- like to call to order the Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees meeting for January 21st, 2026.
- So happy new year, everybody. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda from last meeting? It
- includes the minutes from December 10th, monthly financial report, monthly bills payment, personnel
- report, and board meeting calendar. Second.
- comment on the minutes from December we have an error in there under attendance I think Kathy it says
- you are in attendance I believe you weren't in December so we just made an edit to that in the minutes
- that we're gonna share on with the State Board of Accounts so as long as you all are good with that
- we'll proceed with those edits all in favor say aye aye those opposed say nay ayes have it
- And next, we're going to hear from Greer in the director's monthly report. OK. So you'll notice at the
- top of the report, it says average estimated door count for the month. We don't typically do that. The
- reason is our door count software was offline for much of December. So the daily visit count is an average
- based on a number of previous year's December door counts rather than an actual door count from our software.
- Total library card holders increased in 2025 from month to month every consecutive month. That's really
- exciting to see. Usually by increments of 100 to 200 patrons a month. Our total number of library card
- holders at the start of 26 is 58,931. That's about 42% of our county's total population. That's fantastic
- statistics for us. So we'll keep working on that and keep pushing for 50% of the county.
- As expected, we ended the year with the best overall circulation we've seen since before the pandemic.
- Most of this is due to incredibly strong and increasing digital circulation. Thanks once again to our
- outstanding collection development department for the selection, cataloging, and discovery solutions
- they oversee and enhance on a regular basis, and of course to all of our staff for consistently promoting
- and supporting the use of our collections at all service points.
- We recently added a new and somewhat unique digital circulation item, our Adobe Creative Cloud Suite.
- Patrons can now reserve a temporary license for Adobe Creative Cloud Suite using our room reservation
- platform. We're going to track these reservations started in 2026 alongside our digital collection
- statistics. And we look forward to sharing some new statistics and trends in terms of the use of Adobe
- Creative Cloud Suite as we see them taking shape.
- Our main downtown public elevators were offline for some extended periods of time in December. This
- isn't the first time this has happened, but there was quite a bit of that in December. We plan to replace
- the elevator soon, and our finance meeting report references how we're going to do this relative to
- the renewal of our bonds. In the meantime, a big thank you to Brian Leibacher and our entire building
- services team for managing these outages and for working closely with our elevator maintenance contractor
- to get these up and running as quickly as possible. And above all,
- Apologies to our patrons and thank you for your patience whenever these elevators go down. There were
- a ton of cool program updates and anecdotes from our December program offerings and rather than highlight
- a few, I just want to thank our public services staff for planning and delivering such outstanding programs
- and for engaging our patrons the way they do during these programs.
- We also had a hugely successful annual open enrollment process for staff benefits, both in terms of
- the ease of use of Paylocity's benefits portal and in terms of total number of staff who completed the
- open enrollment process in advance of the deadline. Most people don't know this, but open enrollment
- can be quite a headache when you've got over 160 employees and you need to get everybody to fill it
- out even if all they're going to say is, I decline benefits. But staff did great and Paylocity made
- it really, really easy for us.
- And 2026 is our last year under the current strategic plan. We'll share a final update on progress made
- on this plan and specific department action items completed.
- on or before the July board meeting, and at the start of quarter two, give or take, we're gonna form
- our new strategic planning committee, which traditionally involves one MCPL trustee, and we'll reach
- out with that information and invitation at that time. The next strategic plan will be shared in draft
- form at the November meeting and then formally adopted at the December meeting. Happy to answer any
- questions about the director's report.
- Quick question about the Adobe Creative Suite. Did we purchase more than one license, and what is the
- circulation time for that for people who choose to reserve it? So I don't know, Josh, if you or Lorraine
- want to speak to that with some specifics. I know you've both been involved in setting that up. Yeah,
- we went round and round about that.
- I wanna say two, we started with two, but I could be a little bit off and I'll circle back. We looked
- at the different models for also circulation and the institutions we looked at before were doing it
- for 24 hour periods, basically starting when you made your reservation, but they were academic environments
- and they keep different hours. So I think we landed on six hours,
- and maybe a max of 12 a week. But again, I'm not 100% sure. I will find that out and send it to you,
- Greer, and then get it back to you folks. It does say on Communico. Any corrections, Lorraine? Okay.
- I'm so sorry. Yeah, it's right on Communico, the same way you would do reserving a room or our Zoom.
- So it works very similar to that. So I may even be able to find that before this meeting is over and
- raise my hand and wave it back at you. And as a wave of apology, we were kind of doing a soft start
- with that, too. We're planning a good promotion for it to get it out. Yeah, that'll be great.
- Thank you. Thanks. And this wasn't in the report, but just, Greer, if you could give a reminder, I know
- we are looking at severe weather coming up.
- And just to remind people where they could look to see if that would impact the library. Definitely.
- So for the public, always check our website. As soon as we make a decision on opening late or closing
- altogether, we'll post it to the top banner of our website. But we also update our social media accounts,
- and we update our voicemails. So if patrons call the library and we're not open, they're going to be
- met with, hey, we're closed today, and here's why.
- Yes, we do. That's probably where most people get that information when it happens. Any other questions
- or comments before we move on? May I have a motion to hear and vote tonight to approve the Hoosier start
- proposal? Becky, would you come on up and tell us what you know?
- So as a reminder, the Hoosier start, and I apologize if I wasn't clear last month when we talked about
- this, I think it got confused with our perf plan. So just to kind of start out a little bit, this is
- a voluntary retirement plan for staff. It sits nicely next to perf, so it doesn't replace perf or compete
- with it in any way. It is a voluntary plan that staff would contribute to on their own.
- if they want to participate in it. And so it would basically be replacing our old our current 403 B
- plan that we have, which is a voluntary plan and Hoosier start is a state funded plan. So the state
- comptroller is the fiduciary on the plan. It gives us the ability to be part of a
- 457 plan that has more than 70,000 participants. There's more than $2 billion in assets in the plan.
- There are more than 60 counties who participate, fire departments, libraries, et cetera, across the
- state that participate in this plan. So it gives us some of that larger benefit for staff. One of the
- questions that we asked last time that I didn't have the answer to was how many libraries participate
- in the plan. And there are 93 participating libraries in the state of Indiana.
- And then as a reminder, this does offer folks the ability to do pre-tax or Roth contributions as a way
- to save for retirement. And then we're able to offer it for all staff. So part-time staff and full-time
- staff would be eligible to participate if they did want to contribute to their own retirement. And then
- there's a $15 minimum contribution per paycheck. So it makes it very affordable for staff and attainable
- for people to participate wherever they're at.
- in life and be able to save for retirement. And then there is a $54 annual fee that staff pay. If they
- want to participate, that's just the fee to manage the accounts. Most other plans have percentages.
- That's how they set up their fees. And so this is just a flat $54 admin fee that's part of
- staff participating in this. So there's no cost to the library. It's not replacing our current perf
- plan. It just kind of sets us next to that.
- Sorry, I know that was a lot of information, but just kind of as a refresher. Yeah. You may have answered
- it and I forget, so I apologize. Is this something that they can enroll and unenroll in at any time
- during employment? Yes.
- also change contributions to it at any point in time as well. So I did speak with three referrals as
- part of my work since our last meeting where I asked libraries and county governments who are participating
- in the plan how it's worked for their staff. And they've said that it is overwhelmingly positive benefit
- for staff. It's very easy to administer the education piece from nationwide is very I guess above and
- beyond what they had expected.
- Nationwide does come in to meet with folks to educate them and help them Look at their perf plan as
- well as their retirement plan and make decisions that are appropriate for them Any other questions before
- we vote All in favor of the Hoosier start proposal say aye aye Those opposed say nay I have it
- with an update on the question Jamie that you asked about the creative suite two licenses up to six
- hours per day and 18 hours per week reserved through level up location in Communico and up to seven
- days in advance for reservation thank you Josh okay next we're gonna hear about the remote work policy
- update and our next steps for that
- So just to be clear, we're not bringing the policy forward at this meeting. We just wanted to have more
- of a conversation and share some information and then plan to bring the new policy to you all next month
- to approve. So I think you can see the current policy. It's just a temporary policy that was approved
- last year. It's in the packet on page 52 and 53.
- Some reminders because I know not everyone has looked at that recently. This is a benefit that's new
- to MCPL as of 2025. It was requested from our staff during our compensation study with NFP. So NFP was
- the provider that came in for our compensation study.
- They did like staff feedback where everyone got the opportunity to answer surveys and provide some feedback.
- And then they also did focus groups with staff with managers and with some different cross sections
- of our folks. And one of the things that we heard from staff specifically was the request for remote work.
- And so we have worked very diligently to come up with a policy that we felt kept our culture because
- it is unique to be in a library. We don't want patrons showing up in our living rooms and we want folks
- to feel connected here at work. So we did want to protect the culture and still offer meaningful benefits
- for folks aligning with strategic goal number five.
- And then also staying equitable. Not every staff member is going to be eligible for remote work. Just
- given the nature of different positions that we have here. But we did come up with a policy that says
- you can do 90 percent or 20 percent of your non public facing work can be remote. So that gives our
- folks who are public facing some opportunities to do planning or
- You know training there are some different opportunities for those folks to do remote work that wouldn't
- be patron facing and then our folks who are not public facing have the ability to do up to one day a
- week remote. So it does give some meaningful benefit there for folks without going too far one direction
- or the other.
- And we do offer two different types of remote work. So there is an ongoing or like a standing remote
- arrangement. So folks can ask for like a specific day of the week to work remote or a couple of days
- a month where they're wanting to work remote from another location. And our policies has some requirements
- for the setup and the space and scheduling, communicating with their department and their manager. And
- then our one-off requests are a little bit more
- for like specific tasks or projects like one-off trainings that folks are attending. It works really
- nicely for folks who have like a home repair that's scheduled and they need to be home to let a technician
- in or some sort of a pre-arranged situation that they have where they just need to be in another location
- for the day. So we tried to give a whole array of folks the opportunity to work remote and the opportunity
- to have things that fit where folks were needing based on the feedback that they had given us.
- We are just over a year into the pilot program. We've seen success with it I have some stats for the
- number of folks who have made requests and have used the policy So we had 39 requests over the last
- year 15 of those were for ongoing Requests so those are standing maybe one day a week where folks are
- wanting to work remote on a specific day and Then we had 24 one-off requests. So those are
- for a particular training that someone was attending or a project or like I mentioned some of those,
- like I have a technician coming and I need to let them in. And so we've seen both sides of the policy
- used. I think probably the biggest thing that we've had staff question wise has been if we're going
- to open it up and make it more
- days remote and I don't think that we intend to do that because I feel like that 20% has been a really
- good balance and has given a meaningful opportunity for folks while also keeping the equity in mind.
- So I think that's been the only piece of feedback that I've heard from staff where a potential change
- would be looked at. But do you all have any questions or is there any other information that I can share?
- Anything that I've missed, Greer? No, just I would say,
- This all ties back to the compensation study and changes that we made in 22 and 23. This was one of
- the big things that came back from the staff focus groups, the desire to have something like remote
- or hybrid work options to some extent, with the understanding that because we're a public-facing institution,
- we couldn't have a blanket remote work policy of any kind, hence what Becky's been saying about a 20%
- limit. So we took a pretty conservative approach to drafting the policy.
- And a pretty conservative approach to reviewing the request. But like Becky said, so far it's worked
- really, really well. Our staff have used it very responsibly. So we'll probably come back next month
- and say we think we ought to formally adopt it and move it out of the pilot stage and into a formal
- benefit for staff. And one of the reasons we took it so seriously, apart from the fact that it came
- from so many staff members, is that we recognize it keeps us more competitive in terms of the job market.
- So yeah, we're pleased with how it's been working.
- Do we have any additional questions? Okay. Thank you. Motion to hear from Greer about the board bylaws
- update. Second. Okay. So last month we talked briefly about our bylaws.
- And I shared that the state library requires that we review and approve these whether we update them
- or not every three years. The last time we did that I think was 2019 at least formally. So we're a little
- behind and that's OK. One of the things that we want to ask.
- is something, Amy, I think that you had brought up in a meeting, which is would it make more sense to
- put public comment at the top of our agenda rather than leave it for the very end, maybe for the obvious
- reason that a lot of folks may come to our meetings expecting to say something about an agenda item
- that they've seen advertised when we post the agenda only to learn that we go through the vote before
- they have a chance. I believe the school board does this now. There are other public boards that put
- public comment at the very top.
- So that's something we might want to consider changing. Most of our bylaws are tied to Indiana law,
- specifically what's called the library law. So there's not a lot we do in changing that. But this is
- our opportunity to talk about that idea about public comment in our meeting agendas or anything else
- in the bylaws you all have questions about or want to make changes to. And then we would update these
- and I would inform the state library.
- Do you want to lead the public comment idea? Sure. I mean, just thinking through making good use of
- the public's time if they were to engage with the board and being able to provide comments so that if
- someone raised a concern that led us to act differently or ask different questions, I would like to
- hear that before I have the opportunity to hear that before we vote.
- Also, someone wants to make a simple comment. This is a lot of board meeting for them. It's an hour
- of someone's time to need to make a comment to make sure that they'll be here, able to sign in, do the
- things that they need to do. So being able to leave a comment in 15 or 20 minutes time seems more reasonable.
- So can we vote then to move that to the top? Yes.
- We can change that under, what is this, article four, meetings, section five, order of business shall
- be, and we'll just move public comment to the top. And if you're okay, we can leave board comment at
- the bottom just before adjournment. And are there any other thoughts on changes to the bylaws at this
- time? What we'll do is build into our calendar for
- 2028, heads up, we need to review the bylaws at the start of the next year, just so we don't miss it.
- It's an easy thing to overlook. And we'll kind of do a version of this every three years. But we can
- make this change immediately and we can start our February meeting with public comment at the top of
- the meeting. So it'll be after the call to order before the consent agenda? Correct. Sounds good. Great.
- OK. All in favor of moving that to the top of the meeting, say aye.
- Hi. Those opposed say nay. Okay, board bylaws, we will update that part. Thank you. Okay, now we have
- some new business. Motion to hear the resolution to transfer program funds between restricted categories
- from our director of finance, Gary. So this resolution is to transfer
- $26,390.06 from the program fund to the restricted gift fund. And what's happening here is that in our
- restricted gift fund, we have these program lines that are funded by endowed accounts. And so when the
- Friends of the Library
- Determine their annual gift to support programs and and for 2026 that amount is a hundred and forty
- three thousand dollars at this point and So we will take out of that hundred and forty three thousand
- dollars twenty six thousand three ninety and Move it to the restricted gift fund for these loans
- So are there any questions on that? No questions? Okay. All in favor of moving $26,390.06 from the program
- fund to restricted gift fund? Say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Ayes have it.
- a motion to hear the resolution to transfer operating funds between major categories. So this resolution
- is mainly for auditors. They insist that we do this. If we have a situation where our actual cost in
- a major category, which is wages and benefits, supplies, services,
- and capital spending. So if we go over in one of those categories and we're under in another category,
- we can transfer budget funds with a resolution like this. And so we were over on the wages and benefits,
- wages and benefits category. And so that's why we are transferring out of the other services and charges
- category $200,000.
- Questions To transfer operating funds between major categories say aye aye those opposed say nay I have
- it Thanks for hanging out Gary Motion to hear about the resolution to transfer funds to the rainy day fund
- And we'll talk a little bit more about the results, the operating results for the library in the Board
- of Finance meeting. But just for this resolution, we ended up with an operating surplus of $321,066.
- And so this resolution allows us to move those surplus funds
- from the operating fund to the rainy day fund. And yeah, that's what this is. Any questions? Will you
- remind us please what the purpose of the operating fund versus the rainy day fund can be used for or
- what the, can you explain a little bit more why this transfer is needed? Yeah.
- Operating fund is basically where all of the revenue from taxes to cover operations comes in. And then
- that's where we pay out all the wages and purchase books and everything. And so the operating fund starts
- out the year with a million dollar balance. That's the reserve balance in the operating fund.
- And so throughout the year, we have our revenue, we have our expenses. So now we're at the end of the
- year and we have 1,321,066 in the operating account. So this is like a reset. We're gonna reset it to
- a million dollars and we're gonna take the 321,000 and put it in the rainy day fund where we accumulate
- funds for future expansion
- That's generally what it's for, future expansion. By state law, we can use rainy day funds for a number
- of different things if we need to, which is why they call it rainy day. It's very different from library
- improvement and reserve fund, for example, which can only be used for specific types of projects. So
- that's one reason why we keep a healthy balance in the rainy day account and transfer funds to it whenever
- we can, because it's basically a savings account for the library.
- For what? I'm sorry. Could the money be used for the bookmobile that they're trying to? I don't know
- if we could use it for something like a bookmobile. We have our funds for the bookmobile. They're paid
- for by the bond funds. But for rainy day, I don't know if that would qualify. I would have to check.
- If we had not planned for funding the bookmobile with the bond fund, which we did, then we could. We
- could use rainy day funds.
- keep a healthy balance and all the time just in case. Yeah. Emergency situations as well. Yes. All in
- favor of transferring the funds to the rainy day funds, say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Ayes have
- it. Thank you, Gary.
- Next up, we have nominations for our board of trustee officers for the next year. I'm going to start
- off by nominating Chris as secretary again. Anyone want to second? How about Amy Shaughnessy as treasurer?
- I nominate.
- I'm going to nominate you to be vice president. Thank you. And then Jamie for president. OK. All right.
- OK. And the reason then Whitney is taking over for vice president for Kathy is because Kathy is leaving
- us, resigning her tenure. She's given many, many years to the library. So thank you, Kathy. It's been
- my pleasure.
- I'm humbled by your service, Kathy. I know you've been a part of the library for a very, very long time
- in different capacities. The 1970s, in fact. In fact, I met my husband here. Oh, wow. I did not know
- that. Well, on behalf of everyone at MCPL, thank you so much for your service. We will miss you.
- It's time. It's time. You're welcome. OK. Do we have any public comments?
- Last time, I ask at the end. We do. Hi. I'm Paula Gray over to you. I work here at the library. I've
- worked here at the library for like 30 years. I'm the web administrator, but I recently just became
- the union president. I just wanted to introduce myself to the board, let you know that.
- Tomorrow at the library, 1130 to 130, staff there in the union are using their lunch time to have a
- little treat and greet. So if any of you are available, want to come by and meet some other union members
- or get some coffee and cookies, chat about the union in any regard, you're welcome to do so. That's
- all I have. Thank you very much.
- not to embarrass or anything, but Paula, as our web administrator, is the one who has single-handedly
- been modifying all of our PDFs on our website, including our board content, and making them HTML and
- more accessible. So thank you for that work, Paula. Yeah. OK. At this time, we are adjourned. I'd like
- to call to order the Monroe County Public Library Board of Finance Committee meeting for January 21.
- I would like to nominate myself as president for the board of finance and Chris Hall as secretary. Anyone
- want a second? Do we take a vote? Okay, all in favor say aye. Those opposed say nay. Okay, ayes have
- it. Okay, now we're gonna hear from Gary for the review of investment report and policy.
- So Indiana code requires each local board of finance to have an annual meeting in January. This meeting
- provides an opportunity to review the library's investment policy and the investment report and go over
- finance plans for the upcoming year. 2025 has been a year heavily influenced by Senate Bill 1, which
- will decrease the expected annual revenue growth in 2026.
- by about $358,000. The library has implemented operational changes to prepare for the revenue reduction,
- including a reduction of five full-time employees over the 2025-26 time frame. The 2025 staff reductions
- and reducing the evening hours for the downtown location have had an impact
- in the library's efforts to keep 2025 operating costs lower than the 2025 operating revenue. The 2025
- operating surplus of about 321,000 was less than last year's surplus of about 803,000. For the next
- few years, it'll be a challenge to have any operating surplus.
- The third page in the Board of Finance report is the balance sheet, and it shows the cash balance by
- bank and by fund. The total cash balance for all MCPL funds at the end of 2025 is about $8,012,000 compared
- to about $8,064,000 at the start of 2025.
- The rainy day fund will have a balance of about $3,365,000 after the 2025 surplus transfer. And a million
- of that balance is kept in reserve. So $2,365,000 is the balance carried forward for future planning
- in the rainy day fund. Most of the library's cash is at First Financial Bank,
- where we have a checking account and a money market account that is currently earning 3.1% a year. The
- balance in the money market account at the end of the year was about $7.8 million. Interest earnings
- for 2025 on the money market account funds was about $215,000.
- On the second page of the Board of Finance report, I have presented an option for a long-term plan to
- finance future projects with funds from issuing future bonds. Looking ahead to 2027 and beyond, we've
- started planning for the next general obligation bond. The current general obligation bond
- was for $2 million and it was issued in 2021. So it's a six-year bond and it'll be paid off at the end
- of 2027. So our current plan is to renew the bond, which is a process involving bond attorneys and the
- process will start in early 2027. So next year at this time, that's gonna be on the agenda.
- And we expect it to be a seven-year bond for $3 million. The current six-year bond is being used to
- purchase the new bookmobile. And then facility needs like elevator repairs and that type of thing. And
- it's also being used for technology needs.
- We have a replacement cycle that keeps our tech equipment from becoming obsolete. And so bond funds
- are the source of funds for buying computers and tech equipment software. How often do we like the cycle?
- I think it's five years. So
- Looking ahead to the new bond that would cover the 2028 to 2034 timeframe, we would still use the bond
- to pay for facility needs and technology needs. One major additional project that we're considering
- for the next bond is the replacement of the tall shelving at the main branch.
- so that it has shelving similar to what is at the southwest branch, which provides a big improvement
- in visibility. Another big project being discussed is the need to replace the aging elevators at the
- main branch. Maintenance is extremely costly for the old elevators, and reliability is deteriorating rapidly.
- So next year at the annual Board of Finance meeting, we will discuss the bond renewal in more detail.
- And then the operating fund surplus report is on page four of this report. And this report shows the
- actual revenue and operating cost trends from 2021 to the present.
- and an estimate for revenue and operating costs for 2026. We won't go into the detail unless someone
- has a question. It's more of an informational report to put 2025 operating numbers in context with past
- years and the upcoming year. So the final report in the packet is the investment policy.
- We haven't made any changes to that this year. And if there's any questions on that, I'd be happy to
- talk about them. That's all I have. Any questions?
- Assuming things may change funding-wise for libraries in the future, will it make a difference? I mean,
- will we just update it on a? Yeah, I expect we'll sort of see this long-term plan get adjusted every
- year. And so, yeah, just depending on what happens, we may just be struggling to keep our
- head above water for several years. But on the other hand, something may change. We could be in a position
- where revenue does go up as fast as it did in the years leading up to when we built the Southwest Branch.
- You'll notice on page two, there's a reference to the subsequent bond and the idea of something like
- an East Branch
- construction project. So this is something we've kind of kicked around very quietly among ourselves
- for a few years. It's not a commitment necessarily to building another southwest, but on the east side.
- But a number of us, Gary and myself in particular, have been talking about how we need to continue to
- look for opportunities to expand MCPL's presence, physical presence throughout the county. And the east
- side is conspicuously without any MCPL presence apart from our
- outreach services department. So we want to keep that in our minds as we're planning financially for
- the long term that there should be an opportunity somewhere down the road to continue to expand our
- footprint. Don't really know exactly when it's going to be, so we're keeping that in our reports as well.
- That's it. Okay, thanks Gary. Okay, we don't have any more questions comments. Motion to adjourn. Second,
- we are adjourned.