La Crosse County, Wisconsin

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LA CROSSE COUNTY LIBRARY BOARD MEETING MINUTES

February 6, 2008

Meeting Room, Onalaska Public Library

741 Oak Street, South

4:50 PM

CALL TO ORDER:

President Loren Caulum called the meeting to order at 4:50 pm.

ROLL CALL:

Board members, Loren Caulum, Glenn Seager, Fred Marini, Mary Bach Filla, and George Varnum were present.  Andrea Richmond was excused.

APPROVAL OF THE MEETING AGENDA:

Motion by Glenn Seager/Fred Marini to approve the agenda as written.  MOTION carried unanimously with one excused, Andrea Richmond.

PUBLIC INPUT:

Loren called for input from the public, but there was no response.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES:

Motion by Fred Marini/Glenn Seager to approve the January 2, 2008 minutes.  MOTION carried unanimously with one excused, Andrea Richmond.

APPROVAL OF 2007 13^th MONTH EXPENDITURES:

Motion by Barbara Manthei/Mary Bach Filla to approve 2007 13^th month expenditures.  MOTION carried unanimously with one excused, Andrea Richmond.

ACCOUNT ADJUSTMENTS:

Chris submitted 2007 mileage payments for Library Board members to Finance to be paid out of Expense Account #69060 Employee Mileage.  Finance requested the money be taken out of Expense Account #69075 Non-Employee Mileage.  Chris asked the board to approve increasing the Expense Account #69075 Non-Employee Mileage, and reducing Expense Account #96060 Employee Mileage by $328.00.

Motion by Barbara Manthei/Loren Caulum to approve the account adjustment.  MOTION carried unanimously with one excused, Andrea Richmond.

APPROVAL OF FEBRUARY 2008 EXPENDITURES:

Motion by Barbara Manthei/Glenn Seager to approve January 2008 expenditures. MOTION carried unanimously with one excused, Andrea Richmond.

INTERNET USE POLICY WITH WIRELESS ACCESS ADDENDUM:

Wireless Internet access is now available in Onalaska and West Salem and will soon be active in Holmen.  Therefore an addendum has been added to the County Library’s Internet Policy and the language of the Internet Use Policy has been updated.  The changes include stating that library staff is not trained to provide assistance to patrons using wireless access and that printing is not available through wireless access.  Other language updates reflect changes in technology and availability of services.

Motion by Loren Caulum/Fred Marini to approve the language changes and addendum.  MOTION carried unanimously with one excused, Andrea Richmond.

COUNTY ORDINANCE – CONSOLIDATED COUNTY LIBRARY SERVICE:

Act 420, enacted by the legislature for 2008 allows each Wisconsin county to charge for services rendered to residents of other counties that are not taxed for library services.  Although La Crosse County levies a library tax to all out-county residents, the Director of Winding Rivers, David Polodna, contacted Chris regarding the legal structure of La Crosse County Libraries.  He is concerned that if the county does not clarify their legal organization as a consolidated library that we could be considered liable for charges by other counties.  As a consolidated library all out-county residents are served by all county branches.  To formalize our structure for the state Chris requested that Corporation Counsel draft a resolution to the effect that the La Crosse County Library be recognized as a consolidated county library.  The library board approved the resolution and it will now be sent to the La Crosse County Board for formal adoption.

Motion by Barbara Manthei/Mary Bach Filla to approve the resolution.  MOTION carried unanimously with one excused, Andrea Richmond.

2007 STATE ANNUAL REPORT:

Motion by Barbara Manthei/Mary Bach Filla to approve the State Report.  MOTION carried unanimously with one excused, Andrea Richmond   

A separate question on the State Report asks the Library Board if WRLS did or did not provide effective leadership and adequately meet the needs of the library.  The board agreed that WRLS did provide the above, but they would like to request more communication from WRLS to the member libraries.  A monthly on-line newsletter from David was the suggested format.

Motion by Loren Caulum/Fred Marini to indicate that WRLS did provide effective leadership and adequately met the needs of the library.  MOTION carried unanimously with one excused, Andrea Richmond.

EMPLOYEE PURCHASE POLICY:

A number of years ago the library board resolved that library staff would be allowed to purchase items through the library at the same discount the library receives from its vendors.  Since 2007 Employees have been paying sales tax on their purchases, but the Finance Department would like to avoid employee purchases via the County’s financial accounts.  Chris has found a vendor that will set up an account for employees, which could bill the employee directly, including sales tax and shipping.  Chris will speak to the Finance Department and bring the topic back to the library board in March.

PLA TRUSTEE TRAVEL AND KEN MILLER TRAINING:

La Crosse County is presenting a workshop featuring Ken Miller, author of We Don’t Make Widgets.  Ken offers ways to improve performance in non-manufacturing organizations.  The training is on February 19, 2008 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm.  Chris offered information about the training to the board and reminded them that they could pay the $60 per person fee out of the board’s Trust Account.  Barb Manthei and Glenn Seager expressed interest in attending.  As a department head, Chris will also be attending as will some branch supervisors.

Motion by Loren Caulum/Barbara Manthei to send any board members that want to go to the workshop; the fees to be paid from the Library Board Trust Account.  MOTION carried unanimously with one excused, Andrea Richmond.

WRLS REPORT:

Loren attended the WRLS meeting in January.  He said the sitting slate of officers was re-elected; Loren is the vice-president. 

FACILITY AND COMMUNITY UPDATES:

At the Onalaska Commission meeting on February 5, 2008 the commission voted to recommend to the City Council that they award the construction bid to Market & Johnson whose bid came in at $1.6 million.  The bid did not include moving the books and other media possibly 2 to 3 times during construction.  Furniture, fixtures and technology needs will be bid in April.  Chris feels it may be necessary to close the building during certain phases of construction such as when plumbing lines need to be run to the other side of the building.

The patron survey ran through the end of January.  West Salem patrons requested a larger audio book collection as well as expanding open hours at the West Salem Library.

The Village of Holmen had St. Elizabeth’s church assessed and it was valued at $1.3 million.  The Village will not pay more than the assessed value for the church and at this time the Catholic Diocese will not negotiate the $2 million price tag. 

The library is one of eight departments that receive money from the La Crosse County Jeans Day donations.  This year the money is being used to purchase movie licenses to show recently released DVD movies to groups at the library.  Youth Services will be using it to show The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at a children’s program on February 15^th.  Two or three adult programs built around movies are also being planned.

MINDORO/FARMINGTON UPDATE:

The Friends of the Mindoro Library continue to meet each month with good attendance.  They are selling Mindoro Cut 100^th anniversary commemorative pins for $6.00.  They have begun scanning pictures and documents for the historical brochure.

OTHER AREA LIBRARIES:

The Tomah Public Library has hired their former circulation manager as director of the library, even though she does not possess a Master’s Degree in Library Science.  The Winding Rivers Library System has deemed the library non-compliant with state statutes and has levied fines.  Their library board is willing to wait for the director to complete online courses toward her master’s degree, at which time the library will regain legal compliance.  The library had begun the process of joining Horizon and becoming part of WRLSWeb, but have halted the process.  The Tomah Library Board extended an invitation to Chris to their next meeting where she will answer questions concerning La Crosse County’s experience in converting to Horizon software.

6:45 pm.  Barbara Manthei left.

As a result of budget restraints the City of Viroqua reduced their funding to the library by 50%.  By state law they must maintain maintenance of effort: that is they cannot reduce their funding to less than the average of the last three years and so must increase the library funding to avoid penalties.

FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS:  

Genre survey summary to date

Homebound Services

ADJOURNMENT: Meeting was adjourned at 6:52 pm.

RECORDED BY:  Judy Jamesson.  Minutes may be amended or changed at the next meeting.