 Look, it is 1135. It is my hope that Chris will be able to join us. I know that Debbie is working with her to get the technology updated. So according to what I'm able to see on one of the four computer screens is that we do have a wonderful quorum and it will hopefully be joined by Chris soon. So at this time, if you would like to please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. All right, then moving on to 1.3 public comments. We do not have anyone here for the public comments. So I'm moving on to 1.4. Would someone like to make a motion to approve our minutes of September 24th, 2020? And if you want to. This is Marilyn. So moved. All right. This is Maggie. I'll second. All right, it's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the minutes? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All right. Great. Wonderful. Thank you. As I had stated at the beginning, we are truly just here for a special session to have an opportunity to talk about our 2021 budget in light of the fact that the city is planning to pass their city budget in the next few weeks. And so I would like to kind of talk through where we are at this point with our budget and some narrative. And I would like to preface it with the fact that I feel like Garrett Erickson and I have some positive news to share, which is always a delight to do when you're calling a special session. Usually those are not for positive updates. So what I'd like to share with you right now is thank you truly for arranging your schedules to be part of this special session. At this meeting, it is really necessary for us to approve a final library budget prior to the Common Council approving their full city fiscal budget. And to just give you a little bit of a narrative so that you have a greater understanding of where we are right now, as you're aware, if you can think back on July 23rd of this year, we submitted our original library budget proposal, proposal number one. And then, more recently, the city then shared sort of a revised library budget in which there was a financial difference of about $182,000. And that then resulted in, me reaching out to city administrator Todd Wolf and suggesting that he and his, the assistant city administrator meet with Garrett Erickson and myself to sort of talk through the budgets and just have an opportunity to have some sort of understanding because numbers are one thing, but when you actually have conversation about numbers, you end up having a greater understanding for why certain decisions are made or not made. And I would like to say that it was a really positive and productive meeting. And with everything going on, we managed to squeeze this in, I believe about 24 hours ago, less than 24 hours ago, and it really gave us an opportunity to share with our new city administrator sort of the history of library budgets over the years. And I know that some of you have been on this journey with me these last 10 years, not all of you, some of you are relatively new. And so one of the key highlights or some of the key highlights that I wanted to share with you that I think our Todd Wolf also felt was very helpful is that our library is actually funded less in 2020 than in 1996. So in 1996, our budget was 2,444,665. And in 2020, the budget was going to be 2,423,314. And I think it's really important for common council members, especially if they are new board of trustee members when they're new to really have an understanding of how budgets have been put together by our city for the various departments. And a key part of that amount, of that history of budgets is there was a five year period in which the library was frozen at the same flat rate for five years. We were the only city department that was treated in that fashion for the fiscal budgets of our city. And it was an opportunity during this great conversation that we had yesterday for Garrett Erickson to really share some key components of how our library has really become more efficient and has really been sort of the leader in variety of practices of how to manage as well as how to develop new table of organizations as well as utilize various technologies just to become more efficient with library services. And I know that all of you know that, but it was just good to point out that back in 1996, we did have 59.35 full-time equivalence of employees. And in 2020, we are at 38.75. And what was really wonderful about the conversation that we had with Todd Wolfe and his assistant, Carrie, is just them really having a greater scope of our history and what things have been done to demonstrate that we are being very responsible with taxpayer dollars. And we also were able to show at what point did the Meade Public Library actually join the city salary scale and at what point did we join the city insurance? So a good portion was just on history, which I think really gave a wonderful foundation of knowledge of where we are today. And the budget that we had proposed last year resulted in us receiving 1% less than I think it was transit and the library that received 1% less. And all of you remember, we had to then figure out how we were going to cover that and that resulted in us not being able to hire a staff person that we felt was necessary for our services. So that was just sort of the history part. And in the conversations and having greater understanding of what the city is going through, and we are all aware that we are in the middle of a pandemic, municipalities are struggling everywhere. And in having this conversation with Todd and Meade trying to really put forth the needs of the library and how we best can achieve our mission and how does that balance with the city having a $114 million budget and how monies can be shared throughout the city to the different departments so they can achieve what they need to do to provide services for citizens. The conversation was very positive and I'm really sort of pleased that as a result of that conversation, Todd was just like, it's so good to have this information and we now have an understanding of what you feel that you need for the city, but you need to understand that the city is really struggling with finances and we're just not too sure how we can really meet what you are asking for. After the conversation, and this is all within the last 24 hours, it's my understanding that Todd and his team went back and they really looked at the overall city budget and they were able to find a little bit more money to be able to help us with our city budget. So even though we had sent initially our proposed budget to you, which we got back in July and then we sent you the new updated budget that the city proposed that we consider today at this meeting, we now have a third proposal and that is the one that is on Board Docs for you right now. And in looking at that third budget, and I don't know if some of you are trying to scroll and trying to open it up on Board Doc, but I think maybe it would be helpful if, Garrett, if you just want to just maybe share what this third budget proposal option is and it's the one that Garrett and I have talked with that we think is a good one for our library board to consider today. Oh, and I have to, sorry about this, I have to try to turn his microphone on and try to see which other person he is. There we go. Thanks, Maeve. So as Maeve said, the updated budget's lower than what we had asked for and we assume that, like every organization we have costs going up, whether that's inflationary costs for supplies and books and so on as well as costs for personnel and so the city did give us the 2% to increase wages. The other thing that's going on this year that's really unique for us at the library is we have several staff who are planning to go on to the city's healthcare plan and that is money that is budgeted at the department level and so that really hits us when we have people that go on to the plan that weren't on it before and so I don't have the numbers in front of me, but as I recall, I think there were five people that were currently projecting to go on to the healthcare plan at the city and I believe, what was it Maeve? There was two family, two single and one spouse and employee, so five people and that's a significant amount as I recall, the family plans were closer to 30,000 each and so our healthcare costs are really what is driving up our costs significantly and so as we scroll through, I don't know that we need to go line by line through this, but just to say that in this latest budget, there is a proposed increase of $75,999 and that will primarily go towards wages and then if you go further into the document, there's a line in healthcare that is in the public services team, if you know our budget document is organized by our teams, our three teams, administration, public services and support services. It's the public services team that added some new staff that are taken on the healthcare, so they have one of the line items in there is a significant increase in healthcare costs and so those are some of the areas that we're struggling a bit with that we won't have covered and so that's where the discussion today for the board is in whether we want to look at some sort of, just running a deficit budget this year or whether we wanted to run an actual, come within the parameters and try and make it and equalize it out, so I guess I'll open it up if there's questions at this point. And before we take questions, so the third budget proposal, the amount that our total budget would be would actually be 2,499,313 dollars. So that is, it's definitely, it's a bit more than what we had in 2020. It is not what we had hoped for, but with Garrett Erickson and Debbie, working together they think that they can make this budget, you know, work for the library with this additional, with this addition that Todd Wolf shared with us this morning. He and his team worked last night and this morning shared the information that they were able to find some additional monies. So I know it's always challenging to talk about budgets, it's even more challenging when you're trying to do it in Zoom, but at this time, does anyone have any question or comment? Yeah, Mary Lynn, Donahue. I just want to make sure that I am looking at the right document which is 2021 MPL budget option three. Yes. Yes. And we only had two attachments, right? I believe that's where we're at, yes. All right, we're going over there. Which is good, I'm not questioning that, but I just wanted to make sure I understood that it was option three that were- Yes, yes. And so I know the document, we were debating on how to propose this, but so the first, the one that says budget proposal number one was the original ask that you guys approved earlier this summer. Proposal number two was after we had met with city administration and we were simply looking at, I believe, see at that point, there was different numbers. So they had actually just had the proposal, the 2% increase. And I'm trying to remember what else was in that one. We debated pulling that one down because it's confusing. So, but really what we're looking at, Maryland is number three is where we're at right now. So this is sort of a timeline during this budgetary process. And budget proposal number three sort of includes the amount that was shared, I believe, at the city finance and council meeting without the additional increase, I believe. So we've tried to make, this is just budget proposal number three that we are considering at this point. We were actually working on this document within the last hour, trying to just get the latest updates because this has really been changing as we talked to Todd and this team. So if it would be helped. Yes. Nate, I noticed on there, I forgot to change that 260,000 on the comments that should only be 26,064 in the comments. Where are you Debbie? It would be the account number, account number 2555150510340. That's the health insurance that was on with each supervisor. Right. So that's on only be 26. Yeah. It's just a posting error that we did with us rushing to get it out. All right. Thank you for that. That's where my question was. I have a 26, sorry. And I'll reissue that to the board. So you've got a correct copy. Right. And I think one of the challenges that the city has, and it's not alone, all the municipalities are having challenges with this is the rising cost of healthcare. And what is challenging this year for the city of Sheboygan is that if there's an increase in healthcare in your department or in the library, it is being asked by departments in the library to try to fund those new healthcare costs. And so that is why we're sort of showing that for our five additional staff going on insurance that that cost level is 91,716. And so when I was talking to Garrett about best case scenario for our library and what do we hope to accomplish today, it essentially is that we consider moving approval of this budget. And I sort of made out a motion that specifies that due to the work of our city administrator last night and early this morning, finding additional money that the city is giving us an additional of $75,999 over what we received in 2020 fiscal year budget. And that would mean that if we were to adopt that, that we would, our budget would go forward with just having a, we would be running it with a small deficit due to the additional healthcare cost. And if it's helpful at this point, I can make that motion. I'll read it better than I just tried to explain it. And if someone would like to second it, then we can have further discussion to see if this is where we wanna go. So I'm just wondering, does that make sense at this point? And just so you know, for those, Kathy Norman was able to join us and she's at a computer screen, I don't know, at least 18 feet away from me. So we have another board member. So at this point, I will just go ahead and make that motion. And then we can continue to have questions and comments about where we are with this budget. So I move approval to approve the third budget proposal from the city in the amount of $2,499,313, which includes the $75,999 increase over the 2020 fiscal year budget, which will leave the library with a small deficit due to the additional healthcare costs. Would someone like to make a second for that motion? Okay, so can you just clarify who it was that seconded for our minutes? So Chris. Chris. Okay, all right, thank you. So at this time, are there any questions or comments? I have a question. Maeve, who moved it? Maeve did. I did, I said I moved. It's hard to hear with my mask on, I'm sorry, I moved. That's fine. Okay. And then Kathy Norman just has a question. So, oh, and you know what? I need to turn on Kathy's microphone. Who are you, Kathy? Okay. Yeah, so my question is what is our plan? Can you turn your microphone down towards you? There you go. Thank you. So what is our plan for meeting this deficit if these healthcare costs turn out the way they're feared to? We're going to need to cut costs as the year goes on, like we do every year. And if we, at the end of the year have a deficit, we'd have to tap into reserves. So reserves are? It is, yes. That's pretty much where we're at. I think Chris had a question as well, maybe. Great. So did someone have a question? Yeah, I had a question similar to Kathy's. Okay. The deficit was going to continue to grow with the increase of costs of medical care, but you already answered it. Yes, and I think, you know, this is going to become a bigger issue across the city. We have a lot of people retiring and the healthcare costs are continuing to go up. And so I don't know what the answer to it is, but it's certainly not just a library or our department's issue, it's really going to become a city issue. And we were told at our meeting yesterday with Todd that he is going to be working very closely with our HR department as your well aware, Vicki Schneider is the new head of the HR department. And I know that in this coming year, there is going to be more time spent on researching the healthcare and seeing, you know, which options are really the best for our city employees. So it is not just our library that is struggling with this. As I said earlier, it's every department, it's everybody in this building, city hall. I think we all recognize that that is a challenging expenditure and going forward, looking to see if there's some other solutions that we can all embrace. Okay, looks Mary Lynn, Donahue. Just a couple of things. I did want to let the board know, and you may already know, but because our healthcare reserve fund is quite healthy, the proposed budget will re-institute the city contribution to HSA accounts for employees. So we think that's a pretty positive thing. I just would speak in favor of this. I think it redresses to some extent the inequities that the library has endured in previous budget processes. It provides some equity so that year over year, our increases are not coming on the basis of negative positions. It's not totally positive, but, it also avoids a huge fight. And I think the 3.1% increases is fabulous. And I think, frankly, Garrett and Mayne, through their incredible hard work are responsible for it. So I'm fully in support. Any other questions and comments? Another point I would like to make that it was the conversation that Garrett, Erickson and I had with our city administrator and with the assistant city administrator, it was really informative of getting good information from their perspective as well as our perspective. And there was real interest in wanting to learn more and have greater understanding. It even resulted in the fact that we felt it was such worthy of all of our time that we are planning to meet quarterly to really talk through the budget and talk about what things are coming up so that I think all of us can be more aware of how budgets are impacting our various departments throughout the year. And so that when we are getting to the point of the fall, when we're deciding next year's budget, everyone has more information of what went into the decision-making of why certain things are prioritized in various budgets. And I think it will help our city administrator to just add more knowledge to the overall global view that he needs to have on all of our departments. So as I said, it was very positive. And the mere fact that our conversations resulted in additional work to try to find some additional monies really demonstrates to me good faith effort in trying to help us get the monies that we need in order to fulfill our mission at the library. So I think Todd will very much for working closely with us in trying to present yet another budget to all of you. So any other comments or questions? And I'm just looking for the, it looks like I'm not getting anyone waving or hand at this time. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries. And again, thank you for being part of this meeting. We now can go on to a much, well, I would like to say it's a much lighter topic, but you know, I was telling poor Garrett, I said, you know, I think in light of where we are, I think we're gonna always have COVID-19 service responses on our agenda. So I am now gonna turn it over to Garrett and I told you this meeting was a positive one and then I'm really not too sure what he's sharing on 2.2. So let's hear what he has to say. Actually, these are fairly positive for such a bad topic, but as far as quarantine and materials go, so when we first started off in the spring, we weren't sure how the virus was actually transmitted. We were thinking it was more surface transmitted rather than air transmitted. And so we had put quarantine the first, when this first came out at 72 hours and then we ended up moving it to four days. Obviously that puts a little bit of stress on our materials that we have to store them. We're storing them in the basement and then also people have been somewhat upset sometimes because they get notifications. We've struggled with the notification piece on when we quarantine it because we don't touch it right away. It's set downstairs. And then sometimes people reach that, they get a notification that your stuff has not been turned in yet when it actually has. So the good news is the DPI just put out some new guidelines. They sent it out to the system directors who sent it out to all of us on September 30th, saying they have now changed the guidelines based on science from the CDC. And our stuff is now being, all of our materials are now being quarantined just for a day. And so they go downstairs for one day and then they're back up. And so that will help with our circulation numbers as well as some of these issues that we've had with certain patrons being notified that their stuff has not been turned in and so on. So I think that's a really good thing for us. A nice development. And then the other thing that I just wanted to mention briefly was that with the Congress passing the CARES Act this summer, earlier this summer, there was quite a bit of the grant was available for municipalities to use to pay for certain equipment that was designated because of the virus. And so just a couple of things that we've done with that, we have purchased two Hallison Foggers and they're sort of like, they look like almost like a garbage can shape, kind of a rectangle shape. Basically they spray, like if you think of kids that are sick, you put a vaporizer in their room, it's sort of like that very fine spray. And what it does is it sprays a whole room with hydrogen peroxide, which is 99.9% effective in killing these viruses, including COVID. And so we are using that now. We just received that a week or two ago and we've started to use it. It's a very simple way to basically fog a whole room and clean it up. And so when it can even be used, that the mist is so fine that you can use it in an office space or with computers and so on. So we are using that now. We've started off with our restrooms and stuff, but it'll really save us some time as opposed to hand cleaning everything. So we're pretty excited about that. The other kind of a high, more of an expensive purchase was the, we're getting new office furniture, which the board approved a while back. Now what we've added to that is glass shields in between the cubicles. And so that can help us with transmission of stuff through the air. And so that was about $14,000 and the foggers were approximately 28,000. So we were able to put that back as to get reimbursed through this federal carers money. And so that's effective safety equipment that we didn't have to pay for. So that's pretty exciting for us. So, but we think we're doing a better job of cleaning and keeping staff safe, I guess, is the bottom line. So, yeah, that's what I have to report today. We do have a meeting next week again, so. And I think all of you are aware that just looking at our Sheboygan County public health department numbers that Sheboygan County is sort of struggling with the increase in rides of positive cases in our surrounding area, in addition to the prison population. So I just hope that all of you continue to be healthy and safe. And I'm hoping that we can all sort of work together to slow down this curve and just keep our community safe during this pandemic. If I may jump in there too. And so Todd Wolfe and I did have some discussions about that, we're hoping that if it gets a lot worse and we have to close down or to go back to a phase that the library and the city would announce at the same time since they are joined rather than having us go first, you know, on city. So that is the thought that he agrees we should do this together. And really we're just didn't just again, we're keyed in on those hospitalization numbers. The capacity of the hospital is really the key metric that we're watching. So and so far that's been fairly stable. It's been around 10, 11, 12 most days. Any other questions or comments about the COVID responses from our library? Well, I Kathy Norman. Yeah, so I've heard in the community care just about a couple of bad encounters at the library. And last time you shared that your staff was taking some heat trying to impose the mask requirement. Has that gotten any better? Cause I keep thinking about it and feeling like I want to protect library employees from having to bear the brunt of, you know, people getting really nasty. It's not changed that much. I mean, it's day to day, every day is different. But some days we do struggle with certain people and you know, we have people that test it. And I think the real problem is, is there's just a lack of consistency across the community and what organizations enforce versus don't. And then I think if, you know, my own take is that if people get used to organizations that don't enforce and then they come to ours and then we do, then it makes us look like bad guys. And so I mean, we're really trying to do it just to keep people safe, staff and public. And so I mean, we think we're doing the right thing, but some people do get pretty heated over it. We are still getting people who are very grateful that we're providing free masks cause not all organizations and businesses are able to do that. And so the wonderful organization, who are they that are helping us? The Sheboygan mask makers. So talk about a wonderful organization that did not exist in 2019. This is a new one and it's really made such a positive contribution to our community because people are enjoying their creative endeavors. I've never seen so many different fabrics used as mask material and our citizens are greatly appreciative of those donations. Anything else from anybody? Well, our next meeting will be, oh, you know, next week. So we will see all of you next Thursday on the 22nd at 3 p.m. Would someone like to make a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Oh, love it. All of three of you. One of you can be a second. Oh, maybe Marcus will be second. He just popped up. So any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Okay. And aye. Any opposed? Thank you all for joining us today and may you continue to be healthy and safe.