Culture and Library Commission meeting of June 16th, 2026 to order.

Please take the roll call.

Chair Miller.

Present.

Vice Chair Alvarez.

Commissioner Acevedo.

Present.

Commissioner Alex.

Present.

Commissioner Bryant.

Present.

Commissioner Gillary.

Present.

Commissioner Ridsdale.

Present.

Commissioner Scotland.

Present.

Commissioner Belasquez.

We have seven in attendance, so quorum is met.

Okay.

Item two, announcements.

There are no announcements.

So moving on to item three, consent calendar.

Consent calendar.

Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of May 19th, 2026?

So is there a second?

Any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Seeing number uh motion carried.

Moving on to item four, library service staff reports and announcements.

All right, thank you.

I I wanted to mention that you know we have these uh various committees that are working on uh the programs that uh are either in the planning stage or that we've just recently carried out, and um that includes uh members of the commission volunteering in uh the capacity of like a uh library program volunteer.

Um and you know it's the interesting thing about this job is I'm always encountering something new, some new policy or rule from the city or how it applies in different uh situations, even after 20 plus years with the city.

And so as we considered this, like well, if a commissioner volunteers at a program, um are they did we treat them like a volunteer that would come and volunteer at the library for a program shelving books are um uh we have volunteers that help uh people learn to have to use the computer, etc.

etc.

And because you're appointed, uh nominated by a council member appointed, you go through a vetting process, but it's not the same as a program volunteer because a program volunteer uh we have um a program volunteer fill out an application and I'm I'm gonna give uh you know uh a copy of the application at the end of my comments.

Uh but we have the the volunteers sign a hold harmless agreement that's part of the application, it's just a standard thing.

And also you get fingerprinted for obvious reasons because you're volunteering in a library, you know, you're around kids, uh that sort of thing.

So it's just a it's just a uh background check, employee applicants go through the same thing.

So where I'm going with this is that uh in order to serve in that capacity, you know, both as a commissioner and and then if you want to volunteer for a program, we really need people to fill out one of these applications and apply as a kind of like a separate volunteer, if you will.

So um, so I was gonna pass these out there on the website.

You can even complete them online.

Um, and it's at your it's your choice, but I do think it would be wise as we're planning these programs going forward just to go ahead and do that so that uh this volunteer application and and the approved applications in place because the the uh uh depends on how fast I think the fingerprinting is done by the Department of Homeland Security, and it just depends on their backlog, and sometimes that can take a while.

So we don't want to wait till the last minute to have that completed.

So again, these are available on the city's website or library's website, and also there's an online form if you prefer to do that.

But I just wanted to uh make you all aware of that again.

Something I newly discovered, and I actually had to talk to the city attorney to say what do we do in this situation?

So that's that is concludes my uh report.

Where and how does the fingerprinting occur?

So um the fingerprinting typically occurs at the police department.

Go over there, get get that done, and uh and they they submit it for on our behalf and then we get the report back.

So you could just drop in there any time kind of a thing.

Well, I would I would suggest submitting the application and then uh library staff would support you in in making sure that gets done.

Okay, and you can always if you'd like you can submit it to me, and then I can pass it on and you know help coordinate that's it.

All right.

Uh do commissioners have any other questions or comments.

Seeing none, this concludes item four.

Moving on to item five, public comments.

Uh we have no public present, and there were no e-comments submitted, so I think we can conclude public comments and move to item six presentations.

Right.

Item 6A, library department meeting room and facilities policy.

I'm on stage again.

Uh so for this uh we have had the library for some time what I would refer to more as guidelines than policy when it comes to meeting rooms, and so uh we've been working for some time to put this policy together.

Um you can see if if you looked on our website right now and you saw the guidelines uh for our meeting room use that it's it's fairly short and not very detailed.

This is the opposite just because uh we have so many different situations, different user groups, um different types of uh yeah, facilities, we have our meeting rooms and um uh we have uh you know people who want to uh you know have the tables to pass out information, uh people asked to you know use the parking lot.

So this is really a uh comprehensive uh policy that we've developed.

Uh some of that besides the just making it more comprehensive and covering the the scope of what we have here as far as meeting room or facility uh spaces, uh some of the critical pieces of this is that we put some elements in place, such as our coordinating and uh our um uh fee structure with the recreation department because they also have spaces and and um we um we uh we wanted to make sure that our our fees for those facilities were similar so that you know people weren't facility shopping, so to speak.

Um one of the emphases of the library is that we try to make these rooms available for free as much as possible.

So we put together in this policy a guideline that if your event is open and free to everyone, then you will get this for free.

You will get um uh the room for free.

Uh depending on you know the the um user group.

Uh so for example, a nonprofit comes and wants to offer something to the public for free.

Everyone's welcome, they get the room for free.

If a business wants to offer something but they're gonna charge you to attend, they're gonna pay.

So it you know, it's by virtue of whether it's open and available to all, or someone wants to have a private event here, such as an individual wants to rent a room for our cario rooms for a party, and it's only invitees that can come to the party.

If your birthday party is open to us all, then it's free.

If you're gonna limit it to an invite list, then you're gonna pay.

So we we we clarify that, and then um see that the oh, and we are also um specify that any particular group can only uh rent our facilities 18 times in any calendar year.

So what we're trying to accomplish there is to prevent uh a group from dominating our uh our meeting room facilities because they're nice facilities, they're relatively inexpensive compared to some facilities you might try to rent in the city of San Leandro.

Um again, if it's if it's free and open to all, then they would get that for free, but not wanting one group to uh again use all of our meetings rooms all the time.

So we that's a major change as well.

But this is um, and the reason we're doing this tonight is we wanted to this will go into effect July 1, and and the reason it's under presentation is no action is required.

facilities they're relatively inexpensive compared to some facilities you might try to rent in the city of San Leandro and again if it's if it's free and open to all then they would get that for free but not wanting a one group to uh again use all of our meetings rooms all the time so we that's a major change as well but this is um and the reason we're doing this tonight is we wanted to this will go into effect July 1 and and the reason it's under presentation is no action is required we've we've developed a policy we put it through the city uh through the city attorney's office to make sure everything is copacetic and it will go into effect on July 1 so this is just a notification that this is something that uh that we've changed that affects the library of a big part of the library in terms of our meeting rooms and facilities so at this point do any commissioners have questions or comments I'm just curious how is it that the Casa Peralta grounds end up under the library so the CASA falls under the library based on the fact that we typically have responsibility for the history the historic component of the of the city any city owned like there's a there are other historic facilities that we don't have any control over but that's why the CASA is here.

It's just same with the museum the museum uh history museum is under the library's purview for that very same reason but great question any other questions or comments I have a question is I've actually never been in the lecture hall is it set up to be a performing art space as well like are there wings on the stage okay it's a fantastic space it's got 214 seats and um you know a great sound system which was replaced a few years ago uh camera set up to record if you wanted to record your performance the stage is a fairly good sized stage and as you mentioned or questioned there are wings so that and actually there's two doors on either side that you can come in from the hallway and and then come out and exit it or come out and appear on stage so it's it's a really well well designed yeah we should take a four trip yeah yeah yeah well if anybody if anyone would like to perform we could have you put you on stage and has a good singing voice not singing but we did perform there for several years before the current uh location and it is a fantastic little space the the acoustics aren't great but that's okay you know the I I'm sure you fix that with the sound system that you put in it's a it's definitely an improved sound system um whether that helped the acoustics and my area specialty but yeah I have great memories of that of the space.

Yeah it's nice it's this library has a you know for its size let alone just libraries in general we have one of the most incredible meeting room facilities I've ever seen so we rivals San Francisco main library.

Doesn't oh yeah cool well I think this is great because for the grants program people always ask about what rooms are available and then we can just point them to this document correct and also uh that's a great point in terms of uh we uh as we've you know continue to refine the grants program we make the facilities available to grantees for grant related activities to be clear about that uh for free so uh during the grant period they can use the facilities for free so would they be able to hold an event and like say offer space to give donations like things like that or if like or if a nonprofit wanted to come in it's free it's open to the public but they you know had somebody like hey we're taking donations I don't I have to think about that yeah um yeah if off the top of my head if it's not required to make a donation but you wanted to donate I think that would seem fine but I would want to I would want to look look at that to verify that I'm just curious about and then is also there a noise ordinance or anything but this only relative to being next to somebody in the in the next room you know yeah yeah yeah yeah you know if you're gonna have a you know a yoga uh well so so there's a there's a divider uh between our carpet SDO rooms um that's just it's a it folds into the wall and then you know so it's accordion style and the bound sound barrier between the two rooms is not great so we have had instances where we weren't careful about that and somebody's playing uh you know like a jazz concert with horns in one side of the room and someone's trying to have a meeting on the other and it doesn't work or we had someone installing heart of the back of the lecture hall because the the art space out here is you know it's in the in that hallway that runs right down this direction but that's the back of uh lecture hall on the office side so someone was installing art and you know hammering everything and someone was in the lecture hall so we have to be careful about that no ordinances it's just courtesy courtesy yeah yeah all right I have a question so the um sorry the

So someone was installing art and you know, hammering everything, and someone was in the lecture hall, so we have to be careful about that.

No ordinances, it's just courtesy.

Courtesy, yeah, yeah.

All right, I have a question.

So the um sorry, the uh oh, I can't think of the name of it.

The um one on uh do little the uh the big uh used to be high school.

Why why can't I think of the name of it?

The marina community.

Marina Community Center, sorry.

They're under parks and rec, so they're not gonna be in here.

Okay, okay.

So that's it.

So they have their all their facilities they're responsible for.

Um they have uh those kinds of buildings, but also um ball fields, parks.

Anytime you want to say rent a space in a park, you would go through their website.

But we did align as far as our fee structure.

Uh so that renting something at the Marina Community Center for an equivalent space is not well it'll go in effect July 1.

This is part of the budget planning is the uh uh fee structure for the entire city, and so in alignment with making these changes to this policy, we align the fee structure so that they're the same.

Okay, but we just we try to make because of the mission of the public library, we try to make as many of our spaces available as as possible for free.

Any other questions or comments?

All right, this concludes item 6A moving on to item seven, action items.

There are no action items.

Moving on to item eight, commission reports and announcements.

There are no commission reports or uh moving on to item eight a the grants committee.

Can we have a report from the grants committee?

Would you like me to cover that?

Sure.

You've been doing such a good job.

So um uh I processed you know all the requests for payment, so everyone should have received their money by now to carry out their grant, very grant programs.

Uh the next item as far as the grants committee is reviewing the final reports for the grantees from uh from 20 uh fiscal year 25.

So I need to work with the grants committee to get those final reports in front of you folks so that we can uh evaluate those reports and come back to this body with a report at the July meeting.

Um I was hoping to do it at this meeting, but things have been busy, so um and I think that's I think that's it.

Anything from the members of the grants?

I don't think so.

Yeah, it occurred to me sitting down today that I was like, all right, we're supposed to do the report, but we haven't gotten the material.

I mean, we haven't gotten to it yet.

And that's more for just so everyone can know the outcome of the grants.

There's no action.

No, what we you know, I did a preliminary review of the reports that they came in and had some conversations with some of the grantees about making sure that they can the reports that they provide document not just what they accomplished, but also uh how they spent the money.

There they had a budget plan that they presented, and did they spend their money in in accordance with that budget plan, or did they have to make changes to that?

And did they spend all the money?

Um so everything from again a preliminary report, preliminary review, cursory review, frankly, looks good, but that's part of the work of the grants committee is to look at that and make sure that we're we're happy with um the outcomes and uh and this the spending uh of the funds that they were provided.

And then as you said, we'll have a report for this body as to the results.

You know, um one of the things that stood out as far as the fiscal year 25 grants is we funded three murals, I believe.

And so there's very tangible results that one can see as you drive around the city.

Uh and that's that's a standout.

So one of the highlights I think of the that last year's program.

So great.

Well, um, just it's important if we're planning on doing the report for July.

I'm gonna be gone for two weeks uh starting next Monday.

So if one of the other uh subcommittee people would take that on, I'd appreciate uh competitive.

Thank you.

Um questions or comments about the grants program.

If not, that concludes item eight.

Moving on to item eight B, 2026 Game of Shrooms Committee.

Can we have a report about the game of shrooms?

Sure.

Do you want to start?

Do you want me to start?

You can start.

I'll start.

Okay.

We had a very successful game of shrooms on Saturday, uh, thanks to Bill and Norma at the library.

We had twelve about twenty people come in the morning to hide art, including the guy who started Game of Shrooms and whose fault this all was, who's sort of a semi-famous artist, and we had about fifty people come and hunt shrooms.

And people were lined up and they were like eager and ready to go and run around the library, and no one destroyed the library or hurt anything, and the staff we didn't hear any bad reports of people going where they shouldn't, and people were just stoked.

They were so happy.

And it I had heard from people online afterwards like, well, I didn't find any shrooms, but I got a library card.

And you know, there were people in here who didn't, you know, look like the the typical library patron.

Um we were we were featured in in the gentleman who started Game of Shrooms, he goes by Attaboy.

He does sort of a thank you every year online afterwards where he you know announces the date for next year's game of shrooms, and he ended his little video with like the video of people just funneling into the library to go hunt shrooms, and you can hear like happy hunting, and people are just happy.

So it was great.

Shaylani, do you want to add oh and thank you very much to Shaylani who had two art making gatherings that she did beforehand, and we had tons of art because of that, and there were people we had enough art for all the people who showed up and we would not have there would be many more disappointed humans if you hadn't done that.

Oh, it's a team effort.

Yeah.

But it was nice.

There's like a mix of things that kids could find and adults, so it I think that was really nice.

And there's definitely some lessons to be learned for like the next year, but I will personally say that was my first year ever doing it, and it just was um it was more than more fun and just more amazing than I would have ever expected.

I just had no idea how it was gonna come to.

And Terry came out as well too to help with the watching and a lot of it too, yeah.

So it's very it was fun.

That was a lot of fun.

Yeah.

Uh yeah, I would just add that um I you know we did it last year first time, and I think we learned it improved uh this time.

Um, you know, double double both the the artists hiding and double double the number of people seeking.

Um and uh even the uh uh Ileana Berkowitz, who's running the Asmuda Cafe that morning.

I cut through the cafe at one point before we opened the doors for people to come in and hide and seek and do their finding.

And she said, I mentioned the program, and she said, Oh yeah, she said that's a different crowd than we normally get here at the library.

Oh I bet and I thought that is exactly what we want to hear, right?

Is to I mean, we love our regular library patrons.

And uh, you know, but to get people to and to have programs that draw people that you know aren't our typical um library folks is just fantastic.

It's nothing better than that.

So that alone makes it incredible success, besides just that uh, you know, Commissioner Scotland, Brody and I were standing there at one point, and this uh individual found one of your pieces, and she was I thought she was gonna cry.

She was so excited about this.

And it was a beautiful piece that she was and she had learned about on the library's website and just didn't know a thing about the program, but just came down because thought it sounded like fun.

And so all around I think it was a extremely successful program.

And it really was a team effort.

Norma and I at the library.

Uh and then, you know, we let people in the library before we opened, you know, uh the staff have to be comfortable with that too, and so credit to them for being chill with that.

And um, and then of course all the commissioners who came to volunteer and Commissioner Bryant was there as well.

Gave them a show of support.

Yes, yes, indeed.

Bill and I went hunting after about 45 minutes, and we even found a shroom.

It's a dog snoop shroom, I guess.

So like by one of my favorite ceramics, and it jingles for some reason.

She was great.

So yeah.

Well, I we'd been sitting there for so long, it was like it had slowed down so much that I was about ready to leave.

But she'd only posted her clues online and she hid them really well.

Like really well.

So we were like, let's go see, you know, based on looking and like using the card catalog, let's go see if we found a shroom.

So we have sure.

Because she that particular artist, I think um she came in at 8 30.

And we allowed a uh or allocated an hour window for people to come in and hide.

She was there at 9 30.

I think she was the last one, and I was like, Time to go.

We had to, you know, have the transition between the hiding and the finding and about a half an hour between the end of that and the opening of the library.

And uh and I thought, wow, wow, she's taking a long time.

Um but that's what she was doing.

She was using the catalog and she had included clues on her um on her Instagram page just to where uh you know these things were.

But you had to be it was a challenge.

So I actually she deputized me to go see if there were any left.

She gave me the rest of the clues.

So after this meeting, I don't see if it's in the left.

Yeah.

Well, that's one of the principles of the program too.

Yes.

Is if you hide something, you're supposed to, if I understand correctly, make sure that it's found so that it's not uh, you know, you're not just leaving stuff around places, especially outdoors, I'm sure they don't you know something breaks down after weather and things like that.

So anyway, fantastic program.

So that was great.

That was the biggest lesson for me to learn because if we had so many pieces, I'm like, there is no way I will know like where because we had like three other people hiding multiple people's pieces, and like there's gotta be a better way to track that so that at the end we can go back.

But people were walking out with a lot of stuff, I'm pretty sure it was pretty awful.

I mean, we were leaving them out.

We weren't like digging in a totally digging through books and in the middle of a book or something.

Yeah.

Wonderful.

Um any other questions or comments?

All right.

Uh moving on to item 8C, the Latinx youth writing workshop committee.

Can we have a report?

Hello.

Um, I do not have a report, but I do have an update.

I think I have written off more than I can chew.

And I'm not sure that I can actually execute this idea of mine.

However, um, I don't want to say that it's shut down completely.

I want to just see how my summer goes with all the other commitments that I filed on to myself, and then revisit it.

And you guys can ask me like every month, of course.

But um, unless, you know, unless I have any other volunteers that kind of want to jump in and help me lead.

Um, yeah, that's my my uh piece.

Well, as like a co uh sub subcommission.

Uh yeah, subcommittee.

Uh I think that sounds fine.

I don't have the capacity to to lead at this point, but when you're ready, let us know.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that.

I like I said, I don't want to shut it down and think it's a great idea, it's doable.

I don't want to be able to commit myself the way I have fun.

I just have some rather unexpected commitments at the time.

Yeah.

And then also I want to continue to commit um or to support the our library um bike.

Yeah, that one I do want to continue to do.

So that's my piece.

So I think with that development, probably a good idea.

We could take it off the agenda because if if if we're you know, I mean, it's just uh a bit of a if it's just a placeholder for you know, nothing has occurred, then I think that just frustrates everybody.

So I think we could just remove it and then if if you want to pick this up, you know, we can certainly add it back in as a subcommittee.

Yep, makes sense.

Do we have to make a motion or anything for that?

No.

Okay.

Um do any commissioners have questions or comments.

All right.

Not moving on to item 8D, library bike tour committee.

Um, I can give a report on that.

Uh we haven't met and I owe a sponsorship list, templates, and project.

Well, we have the project plan, but I was gonna draft something that we could send around to um potential partners and sponsors, so I I also have not had bandwidth.

So I I also have not had bandwidth.

So I need to do that.

But um I did talk with Bill just about timing, and it seems like so far there's only two uh two items on the library calendar for June.

Um but my assumption is that this would need to be on a Saturday when the library is open, um, and not conflict with either game of shrooms or the Cherry Festival.

So that probably leaves like two weekends in June left.

So I need to look and kind of triangulate between all those.

But I think once I'll I'll email the um subcommittee when I figure out the date, and then I think that'll give me more ammunition to actually start contacting um partners and and putting that pitch together.

So uh but the good news is that still leaves us a year of planning.

So um I think that's good.

But that's my update.

Any questions or comments from either the com committee or anyone else?

All right.

Moving on to item 8E, the poetry contest.

Can we have a report from the poetry contest committee?

Uh we have not met since last meeting.

Give our update, so nothing to report right now.

Questions or comments?

All right.

Moving on to commissioner comments.

Do commissioners have any comments or reports in general.

I did have just a quick question.

As far as these uh as far as the committees, uh different types of committees, uh, how does one get started?

Do you what's that process as far as you know getting the committees gone or anything?

Uh I think it I mean, I think so a lot of these committees came out of a prioritization exercise we did where we put a big board up of potential programs we could have and then voted on those and decided to spin up committees.

Um but I don't think you we have to go through that process.

Um I think it's a matter of proposing idea of like, hey, this is something I want to work on.

Are there other folks who would want to collaborate with me?

And then we just uh I think we we mint the committee and then put it on the the agenda.

So um do you have an idea for a oh no?

I would just I would just kind of I mean it's only my second meeting, so I'm just trying to you know kind of get it.

I feel like you've already been here for like five that was like a totally fair question, and it's it's not a super formal process.

But yeah, I think with probably like the grants committee was our first one where we're like, okay, we wanted I think you have a committee when there's work that needs to happen outside of the regular meeting so that um a smaller group of people can work on that together and and meet and have a little more momentum than just month to month.

Okay.

Um yeah, so start with the grants committee and then these also the ideas were kind of working in the background a little a little bit more just showing up to this, yeah.

Okay, okay.

And as far as uh communication amongst us, um I know you send out the emails, uh whatnot.

Is there any um I mean I'm of course everybody, you know, if they want to give out their emails or anything like that, just uh thinking about more communication, you know, amongst us, you know, because I know what when I get the emails only see like you know, Mr.

Sherry Wood and uh another person I can't recall the name.

Uh well yeah, you of course, of course, uh you know, what yourself too.

Is there any kind of email chain we can all be in or did y'all are do we not is that something so I could I could answer that?

Okay.

So um one of the things we have to be careful about is um something that would uh could be considered a meeting.

So if you have an a full email chain with all the commissioners on it, and you start a conversation, oh yeah, then it effectively becomes an online meeting.

Uh gosh.

So um and you know, you and I spoke briefly about the Brown Act, and I know we'll talk we'll set an appointment we'll talk further about just kind of a bit of an orientation to that.

But the thing with the Brown Act is it's trying to make sure that there's not business being done that's not properly agendized and noticed to the community so they can participate.

So uh what we have done, however, with when you have a committee like this that we establish these various committees, um we have less than a quorum and a quorum for this group is five people.

So you can meet, you can have an email conversation about the topic that's being covered and not have any violation because it's it's not it doesn't meet the threshold of a meeting.

Okay, which is five or more commissioners, you know.

Um this applies even if you know, just a bit more about the Brad Act.

I mean, if everybody showed up at the Cherry Festival, right?

I mean you're all standing around together, you can talk about how great the Cherry Festival is.

But you can't start talking about you know commission business or something like that.

It would look like you're edging towards some sort of decision.

Um it's just those considerations.

Okay.

And the thing that I was thinking about too with respect to these committees, because we do have um uh we have Commissioner Alex and Commissioner Bryant, who are our most recent now, Commissioner Alex is all was on Game of Shrooms.

But we need to also have the option if someone one of the commissioners wants to join one of the existing committees, just to be clear, you can do that.

Okay, we just have to stay under that threshold of five.

I think it's five for a quorum, but I trying to remember what the commissioner handbooks specifically says four or less.

I think we checked recently it was four or less.

Four or less, that's right.

So um but there's room on some of these uh subcommittees if you want to help carry out you know uh any commission.

I mean um that would be open to anybody who wanted to jump in and join something uh by virtual one of these um subcommittees.

Uh but I just want to highlight that for the new folks who didn't who weren't part of that planning process that we went through to come up with these specific committees.

Well thank you.

Yeah.

Speaking of the Cherry Festival, I can't think of anything right off the bat more arts, culture, and library than the cherry festival, because there are there is all that going on.

I just have to say that this year was astonishing.

Yes, it was.

I think there were what 60 more booths this year.

It was a big it was a big difference, and it it wasn't slacking off and it was getting close to six o'clock.

Yeah.

You know, and I I I always run a booth.

So I I just wanted to say that maybe the commit our commission might want to have a booth or something in at a future festival because I'll tell you, it's my number one marketing opportunity for the players.

Yeah.

So I mean, we were in the parade the first year.

We just reconvened, which was fun.

So maybe if we want I don't know, we can that's always fun.

Discuss how we want to be involved in.

It's just something to think about.

It's a long day.

Yeah.

It's a very long time.

It's a long day.

The parade you just have to get there early to assemble, and then you're done unless you go through the parade road.

So did you get a chance to see the Dahlia exhibit from the round the dahlias a lot during the year, but no, I did not because I'm our booth was down further from them.

We weren't next to them last year.

But no, I didn't.

Um I I didn't have an opportunity to actually go do the festival this year.

Yeah, I was I was in the sport time.

Okay, yeah.

Any other questions or comments or I guess just comments?

Okay.

If not, do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting of June 16th, 2026?

So can I get a second?

All right.

Uh any discussion.

Hearing none, all those in favor?

Any opposed?

Oh, all right.

So motion carried.

The meeting of June 16, 2026 is adjourned at 71.

Well