 I am going to call our meeting to order. We do have a quorum. And at this time, would you like to rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance? Allegiance is to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, so for those of you who are joining us virtually, I have to tell you that I'm pretty excited that for the first time in months, we actually have someone here for public comment. And because she cares so much about the safety and health of all of us, of course she's here already with a mask on. So I am thrilled to see Dulcey Johnson across from me at an official public lectern and Dulcey Johnson we're gonna let you start, but if it looks like we practice this ahead of time, if it looks like it's not working, we'll take a moment and try to get that started. The red lights are on. All right, so all right. So with that, I will turn this over to Dulcey. Thank you. Okay, Dulcey Johnson 1306 North 3rd Street, Sheboygan. Good afternoon. I listened with concern to the discussion last month of the interests of some staff and board members to write a policy supporting the intent of the Black Lives Matters movement. Our family lived in Minneapolis several years before moving to Sheboygan in 1965. I remember Minneapolis as a beautiful peaceful city and I was shocked by what happened to George Floyd as well as the aftermath with protesters destroying parts of the city. The protesters obviously had a different agenda than protesting Floyd's murder, which was an unfortunate example of man's inhumanity to man. Granted, George Floyd had not led a perfect life and what he did at the time of his death was not right, but his murder by a Minneapolis police officer was an unjustified and blatant abuse of power, probably an act of revenge as we later learned that they both worked as security persons at the same business. However, I do not think it is necessary or appropriate for the Mead Public Library Board to write a position policy on racial or social injustice. I believe the current and longstanding policies of the library already support inclusion. We welcome and serve everyone as stated in Mead's mission, values and goals. Further, in legal opinion, authored by then attorney Steve McLean in 2014, I quote, as a general proposition, the library board is an arm of the city and not a distinct unit of government, end of quote. It would be more appropriate for the city council to address this issue with a resolution and support of racial and social justice for all citizens. The library is seen as a community hub and supports positive community conversations and civic engagement. It would be good and appropriate for the library to sponsor programs on racial and social injustice, but I do not believe it is necessary to amend Mead's mission or policy statements to comment on the issue. Absolutely, black lives matter. Actually, all lives matter. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dolcey. At this time, there is no one else here in our chamber for the public comments, so I will now turn it over to 1.4 on our agenda, approval of the minutes. So in pulling up, I have to go back to the too many devices right here. These are the minutes from June 25th of 2020, and I would just like to share before looking for a motion that special thanks to Nancy Manchin with her detailed review of our minutes that there are three small grammatical errors in our TO that is referenced in section 3.4, and I just wanted to share that those grammatical errors of punctuation will be corrected in the table of organization. The errors are not featured actually in our minutes, but I just wanted to bring that to your attention, and thank you to Nancy for her detailed review. Would someone like to make a motion to approve our minutes from June 25th of 2020? This is Kyle, I'll move. Second. And the second came from Kathy. Okay, all right, thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Oops. Any opposed? All right, motion carries. And just wanted to also kind of share that in the great attempt to try to run this meeting smoothly, virtually, I really do appreciate how all of you are trying to keep your microphones muted. I know that it's really hard to remember to turn them back on and then turn them off so I can already tell that you're already ready for this meeting in fine form because you're turning things on and off quickly. So thank you in advance for helping us keep this meeting moving smoothly. At this time, I'm moving on to 1.5, correspondence, announcements, and common council reports. I'm just looking over from very far away, library director Garrett Erickson, and there are none. So now I will move on to where it says 3.1 of the 2021 operating budget. And I will turn that over to library director Garrett Erickson. And of course, it would be nice if I turned it over if I actually turned on his microphone. Even though it is green, I have to make it red to make it go on. Thank you. Thanks, Maeve. And I'll be real brief on the budget. We were given budget parameters this year very similar to in the past. We have a 2% increase for personnel costs and then also a freeze or a 0% increase on the non-personnel part of the budget. So that's frozen again. And the operating budget just for those that haven't been through it before does not include the capital improvements piece, which has already been done for the year. So that piece is, the project work is already done. So this is just more of our operating budget. So we had sent this out prior. And I guess there was some additional stipulations that Maeve had talked to me about while we were putting it together. And thanks to Debbie for doing the work on budget. She does a great job. So Maeve, do you want to kind of comment on a few other parameters? Sure. So I just wanted to make all of you aware that as we talked about constructing this budget for this coming year, that if you look at the additionals between 2020 and 2021, the current budget that we're proposing is increases the budget by $96,000. And that is due to in 2020, me public library had to reduce our board approved budget by 1%. So we did that because we were told that that is what was happening with all departments, only to find out that all of the city departments did not reduce it by 1% and they had a 2% increase. And this is regards to just the expenditures with salaries in regards to the budget. So the budget that I'm having us consider today is with that increase of 96,000, which I believe we should have had starting this year. And I'd like for our department to, our entity to be on the same level of footing as the other departments in the city. So I just wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of that particular amount. And in looking at the comments section with all the different line items, I think it's been, it's quite helpful to have an understanding of why certain things are being suggested that they decrease and why certain things should be increased. With the caveat that there are some components of our budget that is still kind of unknown because it is only July and those of us who have been on the board for several years, we know that sometimes certain cost factors we don't find out until August or September or October. So this is based on what we know at this time as far as what our expenditures are. So I'm going to turn this back over to Garrett to see if there's any detail I've missed, but then I'm going to be taking questions and comments from all of the trustees. Yeah, Dave, both the only thing that I'll point out as far as the comments, Debbie did a great job of adding in comments, as you said, to each line item. The only big changes really were from last month and we changed the TO a bit to have a couple of the, well actually the IT and the maintenance underneath the administration again. So some of the salary figures changed again, of course, to change, based on the TO changes. And so admin has a little bit more under the full-time salaries and those other line items underneath that and then the support services would be pulled back the same. So I mean, that's probably the biggest change, but otherwise with a 2% increase and it's really just for personnel, there's not a lot we can do with the budget. And so there's not a lot of changes. So I guess I'd open this up to questions if there's any questions on any of the line items on why the certain amount was budgeted. So at this time, I'm looking over at a computer screen to see if there's any of my board members that are waving a hand for a question or a comment. And then those of you who are joining us by phone and not by video, you are welcome to just introduce yourself and say who you are and that you have a question or a comment. So I'm looking at all kinds of wonderful faces on a computer screen and it does not look like anyone has their hand up for a question or a comment regarding the operating budget at this time. So I guess at this time, I would be looking then for a motion to approve. I'm looking at my life. I would just add, when you do that, we do have continuing variables that are changing for us. So as the motion is made, if there was some sort of flexibility for us in order to just make changes unless you want to call an emergency board meeting. And I know right now we're not scheduled to meet in August. So with that in mind. That's a- Yes. Question? Yes, go right ahead, MaryLondonahue. I, so I guess my question is for Debbie. Are all departments at this, I have not heard this. Are all departments at this time voting on preliminary budgets? Yes, we actually have to have our budgets in to munis tomorrow, according to already. The only thing is, is they have not pulled in payroll. And I've asked Marty when that was going to happen. They were going to have a meeting last Monday and I emailed them yesterday and said, they still weren't pulled in. So he referred me to Vicki and I've not heard back from Vicki. So once they pull those HR, the payroll in, then I can look at that against my budget like we did last year and see what kind of adjustments they pulled in. You know, life insurance might be a little higher because the new rates just came out, but they should be very minor changes compared to what's on my budget. And I would say that this is, as long as we understand that this is an extremely preliminary document, the, I mean, there have been some, you know, general budget parameters that have been communicated, but how it plays out and what sources of income there are. I just don't want anyone to think that by approving this budget that we have a budget for 2021, because we just don't. And I think it's fine. I was not, I did not know that every department had to have a budget into finance tomorrow. So that's my problem. And I think it's fine that we have a motion to, you know, to approve the budget, just as I say, so everyone knows it's very, very, very preliminary. And also to Mary Lynn's comments, Levy has not come out yet, which won't be out till probably next month, which will play a huge part of the budget as well. So. Well, typically we don't, we don't necessarily approve a Levy until October and we don't get our state revenue projections until October. And, you know, the other weird thing in all of this is what amount of state CARES money, the money that the state is getting from CARES will go to municipalities and in what form and for what. So, but, and I think it's, I mean, this is absolutely the thing to do just so come October folks don't say, ah, I thought we approved the budget, so. So, so this is- And with that in mind, I'll move approval of the budget as proposed. I'll make the second, Kyle. And for our public that might be listening, the person that was answering most of Mary Lynn Donahue's questions was Debbie Damico. And so for those people who are calling in or whatever, if you could just announce who you are, because I did get feedback, that sometimes they weren't aware when they were watching on TV who was speaking. So I just want to add that. So at this point we have our preliminary budget and to Mary Lynn's very good points, there are numerous things that will be changing over these next couple of months. And this will not be our only time that we discuss a budget and potentially then approve, you know, a follow-up revised budget. Are there any other questions or comments in regards to this budget and the motion that's before us? This is Nancy speaking. Is the word preliminary in the motion? So in thinking back to Mary Lynn's motion, I believe the, trying to remember the words that she just used. I should- Sidney is listening. I don't remember. I'm asking because I didn't hear it until Maeve commented on it, but I think that's going to be really important. Hopefully Sidney Mayn is online. We will pull the budget close. I think that was a work. And Maeve, is it possible for you to turn your mic up? You're very quiet. Everyone else is loud, but you're very, very tough to hear right now. That's not good. Okay. Can you hear me more? Is this better? That's better. Okay. Because I really don't want to take off my mask because I've got Dulce sitting 20 feet away and I need to keep her healthy. So, okay. Thank you for that feedback. I'm just to clarify, I'm happy to clarify that my motion was for the approval of the preliminary budget that's presented today. Okay. And so, and Kyle, are you comfortable with that wording of her motion since you did the second? Okay. Any further discussion or questions? Okay. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Okay. The motion passes. Thank you very much. Moving on now to 3.2, the COVID-19 services responses. I am turning this over to library director Garrett Erickson. Thanks, Maeve. There's several parts of this particular agenda item that I want to talk about in regards to service. So the first one is, if I recall, the board gave me the latitude to make quick changes in between meetings based on changing situations on the ground, so to speak. In on Tuesday, July 14th, the CDC came out with an issue to statement, basically telling people to wear masks. And that is something that I've included that particular announcement on board docs. So that's one of the attachments on this particular agenda item. It's a CDC calls for Americans to wear masks to prevent COVID. And so the library's management team was talking about this, and we also were looking at the local numbers. And we saw that the local numbers at that time were starting to rise quite quickly. And then also recalling that the library board, I think Marcos brought up last time that he wanted to talk about face coverings at the next board meeting. So with all those different things going on, and also in talking to Maeve, we decided to just go ahead and make it a requirement here at the library. And we did start that this week on Monday, and it just so happens when we made our announcement early last week. It was shortly followed a couple of days later by Walmart and several local retailers. And so the timing was good, so it just didn't look like the library was going out on its own. And then also the city decided as well, Todd, the new city administrator, decided to mandate it in all city buildings. And so we did make that particular change. So far, I would say 95% of the people coming through understand and are pretty good about it. So we have gone through quite a bit of PPE, the face masks and stuff, and we do thank the Sheboygan mask makers for helping us with the washable type of face covering. But, and then Maeve and I were talking today about whether this would be something rather than just a library administrative policy that whether we wanted to back that up with something, a policy that the board would pass. And so I did include some language for our code of conduct, and you recall a few months ago we had just looked at this code of conduct policy and put something in there about if we noticed someone was sick that we could ask them to leave. Now we had actually updated that and put some information in there about face coverings. And so when you click on that particular attachment you'll see that in the yellow highlighted area that new language. And actually Maeve and I had, Maeve had asked me earlier today to contact Chuck Adams and talk a little bit about his thoughts on whether the library board would want to, would need to pass something. And he said if they did, he said we probably should be addressing if someone has a medical condition how we would want to handle that. And the options would be not serving them or asking them to use some of our curbside service or we could put something in there about a doctor's notes. And so there's certain options that we have there but that was not in the language that we have on board docs right now but probably additional language that we should add to this if you guys vote to pass something. So I'm gonna turn it back over to Maeve even though there's other pieces on this particular agenda item to go through. Right, so Chuck Adams was so helpful in quickly getting back in regards to how our code of conduct can be easily understood by the public and also a helpful tool for our staff to be able to utilize in order to keep everyone in the library safe. And he did suggest that the code of conduct, that component that is yellow highlighted with the addition and that addition says refusal to wear a face covering when required by the library and or displaying obvious signs of infectious disease during a pandemic or epidemic. He suggested doing some type of maybe like a little asterisk and then down below be able to say exemption requiring a doctor's note. So that it's just very clear and it gives clear guidance to our library staff that if someone says, oh, I don't have to because of my medical condition, then we have in our policy that yes, we see that and we just need to see a doctor's note to demonstrate that you are following our code of conduct. So I just thought his suggestion was a good one. Any thoughts on this addition to the code of conduct from any of my trustees? Just looking over at the, see if any has a question or comment. Mary-Lynn Donahue. So Mary, what we're looking for then is a motion to approve the amended code of conduct? Or is this just a recognition that this has been put into place at the library? Which is fine. I just haven't cleared. Okay. I'm turning it over to Garrett Erickson. Yeah, he said we have an option. We can do this. He did think that Todd's the city policy would cover us. And he did not think that the city was going to do an ordinance on it. So he said it was our option. If we wanted to clarify this further, further than what Todd Wolfe did for the city buildings. So it was sort of up to the trustees. So any- This is Meg. Yes, go ahead, Meg. I guess I have a couple of questions about the highlighted area, not because I am questioning its inclusion, but because I'm worried about putting the two of them together, it might be important to have them be separate bullets because when wouldn't want to have a doctor's note to allow somebody with obvious signs of the infection disease to enter the library, right? So that one would not be affected by the physician's note, right? So we could just read that. And then my second comment, I get, and somewhat of a concern is that if somebody does have a medical condition and we are asking them to disclose personal medical information to a staff member, I do worry a little bit about the implications of that with HIPAA and whether, I mean, obviously we wouldn't be storing that information. I would hope that still asking somebody to disclose that would seem to require a certain level of training. And I guess I am wondering if instead there would, instead of asking somebody to produce the doctor's note, we would simply say that we would work with that person to provide service outside of the library because if that person isn't wearing a mask and has been exposed, we continue to expose other patrons and staff to that person. So I guess I'm just not sure how we do the face coverings without, getting close with the doctor's note if we don't just want to do something with HIPAA. That's really good points. Thank you, Meg. So, Meg, I'll just say that libraries have handled the different ways and some libraries have requested doctor notes. Some have refused to work with them and would just sort of direct them towards curbside delivery or other methods of delivery of service. So those are all your options. So we're open. This was sort of hot off the press when Chuck said we should probably, if we're going to do something, we should probably take on this issue. I mean, the other option is to just follow the city mandate as well and not to have anything in there. So... So this is where we are right now is that we have several options. One is that we can not include this in our code and conduct and just follow the guidelines that have already been stipulated by our city council for the city-owned buildings. At the time of us having these conversations and trying to put this together, we weren't too sure if the city would take that step. So that's been a new development since we've had the conversation about the code of conduct. So one option is that we do not make an amendment to our code of conduct. A second option would be that we leave the language in the way it is with no option for medical note. And then the third option that Meg suggests is that we leave it in and just redirect in that we will provide library services outside of the library as best we can. So just wondering if there are any other options or any other discussion points. Maryland Anaheer. So based on what I'm hearing, I think that this should just be a library policy that is not approved by the board. I don't think it has to be. And if there's board approval as an initial matter, then you can expect if you need to change it, there would need to be more board approval. I think it's just unnecessary. I like the yellow language, the yellow highlighted language. And I'm with Meg. I mean, when we start asking for a doctor's excuse, that starts in my view to get tricky. And I think we can just leave it to staff. If we do get somebody who comes in and says, I can't wear a mask, we can see what we can, our staff is so skilled, they can redirect or re-service or whatever. So my view is that, I think maybe there should be a board vote that we approve without feeling that there's a need to approve the policy, we do support the changed language, if that's in fact what we do. So we could have a resolution or a motion that the sense of the board is to approve the yellow highlighted language with the understanding that staff can make revisions as needed. So was that then a motion, Mary-Lynn? Or? I was, I was so moved. Okay. Is there a second? And? I guess I'm confused on what the motion is. So we're making a statement of support but not amending the policy, is that correct? If my thought pile was that, first of all, given the fact that the city has instituted a policy without common council approval, I don't think it is a necessary predicate to have board approval. But I think it would be nice if the minutes reflected that the board does support the changed language with the understanding that staff may change the policy over time as needed. Sure. I think. I'm sorry, Kyle. Go ahead. I said I'll second the motion. And maybe I made it too complicated. I don't know. I mean, but I guess what I'm trying to get at is that we think the language is good but it is a staff driven decision. So just to clarify, it's just my understanding that having a policy on code of conduct is something that the board has always had to approve. And so, yeah. That's what I was gonna say. We've always approved policies at the board level. Well, then I withdraw my motion. So, and I think that the challenge and one of the reasons why Garrett has brought this forward is that our policies that we create give guidance and direction and support to our employees at the library. And so, I think there is some thought that there might be some response to not wanting to wear a mask and to be able to refer to the code of conduct of how we expect everyone's behaviors to be within our building. It made sense, I think, for the library staff that we would have a line in here about not wearing a face mask. So that's where this idea came from. And I think when Chuck Adams thought he was just like, well, if you're gonna put that in there, you do need to recognize that there are people that are going to feel that there needs to be exceptions. So, maybe the language that we put in is, with any code of conduct, I guess the public can have the conversation with the library director, so. Maybe I guess what I would say is, implementation of policy always comes down to staff. And I'm personally comfortable with the language without putting any exception there. There's, the CDC says that the only time a cloth face covering shouldn't be applied is on a child under the age of two or individuals who are having difficulty breathing. But there are no medical conditions that have been specified in any area that would preclude somebody from wearing a face covering outright. So, I don't want to invite the door to somebody who was trying to say, who just doesn't like face masks, and says, well, I just don't wear it because I'm medically exempt or XYZ. You know, I would leave that to Garrett's discretion to determine if this is an individual who should be allowed in the building without a face covering. Any other thoughts or questions? I mean, Kathy Norman. Yeah, I'd like to go within the yellow highlighting in the Code of Conduct that leads the proposed Code of Conduct that was attached to the agenda. It leaves room for discretion for the board, I'm sorry, the library staff to enforce it as needed, but it just says that when medically necessary in a pandemic, the library has every right to require them. I think the broader the better, but it shows that we really have, in addition to the city adopted this as our own policy. So, any other thoughts or questions? So, at this time, would someone like to bring forth a motion to accept the revision of the Code of Conduct as shared in the document, specifically the yellow highlighted addition? I will make that motion. Okay, been moved, is there a second? Okay, been moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the revised Code of Conduct? So, just a point of clarification, if we do accept the language, do we want that to be two separate bullet points as Meg has pointed out? I'm sorry, what was that? Do we want to have to split that up a bit as Meg had pointed out when she made her comment? There's two different issues we're solving there. There's one is wearing the mask and one is if someone's sick, do we want to have two separate bullet points? Is that the motion? That's a good discussion point. Just as is that? I was suggesting two separate bullet points when we were suggesting that a doctor's note might allow an exception to the first of the phrases. But I support Kathy's reading that it becomes helpful to keep it broad and if the doctor's note is off the table, I'm fine having it be a single bullet. Thank you, Meg. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Any further discussion? Can I ask a question, this is Sydney. Sure. Just for clarification on the motion, are we including that the proposed changes are with the understanding that staff can make changes as needed? No, the motion was the code of conduct as written and shared with the full board with the revision being just the yellow highlighted component. Does that make sense, Sydney? Yes, thank you. Sure. There's been several options. It's hard to keep track of them all. Especially when we're not all in the room when we can just hand each other the scribbled note. So, any other further discussion? Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Okay, so let's continue with some other discussion points on the COVID service responses. Another question that's come up is, and we've talked about this a couple of times in past meetings, but if the metrics for COVID continue to go up or if they were to go down, when would we shift services? And I just, as we have been going through this whole process this spring, just I like hearing from the board for guidance on things. So on the bullet point, on this particular agenda item, I did attach a couple of other documents that I'm going to mention now. One is the Sheboygan County dashboard PDF as well as the Sheboygan County restart, safe restart. And so these are documents, especially the dashboard is something we look at fairly regularly. And for, I think the attachment that I put on there was from a little bit ago, but right now they use sort of a stop light type, red, green and yellow lights. And several of the, or a couple of the metrics are red right now, meaning the cases were increasing here in our county. And some of the other things were in green and somewhere in yellow. And so I did reach out to the local public health department and what they're really concerned about at this point is the care, the care area, which is how much capacity we have in the hospitals. And I think as of today, we have three people hospitalized. So we have quite a bit of capacity and that's what they're really looking at. So if things started to trend backwards, staff were wondering, well, what would we do and what are we looking at in order to do something? So I wanted to run this by the board and get their thoughts, but since the health department is really keyed in on care, that's what I was sort of looking at as well. Right now it's at a green, but my thoughts were other libraries right now, I guess I looked at other libraries in the state, there's about 21 libraries that are over 40,000 in population and 14 of those libraries are open like we are right now. There are three that are ratcheted back just a little bit and what they're doing is a reservation system in order to use services. So if you want to get into use the computers or to get into the book, to check out books, you have to call them and basically get a reservation to get in. I think that would be the next step in ratcheting down and then if this care were to go to a red stage, my thought would be then we would go back to a curbside delivery system where we close the library. So I just wanted to open that up for your comments on whether that would be appropriate or if you had other metrics that you think we should be looking at. And I recognize that all of you are probably utilizing some of the same resources with the organizations or entities that you are part of, but Garrett just wanted to make sure that he was not overlooking another good resource in helping us make good decisions about the services that we can provide at the library. So, any other thoughts on resources and metrics that he should be considering? Well, it, it. Garrett. I like to get into your from the safe restart plan. I think you're looking at the right measures. I can't think of anything else that I would point to as the library should be monitoring as whether or not we should reduce or increase services. Thanks, Kyle. Anyone else? I, in light of the fact that our next meeting is not scheduled until September and the time period of this contagious virus it seems to be moving rather rapidly in which nobody knows in which direction it's going to take. I, in speaking with Garrett, I had asked would it be of benefit for him if our board passed a motion essentially just giving him the authority to quickly make a decision to close or limit library services due to the significant public health concerns regarding the COVID-19 contagious virus. And this is something that he would do of course in consultation with myself as the president of the board. But as you remember, not too long ago that's actually what we had to do when quickly the numbers were moving faster than our perfectly timed board meetings. And so does anyone have any thoughts about that? But I was just trying to provide the proper tools so that we can move quickly in case that is truly needed for this library. Kathy, I think you're still on mute, sorry. Thank you. So DPI covers libraries and I know the governor is not willing to do anything and take on the courts and the Supreme Court and everything again, but are we getting any guidance from DPI? Cause to me, I would, as a library, I would look to them when it's time or when it's important to shut down. I did reach out to Shannon Schultz at the DPI as well. And she sort of stated in her own way that they were sort of done with the guidance they had given what they could. There is some new information coming out that I believe Cheryl Nessman will talk about with some studies for how long materials should be quarantined for, but they're not going to give us any more guidance on restarting or services and that sort of a thing. So I think we're sort of stuck that way as more of a local decision. Any other question or comment? So anything else you would like to add? If the numbers were to go in a positive way, which it seems they're going negative right now, but if they were to go positive and the local health department were to move us into phase three, then we would look at opening up more services. Perhaps we would look at meeting spaces and so on, but at this time I'm hesitant to say that we're going in that direction. I'm thinking that we would be, we're stuck for a while or we could possibly slip back to phase one, but that's kind of my plan is to really look at those benchmarks and the care piece just so you know what I'm looking at and if it were to change colors, then we have some definite plans in place to move backwards, so to speak. So just- This is Cheryl. Oh, I'm sorry, who was that? Sorry, this is Cheryl Nessman. Cheryl Nessman. Just to add to what Garrett was saying, something else we've been speaking about are our own levels of PPE here at the library and our ability to provide face masks to the public as well when we're requiring them. So that would be another metric that we are looking at. Thanks, Cheryl. Good point. Yes, I'm making the assumption we can get PPE and it's gotten tougher to get it and sometimes it's being, it's more expensive as well now, so. Very good point. Yes. So just to clarify, Garrett, would it be helpful for me to propose that motion that I had shared or do you have a different- I guess if there's consensus that that's the path I should be going down, I'm fine with that just as long as there's no, nothing that we're missing. So those are the sorts of, anyway, the metrics that the management team are really looking at. All right, wonderful, thank you. So good. And then the last thing I have on this particular agenda item is just the hours. Again, as I just mentioned in the county's reopening plan, the county, what do they call it? Sheboygan County Safe Restart. We are in phase two right now and in talking to staff, we think it's best if we remain at our current hours and knowing that, and I guess another point just for the board to talk about is if the hours and remain, or we're thinking we should leave the hours sort of in a status quo, even as we move into the fall, we realize now we're only within two months of the next time that we change our hours and normally we would go to all day open, or we get all day open Saturday and part of Sunday and later hours and so on, but we're thinking at this point we would just sort of leave services as they are. And I guess I wanted to open that up for discussion as well while we're in this phase two. Basically the phase two is what the county's calling it, but anyways, thoughts on that I guess. Any questions and thoughts about that? Okay, so it looks like just making those decisions that allow your library staff to continue to provide services in a safe manner is paramount to the actual number of hours that we can be open to the public. So what we put in place seems to reflect that nice balance between services and being able to offer them in a safe way. So anything else under 3.2? Nothing under 3.2, thank you for the help. So moving on then to 3.3, diversity statement. And so for this, I just, well we had the discussion at the last meeting here at the board and so several of us went back and worked with Josh, Josh did some of the writing or most the majority of the writing on this. So as you can read from this short social justice policy that's in there, the second paragraph he, I think we got the gist of it, which was the library board wanted us to be a vocal leader on equality and so on. And then we were already actively committing resources and programs to racism and social inequities, but it's now stated that we should be a vocal leader. So I guess I'll open this up to comments on whether we got what the board wanted us to do. And this is Maeve Quinn. It was I think helpful to have a copy of our 2020-2022 strategic plan where it really kind of reminds us that our mission is we connect people with ideas, resources and technology to educate, entertain and empower. And then the vision that we have is basically where are we headed? We aspire to create a vibrant, informed and cohesive community and our strategic plan also kind of highlighted our various values and one of them of course is inclusiveness where we welcome and serve everyone. So none of this of our strategic plan is changing. It's sort of my understanding that the social justice policy is sort of allowing our strategic plan to actually have a little more direction, especially underneath the component of the community hub. So with that, does anyone have any questions or comments in regards to the social justice policy? And I know a few of you are just kind of reviewing it too, which is always good. And you know, just kind of make sure. And for those of you who are phoning in, I'm sorry I'm not able to see you sort of wave your hand but if you would also like to chime in with your thoughts, please just go ahead and you can sort of introduce your name before speaking, okay? So at this time with the social justice policy would someone like to make a motion to approve this social justice policy? Okay, and is there a second? This is our close, I second. Okay, any further discussion? I would just say I think it's a nice statement of you know, our beliefs as an institution and the role we play as you know, inequity to present to health and society and the steps that we take to ensure that we have a inclusive and equitable environment. Any other questions or comments at Kathy Norman? Okay, so the policy as proposed talks about being a vocal leader and taking proactive measures and commit resources is that something we're really prepared to do. I mean, it sounds nice and it's the right thing to do but I guess I'm questioning whether our library staff is already figuring out how they're gonna put this into motion or are we just enacting empty words and hoping it guides us moving forward? Well, I think basically like commenting on social media was the catalyst for the discussion last time. That's a concrete action that we can take moving forward. I think we're already doing many of the things listed on the bullet points which are looking at so the service assessment we're going to be doing and it's just collections, programs and so on. So we're doing some of these things but we will look at it again. Like I said, if you wanna go through the DPI inclusive services assessment which is listed there, it's something actually the board would want to do in one of our future meetings if this passes. Okay. This is Cheryl Nessman again. Can I just add and I'm sure Melissa would have had a lot more to say about this as she were here but one of the reasons I think that the action items or the list of items that we wanna take action on were included in this statement or so that it wasn't just a, it wasn't just a statement, something that we write and then forget. We wanted to put something in there so that we could take action on this and be accountable. All right, thank you. Great point. So Cheryl brings up a great point. So as Melissa had discussed with me after the fact for Kathy's sake, we have an operating and operations plan that works. It's based off of our strategic plan and it's got a lot of very minute details that we do from an operational standpoint for staff and that's got quite a few different things in it. And so those are the types of things you might not see Kathy but we're actually doing. Any other question or comments? Okay, so at this time there's been a motion and it's been seconded. We've had a discussion just seeing if anyone else on the phone wants to chime in. All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries. Thank you. And now moving on to 3.4, digital media policy. And so Josh Lentier did put this one together. This mainly affects him as he's trying to figure out sometimes how to comment as well as sometimes there's comments that we wonder whether we should block them out or what to do if someone posts a negative comment. So this is actually really helpful for him. He said because there's certain things that people can do or say that are their ideas. And as he said, the policy helped him in the sense that if it's someone's idea, it's their opinion, really we need to be leaving those sorts of things up there. If it's something where they're slandering someone else, it's obviously there's obscenities and those sorts of things, then he can take action on that particular comment. But he said this already after he had written it, it really helped him to make some decisions based on the comments. Obviously social media is a two-way platform and you're not always gonna like everything you see, but that's the point of it is we get good feedback. And so Josh did pull this again from several of the larger libraries like Chicago and Seattle and some others. So that's a little bit of the background on this particular item. So this is Maeve, Quinn, and just wanted to share in reviewing the media policy. I felt it was very detailed and it was very helpful with how it was constructed so that I can follow through and recognize where there might be some concerns and how we can still live up to the ideals of our mission, but yet have a digital media policy that is fair and equitable. So I thought it looked quite good. Any questions or comments from the board? Kyle Welton. Thank you, Maeve. I do like policy. I am a bit concerned on First Amendment grounds for this and I'd be interested if this had been reviewed by the city attorney and just to see if there's any case law around this. It gets tricky. Obviously things like obscenity and child pornography. Well, obscenity is also tough. I mean, there's clear cases on through court that are actually not very difficult. There's the famous, I don't know, I can't define obscenity, but I know when I see it and that's not it, that's an echo quote from a justice. But the same things like we're gonna delete or hide or remove content that's not related to library business programs, events, resources, materials. Well, I certainly understand that we are a public entity and the First Amendment is incorporated against city and we're a branch of the city. And so there's time, place and manner restrictions which are allowed, but I don't know this kind of ventures us into a whole new area. And I guess I'm just concerned about the liability in that respect. Obviously, if there are things that are illegal, for example, child pornography, we have every ability to remove that and that's against Facebook's user policy. But for things that are more general, like if somebody's posting stuff on our posts that are promoting other things, while that's frustrating, I don't know if legally we have the ability to restrict that because it is speech. And I'm just curious if that's been reviewed or not. It hasn't been reviewed by Chuck Adams and perhaps it should be. We basically used a bunch of the larger libraries out there and what they've put together. And so as I said, it's been helpful in the sense that for Josh's sake to separate opinion from some of these other things that are very clear that they shouldn't be on there. And by the way, he doesn't ever, he's not supposed to delete anything. He actually can hide it, but that's, he can't delete it for some sort of rule, I guess, but we certainly, Kyle, if you'd like, we could run it through Chuck Adams and bring it back next month, that'd be fine. Or I should say in September. I would feel a little more comfortable with that. Again, I think it's a great policy. I just want to make sure that we're doing our due diligence in terms of what our potential legal liability here is. Not necessarily that we're going to have a lawsuit brought against me library, but you never know. It's pretty litigious time. And I think we just have to be careful because this is a rapidly evolving environment in social media and what are the intersections of speech rights as well as reasonable restrictions on speech. So if we just had, I think Chuck's official opinion on it, it allows us to check that box before we put a vote. Sure, that makes sense. That makes sense to me as well. And just trying to figure out, as you said, this whole new world of just even having a social media platform, because it's the Meade Public Library Facebook page, everyone assumes that anything that's on that page has been sanctioned by all of us. And so I think trying to figure out how we can navigate that so that inappropriate, harmful spam, other things that are not viewed as positive. How can that be regulated? And if it's not, then what are our steps? Because this was not something we ever even had to think about five, 10 years ago. So is everyone sort of an agreement that we can just have our city attorney looked us over and then we'll bring this back at our September meeting with some clarification and understanding that we are not infringing upon anyone's right to speech, because the library is all about that particular right. So we would not want to unintentionally do otherwise. So thank you for the discussion. Moving up then to the director's report, update on services and programming. So Melissa Prentice wasn't able to be here today, so she did just submit a written report, which is attached in board docs. I won't go through the programs, but I will kind of touch on the last part, which is we're excited to welcome Santino Laster as the public safety specialist. He'll be starting on August 10th, and Santino is originally from Detroit, Michigan, and now lives in Sheboygan. He's lived here for about 17 years and he has a wife and children here in Sheboygan. He's been working down at Freydurt Hospital as a security person there, and he's gonna be awesome. So we're very excited, and I think the staff is very excited to have someone to help enforce rules again since Don left in the spring. So that's an exciting development for us. That's a wonderful update, and maybe in the near future at one of our virtual meetings, perhaps he could join just for a moment. Sure, sure. So we can meet him. Yep, and the next part from update is Cheryl. Just gonna go through the support services report. Sure, so as Garrett had mentioned earlier, we did get some additional guidance from, while it was, it came out of a couple of different organizations, one of which was the Institute of Museums and Libraries. So the attachment is the realm test two report, and this was phase two testing of how long the COVID-19 virus is viable on returned library materials. In this testing, I guess the big takeaways were that they recommend quarantining returned items for four days, rather than the three that they initially recommended. So we started doing that. They also found that they stopped testing materials after four days, but at the four day benchmark, there were still, they were still able to find live virus within magazine pages. So on the inside of the magazines. So those obviously circulate a lot for us and pass quickly from person to person. They're not, you know, people read them quickly. So we did take magazines out of circulation, and we have also prevented our patrons from requesting magazines from other libraries within the system. So that's kind of the big news there. We're also putting the, well, I don't know, if anybody had questions before I move on. You can go right ahead. Thank you for updating us on the dangers of magazines. I would have never thought that. I know, all right. But I'm thrilled that you can still with my wonderful library card access quite a few magazines online. So at least we have that backup plan. Right, I will add that we will be waiting for additional testing on those. If they give us an endpoint, you know, when the virus is not detectable, then we'll be able to adjust our quarantine and probably put them back into circulation, but probably not out to browse. They'll be kind of a little bit like the newspapers that we're not putting out for people to read in the library. So Cheryl, this is Maevegan. So this means that utilizing the space of the Roka Room is even more important for all of our materials that are being returned because now they need to actually stay in that room for longer than the two days that we had originally planned. So the Roka Room probably is not gonna be utilized by the public until 2021 or even later. So that's just good for us to know as far as what meeting spaces we're able to provide for the public. Sure, and just an update on that. We've actually moved our quarantine space down to the basement in preparation of the August vote. Thank you very much. And I'm sure our city clerk is thrilled with that. So thank you. Sure, and we did meet with the city clerk, the Greg from Maintenance and Melissa and I met with the city clerk and we went through the Roka Room. They are gonna be making a few changes to how they are moving people through that space. So if you vote at the library and you're voting in person, you can look forward to that. All right, we are putting the finishing touches on our circulating book kit bag. This is new. In the past, people have been able to request our book kit, but they've had to call or email to do it. We have put them in Canvas bags. We're going to be putting them on top of the large print bookcases, which are shorter bookcases on the first floor. And people will be able to browse through those and check them out themselves. And that's wonderful. Oh, I just wanted to report. Oh, question. No, I have to say that's wonderful. Thank you. Okay, good. I just wanted to report that despite the call for us to open up the drive-through book drops, traffic has been very slow. Through those, we're all really surprised. Let's see. Oh, that is it for this portion of it. So then we're gonna move on to 4.3, which is an update on building projects. Now, the maintenance staff is now under administration, but I asked Greg, her, the maintenance supervisor to put together a list of the projects they were working on. He was more than happy because we only usually mention a couple of the things that they've been doing to you based on time, but he put together an extensive list. And so that's attached. I'm gonna have Cheryl talk about one of the major projects going on, which is right next to her and it affects her staff a lot. It's the materials return room. Cheryl, do you wanna update us on that? Sure. So we have a lot of movement on that one in the last few days. We were worried that we would still be a couple weeks out before we could even start testing how it works, but the contractor got it up and running. We actually had an electrician out who did some really neat tweaking to the system so that we can operate all of it from outside of the room that we're heating up to 140 plus degrees, which we're all really happy about. And we have been able to start testing of that room today. So we're really excited about that. Initial tests, it's taking a lot longer for us to get materials up to the temperature that we need to get them to in order to cleanse the book. So we are going to be working on different placement of the materials in that room, looking at different sensors and just trying to figure out the best, the most efficient way to do it, to work it into our workflows and to use the least amount of energy as well. Thanks, Cheryl. So if anyone wants to get a little tour of that room, we can show them that when they're in the library next time. A couple of the other projects I just wanted to point out to the board was third floor sneeze guard. So one of the reasons the third floor hasn't been opened up, one of the major reasons was because we didn't have the sneeze guards, in other words, the plexiglass set up to protect the staff. And now the maintenance staff has gotten that project completed. So we're getting closer to opening up that third floor. We still intend to do that, hopefully in the first half of August. So we'll look for that to come pretty soon. And then the other project I just wanted to mention is something upcoming. There's been a little bit of some issues outside. Right behind the generator, there's an open, kind of an open area. It's on concrete, but different things, activities going on there at night and we're closed mostly, but we would like to put a gate on that area. And so probably at one of the next few meetings we'll be bringing a proposal. Well, we'll be, actually, now that some of the money's at the foundation, we might be going to the foundation and be getting a gift back from the foundation, I guess it would be, but we do need to probably close one of those areas off and it'll be a little bit expensive to do that. But that's another project we're working on internally. So any questions on all the different projects going on from maintenance? Any questions or comments? Not all, this sounds good to me, so thank you. Yep, they got a lot of work done while we were closed. Lots of painting, lots of maintenance, updating of toilets and different things like that. Not the sexy kind of work, but it's really important stuff. So great job by those guys and thanks to Cheryl, she was supervising them through that time. And then the last thing under the director's report is the monthly statistics and they've been fairly consistent. We're still, right around 50% is what we've had for a gay count, so compared to normal times. Any questions or comments on the statistics? No, the only thing I just wanted to bring up is I found that all of the numbers seem to reflect almost the month before and it's just very clear that this contagious virus has had an impact on our consistent level of citizens coming into the library as well as what they're choosing to physically check out. Although our digital checkout is still doing okay. Overall, it's, I mean, that's the only number that seems to be going up is our e-content. Right, right. Yeah, it just shows how much we're depending on people coming in for the program. So without the programs, we've lost a lot of what we do. I mean, the other thing is we've got very limited hours for working people right now. I will have to say that I'm still just so pleased with some of the creativity online with some of the librarians, children's librarians doing special videos and story hours and just ukulele lessons. I mean, there's the creativity to try to provide services from our citizens in a virtual digital way that's so impressive and continues to be. And I think it's really going to make a difference as this year continues. So with that, any other questions or comments on monthly statistics? Okay, moving on then to our monarch library system and can turn this over to Nancy Manchin with her updates. Yeah, thank you, Mae. The monarch system welcomed its new system director, Kimberly Young. She began at the beginning of this week and sent an email saying she had a wonderful first day. So everybody's happy to have her on board and wishing her well as she begins her work there. Also, there's going to be a trustee training week, August 24th through 28th. That's a Monday through a Friday between 12 o'clock and one o'clock. Those will be webinars. And I thought I'll send that information on to Mae Van Gerrit and share it with you. The registration fee is covered and there are several really good topics. In fact, one of them is equity, diversity, inclusion, what library trustees need to know. And I'm planning to listen to that. And I think that I might be able to add something to that discussion based on our meeting today. A monarch also approved a provisional budget similar to the way we need to do that because we don't have all the information that we need right now. And then in September, monarch will be sponsoring a get your library card campaign and it will include billboards. Right now, there'll be one billboard in every county in monarch that's been approved by the board. And I don't know if there's been approach, but the monarch board was going to ask the directors to see if they can support any more than one billboard out there. So I don't know if there's heard from them already or if that's still going to be asked. So that's what's going on in the monarch system right now. And if you have any questions, I'll be glad to hear those. Any questions or? Sorry, this is Sydney. Can you repeat the states of those webinars? Oh, sure. The training which that you mentioned. Yeah, the webinars are August, 24th through August 28th. That's a Monday through a Friday. And they are from noon until 1 p.m. Thank you. You're welcome. And when Nancy shares the details with Garrett and I, we will then send it out to the full board so that you're aware of the opportunities for trustee training. Thank you. Maybe if I could just follow up with Nancy, two things. The new director, Kimberly, did stop by me already yesterday and met with myself and the two managers. So she was really prompt and coming out to the libraries and meeting us. So that was great. And then also, as far as the billboards go, Josh Lentier did agree to work with them on the billboard campaign and use some of his marketing funds for that project. Oh, fantastic. Thank you. Great. Well, thank you, Nancy, for your detailed report and your good news. It's so nice to get good news from your Monarch meeting. So I appreciate that this month. Moving on to 5.2, friends of Meet Public Library. I'm turning it over to Sydney. The friends actually did not meet this month. They have very few actionable agenda items just because of all the cancellations. In addition, they're an older age-ranged group and there was quite a bit of concern over meeting because they're meeting in a house. So there was no meeting this month. Great. Well, thank you for that clarification. And I, for one, treasure all of them. So anything they can do to keep themselves healthy and safe, I'm in full support of. So thank you. With, and just thinking a little bit to what Cheryl had shared with us in regards to the lingering contagious virus on book materials, I'm assuming that information has also been shared with our friends because I think, I don't know at this point, are they accepting new materials? And if they are, what protocols are we doing to keep them safe? Because I'm so used to seeing their little Tupperware container or Rubbermaid container by the door that people could just drop things off. And that's not necessarily a safe thing for anyone to do at this time. So wondering if Garrett or Cheryl would like to answer that question because it just popped into my mind. This is Cheryl. I know we shared with them about the three-day quarantine. I am not sure they have even followed that, tell you the truth. We will share with them though, the new recommendations. Yeah, I think that would be wonderful if maybe if something written up could be shared with them, so it could be shared with all of their members. I would like them to know that this is new knowledge that we've learned because I really would not like for them to unintentionally connect with a wonderful material that's been donated to them that that would impact their help. So thank you. So with that, it looks like our next meeting will not be until November 24th. And that'll give me just enough time to forget everything I've learned about how to run this meeting up here with my, I've got three computer screens plus my own and buttons. So I'm gonna apologize ahead of time that I probably will not make it run smoothly, but who knows, maybe the system will be just like a bicycle and I'll just come and pick it up right where I left off. So our next meeting is on the 24th of September. I hope all of you continue to stay healthy and safe and continue to enjoy this lovely summer with your family and friends. Would someone like to make a motion to adjourn? The file for me. All right, is there a second? Second. Kathy. All right, Kathy, a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Okay, any opposed? Alrighty, motion is adjourned. Thank you so much and have a good rest of the week.