MILWAUKEE COUNTY FEDERATED LIBRARY SYSTEM
Board of Trustees

Regular Meeting Held Monday, February 18, 2008
At
Milwaukee County Federated Library System
709 North Eighth Street
Milwaukee, WI   53233

ROLL CALL

Present:                 Paul Ziehler, President
                                Michele Bria, Vice President
                                Ron Tays, Treasurer
                                Dan Devine, Trustee
                                Mardee Gruen, Trustee
                                Martin Schreiber, Trustee
Excused:                 Mike D’Amato, Trustee

Staff:                       Jim Gingery, Director
                                Steve Heser, Library Systems Administrator
                                Judy Kaniasty, Business Manager/Personnel Assistant (Recorder)

Others:                   Pat Laughlin, LDAC Chair and Hales Corners Public Library
                                Bruce Gay, Milwaukee Public Library
                                Dennis Jones, Milwaukee Resident
                                Sandra Melcher, Milwaukee Public Library
                                Dick Nelson, North Shore Library
                                Sheila O’Brien, Greenfield Public Library
                                Eric Pearson, Milwaukee DOA
                                Cathy Peterson, Whitefish Bay Public Library
                                TJ Richter, Milwaukee Resident
                                Rebecca Roepke, Cudahy Family Library

  I.             CALL TO ORDER. President Ziehler called the regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Milwaukee County Federated Library
                 System Board of Trustees meeting to order at 9:01 a.m.

 II.            APPROVAL OF MINUTES. Treasurer Tays moved and Vice President Bria seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting
                 held Monday, January 28, 2008 which are shown as Attachment A of the agenda packet. Unanimously approved.

III.            PUBLIC COMMENT. TJ Richter, a Milwaukee resident, discussed the media holds policy change, noting the Milwaukee Public
                 Library website and the MPL mission statement. He believes that the change in the media hold policy is a contradiction of that
                 mission. Library patrons and member libraries were not immediately notified when the decision was made and the ability to address the
                 issue prior to governmental vote wasn’t announced. He would like to see all library material, whether book or media, treated the same,
                 e.g. do not single out media as the materials not retrievable since many patrons consider that their major type of library material. He
                 encourages the MCFLS Board not to back down and let this occur.

IV.            BOARD OF TRUSTEES – COMMITTEE AND ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS REQUIRING ACTION.

   A. Finance and Personnel Committee.

1. Financial Report – December, 2007. Treasurer Tays reported that the Finance & Personnel Committee recommends approval of the December, 2007 financial report, which is shown as Attachment B of the agenda packet. Treasurer Tays moved and Vice President Bria seconded a motion to approve as presented. President Ziehler commented that it was good to see more revenues generated and fewer expenditures than expected. Director Gingery commented that interest revenue was higher than expected due primarily to a change in the bank account type we are now using. Trustee Schreiber questioned how the staff change in the sorting room to add a second full-time person has affected things. Director Gingery responded that the same amount of FTEs is available, just changing two part-time to one full-time and that has made a positive change allowing more supervisory hours to affect productivity. Unanimously approved.

2. Director’s Performance Review – 2007. Treasurer Tays reported that the Finance & Personnel Committee recommends approval of the Director’s Performance Review process which has been in place for years. Judy Kaniasty reviewed the process, which is to use the separate copy of the document sent to Board members to rate the job standards and objectives which were approved by the Board last year. The ratings which are due by March 6^th, will then be inserted into a spreadsheet, values added and totaled for a result to be used in determining any Management Merit Award which will be discussed at next months meeting. Treasurer Tays moved and Vice President Bria seconded a motion to initiate the Director’s Performance Review process as routinely done on an annual basis. Unanimously approved.

3. 2007 MCFLS Annual Report to DPI and Fiscal Statements. Director Gingery distributed and reviewed the documents, which are shown as Exhibits 1 and 2 to these minutes. Treasurer Tays reported that the Finance & Personnel Committee recommends approval and submission as required. Treasurer Tays pointed out that MCFLS receives over $2.7 million from the State and unfortunately only $66,650 from the County. Treasurer Tays moved and Vice President Bria seconded a motion to approve the 2007 Annual Report/Fiscal Statements and submit to DPI as required in a timely fashion. Unanimously approved.

   V.        ADMINISTRATIVE AND COMMITTEE INFORMATIONAL ITEMS.

A. Director’s Report. Director Gingery referred to his report, (which is shown as Attachment D of the agenda packet) pointing out in particular that on February 26^th internet bandwidth will be doubled from 10Mbps to 20Mbps. This upgrade is within budget due to State subsidies that are available. President Ziehler ordered the report accepted and placed on file. .

B. Media Holds/Interloan Issue. President Ziehler reported that he had two items to report on from last month’s meeting. First, the results of the email he sent 1/29/08 to member library directors asking the question whether the item types requested by Milwaukee should be granted by the MCFLS Board. All fifteen members have responded and the responses were: 3=yes (Milwaukee, West Allis and Wauwatosa); 10=no (Greendale, Hales Corners, North Shore, St. Francis, Oak Creek, Cudahy, Franklin, Greenfield, Whitefish Bay and Shorewood) and 2=conditional (South Milwaukee and Brown Deer). South Milwaukee’s conditional response: hopefully the situation can be resolved, then yes, otherwise no if it cannot be resolved. Brown Deer’s conditional response: delay and try to resolve, then yes; and if it cannot be resolved then no and if resolved there should be an expiration date of 12/31/08. Trustee Schreiber asked whether the "no" responses were because they were upset with Milwaukee’s decision or because the tasks are now more cumbersome? President Ziehler’s feeling is that the reasons are (a) topic should have been brought up during Member Agreement negotiations; (b) hold procedure not clear now; (c) feel it is a Member Agreement violation.

The second point President Ziehler wanted to talk about was the idea Milwaukee Public Library Board President Prince suggested, which is their willingness to form a group to talk about the issue in order to avoid legal action. President Ziehler recommends that a four-person task force be created: LDAC Chair and Past-Chair along with Milwaukee’s Director and another MPL designee to discuss the matter. President Ziehler recommends an even number of people since he ideally would like a consensus of the outcome. Also to be a part of the process, as observers, President Ziehler recommends two resource people from MCFLS (himself and Director Gingery) and one person from outside Milwaukee County. He would like the group to meet at least once before the next MCFLS Board meeting and hopes that this process can be completed within 30-90 days. Trustee Schreiber indicated he felt this was an excellent idea and it should move forward since it is MCFLS’ mission to assume a leadership role in membership issues and to improve access to and encourage resource sharing at the best cost utilizing technology. Trustee Schreiber moved and Vice President Bria seconded a motion to support President Ziehler’s recommendation to develop the above mentioned task force and to authorize MCFLS staff to implement the nine item types requested by Milwaukee Public Library. Treasurer Tays questioned whether the Task Force would also be addressing the need to amend the language of the member agreement. President Ziehler responded that that would not be a part of the task force’s charge since a resolution to the situation may be developed and then no language change would be needed and he also feels that any language refinement would be a Board duty. Treasurer Tays also asked whether any task force decision would be binding on all libraries, especially since all libraries will not be a member of the task force. President Ziehler responded that the decision of the task force would not be binding on any library, but it is a good first step at this time. Trustee Gruen commented that the nine item types are the issue and she would not support the motion. Trustee Gruen questioned what would happen if the task force cannot come to unanimous consent on the matter. President Ziehler noted that then the MCFLS Board would have to address that at that time. President Ziehler explained that he would like unanimous consent on any outcome of the task force since that would be easier to sell to all of the member libraries. Vice President Bria disagreed that the nine item types are the issue but rather just a communication technical tool to be utilized to inform patrons of a policy that has already been implemented. President Ziehler noted that endorsement to authorize the item types would enable a member agreement violation in the MCFLS Attorney’s opinion. The motion failed on a roll call vote of 3-3. Treasurer Tays moved and Trustee Gruen seconded a motion to enact the Task Force as described by President Ziehler to try to resolve the media hold/interloan issue. Unanimously approved. President Ziehler noted that he would be interested in hearing suggestions for the outside Milwaukee County person to observe the task force discussions. Director Gingery was asked to assist with scheduling the first Task Force meeting. President Ziehler commented that these meetings will be open to the public, but participation by observers will be limited.

VI. NEXT MEETING DATES.

A. Legislative and System Services - TBD
B. MCFLS Board of Trustees – February 18, 2008 beginning at 9:00 a.m.
C. Finance and Personnel – February 18, 2008 beginning at 8:30 a.m.

VIII ADJOURNMENT. With no further business to come before the Board, Trustee Schreiber moved and Treasurer Tays seconded a motion to
        adjourn the meeting at 9:49 a.m. Unanimously approved.