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Milwaukee County Federated Library System
Board of Trustees

Minutes of
Regular Monthly Meeting Held Monday, April 21, 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

Excused:               Mike D’Amato, Trustee
                               Mardee Gruen, Trustee
                               Martin Schreiber, Trustee

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

Others:                  Bruce Gay, Milwaukee Public Library
                               Dennis Jones, City of Milwaukee Resideint
                               Paula Kiely, Milwaukee Public Library
                               Pat Laughlin, Hales Corners Public Library
                               Sheila O’Brien, Greenfield Public Library
                               Eric Pearson, City of Milwaukee Department of Administration
                              Taj Schoening, Milwaukee Public 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 9:03 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, March 17, 2008 as presented which are shown as Attachment A of the agenda packet. Unanimously approved.

III.          PUBLIC COMMENT. None at this time; President Ziehler noted that if anyone had comment regarding the Interloan/Media topic that
               those comments would be heard later in the meeting when that topic is being discussed.
 

IV.          LIBRARY DIRECTORS ADVISORY COUNCIL – REPORTS.

      A.     Reports of the March 6, 2008 and April 3, 2008 LDAC meetings. LDAC Chair Laughlin summarized her reports, which were distributed
               at the meeting and shown as Exhibits 1 and 2 attached to these minutes. Regarding the March report, Pat noted that the staff and the
               public are happy with the new procedure that alerts them when patron library cards are due to expire. Pat also added that the MCFLS
               Technology Plan is a great document for libraries to share with local officials. President Ziehler inquired what the Statewide Strategic
               Visioning Summit for Libraries (May 5 and 6) was and asked whether a unified Milwaukee County response was presented. Pat
               responded that many local boards as well as individuals responded. The input will help shape the agenda. Jim Gingery mentioned that
               COLAND (an advisory group to State Superintendent Burmaster) forwarded the idea of a vision for library services meeting since it
               has been 10 years since the last visioning meeting. A number of library staff from various types of libraries will be invited to
               participate. The results of the meeting will be compiled and distributed widely. Regarding the April report, Pat noted that Paula Kiely
               and Paul Ziehler attended the meeting during the Interloan/Media Holds discussion. Treasurer Tays moved and Trustee Devine
               seconded a motion to Accept and Place on File. Unanimously approved.

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

     A.     Finance and Personnel Committee.

  1. Financial Reports – February, 2008. Treasurer Tays reported that the Finance & Personnel Committee met and he recommends approval of the February 2008 Financial Report as presented and shown as Attachment B of the agenda packet. There is nothing out of the ordinary to report. Treasurer Tays moved and Vice President Bria seconded a motion to approve the February 2008 financial report as presented. Unanimously approved. Treasurer Tays reported that the Closed Session scheduled for the Finance & Personnel Committee prior to this meeting was carried over to this meeting since it was felt it wouldn’t be necessary to discuss the matter until the full Board was present.

V.        ADMINISTRATIVE AND COMMITTEE INFORMATIONAL ITEMS.

A.         Director’s Report – April 2008. Jim referred to this report which is shown as Attachment C of the agenda
             packet. Jim noted the internet slowness issue between 3-5 for suburban libraries. Even after the bandwidth
             increase of February 26, slowdowns were still occurring, particularly between 3-5 p.m. A meeting was held on
             April 10 with DigiCorp, Badgernet Converged Network, AT&T and MCFLS staff to brainstorm on what steps
             could be taken to remedy the problem. MCFLS has a Virtual Private Network and encryption takes up
             significant bandwidth. The idea of isolating some of that encryption is being considered. One idea is to have
             a "card" deal with encryption, another is to have two tunnels or a third option would be to acquire a new
             router. Another option not discussed at the meeting was eventually employed that caches IPs and thereby
             helps lessen overall processing strain. Monitoring since that change has seen some improvements, but
            additional analysis is taking place . Developments will continue be shared with the Board. Trustee Devine
            moved and Treasurer Tays seconded a motion to accept the report as presented. Unanimously approved.

B.        Media Holds/Interloan Issue.

Interloan Discussion Task Force. President Ziehler referred to the second Task Force Progress Report, which is shown as Attachment D of the agenda packet. President Ziehler noted that the topic is still a work in progress and it was made clear at the LDAC meeting that point #3 (the idea that ALL libraries would restrict interloan of entertainment DVDs) is the bone of contention. All 14 suburban libraries do not agree with this point. The Task Force will be meeting May 7th to further discuss the topic. President Ziehler noted that everyone is welcome to attend Interloan Task Force meetings. Paul shared four letters that have been received from library boards (Broen Deer, Wauwatosa, Shorewood) and the Cudahy City Attorney regarding the Task Force recommendations and he summarized their contents. The letters are attached to these minutes as Exhibits 3-6.

The Task Force members did try to come to a compromise and felt that lowering maximum holds did decrease the number of patron requests and thus decreased demand. President Ziehler asked whether anybody had Public Comment at this time. Paula Kiely announced that the Milwaukee Public Library will be amending their position to allow those with disabilities to have accommodation with a doctor’s certificate to be allowed up to three holds on current non-holdable media items next week.

President Ziehler reported that the next Task Force meeting will be held May 7th and he anticipates further discussion to also be held at the May MCFLS Board meeting.

VII.        EXECUTIVE SESSION – REPORT OF THE FINANCE & PERSONNEL COMMITTEE.

              A.         Management Employees Merit – Compensation Maximum Percentage.

              B.          Director’s 2007 Performance Review.

1.             Motion to Move into Executive Session. Treasurer Tays moved and Vice President Bria seconded a
                motion to move into Closed Session. The motion passed on a unanimously affirmative roll call vote.

2.             In Executive Session. Pursuant to Wisconsin Statutes 19.85(1)(c) "Employment, promotion,
                compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governing body
                 has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility."

3.              Motion to Move Out of Executive Session. Treasurer Tays moved and Trustee Devine seconded a
                 motion to move out of Closes Session. Unanimously approved.

4.             Report Out of Executive Session. President Ziehler reported that the Board reached consensus on both
                 items. Treasurer Tays moved and Trustee Devine seconded a motion to authorize a .5% raise for the
                 Director effective pay period #9, 2008. The methodology used to come to that conclusion is consistent
                 with past practice. Unanimously approved. The second item, Treasurer Tays moved and Trustee
                 Devine seconded a motion to authorize Director Gingery to evaluate the remaining three management
                 employees and to adjust their wages according to the same methodologies as is consistent with past
                 practice. Unanimously approved.

VIII.        NEXT MEETING DATES.

                A.         Finance and Personnel. Scheduled for May 19, 2008 beginning at 8:45 a.m.

                B.          MCFLS Board of Trustees. Scheduled for May 19, 2008 beginning at 9:00 a.m.

IX.          ADJOURNMENT. With no further business to come before the Board, Treasurer Tays moved and Vice President Bria seconded a
                motion to adjourn the meeting. Unanimously approved.

President Ziehler noted that if a replacement for newly elected West Allis Mayor Devine is named before the next MCFLS Board Meeting, that this would be Trustee Dan Devine’s last meeting. The Board thanked Trustee Devine for his service on the MCFLS Board during the past six months.

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