MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE PLATTEKILL PUBLIC LIBRARY: JANUARY, 2018
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Amended
(2/22/18)
Plattekill
Public Library
Board
of Trustees
January
11, 2018
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM with the Pledge of
Allegiance.
Present were: Lynne Ridgeway,
President; Valerie Smith, Vice President; Karen Adamson, Trustee; Will Farrell,
Trustee; Joe Egan, Trustee; Luz Ledesma, Trustee; John
Georghiou, Director; Barbara Jacobini,
Treasurer; Donna Ebanks, Secretary
Excused: David Padilla
Public: SUT reporter, Mark Reynolds; Councilman Darryl Matthews;
Councilman Dean DePew, and Laura Dougherty.
Public Comment:
Mr. DePew suggested the Library Board
reserve the Community Room beneath the Library for their monthly Board meeting
as it is larger space than the Library and will better accommodate members of
the public. He then introduced newly
elected Town Board member Darryl Matthews who will be serving as Town Board
liaison to the Library. Mr. DePew
inquired about the Library’s status on the potential purchase of the current
library property. Lynne said that the engineer’s report was recently delivered
to the Library’s attorney and is under discussion. Mr. DePew requested to know
if the agenda item “approve salaries of staff,” is an approval of the
salaries as they were presented in the approved budget or if they had changed
since that time. John explained that
the salary line item has not changed, and the salary adjustments were within the
budget parameters of what was established. John
noted that the salary line item may change in the future as the Library’s
needs change. Joe questioned the validity of raises in respect to no changes to
the salary line item as presented in the approved budget. Valerie replied that
when the Board votes on the salary line item, it is not specific to individual
employees and that the Board sets an amount for salaries. Lynne further
explained that there would not be any changes to the salary line item, only
changes of the distribution of the funds within that line item; Luz concurred
with that explanation.
Mark Reynolds asked if Lynne, Valerie,
and Karen, voted no to vetting the current library property at the time of a
Board vote. Lynne replied that this was incorrect. Will said that they (Lynne,
Valerie, and Karen) had voted no to moving forward.
Valerie said that there are different understandings of what moving ahead
consists of. Mark also asked if the
Board is in favor of acquiring the current Library property.
Valerie explained that the Board is still in the process of performing
their due diligence. Joe noted that the process for the potential purchase of
the current library property is being done in a dissimilar fashion to how the
Board organized their procedure for the potential purchase of the Cider Mill
property. The Board engaged in further discussions regarding the differences in
the ways the current Library property and the Cider Mill property were vetted.
Mark also asked the Board the status of
the $9, 250 deposit money. Lynne
said they have not heard from the Library’s attorney regarding this matter.
Correspondence:
None
Secretary’s Report:
→
Motion to accept the December 14, 2017 regular Board meeting minutes as
amended to include three amendments was
made by Luz Ledesma and seconded by Karen Adamson.
All were in favor.
Joe
requested that the December 14th minutes be amended to include the
following statement:
Joe stated that documents Board members
receive are not presented in a timely manner and the Board is getting everything
backwards, without having seen the revisions.
Valerie
requested that the December 14th minutes be amended to include the
following statement:
Valerie stated that the documents
referred to in Joe’s statement were in fact first presented in September, and
a draft was presented to the Board for through discussion at a previous meeting
and then thoroughly explained at the last meeting.
Lynne
requested that the December 14th minutes be amended to include the
following statement:
Valerie said the final draft of the
document in question would be the same as the strikeout version.
Financial Report:
Barbara reviewed the financial report for
the Board.
Items of note:
·
The library received
some undesignated donations; discussion determined these funds would be used for
summer programming events.
7:57pm – Joe Egan left Board meeting to attend the
Town Zoning Board meeting.
·
Disclosure of
conflict of interest forms must be signed and returned to Barbara.
·
Letter of engagement
was received from Nugent & Haeussler and will be signed by John and Lynne.
·
Regarding the
Library’s Contingency Fund Policy: The OSC said the Library can put money into
the Capital fund provided the money is budgeted for.
→
Motion to approve the December payroll was made by Karen Adamson and
seconded by
Luz Ledesma; all others were in favor.
→ Motion
to approve the checks pending audit was made by Karen Adamson and seconded by
Luz Ledesma; all others were in favor.
→ Motion
to approve payment in advance of audit for the 2018 payroll and 2018 Central
Hudson bills was made by Will Farrell and seconded by Luz Ledesma; all others
were in favor.
→ Motion
to approve hiring Nugent & Haeussler to complete the 2017 AUD, and 990
reports was made by Will Farrell and seconded by Karen Adamson; all others were
in favor.
→ Motion
to approve unused sick time benefits through payroll was made by Karen Adamson
and seconded by Luz Ledesma; all others were in favor.
The Approval of major Budget line items
motion was tabled.
Warrant of checks was circulated for signatures.
Director’s Report:
Was
read and discussed.
Will
said that he spoke with Assemblyman Kevin Cahill’s office and their
representative would like to come to the Library to discuss grant funding. Will
had a conversation with a representative of Senator Larkin’s office as well
and was given links to websites that may have grants the Library is eligible
for.
John
noted that the weeding project is continuing to move ahead through the Adult
Fiction and Books on CD sections.
John
reported that through the MHLS Sustainable Library’s project, member libraries
have been offered an energy assessment of their buildings at a starting cost of
$875; John will contact MHLS for details.
The
Board discussed a letter of proposal from Dr. Katherine J. Beinkafner, Ph.D., to
perform water testing of the current Library building.
→ Motion to approve the money
needed for Dr. Beinkafner to test the water at the current Library building for
a cost not exceeding $1725. was made by Will Farrell and seconded by Luz Ledesma;
all in favor.
Committee Reports:
None
Unfinished Business:
The
approved Committee Appointments list was distributed as amended.
New Business:
→ Motion to approve the month
of February 2018 as Food for Fines month was made by Valerie Smith and seconded
by Karen Adamson; all others were in favor.
Annual
Review of Policies: Lynne will be emailing all Board member policies to review
and then discuss at the February Board meeting.
No
Friends liaison report was available as they did not meet in January.
Approval
of staff salaries item from the Director’s report was tabled as there was not
a quorum at that time.
→ Motion to enter into
Executive Session at 8:35pm with the Director’s participation to a have a
discussion about matters involving potential litigation, a real estate
transaction that may affect its value and without the Director’s participation
to discuss a personnel matter involving salary adjustment about a specific
individual was made by Valerie Smith and seconded by Karen Adamson; all others
were in favor.
Executive session was delayed in order to respond to
questions from Mark Reynolds. The Board engaged in a discussion regarding the
question of a possibility of conflict of interest in retaining Dr. Beinkafner to
perform the water testing as she sits on the Town Planning Board. Mr. DePew
suggested the Board have Dr. Beinkafner sign a non-collusion form.
Mr. Matthews added that he recently participated in instruction provided
by the State on determining a conflict of interest, and he would provide the
Board with a copy of the process The Board generally agreed that a non-collusion
form would be appropriate and will investigate further.
Executive session officially began at 8:44pm.
The Board came out of Executive Session at 9:15pm.
Adjournment:
The Board then adjourned at 9:15pm
Respectfully submitted by:
Donna Ebanks
Secretary