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Milwaukee County Federated Library System
Board of Trustees

Minutes of
Regular Monthly Meeting Held Monday, July 16, 2007

At

Milwaukee County Federated Library System
709 North Eighth Street
Milwaukee, WI 53233

ROLL CALL

Present:                        Martin Schreiber, President
                                    Ron Tays, Treasurer
                                    Michele Bria, Trustee
                                    Mardee Gruen, Trustee
                                    Paul Ziehler, Trustee

Excused:                      Mike D’Amato, Trustee

Staff:                            Jim Gingery, Director
                                   Judy Kaniasty, Business Manager/Personnel Assistant (Recorder)

Others:                        Bruce Gay, Milwaukee Public Library
                                   Sue Knorr, Milwaukee Public Library
                                   Taj Schoening, Milwaukee Public Library

1. CALL TO ORDER. President Schreiber called the meeting of the Milwaukee County Federated Library System Board of Trustees’ Finance & Personnel Committee to order at 9:15 a.m.
    
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES. Trustee Ziehler moved and Trustee Gruen seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the Monday, June 18, 2007 meeting as shown as Attachment A of the agenda packet. Unanimously approved.
    
3. PUBLIC COMMENT. None.
    
4. LIBRARY DIRECTORS ADVISORY COUNCIL – REPORTS.
   
   A.  Report of the June 7, LDAC meeting. Director Gingery referred to a handout shown as Exhibit 1 attached to these minutes summarizing the topics discussed at the meeting. Being no questions, President Schreiber ordered the report Placed on File.
    
5. BOARD OF TRUSTEES - COMMITTEE AND ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS REQUIRING ACTION.

                A. Finance and Personnel Committee.

1. 2006 Audit. Treasurer Tays moved and Trustee Bria seconded a motion to recommend approval of the 2006 Audit as presented. Unanimously approved.
    
2. Financial Report – May 2007. Treasurer Tays moved and Trustee Bria seconded a motion to accept the May 2007 Financial Report as presented and shown as Attachment B of the agenda packet. Trustee Ziehler questioned whether Special Projects, line 68, would go over budget and Director Gingery responded it shouldn’t go over too much in 2007 since he believes most projects were bunched in the first half of 2007. It is somewhat difficult to predict, however. The expense for Member Special Projects (Line 68) is offset by corresponding Member Special Projects revenue (line 16). Unanimously approved.
    
3. 2007 Proposed Mid-Year Budget Revision. Treasurer Tays moved and Trustee Bria seconded a motion to approve the 2007 Proposed Mid-Year budget revision as presented in Attachment C of the agenda packet. Director Gingery noted that the LSTA Announce Baby’s Books grant was not funded by the State. Trustee Ziehler requested more information concerning the increases for staff salaries and fringe benefits and Director Gingery explained that in October, 2005 and October, 2006 his budget projections had been too low. In both cases those figures were based on Financial Reports and did not include items paid in January for the previous year’s expenses. Subsequently, we were underbudgeted both years. (Director Gingery then distributed the salaries and benefits sheet created in Jan, 2007 ). The original budget projection for 2007 should actually have been $467,300 for salaries and $202,165 for benefits. We are now adjusting accordingly. This will not happen in future budgets since the Director will consult more closely with the Business Manager. In addition, a full-time position (Clerk I) was created in the sorting room in April and approved by the MCFLS Board. This increases Salary by an additional $3,200 and Benefits by an additional $8,335 for 2007 thus the new totals of $470,500 for salaries and $210,500 for benefits. Unanimously approved.
    
4. 2008 ILL Contract – MPL. Director Gingery referred to Attachment D of the agenda. Trustee Ziehler questioned why a four percent increase and Director Gingery replied that the four percent increase in cost is in line with the amount of State Aid increase expected. This contract pays for a part of the cost for Milwaukee to provide ILL services to Milwaukee County residents as well as to residents outside of Milwaukee County. Treasurer Tays moved and Trustee Gruen seconded a motion to approve the contract as shown. Unanimously approved.

2. Election of MCFLS Board Vice President. Treasurer Tays nominated Trustee Ziehler to be elected MCFLS Board Vice President based on his experience and willingness to serve since Trustee McCue has resigned. Hearing no other nominations, it was the unanimous consent of the MCFLS Board that Trustee Ziehler be elected MCFLS Board Vice President. Unanimously approved.
    
3. 2007 Senate Bill 214 – Relating to the Disclosure of Certain Library Records to Law Enforcement Officers. Director Gingery noted that the Board talked some about this topic last month and Attachment E of the agenda packet is the Senate Bill as written. Director Gingery distributed a handout containing additional information which is shown as Exhibit 2 attached to these minutes that he developed after talking with Milwaukee Public Library Director Paula Kiely. In summary, Senate Bill 214 attempts to address the concern of the need for timely release of video surveillance tapes to police if an alleged crime has been committed. It is felt that getting a court order for police to view these surveillance tapes creates too much time from the time of the alleged crime to the release of the surveillance tape and thus decreases the opportunity to apprehend the alleged perpetrator. There are concerns that the bill in its current form defines some things too narrowly and others too broadly. There is also a wish by some in the library community to address possible changes to Statute 43.30 more comprehensively. Both Milwaukee and WLA have made suggestions for changes and expansion. Because of the need to study all nuances of the current Bill and possible amendments to the Bill and/or Statutes more thoroughly, Director Gingery recommends no action be taken on this topic today, that it be referred to the Legislative and System Services Committee, and that further discussion be held at the next MCFLS Board meeting. He would (in advance) attach pertinent background information so that Board members are better prepared to address the issues. President Schreiber referred this issue to the Legislative & System Services Committee.

6. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATIONAL ITEMS.

A. Director’s Report – June 2007. Director Gingery referred to his June report, which is shown as Attachment F of the agenda packet. Director Gingery noted that to date eight member libraries have signed the member agreement: Cudahy, Greendale, Greenfield, Hales Corners, Oak Creek, South Milwaukee, Wauwatosa and Whitefish Bay.

7. NEXT MEETING DATES.

1. Finance and Personnel. The next Finance and Personnel meeting is currently scheduled for August 20, 2007. However, that date and alternate dates in August are not good for a number of Board members and a quorum is, therefore, unlikely. It is expected, therefore, that the next Finance and Personnel meeting will be scheduled for September 24, 2007.
    
2. Legislative and System Services. TBD.
    
3. MCFLS Board of Trustees. For same reason, next MCFLS Board meeting will likely be September 24, 2007.

8. ADJOURNMENT. With no further business to come before the Board, it was the consensus of the Board to adjourn the meeting at 9:35 a.m. Unanimously approved.