim Reed.

Linda Budge.

Yes.

Tanya Kravchuk.

Aye.

Noel Mora.

Yes.

Bina Lefkovitz.

Yes.

Nick Bloisey.

Aye.

Motion passed with nine members voting.

Thank you very much, Committee.

Thank you.

So now we will move on to action items.

Uh item 7.1, authorization to use supplemental funding for the Ile 10 library abatement project.

Deputy Director Keller, you are up.

Well, good afternoon, everybody.

Uh wait for the PowerPoint to come up.

I'm here to talk about my favorite subject all time, supplemental funding requests.

This will be the second time, I think, in the last three months that I'm coming to you with one of these requests.

Um today talked about the Isleton Library Supplemental Funding Requests.

For those of you who have not had the opportunity to visit the Ileton Library, this is the Alton Library.

It is co-located on the Ileton Elementary School campus.

So a little bit about Ialton.

It is the smallest location branch location that we have in the system at 1,700 square foot.

It's been proudly serving the Ileton residents since 1993, since Ileton became a member of the Joint Powers Authority.

It is unique in that it is a joint use facility shared with the Ialton Elementary School.

And it in fact it used to be the old uh community room for the Ialton Elementary School.

Ialton is a unique situation.

While the city of Ialton is a party to the Joint Powers Authority, River Delta Unified School District has historically fulfilled Ialton's requirement under the JPA by providing a building for a Sacramento Public Library Authority to operate out of.

Like I said, this is slightly a little different arrangement.

And as such, we have entered into a special land use agreement with the River Delta Unified School District that allows Sacramento Public Library to operate both the Courtland and Isleton libraries.

Back in 2020, uh residents served by the River Delta Unified School District passed Measure J, which is a 45.7 million dollar infrastructure bond for River Delta Unified School District facility improvements.

While 45.7 million dollars sounds like a lot, River Delta Unified School Districts has 13 campuses.

And of that, they all have very different competing needs.

But out of the 45.7 million, money was set aside for administrative and library upgrades at that at the IELTA and school and library campus.

But out of the 45.7 million, money was set aside for administrative and library upgrades at that at the ILT and school and library campus, specifically ADA accessibility enhancements, a much needed new restroom for the library, because the library currently shares a restroom with the school.

Brand new HVAC system, as we know it's getting warmer, and so having HVAC is really critical, as well as new flooring and carpet.

Construction began in July and was expect anticipated to be done in early October.

Unfortunately, we have hit some snags.

So as I reported a couple months ago, as we know, the price of construction materials has gone up significantly over the last couple years, specifically with HVAC labor rates, steel, you name it, it's gone up.

And unfortunately, this has impacted this project.

Right now, um through the process of the remodel, uh R DUSD ran into some snacks.

First of all, there was additional dry rot, what they had not anticipated.

But this is a very old building.

It's been around since the 1950s, and as part of the abatement process, there were materials that were found in it that need to be abated.

And as such, money that was allocated for the carpeting is no longer available in this project.

And so there are currently have a 27 point uh 27,739 budget deficit, of which Sacramento Public Library has 27,526 available in supplemental funding for the city of Ialton.

So a little review about our supplemental funding.

This is funding that was established in the JPA.

This is set asides that we put into our budget when we actually do distributions to the uh um member jurisdictions, and that money is held in reserve by Sacramento Public Library that can be used for cali can be used for capital projects.

And under the GAPA, it is the responsibility of the jurisdictions to provide this critical capital maintenance.

So what we're looking at is there's $27,526 in supplemental funding.

There's we are making a request that $27,739 be allocated to River Delta Unified School District, of which the district said they can cover the additional $213.

Once again, it looks like they have a lot of money with $45.7 million, but they have a lot of other competing priorities.

So in all as we know, Ileton is going through some very unique growing challenges right now.

Um I will be very uh candid.

Uh, there has been some difficulties in the past making contact with the city of Ialton.

I was unsuccessful in some of my earlier uh attempts, but uh library director Coyle, and that's why he is the library director, he was much more successful than me.

And he was able to make contact.

The city of Ialton has been informed that they do, in fact, are part of the JPA, have a library, they are understanding of that, and we have provided them the necessary information for their staff report and to take the funding request to city council, which will occur in October.

So um, but what we are doing now is we're asking the authority if they will adopt the resolution so that when the city of Ialton does approve this funding request in the next couple weeks, that we can move forward with this project.

Right now, Ileton at if funding is successfully um uh received, it will allow us to open Ilean in early November.

We've had we've been without a library there for a few months.

If money is not received, it does create a problem, i.e., the carpet will not be replaced.

It's over 20 years old.

We have issues where shelving has been moved, so it creates tripping and hazard issues because I don't have carpet to fill in the areas where shelving has moved.

So um this is the request we have to the board, and we uh ask that you prove it.

So is it any questions?

Thank you, Deputy Director Keller.

Um Vice Chair Maple.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, just a couple questions.

So um, first and foremost, I think you maybe answered this already.

My you've mentioned some dry rot that was unexpected, and obviously the increased costs.

So is this 27,526 due to that dry rot where they just didn't have is it or not?

Basically, yeah, it is.

That was the additional one.

So as a result, that and also additional abatement with um some of the adhesives that were used back in the 50s, the 60s, and the 70s, so additional abatement with that.

So as a result, basically the carpet cannot be replaced.

Okay.

And as a result of the construction and the build-out of the new restroom, we have an issue where there's no carpet where we need it.

Yeah, makes sense.

Okay.

Um, you know, I just I mean I'll make more of a comment.

Um, which is uh I've seen in some of the other boards that I'm on that of when when projects come up almost inevitably there are cost overruns.

And I'm a little bit not dubious in this circumstance, but in general, when we get bids for these contracts, are we really holding these contractors to the fire to say if you say you're it's gonna cost this much?

And I understand that things happen, I do get that, especially with old buildings, but it really does seem to be a theme in almost every single project uh in government, and I think that unfortunately when that happens, it does create um it doesn't help with the lack of trust in government that we're experiencing right now, and so just kind of curious.

Are there things that we can put in place in the future just to kind of ensure that we're getting as precise of account as we can on these projects?

So um unfortunately, this isn't a project that's ran by Sacramento Public Library.

This is this is the jurisdiction.

Um we always make it a point to tell the jurisdictions to it's been our experience to add additional 15 percent contingency, and sometimes our jurisdictions will take that under advisement, and sometimes they won't.

And so um we're always encouraging that because it has been our experience that there's always gonna be overruns.

Unfortunately, they were really trying to be very conservative with this project, and unfortunately, it's resulted in this.

Okay, and then the last thing um I'll know it's you know I think it's kind of no secret that there's some financial challenges in the city of Ileton, it's been on the Sacramento B and beyond, and so just curious.

Does this does you know us allocating this money are are there gonna be any further expectations of us in in regards to this progress?

Okay, no, because this money is only intended for capital improvements.

That's the only way it's held, and it's held by Sacramento Public Library, just for in fact issues like this.

Okay, all right, thank you.

As part of the evaluation that was done when when the when they did an assessment of the building, the mold and the rot, they didn't catch early on.

So it was it was somewhere along the process they discovered that, correct?

Yeah, a lot of times it's when you start opening up a building, you find a time capsule and other issues you may not have known about or other work that has been done in the past that may not have been abated.

Yeah.

And also as part of this as well, is because this is coming from the county budget side.

I mean, this definitely is going towards one of the causes that really needs it.

And this is one of the few things that have been pretty effective in knowing that once this opens up, this will create a community benefit, not just for Ileton, but for a lot of the towns like Cortland and along the way who do rely on this.

There's even you'll even see some families that even live in Rio Vista that will cross the river to go to the uh to the aisle 10 library, as well as the families that live around Brandon Island.

So that is helpful.

Yeah, and that is what our user data shows.

Okay.

Hi, I I am curious.

And coming from a district with 15 school facilities, the 43 million sounds um like rather like a lower number, so I totally understand you know the need that exists here.

I I guess I'm curious for the total the number of the the funding number for the total supplemental funding.

Um how that how it's that total number is arrived at, is that all of the supplemental funding that's available?

Um and what you know, whatever pot of money that is.

That is only for specifically for the IELTS for Ileton.

We have a formula that we could go into, we could take another three hours to talk about how supplement is done and how the math is broken down, but that is specifically just for ILTO.

Each member jurisdiction, with the exception of the city of Sacramento, has participated in supplemental funding, and each has an amount set aside.

I see.

Yeah, I so it's based on population, it it's there's a lot there.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Chair Brewer from my uh director Mora, uh Johnny E, when he gives our budget presentation momentarily, we'll talk about the supplemental funding.

So you'll get some more information briefly about that.

Yeah, I don't want to steal Johnny's thunder.

So I see Johnny's sitting up there on the side, he's like, it's like, yeah, just wait till I come down here.

So right now we have the suggested um action, which is basically to adopt the resolution approving the county of Sacramento's request to allocate 27,526 um dollars from the IELTA supplemental fund to address costs cut overages associated with the project, and it's resolution number 25-49.

Um, do we have a motion?

Move to approve.

First from Director Mora.

Looking for a second.

Director Vang beat you to the punch.

Um Madam Clerk, maybe please call the roll.

Katie Maple.

My Vang.

Bill Cerna.

Patrick Kennedy.

Rich Desmond.

Rosario Rodriguez.

Pat Hume.

Mary Jane Lopez Taft.

Aye.

Rod Brewer.

Yes.

Kevin Spees.

Tim Reed.

Linda Budge.

Yes.

Tanya Krabchuk.

Aye.

Noel Mora.

Yes.

Yes.

Nick Blois.

Aye.

Motion passes with eight members voting.

Thank you, Clerk.

Thank you, Committee.

Now we'll move on to action items 7.2.

Fiscal year 25-26 final budget, physician control, and fee structure.

Johnny Ear, you are now up.

Thank you, Chair Brew and members of the board.

So on the agenda today is the fiscal year final budget for fiscal year 25-26, position control, and fee structure.

So the final budget is an attempt to true up and update any numbers from our adopted May budget that the authority board had adopted this past May.

So the measure is effective July 1, 2025.

So measure E allows the library to consolidate measure X and Measure B combined.

So measure X and Measure B will be folded into measure E once we close the books.

So this is an increase of 940,000 from the adopted May budget, so mainly the 1.1 million minus the 160,000 in revenues.

So of the 6.6 million.

So 2.3 million is for one-time expenditures.

So staff is recommending to um uh to carry on uh some some needed projects.

Um so these are for signage uh for for the uh rebrand signage project uh security security camera systems uh throughout the library systems, um the automated material handling systems, uh so also known as AMHS, and um the uh the IT department.

Um so and then another 1.7 million for the L Grove Um Supplemental Fund usage.

Um so speaking of supplemental fund, it's um uh as Jim mentioned earlier, there's a there's a formula that we use based on um the the JPA um agreement.

Um so basically the supplemental fund is allocated um to the unincorporated areas of the county and then to the five um partner agencies so um such as Isle 10 uh Rancho Codova City of El Grove Um City of Ile Isle 10 and uh City of Citrus Heights.

Um so it's it's ear mug for um uh capital projects such as HVAC uh usage um it could be usage for uh use for roof repairs and and things like that as well too um and then another two million is um the to the the C of Sacramento City of Sacramento uh general fund diversion for the Mont Luther King and the North Sacramento project.

Um so as you recall from the May budget, um so this is two million out of the four million dollars of shortfall that the city needs for those two projects.

So uh two million this year uh fiscal year 2526, and then another two million diversion in fiscal year 2627.

Um and then another 600 600,000 for the uh reopening day sparkle collection at the um will be uh newly renovated uh month Mont Luther King Library and the L Grove Library.

So uh nothing like a reopening day without Sparkle collection.

So staff is recommending to um to uh use 600,000 from fund balance for those usage.

Um and then on exhibit A1, um, this is a good three year flow of fund balancers.

Um so um two years ago when we closed the books for fiscal year 24, uh we ended the year at 67.6 million, uh first column.

And then um currently we uh staff is working on closing the books for um fiscal year 2425.

Uh we are uh preparing for the audit, uh the final audit and um for fiscal 25, 20, I mean 2425 in a few short weeks.

So staff is working hard to um close the books.

Um part of the challenge this year is we have um we we have a financial uh system conversion at the same time while closing the books.

So managing two systems and trying to get all the numbers in place is also is a very uh challenging process.

Um but the team's working hard on it, and we will make sure we uh close the books on time and uh properly.

Um and then looking at the um uh current fiscal year, um so in fiscal year 2526, um again the uh projected revenues are 63.3 million and total expenditures of uh close to 70 million dollars.

Uh second to the last column uh there's a cash flow and economic uncertainty reserve uh column.

Um so um as you'll recall the the county uh fund requires a 35 percent um economic uncertainty and cash flow uh reserve.

Um so that that is in the tune of uh 13.2 million.

Um and then the city of Sacramento, um they contribute to the library on a monthly basis.

Um so um they do not require a cash flow reserve but a um economic uncertainty reserve of um 17 percent.

Um and then so last column is the um the on-reserved fund balance.

So even though the word says on reserve, it's still restricted for um for library usage only.

So um sometimes there's uh the word on reserve is it's kind of misleading because it it sounds like it you can use it for any any purpose that that you want.

Um so the total on reserve balance at June 30, 2026, um we are we are anticipating the the total balance to be 44.7 million.

And so of that amount, 19.9 million is the county of Sacramento um fund balance, um 7.3 for the city of Sacramento.

Um and then you'll notice that measure X and Measure B has have zero fund balances at June 30, 2026.

And that's because measure E is going to um take over in a sense.

So it will absorb all the um expenditures, uh revenues, and will be consolidated into measure E by the time we close the books.

Um so measure E is anticipated to be at about 7.2 million by the time we um get to June 30, 2026.

Um and then a few other miscellaneous funds, uh technology um at 3.3 million, um requests, donations, and so forth at 4 million, and issued cost, internal service costs at uh 2.8 million combined.

Um and then exhibit A3 uh A2.

Um this is just a uh budget summary of the total total sources of fund, um again at 63.3 million, an increase of uh 160,000 from the the Dr.

May budget.

Um and then total expenditures at 69.9 million, uh roughly 1.00 increase from the May budget, um, requiring the use of fund balance of uh 940,000.

Um and then on exhibit A3, um this is the uh total revenues um uh more in more detail by funds.

Um again total revenues of 63.3 million, um, and increase of 160,000.

And this increases mainly um 80,000 in interest income.

Um we we continue to see the uh the bond market um made uh you know uh staying uh fairly high at uh roughly three point uh three percent return.

Um and then also the gallery um since the pandemic um uh patrons and uh vendors are uh booking the gallery, they're coming back.

Um so the gallery the gallery is um uh reserved for weddings, uh big venues, um proms, uh major meetings, um sometimes like huge birthday celebrations.

Um so staff is recommending to increase the gallery um uh revenues by by about 80,000.

Um and then on exhibit A4, um again 1.1 million increase, and um so of that amount 600,000 is for the uh Sparkle Collections at uh El Grove and Mont Luther King, uh 300,000 uh respectively.

Um and then also the King branch um staff is also recommending a landscape project um for the uh which will complement the uh building refresh when we uh reopen.

Um and then also a 200,000 increase for the um ILS system, so integrated library system upgrade.

Um so Jared and his team are working on the um RP and uh we'll be we'll be making a recommendation, I believe sometime in January for um the new uh vendor.

Um and then on exhibit A5, um this is for the books and materials um collections.

Um again, 600,000 increase for uh one-time increases for the Sparkle Day, uh reopening reopening day sparkle collection at King and Elk Grove.

Um and then uh position control um on exhibit B.

Um so you'll you'll notice that the uh total FTEs are uh going from 242.5 to th I mean 342.5 to three at 343.5 FTEs.

Um staff is recommending to increase their position control by one management uh associate position and uh three modification of titles.

Um so modifying one librarian bilingual uh reclass to bilingual services specialist, uh one human resources partner reclassified as human resources coordinator, and one senior budget slash finance finance analyst reclassified as budget manager.

Um and then on exhibit A, uh exhibit B, you'll uh you'll see the changes.

Um the plus and minuses, um, so in the end there's one increase to uh to the FTE, making a total of uh 343.5 FTEs.

And then lastly on exhibit uh C, um uh staff is not not recommending any changes at this point.

Um we did a um uh gallery uh changes last I believe last May already.

Um so staff will continue to uh collect fees for uh the gallery of bookings, uh meeting room rentals, uh uh fees for lost books and uh miscellaneous uh print management and so forth.

Um so that concludes my report, and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, John.

Thank you for thank you for providing us this overview of of where we're at right now.

Um any questions from the directors.

Director Lefkovitz.

Is it normal practice for this board to adopt a budget where revenues are less than expenditures?

Is that kind of a typical well um some quick questions?

So ideally you want to adopt a budget that is a balanced budget.

Um so this is all this is what's known as a structural deficit.

Um so we do have the fund balances um to cover the recommended uh budget uh changes.

Um and these fund balances are savings from prior use.

Um again, as I mentioned earlier, as you mentioned, uh, due to uh shipping delays, um project delays, and so forth.

Um so we do have a uh fund balance to cover the um the difference.

So if I understood the numbers, the fund balance went from like 68 million to 44 million, something like that.

And I guess my question is like long term or is it is this a structural deficit we should really be talking about long term and how because at some point the fund balance will be gone.

Yeah, so what's your thought on?

Yeah, so um so great questions.

So long term um you always want to look at the um the budget and make sure it's all it all in balance.

Um so as you know, the um staff is continue to speak with the city finance director and the budget team to um uh to make sure that we um you know with the four million dollar cut, I mean that's a big that's a huge um then into the library's budget.

Um so long term, yeah, we want to make sure we have continued conversations with the city um to show up uh to show up back the uh the funding uh contributions and make sure that we can uh continue to operate on a long-term basis.

Um so we do also have a five-year forecast.

Um so these recommended changes uh uh taking into account those five-year forecasts as well too.

So uh for the next five years, we should be okay with the um these recommended changes.

Um and and like I said, the um uh continued conversation with the city to make sure we have um appropriate general fund and measure you contributions as as well.

Also, before I move on to uh Director Moore, I want to see if there are any questions or comments from the public.

Hearing and seeing none, I will move on to Director Mora.

Thank you.

Just curious, and thank you for the presentation.

If you could just clarify uh the reason that the f that the five-year forecast is positive, um the the reason to uh why the five-year forecast is positive.

Um so the five-year forecast, we look at the um the overall fund balances, um, including the supplemental fund needs as well too.

Um so based on our fund balances, we we we will be um able to cover um the operations based on the the five-year forecast.

Um and the the city's funding cut uh contribution is um a huge key.

Um and that's something that we we will continue to speak with the um uh the city finance director to make sure that we can continue can we can continue to operate after those five years.

Thank you.

So, yeah, John No, thank you for for those questions and and for sharing your thoughts and perspectives because obviously, I mean, one of the things that was important when I was looking, I was going through the the report itself is like the the budget that we approved of on May 22nd was sixty-eight point seven million or sixteen point eight roughly.

And then the September final budget is 69.894.

And the changes for the September final budget, I mean, we have an increase in revenues of 160,000, and it but we also have an increase in of expenditures of a million, and that created that net decrease of 940,000.

I think that's the part that a lot of folks are kind of asking themselves, and that's where we have the that's where we have our uh fund for economic uncertainties to come in and play that part to be that supplement, and and we do have a budget um and we do have a fund to help cover that gap.

Um and I know we've had conversations over the last couple of months about being able to use that um those supplemental funds for the next couple of years, but um as we continue to work with um with the city of Sacramento um on uh on what we're on our budget and everything else, there's uh other things that we're looking at and putting into play to help uh shorten that delta.

And so as so in the meantime, we're definitely mining the gap, but we're also looking at services that we can provide um and things where we can make adjustments without um busting the bank proverbially.

And one of the other things that I'm looking at as well is making sure that staff for the library in terms of benchmarking that fit with whatever um they're making in terms of a salary or wages is benchmarked properly, so they are being paid proper uh well and in comparison to other markets because there's some situations where we are under um the market, desperately below the market, and there's some where we're right in the middle.

And just by having those benchmarkings, as we saw on that last table, and some of the staff adjustments that were highlighted in yellow, it definitely showed where some positions are being adjusted for that and some really are based on title.

Am I correct?

Uh yes, that that is correct.

So I think that I just just by having all those in mind and as we look at future for the next fiscal year that we um that we stay vigilant, stay in communication with Johnny, stand in in qu in in coordination with uh with Director Quyle and Deputy Director Keller as we continue the process, because um we definitely don't want to create um uh uh a gulf, but we definitely um but we definitely want to be mindful that we're being able to provide as much um service to our to our community as much as humanly possible.

And I think uh our our budget adjustment today uh reflects that if I if I may um uh one one other important note to uh to kind of think about too is the library has been very prudent and um very uh conscious with the way we we budget and we spend over the last um probably decade um so um you know aside from the shipping delays and and uh supply chain shortage um we we do budget pretty tightly closely to make sure we um we have uh the funding sources to operate to to continue to operate um unfortunately with um with the library we do not have the um the resources such as the county or the city to raise taxes to um you know generate additional income so um so these savings are um you know and any time there's a savings within the the fund balances when once we close the books um those monies uh goes back to the fund balances um they get separated to uh supplemental fund for the county side as well too and um so when it's appropriate um and unfortunately we was we're starting to see uh more and more requests for the supplement supplemental funding from our partners um such as the county um the city of elk grove um and then uh recently for the uh the county HMAC projects for Carl Michael North Highlands and Autodemic branches.

Um so again those are appropriate usage of supplemental fund um that have been built up in reserves um over over the years and part of the conservative budgeting that is being done is to make sure that we do have a supplemental fund that is robust enough to handle any unforeseen circumstances as we've seen with ILT um is that's part of the reason why the this exists and this only happens through responsible um parties being just being mindful but also just uh working together and identifying those needs and being it being able to take care of those needs when it happens when when the time comes so with that any other additional questions or comments from directors so hearing and seeing none we have um the recommendation to adopt resolution 25-50 approving the fiscal year 2025 2026 sacrament public library authority final budget position control listing and fees structure so moved moved by vice chair maple can I get a second second oh this is this is uh this is a good one today so because director vang won the last toss I'm gonna give this one to director Taft madam clerk may please call the roll Roger Dickinson Karina Talamantes Phil Pluckybaugh Katie Maple aye my thang yes Phil Cerna Patrick Kennedy Rich Desmond Rosario Rodriguez Pat Hume Mary Jane Lopez Taff aye Rob Brewer aye Kevin Spees Tim Reed Linda Budge Linda Budge Tanya Kravchat I Noelle Mora yes Ina Lefkovit Yes Nick Blois I'm still online Tanya Kravchat I'm sorry that I had responded I oh motion passes with nine members voting thank you clerk thank you committee members thank you board um motion passes so now we move on to item number eight reports ideas questions from board members hearing and seeing none we have no closed session items to address today which brings us to the time of 443 p.m I want to thank everyone for being here and participating in today's uh board meeting and we will see you in October uh meeting adjourned