WEBVTT 00:00:01.346 --> 00:00:08.857 - I'd like to call to order the Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees meeting for August 19, 00:00:08.857 --> 00:00:16.893 - 2026. If you'd like to go around, let's introduce ourselves. And if you want to share what you're reading, 00:00:16.893 --> 00:00:24.404 - you may. I'm Nancy Van Allen, and I'm reading the Promise Boys YA book. I'm Chris Hall, and my book 00:00:24.404 --> 00:00:27.934 - club just finished The Pages by Hugo Hamilton. 00:00:29.474 --> 00:00:38.405 - I'm Amy O'Shaughnessy, and I'm reading Land by Maggie O'Farrill. I'm Greer Carson. I'm reading Denial 00:00:38.405 --> 00:00:47.511 - of Death by Ernest Becker, and we are playing Neo 3 on the PS5. Jamie Burkhart. I have not started yet, 00:00:47.511 --> 00:00:55.742 - but checked out Wintering by Katherine May. Whitney Eads. And I am reading The Shell Seekers. 00:00:57.858 --> 00:01:05.903 - I'm Jennifer Whitley, and I will translate what I'm reading, how to talk so that children will listen 00:01:05.903 --> 00:01:13.949 - and how to listen so that children will talk. I'm Becky Hill, and I'm reading Biological War by Annie 00:01:13.949 --> 00:01:22.073 - Jacobson, which happens to be the scariest book I've ever read in my life. Yeah, it's nonfiction. It's 00:01:22.073 --> 00:01:27.358 - really scary. At this time, we'll see if there's anybody available 00:01:27.650 --> 00:01:34.684 - would like to have a public comment? Nobody online? No? OK. Can I get a motion to approve the consent 00:01:34.684 --> 00:01:41.580 - agenda from the minutes from July 15, monthly financial report, monthly bill for payment, personnel 00:01:41.580 --> 00:01:48.752 - report, and the board meeting calendar? So moved. Second. All in favor of approval, say aye. Aye. Those 00:01:48.752 --> 00:01:55.855 - against, say nay. Ayes have it. Motion approved. Now we're going to hear from Greer for our director's 00:01:55.855 --> 00:01:56.958 - monthly report. 00:01:57.698 --> 00:02:03.627 - OK, July was another very strong month for overall circulation. Our monthly featured e-resource last 00:02:03.627 --> 00:02:09.849 - month was Comics Plus, which saw an increase in digital checkouts over the previous month. That's usually 00:02:09.849 --> 00:02:15.895 - what happens with our featured e-resource. Our collection development team also met with OCLC reps and 00:02:15.895 --> 00:02:21.824 - learned that we are now one of their featured public libraries in WorldCat. So for those who may not 00:02:21.824 --> 00:02:27.518 - know what it is, OCLC stands for Online Computer Library Center. It was started in the late 60s. 00:02:27.714 --> 00:02:34.445 - under a different name, and they have been helping libraries share technology and data and other resources 00:02:34.445 --> 00:02:40.798 - for well over 50 years. Among other services, they provide the largest online library catalog in the 00:02:40.798 --> 00:02:47.466 - world, known as WorldCat. We and tens of thousands of other libraries get all or part of our MARC records 00:02:47.466 --> 00:02:53.820 - from WorldCat or some service from OCLC. They also own and maintain the Dewey Decimal Classification 00:02:53.820 --> 00:02:55.518 - System, believe it or not. 00:02:55.650 --> 00:03:01.304 - And I think they were the ones responsible for printing those universal library checkout cards from 00:03:01.304 --> 00:03:07.128 - way back in the day that always looked the same. OCLC are the ones who manufactured that. They stopped 00:03:07.128 --> 00:03:12.952 - doing that in like the late last decade, I think. So being a featured public library on OCLC, WorldCat 00:03:12.952 --> 00:03:19.003 - means that many more libraries will see our records and have more direct access to our collections online. 00:03:19.003 --> 00:03:20.190 - So it's good for us. 00:03:21.346 --> 00:03:27.124 - We haven't yet finalized our summer reading program numbers, but preliminary data suggests we may have 00:03:27.124 --> 00:03:32.733 - another record-breaking year of participation on our hands. There are several program highlights in 00:03:32.733 --> 00:03:38.623 - this month's report, including a very successful children's cave painting program, a dinosaur excavation 00:03:38.623 --> 00:03:43.166 - program at Ellisville, and a successful reprise of Dirt Fest with 165 attendees. 00:03:43.714 --> 00:03:50.427 - There are also a few corrections to point out regarding children's program stats in the report. Some 00:03:50.427 --> 00:03:57.273 - of you have maybe already done the math to see that the 48 programs that we held in July in children's 00:03:57.273 --> 00:04:03.919 - are broken down like this. Twenty-one programs from birth to six, the report says one. Twenty-three 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:10.632 - programs from tween, the report says 11. And the all ages programs we did four, the report says one. 00:04:10.632 --> 00:04:12.958 - So one 11 and one do not equal 48. 00:04:13.314 --> 00:04:19.252 - But 21, 23, and four do. So that's the correction. All three MCPL branch locations serve as cooling 00:04:19.252 --> 00:04:24.894 - stations during the hottest days of the year. This means that citizens who don't have reliable 00:04:24.894 --> 00:04:31.010 - air conditioning or cooling options on those days will know that MCPL is an option, along with several 00:04:31.010 --> 00:04:36.830 - other community organizations. We do the same thing on the other end of the temperature spectrum. 00:04:36.930 --> 00:04:43.913 - By serving as a warming station during the coldest winter days and this service and its community messaging 00:04:43.913 --> 00:04:50.507 - is coordinated by the Monroe County Emergency Management Team They reach out to us gonna ask if we're 00:04:50.507 --> 00:04:57.166 - willing to do it. We always say yes There is a new Bloomington Transit stop right outside of southwest 00:04:57.166 --> 00:05:01.886 - It's the seven bus which runs south on Walnut all the way to Gordon Pike 00:05:02.434 --> 00:05:09.456 - We understand that the addition of this new stop, which was maybe a couple of months ago, was in part 00:05:09.456 --> 00:05:16.340 - at least a result of some MCPL patrons contacting Bloomington Transit and requesting something like 00:05:16.340 --> 00:05:22.398 - this. So we're very, very glad to see this because casting our minds back to the public 00:05:22.498 --> 00:05:27.850 - input we received on what we wanted to do with our Southwest branch and specifically where should it 00:05:27.850 --> 00:05:33.573 - be located. One of the criteria that were listed from the public was be as close to a bus line as possible. 00:05:33.573 --> 00:05:39.137 - We weren't able to meet that even though we checked off most of the other boxes with our Southwest site. 00:05:39.137 --> 00:05:42.846 - And so now we can check that box off as well. So that's really great. 00:05:43.426 --> 00:05:48.951 - We are in the final stages of building the new bookmobile with a handful of expected wrinkles to iron 00:05:48.951 --> 00:05:54.747 - out in terms of our original specifications, the products available and all of those things. We're getting 00:05:54.747 --> 00:06:00.164 - about biweekly updates at this point from the vendor and we expect the vehicle to be ready close to 00:06:00.164 --> 00:06:05.960 - the stated deadline of late September to be safe. We might say it will be early October, but we're getting 00:06:05.960 --> 00:06:06.718 - pretty close. 00:06:07.266 --> 00:06:13.115 - On a similar note, our request for proposals for the downtown elevator upgrades has been out there since 00:06:13.115 --> 00:06:18.963 - early to mid-July. We have received bids from a few vendors and we're going to close the bidding process 00:06:18.963 --> 00:06:24.589 - at 5 p.m. on September 4th, which we had stated when we put the RFPs out. At that time, we will then 00:06:24.589 --> 00:06:30.214 - schedule a brief meeting for us as a board to open those bids publicly and read them aloud, which is 00:06:30.214 --> 00:06:31.774 - what we are required to do. 00:06:33.442 --> 00:06:39.383 - And finally, Staff Day is scheduled for Tuesday, September 15th, which is the day before our September 00:06:39.383 --> 00:06:45.209 - board meeting, which is out at Southwest. A reminder to everyone that we do close all MCPL locations 00:06:45.209 --> 00:06:51.266 - for Staff Day so we can devote an entire day to professional development, team building work, and making 00:06:51.266 --> 00:06:57.035 - connections across library departments and individual staff. We'll send out more information to you 00:06:57.035 --> 00:07:01.534 - all soon as we typically invite our board to attend part or all of Staff Day. 00:07:03.490 --> 00:07:09.866 - Happy to answer any questions you have about the director's report. Just a question about now that we 00:07:09.866 --> 00:07:16.117 - have the best service out there by Southwest, is the bookmobile still going to be in that same area 00:07:16.117 --> 00:07:22.493 - as often or at the same locations? We don't have any plans to change the bookmobile schedule of stops 00:07:22.493 --> 00:07:28.931 - at this time. Yeah. So no change is expected right now, except when the bookmobile doesn't make it out 00:07:28.931 --> 00:07:33.182 - because it's in the shop or the weather. Yeah. Any other questions? 00:07:33.858 --> 00:07:44.342 - Comments? OK. Now we're going to hear from Gary about the 2027 budget review process. So I left a couple 00:07:44.342 --> 00:07:54.827 - of handouts at your desk, the Form 3 public advertisement for the budget, and then just some information 00:07:54.827 --> 00:08:03.614 - that we have now that we know what the assessed value is for the county. So last month, 00:08:03.810 --> 00:08:14.978 - We went over the first draft of the 2027 budget. The growth quotient for 2027 is 6%. Total estimated 00:08:14.978 --> 00:08:26.368 - operating revenue for 2027 is about $12.7 million. And revenue in the debt fund to cover bond payments 00:08:26.368 --> 00:08:29.022 - will be about $640,000. 00:08:29.922 --> 00:08:38.470 - So total spending budget, including the operating fund, the bond payments in the debt fund, and the 00:08:38.470 --> 00:08:47.019 - rainy day fund, is about $14.6 million. After last month's board meeting, I met with our Department 00:08:47.019 --> 00:08:55.738 - of Local Government Finance representative to go over all the numbers that have been entered into the 00:08:55.738 --> 00:08:58.046 - new gateway budget system. 00:08:59.042 --> 00:09:08.691 - She confirmed that everything is OK so far in the budget system. And then this morning, as I was going 00:09:08.691 --> 00:09:18.152 - through this stuff, I circled it on the Form 3. But for the debt fund budget, there's nothing there. 00:09:18.152 --> 00:09:27.614 - And I entered $640,000 on Form 1, which is where the data entry happened. Anyway, they're fixing it. 00:09:30.658 --> 00:09:42.155 - So the next big step will be the county budget sessions, which begin on September 2. They do these over 00:09:42.155 --> 00:09:53.321 - a series of meetings. The binding budget reviews take place on our binding budget review takes place 00:09:53.321 --> 00:10:00.286 - on the last day of the budget sessions, which is September 16. 00:10:01.666 --> 00:10:11.350 - Same day as our September board meeting. So Greer can't be in two places at once. So he'll be at the 00:10:11.350 --> 00:10:21.418 - MCPL board meeting, and I'll go to the county budget session. And that board meeting, that MCPL meeting, 00:10:21.418 --> 00:10:31.486 - will be at Southwest in September. So now I'm going to focus on the form three, the notice to taxpayers. 00:10:32.322 --> 00:10:44.581 - And depending on how the county budget hearings go on September 16, the numbers on this budget notice 00:10:44.581 --> 00:10:57.321 - could possibly change. Right now, there's a programming issue, as I mentioned, with the debt fund budget. 00:10:57.321 --> 00:11:00.446 - And so once that's fixed, 00:11:01.538 --> 00:11:12.927 - And once we get past the public hearings or the county budget hearings, then the county will submit 00:11:12.927 --> 00:11:24.430 - the public notice in Gateway. And it has to be submitted at least 10 days before the public hearing. 00:11:24.430 --> 00:11:30.238 - So the public hearing is going to be on October 6, 00:11:31.234 --> 00:11:40.278 - So between September 16 and October 6, this will have to be submitted. And I'll be checking in with 00:11:40.278 --> 00:11:49.593 - them frequently to make sure it does. So let's talk about what's on this form. So just kind of reading 00:11:49.593 --> 00:11:58.366 - it, notice is hereby given to taxpayers of Monroe County Public Library, Monroe County, Indiana. 00:11:58.498 --> 00:12:08.503 - that the proper officers of Monroe County will conduct a public hearing on the year 2027 budget. Following 00:12:08.503 --> 00:12:18.414 - this meeting, any 10 or more taxpayers may object to a budget tax rate or tax levy by filing an objection 00:12:18.414 --> 00:12:27.390 - petition with the proper officers of Monroe County, not more than seven days after the hearing. 00:12:29.250 --> 00:12:38.110 - The objection petition must identify the provisions of the budget, tax rate, or tax levy to which taxpayers 00:12:38.110 --> 00:12:46.971 - object. If petition is filed, Monroe County shall adopt with the budget a finding concerning the objections 00:12:46.971 --> 00:12:55.339 - in the petition and testimony presented. Following the aforementioned hearing, the proper officers of 00:12:55.339 --> 00:12:58.046 - Monroe County will meet to adopt 00:12:58.210 --> 00:13:13.216 - following budget. So the public hearing date is Tuesday, October 6, at 5 PM at the Monroe County Courthouse, 00:13:13.216 --> 00:13:26.846 - third floor. The adoption meeting is two weeks later at 5 PM at the courthouse on the third floor. 00:13:27.426 --> 00:13:41.776 - Shifting down to the numbers, the first column number two there, the rainy day budget, $730,000. The 00:13:41.776 --> 00:13:56.126 - general fund budget, $13,248,497. And the debt service budget is $640,713. And the next column over. 00:13:56.802 --> 00:14:10.062 - is the revenue, not all the revenue. On the general line, it shows $8,781,346. That's just the property 00:14:10.062 --> 00:14:22.174 - tax levy, so it doesn't include local income tax and other stuff. So we have the general fund. 00:14:23.714 --> 00:14:37.032 - levy and then the debt service levy of 639,713. We don't have any excess levy appeals. So this year, 00:14:37.032 --> 00:14:50.349 - it's showing this year's levy, 8,284,289, and the debt levy. So you can see that the increase in the 00:14:50.349 --> 00:14:53.118 - general fund levy is 00:14:53.250 --> 00:15:11.171 - is 6% and 6.82 for debt service. So the other data that I gave you, I'll kind of talk about it now. 00:15:11.171 --> 00:15:22.462 - In early August, we got the assessed value figure. So in 2027. 00:15:23.202 --> 00:15:41.691 - The assessed value is $11,068,322,579. And so to calculate the tax rate, it would be the operating levy 00:15:41.691 --> 00:15:48.446 - divided by the assessed value of $100 00:15:51.394 --> 00:16:05.128 - it's the assessed value divided by $100. And that's the figure that we divide the operating levy into 00:16:05.128 --> 00:16:20.478 - to get the 7.93% operating fund tax rate and the 0.58% debt fund tax rate. So a total tax rate of 8.51% for 2027. 00:16:20.930 --> 00:16:35.290 - Comparing that to the current year, 2026, the assessed value went down by about $21 million. So in 2026, 00:16:35.290 --> 00:16:48.830 - the assessed value dropped from the previous year by close to $100,000. But when you look at 2025, 00:16:49.922 --> 00:17:00.836 - the assessed value in 2025 increased by more than a billion dollars. So a huge increase there. And then 00:17:00.836 --> 00:17:11.959 - on the reverse side of that page, it kind of gives you the long range look at what's happened to assessed 00:17:11.959 --> 00:17:18.046 - value over the years and what's happened to the tax rate. 00:17:18.530 --> 00:17:35.795 - So we can see that from about 2013 to 2022, nine years, we were over 9%. And then in 2023, assessed 00:17:35.795 --> 00:17:45.982 - value went up by 17, by about 18%, which is a lot, went up 00:17:46.626 --> 00:17:59.288 - So the tax rate dropped to 7.85%. From 9.25, it dropped down to 7.85%. And then we can see from there 00:17:59.288 --> 00:18:11.950 - that it went up a couple of years. And now it's as if there are some corrections going on. And we may 00:18:11.950 --> 00:18:15.550 - be in this mode for a while. 00:18:16.226 --> 00:18:25.883 - So that's where we're at. And are there any questions? I guess it's just about some of this, but this 00:18:25.883 --> 00:18:36.108 - is based on property taxes for the community. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. So when you get your property tax statement, 00:18:36.108 --> 00:18:43.966 - you'll see the library listed on there with their portion. Can you remind us what? 00:18:45.122 --> 00:18:57.262 - how the library tax rate is set. How the library tax rate is set. How does it get adjusted? How is that 00:18:57.262 --> 00:19:09.168 - set? There are basically two numbers that determine that. It's the growth quotient. When we take last 00:19:09.168 --> 00:19:14.654 - year's tax levy and apply the growth quotient, 00:19:15.554 --> 00:19:25.876 - that's the tax dollars we're gonna get. And when we know that, and we know what the assessed value is, 00:19:25.876 --> 00:19:36.098 - that it's just a calculation of those tax dollars, their percentage of the assessed value, and that's 00:19:36.098 --> 00:19:43.614 - the library rate. It's really the growth quotient that is set by the state 00:19:44.930 --> 00:19:55.342 - That is the real determining factor along with total assessed value. That's just a matter of what happens 00:19:55.342 --> 00:20:00.254 - from year to year in terms of building and so on. 00:20:12.450 --> 00:20:26.157 - Next up, we're going to hear from Becky about the 2027 Health Insurance Review and Renewal Process. 00:20:26.157 --> 00:20:29.310 - Give me just a second. 00:20:47.458 --> 00:20:52.978 - So we'll just go through these slides. I just wanted to have something for you guys to look at as we 00:20:52.978 --> 00:20:58.771 - talk through everything. There's nothing that we need to do at this point. We thought it would be helpful 00:20:58.771 --> 00:21:04.401 - just to go over an overview of the benefits and provide a general refresher for what we offer and what 00:21:04.401 --> 00:21:09.374 - will be part of our open enrollment and what you all can expect in the next coming months. 00:21:10.306 --> 00:21:16.419 - So we work with J.A. Benefits, which has been our broker for years. We're really fortunate to work with 00:21:16.419 --> 00:21:22.296 - them. They will come and present a little bit later this fall before we hit open enrollment to talk 00:21:22.296 --> 00:21:28.350 - through some things with just the health insurance industry in general and then some trends and things 00:21:28.350 --> 00:21:34.286 - that they're seeing and specifics on our plans. They really are fantastic partners for us. They do a 00:21:34.286 --> 00:21:39.870 - really good job not only negotiating really good rates for us and helping us with strategy and 00:21:40.002 --> 00:21:44.510 - structure for our benefits but they also offer a lot of help for our staff. 00:21:44.578 --> 00:21:50.414 - So if folks have issues with filling or trouble navigating their health insurance or any of the benefits 00:21:50.414 --> 00:21:56.139 - that we offer, JA has specific folks who do help with those things and we can connect folks with those 00:21:56.139 --> 00:22:01.809 - specialists at JA and they help them confidentially navigate those things. So I can speak from my own 00:22:01.809 --> 00:22:07.534 - experience that they're really great at doing that and helping answer questions, but I know that a lot 00:22:07.534 --> 00:22:13.315 - of our staff really appreciate that too. So one of those things that nobody ever sees, but we do really 00:22:13.315 --> 00:22:13.982 - appreciate. 00:22:15.330 --> 00:22:21.543 - So I will go over just a quick overview of our benefits that we offer. I'm happy to answer questions 00:22:21.543 --> 00:22:27.756 - if you have any as we go through everything. And then I'll just give you a preview of what to expect 00:22:27.756 --> 00:22:33.908 - for our renewal from a timeline, not from rates or anything. So the benefits that we offer, this is 00:22:33.908 --> 00:22:40.798 - the same thing that we showed last year. So it should look familiar to most of you. It does have, there's four. 00:22:40.866 --> 00:22:46.769 - I guess, columns across that show the different hour statuses. So we have staff who are 37 and a half 00:22:46.769 --> 00:22:52.729 - hours a week. That's considered full time. And then we have 25 hours, 20 hours, and 15 to 18 hours per 00:22:52.729 --> 00:22:58.516 - week. Those different classes give folks flexibility kind of based on their own needs and then give 00:22:58.516 --> 00:23:04.419 - us the ability to staff the way that we need to staff within the library. So some of the benefits are 00:23:04.419 --> 00:23:07.486 - different based on what hour status folks fall into. 00:23:09.090 --> 00:23:14.927 - So when you talk about benefits, the big ones folks think about are health insurance, dental and vision. 00:23:14.927 --> 00:23:20.541 - Our health insurance is through Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. We do offer three plans. So we have a 00:23:20.541 --> 00:23:26.155 - PPO plan that has a $500 deductible, and then we have two high deductible health plans that we offer 00:23:26.155 --> 00:23:31.102 - to give our full-time folks options to pick what works best for them and their families. 00:23:31.202 --> 00:23:38.384 - The library pays 100 percent of the premium for employee only coverage and then we pay 80 percent if 00:23:38.384 --> 00:23:45.637 - someone is covering themselves plus a spouse a child or family. And that is only offered to full time 00:23:45.637 --> 00:23:50.046 - staff that is an ACA requirement and so we can't change that. 00:23:50.978 --> 00:23:57.849 - Our dental and our vision insurance are both offered through HRI. So our dental is HRI paramount. That 00:23:57.849 --> 00:24:04.654 - is a cost share between the employee and the employer. And that is offered for staff all the way down 00:24:04.654 --> 00:24:11.592 - to 20 hours per week. And then our vision insurance is through IMED. And the employee pays 100% of that 00:24:11.592 --> 00:24:18.730 - premium. But it is a benefit that folks can enroll in. Vision insurance is like $3 a paycheck for employee 00:24:18.730 --> 00:24:20.798 - only. So it's not a huge cost. 00:24:21.442 --> 00:24:27.998 - on the employees' part for those benefits. Can I ask a question real fast? Yeah. So when you are doing 00:24:27.998 --> 00:24:34.872 - some of these, is family considered spouse and children? Because sometimes it's different places separated. 00:24:34.872 --> 00:24:41.237 - If you add the spouse, then it's going to be more and all that. So are you guys just all family? Is 00:24:41.237 --> 00:24:45.374 - everybody that lives in the household that are parent, children? 00:24:45.602 --> 00:24:52.309 - Yes, that's a great question. We do offer different levels. So we have employee only, employee plus 00:24:52.309 --> 00:24:59.016 - spouse, employee plus child or children, and then employee plus family, which would be a spouse and 00:24:59.016 --> 00:25:05.924 - child or children. And we do offer that on all of our benefits. They are split up that way. So there's 00:25:05.924 --> 00:25:12.900 - an opportunity and some cost savings that way, depending on who folks want to cover. The next page here 00:25:12.900 --> 00:25:14.174 - is our group term. 00:25:14.274 --> 00:25:21.100 - disability products. These are all through Guardian. So the library provides group term life in AD&D, 00:25:21.100 --> 00:25:27.993 - which is two times someone's annual salary up to $160,000. That's just provided by the library for any 00:25:27.993 --> 00:25:35.019 - full time staff. And we also provide long term disability for our full time staff. Short term disability 00:25:35.019 --> 00:25:41.778 - is offered for folks who work 25 hours a week and more. The library does cover the first $150 on the 00:25:41.778 --> 00:25:43.518 - premium for that benefit. 00:25:43.650 --> 00:25:50.985 - Are you all familiar with short-term disability and long-term disability? OK. Then I won't go over that 00:25:50.985 --> 00:25:58.249 - in detail. And then we also have voluntary life in AD&D. So folks can add an additional policy if they 00:25:58.249 --> 00:26:05.443 - would like. That's for themselves. And then they can add a spouse and or child or children. And those 00:26:05.443 --> 00:26:13.342 - are employee paid premiums. But it is nice to be able to add that on as part of the employer benefit. And then. 00:26:15.426 --> 00:26:20.446 - We have our health savings account, which is tied to the high deductible health plans that we offer. 00:26:20.446 --> 00:26:25.515 - So the library contributes to someone's health savings account if they elect a high deductible health 00:26:25.515 --> 00:26:30.684 - plan. And then the employee is able to contribute money as well if they'd like to save some extra money 00:26:30.684 --> 00:26:35.753 - and put it in those accounts. That is offered through German American. And again, it's only available 00:26:35.753 --> 00:26:38.238 - if you enroll in the high deductible health plan. 00:26:38.722 --> 00:26:44.717 - And then we do offer a flexible spending account and dependent care FSA. So those are offered for folks 00:26:44.717 --> 00:26:50.654 - who work 20 hours a week and more. They can put money in pre-tax and use that to cover those qualified 00:26:50.654 --> 00:26:56.418 - expenses during the calendar year. If you don't use the money during the year, it doesn't all carry 00:26:56.418 --> 00:27:02.183 - over. And so there's some rules around how folks need to make sure they're using those funds during 00:27:02.183 --> 00:27:07.486 - the calendar year, but does offer some tax savings. Another question? Yeah. Sorry. The HSA. 00:27:07.714 --> 00:27:13.123 - Do they, at the end of the year, use it if they haven't? Do they roll it over for the next year? How 00:27:13.123 --> 00:27:18.638 - does that? Great question. So the HSA is an account that's a health savings account. So that is folks' 00:27:18.638 --> 00:27:24.100 - money that they can basically use like a savings account. It continues to carry over. Oh, so it rolls 00:27:24.100 --> 00:27:29.669 - over for the next year. Yep. Yeah. And if someone leaves the library for any reason, they do take their 00:27:29.669 --> 00:27:35.774 - HSA funds with them. The FSA funds are tied to employment at the library, and they do go away if somebody leaves. 00:27:38.850 --> 00:27:45.182 - Other questions? No, I'm happy to answer questions. And then the last one on here is the Marathon Health 00:27:45.182 --> 00:27:51.213 - Clinic. So this is a benefit that we offer to all of our staff. So you'll see that goes all the way 00:27:51.213 --> 00:27:57.364 - down to the 15 to 18 hour folks. Marathon is a local clinic. It's a national brand, but there's three 00:27:57.364 --> 00:28:00.862 - locations here in the area that our folks have access to. 00:28:00.994 --> 00:28:07.352 - There's one on Second Street across from the old hospital, one in Bedford, and one in Bloomington. Folks 00:28:07.352 --> 00:28:13.468 - have access to a doctor and a couple of nurse practitioners within the practice. They can be seen in 00:28:13.468 --> 00:28:20.190 - person or virtually. And then they do anything from preventative care to acute care to prescriptions refilled. 00:28:20.322 --> 00:28:25.641 - Any care done within the four walls of the clinic is no cost for staff. And so while we can't offer 00:28:25.641 --> 00:28:31.067 - health insurance to our part-time folks, this is a really nice opportunity to give everyone access to 00:28:31.067 --> 00:28:36.386 - a medical professional. Especially in Bloomington, it can be challenging to get in to see somebody. 00:28:36.386 --> 00:28:41.758 - So that is a benefit that our folks really appreciate and a lot of our folks do use. And this is for 00:28:41.758 --> 00:28:47.184 - their families as well? Yes. Yep. Yep. So employee, spouse, and child or children are all eligible to 00:28:47.184 --> 00:28:49.790 - enroll. The employee does have to enroll to have 00:28:50.242 --> 00:28:59.691 - access for their family. And then the other notable benefits that I thought were worth at least highlighting 00:28:59.691 --> 00:29:08.619 - while we're here, PERF is our public employee retirement fund that is offered for full-time staff. And 00:29:08.619 --> 00:29:17.288 - the library covers the 11.2% which is the employer cost plus the 3%, which is the employee cost. So 00:29:17.288 --> 00:29:20.062 - we contribute all of that money 00:29:20.162 --> 00:29:26.880 - into those accounts for our full-time folks. And then Hoosier Start is the one that we just added earlier 00:29:26.880 --> 00:29:33.218 - this year. That is the 457. So there's a pre-tax and a Roth option for that. That is offered to all 00:29:33.218 --> 00:29:40.126 - of our staff. And they're able to enroll and put money in either pre-tax or post-tax for retirement savings. 00:29:41.858 --> 00:29:47.421 - Our employee assistance program is offered through guardian so that is kind of tied to our open enrollment, 00:29:47.421 --> 00:29:52.777 - but it is offered for all staff and nobody has to enroll in that. It offers like mental health sessions 00:29:52.777 --> 00:29:57.928 - so there's three free sessions for up to three different topics which folks have really appreciated 00:29:57.928 --> 00:30:02.718 - having access to just a mental health professional you can meet with virtually or in person. 00:30:02.850 --> 00:30:09.225 - There's also legal documents, so if somebody wants to create a will or update a trust, there's options 00:30:09.225 --> 00:30:15.661 - to do that within the system as well. And then there's tax help and some different things as well, just 00:30:15.661 --> 00:30:21.912 - to give folks experts at no cost. So a lot of really great resources in there. I know a lot of folks 00:30:21.912 --> 00:30:28.225 - use it and appreciate having it. It is all confidential, so we don't see how many people are using it 00:30:28.225 --> 00:30:32.062 - or what they're using it for. But it is a meaningful benefit. 00:30:34.434 --> 00:30:41.506 - We also just finished up our parking renewal. So we do offer parking options for folks who work downtown. 00:30:41.506 --> 00:30:48.311 - We have zone for parking garages and surface lot that folks have access to. There's different options 00:30:48.311 --> 00:30:55.116 - for different levels of staff. And then like our surface lot does have a wait list because it is kind 00:30:55.116 --> 00:31:01.854 - of a coveted space. But we do have parking options available for all of our staff who work downtown. 00:31:03.298 --> 00:31:08.934 - And then we also have a bus pass option if folks want to ride the bus to get to work. We work 00:31:08.934 --> 00:31:14.989 - with Bloomington Transit to provide swipe cards for folks to use that the library pays for. And then 00:31:14.989 --> 00:31:21.104 - we also have indoor bike storage. So for our folks who bike to work, it gives them an indoor space to 00:31:21.104 --> 00:31:27.160 - park their bike that's out of the elements and just kind of in a staff area. We also obviously offer 00:31:27.160 --> 00:31:29.438 - holidays, personal leave, sick leave. 00:31:29.538 --> 00:31:35.233 - Contagious illness is one that we added a couple of years ago for our 15 to 18 hour staff. If they do 00:31:35.233 --> 00:31:41.039 - fall ill with something, they can take some paid time off to get to be home and recover. And then we've 00:31:41.039 --> 00:31:46.901 - also added paid parental leave. So that's six weeks of leave for new parents. And remote work is another 00:31:46.901 --> 00:31:52.652 - benefit that we've added here in the last couple of years. So I feel like those are all notable things 00:31:52.652 --> 00:31:57.118 - that are worth just kind of talking about any time that we talk about benefits. 00:32:00.194 --> 00:32:06.589 - And as far as the renewal timeline, so August and September began planning with JA Benefits. So we are 00:32:06.589 --> 00:32:12.985 - meeting with them kind of on an ongoing basis throughout the year. But we really start meeting to talk 00:32:12.985 --> 00:32:19.256 - about planning and what they're expecting for us to see. October is when our renewal process begins. 00:32:19.256 --> 00:32:25.589 - So we start to get quotes back from the carriers on the plans that we'll have available and rates and 00:32:25.589 --> 00:32:26.334 - everything. 00:32:26.914 --> 00:32:32.553 - November is when the board will vote on our new benefits. And then December at the beginning is when 00:32:32.553 --> 00:32:38.136 - we start open enrollment. And then January is when our new benefits begin. So a little bit of hurry 00:32:38.136 --> 00:32:43.720 - up and wait, but there is kind of a tight timeline in there between that November board meeting and 00:32:43.720 --> 00:32:49.471 - when everything is actually due to the carriers to make sure folks have access to their plans. And our 00:32:49.471 --> 00:32:52.318 - renewal just includes the Anthem Health Insurance, 00:32:52.450 --> 00:32:58.268 - our dental and vision, our life and disability products, and then the Marathon Health Clinic and HSA, 00:32:58.268 --> 00:33:04.200 - FSA, DCFSA are all part of that as well. So a lot of the other benefits I went over aren't part of open 00:33:04.200 --> 00:33:10.360 - enrollment, but again, I felt like those are notable. That was all I had, but if you all have any questions 00:33:10.360 --> 00:33:16.292 - or anything that you'd like to see more as we're gearing up for open enrollment, I'm happy to make sure 00:33:16.292 --> 00:33:22.110 - to show that to you. I have a question that I don't think that you will have a definitive answer for. 00:33:22.210 --> 00:33:30.119 - But rumblings or rumors, perhaps. Last time we went through this process, I know we got a really good 00:33:30.119 --> 00:33:38.649 - deal. But we were warned that things could change. Are you aware of changes coming that would be significant? 00:33:38.649 --> 00:33:46.403 - So I'm not aware of anything. We don't get our renewal stuff back until the beginning of October. I 00:33:46.403 --> 00:33:50.590 - just didn't know if any conversations were happening. 00:33:51.682 --> 00:33:59.902 - brace you and us. Yeah. I know industry-wide, kind of what we're seeing and hearing is that 20-ish percent 00:33:59.902 --> 00:34:07.661 - is what folks are anticipating for premiums to increase. That's not specific to us. That's just like 00:34:07.661 --> 00:34:15.420 - when you look industry-wide. So typically, we plan for about 14%. So 20% is a little bit higher than 00:34:15.420 --> 00:34:20.414 - what we usually expect to see. But a lot of that has to do with, 00:34:20.610 --> 00:34:26.735 - things that are going on in the wider world. I don't know what JA is expecting us. But that may answer 00:34:26.735 --> 00:34:33.098 - the question. That was good information. Thank you. Thank you. And then we also will meet with JA benefits 00:34:33.098 --> 00:34:39.045 - next week to start looking at what they're seeing for their mid-year renewals. And so we may have a 00:34:39.045 --> 00:34:45.110 - better idea at that point in time. And also some of it is dependent on our claims and how we're using 00:34:45.110 --> 00:34:49.630 - the plan and the benefits that we have. So we have started talking through. 00:34:50.146 --> 00:34:56.322 - some strategy and some things that we can think about sort of proactively, so that when we get the numbers, 00:34:56.322 --> 00:35:02.211 - we know what our options might be. Thank you. So answer without a question. Just to quickly follow up, 00:35:02.211 --> 00:35:08.273 - what we do, as Becky said, is we work with JA pretty early in the season to anticipate what may be coming 00:35:08.273 --> 00:35:14.105 - and then develop some strategies for either absorbing or deferring and passing on or whatever we have 00:35:14.105 --> 00:35:17.822 - to do. So we can bring all those options to you all in November. 00:35:17.922 --> 00:35:23.516 - Depending on what JA brings to us in the next couple of months, we may want to schedule a work session 00:35:23.516 --> 00:35:29.218 - in November. If those numbers are bigger than we want them to be, we'll probably want to take some extra 00:35:29.218 --> 00:35:34.649 - time to talk through what our options are. And that's when we would schedule sort of a work session 00:35:34.649 --> 00:35:40.080 - a week before our actual board meeting, where you all would vote on it. Because once you vote on it 00:35:40.080 --> 00:35:45.619 - in November, we got to move and do the open roll pretty quickly. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions 00:35:45.619 --> 00:35:46.814 - or comments, Rebecca? 00:35:49.986 --> 00:36:04.634 - Of course. Thank you. Next up, we're going to hear from Stephanie Meyer for circulation services. Hi, 00:36:04.634 --> 00:36:08.798 - everyone. Thanks. I'm Steph. 00:36:09.282 --> 00:36:15.085 - circulation services manager. Thanks for the invitation to share my department update today. I'll start 00:36:15.085 --> 00:36:20.664 - by introducing circulation services. So in short, we're responsible for the check-in, organization, 00:36:20.664 --> 00:36:26.355 - and shelving of all the physical items at the downtown library. We ensure that everything returned to 00:36:26.355 --> 00:36:32.214 - the downtown library gets to its intended location. Cirque services also supports MCPL's pest management 00:36:32.214 --> 00:36:36.510 - through regular training of staff, inspection of every single returned item, 00:36:36.962 --> 00:36:43.186 - as well as the oversight when anything with signs of pests does arise. It takes a fair amount of people 00:36:43.186 --> 00:36:49.171 - to do this. I have 27 employees of which six are full-time, seven are part-time at 25 hours weekly, 00:36:49.171 --> 00:36:55.455 - and 14 are part-time at 15 hours weekly. There are three distinct positions within circulation services. 00:36:55.455 --> 00:37:01.679 - There are two circulation technicians, six circulation leads, and 19 materials handlers. And I'll break 00:37:01.679 --> 00:37:05.150 - down kind of what each of those positions do within CERC. 00:37:05.922 --> 00:37:11.534 - So the role of the circulation technicians involves managing the overall maintenance of the collections 00:37:11.534 --> 00:37:17.146 - via item evaluation, which is handling all problem items for all locations, such as items returned with 00:37:17.146 --> 00:37:22.219 - missing parts, cleaning and repairing things, charging patrons for damaged or lost items, and 00:37:22.219 --> 00:37:27.885 - then withdrawing items as needed. They check over and check in our library of things items and inventory 00:37:27.885 --> 00:37:32.094 - collections to ensure that what we actually have matches what we say we have. 00:37:32.258 --> 00:37:37.328 - They maintain our new arrivals collection, move older titles to their general collections as needed 00:37:37.328 --> 00:37:42.600 - to keep those A-frames fresh and new. They also process all the incoming and outgoing interlibrary loan 00:37:42.600 --> 00:37:48.126 - requests. Their work never stops because there's always something coming through that needs their attention. 00:37:49.602 --> 00:37:54.931 - The role of the circulation leads involves maintaining the flow of the department and the flow of items 00:37:54.931 --> 00:38:00.106 - in and around the library. They keep an eye on priorities and maintain a holistic view of each day's 00:38:00.106 --> 00:38:05.281 - responsibilities. Their daily, weekly, and monthly tasks revolve around keeping order within all the 00:38:05.281 --> 00:38:10.457 - moving parts of circulation, such as leading our daily shift meetings, printing daily pull lists and 00:38:10.457 --> 00:38:15.786 - reports, and ensuring they're completed, monitoring the collections and on-shelf displays, and cleaning 00:38:15.786 --> 00:38:17.374 - our automated sorting machine. 00:38:17.986 --> 00:38:23.966 - They're also responsible for the same work as materials handlers and do their fair share of shelving, 00:38:23.966 --> 00:38:29.829 - shelf reading, and maintaining items in the stacks. It's hard to succinctly describe the variety of 00:38:29.829 --> 00:38:35.691 - work that circulation leads to because they do so much for both the department and for the library. 00:38:35.691 --> 00:38:41.612 - The role of materials handlers is to manage all returned and transferred items via item check-in and 00:38:41.612 --> 00:38:47.006 - shelving, to ensure that our spaces are tidy with regular library pickup and shelf reading, 00:38:47.490 --> 00:38:52.712 - and then checking in returns. Oh wait, I skipped something. And ensure that our spaces are tidy with 00:38:52.712 --> 00:38:58.245 - regular library pickup and shelf reading. Checking in returns may sound like an easy task, but it involves 00:38:58.245 --> 00:39:03.726 - checking each and every item for issues, damage, and signs of pests, like I mentioned. Materials handlers 00:39:03.726 --> 00:39:09.052 - are our frontline staff for ensuring the integrity of our collection. We may not always be happy about 00:39:09.052 --> 00:39:14.326 - it, but I'm very proud of the number of issues that we've caught before items are shelved. Because if 00:39:14.326 --> 00:39:17.118 - they miss a problem, whether it's an incorrect label, 00:39:17.218 --> 00:39:22.987 - or a bug in a book, and it gets to the stacks, then it's inevitably a bigger issue. Their work depends 00:39:22.987 --> 00:39:28.700 - on a very high attention to detail, time management skills, and an ability to stay motivated. So I've 00:39:28.700 --> 00:39:34.636 - mentioned evaluation of materials a few times, and it's a big part of what we do. But it's quite a varied 00:39:34.636 --> 00:39:40.573 - task. So we've developed processes and training for how to handle things like annotations made in library 00:39:40.573 --> 00:39:46.174 - books to when we find a slice of cheese stuck in the pages. We don't appreciate finding the latter. 00:39:47.714 --> 00:39:54.211 - Where my circulation technicians fix broken cases, torn pages, and detached spines. And sometimes we 00:39:54.211 --> 00:40:00.900 - have to determine that an item is too damaged or moldy to keep and route it to be withdrawn. So in June 00:40:00.900 --> 00:40:07.332 - and July of this year, my two circulation technicians handled 2,529 items through our eval process. 00:40:07.332 --> 00:40:12.414 - Of those items, they were able to keep 1,449 going. That's a 57% success rate. 00:40:13.218 --> 00:40:18.977 - The balance of spending time fixing versus spending time replacing is tough, but I think that we do 00:40:18.977 --> 00:40:24.794 - a great job. Another important aspect of our eval processes is being able to identify the variety of 00:40:24.794 --> 00:40:30.956 - creatures that find themselves inside books. In late 2022, we recognized a need to refine our pest control 00:40:30.956 --> 00:40:37.061 - procedures for those specific situations. Books contain all kinds of great things. Sometimes they contain 00:40:37.061 --> 00:40:37.694 - a bed bug. 00:40:38.082 --> 00:40:43.764 - We spent a little time freaking out, but then we, alongside a few other departments, developed really 00:40:43.764 --> 00:40:49.836 - robust processes to ensure that the bugs stop at circulation. All my staff are trained in the identification 00:40:49.836 --> 00:40:55.797 - of bed bugs and the telling signs of their presence, and the circulation leads have systematically trained 00:40:55.797 --> 00:41:01.423 - all other staff who handle materials as well. Circulation leads then take point in reacting if a bug 00:41:01.423 --> 00:41:07.106 - is found and ensure that we have transparent communication with the rest of the library regarding any 00:41:07.106 --> 00:41:07.774 - next steps. 00:41:08.834 --> 00:41:13.957 - So I share this not to scare anyone from using our materials, rather to share that the items that make 00:41:13.957 --> 00:41:19.079 - it to the shelves are completely safe. We take great measures and great caution when dealing with bugs 00:41:19.079 --> 00:41:24.153 - to ensure that affected items are cleaned and bug free before they're put back on the shelf. In fact, 00:41:24.153 --> 00:41:29.375 - we feel so strongly that our processes are sound that a few circulation leads and I shared our knowledge 00:41:29.375 --> 00:41:34.398 - and those processes with other libraries at the Indiana Library Federation Conference last November. 00:41:35.394 --> 00:41:40.795 - And these processes also help pave the way for our current pest control policy. But thankfully, dealing 00:41:40.795 --> 00:41:46.351 - with bugs is not the whole of what we do. So we've also been happily spending our time in the collections, 00:41:46.351 --> 00:41:51.959 - thinking of ways to keep our stacks in an inviting space. The circulation leads are charged with overseeing 00:41:51.959 --> 00:41:57.515 - shelf maintenance teams, which serve as a way to coordinate projects in the stacks and encourage ownership 00:41:57.515 --> 00:42:02.760 - of our collections. Materials handlers are assigned to a team and support those projects in addition 00:42:02.760 --> 00:42:04.318 - to their regular daily tasks. 00:42:05.346 --> 00:42:10.994 - Projects range from adding displays and making space for new collections to shifting items when their 00:42:10.994 --> 00:42:16.530 - shelves are getting squeezed. Most recently, they worked to shift the books in our adult nonfiction 00:42:16.530 --> 00:42:22.067 - collection from both ends to make more space in the middle, specifically cookbooks, because we have 00:42:22.067 --> 00:42:26.718 - a ton of those, to ensure that browsing and shelving remains a pleasant experience. 00:42:28.098 --> 00:42:33.427 - The circulation technicians also get to spend time in the stacks to search for items that have gone 00:42:33.427 --> 00:42:38.916 - missing, and also when searching for items requested to send to other libraries via interlibrary loan. 00:42:38.916 --> 00:42:44.405 - Our two circulation technicians handle all items requested to be loaned to other institutions, as well 00:42:44.405 --> 00:42:47.070 - as those requested to be borrowed by our patrons. 00:42:47.522 --> 00:42:54.453 - From January to June so far this year, they processed 1,210 items that were requested by other institutions 00:42:54.453 --> 00:43:01.191 - and received 215 items are requested by our patrons from other libraries. We're happy to be a top lender 00:43:01.191 --> 00:43:07.802 - and our response time in OCLC, which I'm glad that we talked about earlier, receives high marks in the 00:43:07.802 --> 00:43:09.406 - interlibrary loan world. 00:43:10.178 --> 00:43:15.755 - So then finally, a nod to the end of summer reading, always a bustling time at MCPL. I'm pleased to 00:43:15.755 --> 00:43:21.388 - share that we found a balance in CERC with staffing, with maintaining an appropriate cart turnaround 00:43:21.388 --> 00:43:26.964 - time, and also an appropriate returns check-in time. We're able to continue some ongoing tasks like 00:43:26.964 --> 00:43:32.541 - shelf reading. And I think that the balance was mostly supported by the circulation staff now being 00:43:32.541 --> 00:43:36.222 - pretty veteran. Most of them have been here for more than a year. 00:43:37.122 --> 00:43:47.403 - And knowing what to expect in the summer really helps to keep that pressure down. And that's my update. 00:43:47.403 --> 00:43:56.695 - Any questions, comments? Thank you. Any questions, comments? It's a lot. It's a lot up there. 00:43:56.695 --> 00:44:05.790 - Thank you. Thank you. Any board comments before we adjourn? OK. All in favor of adjourning? 00:44:07.010 --> 00:44:07.614 - Say aye.