Library Board Minutes - 11/13/23

Board Meeting Minutes – 11/13/2023 
The meeting started with an invocation and then the Pledge of Allegiance (Item 3).
Item 1- Call to Order: The meeting is called to order at 10:04 AM.
Item 2- Members Roll Call: Present are Board of Trustee member Matt Morris, Board of Trustee member Dee Mounts, Board of Trustee member Dave Ochenreider, Vice Chairman Brian Shoemake, and Chairman John Shewalter. Also present are Library Director Vanja Anderson, Assistant Director Shanna Gibbons, Head of Youth Services Alysha Wogee, Head of Reference Services Andrew Karneges, Circulation Head Barbara Ferido, Michelle Nelson from the District Attorney's office, and liaison Commissioner Frank Carbone. In addition, members of the public are present.
Item 3- The Pledge of Allegiance was recited prior to the call to order.
Item 4- Trustee/Director/Liaison Comments:
Frank Carbone- He is glad to see that all Board members are present. He says that Veterans Day went well.
Item 5- Approval of the Agenda: Item 7 (Emergency Items) is stricken from the agenda. The agenda is approved.
Item 6- General Public Comment:
Helen Schneider- She says during the last meeting the chairman made comments about teaching Christian values. She says she wondered what he meant by that because different denominations of Christians have different values. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights says religious freedom. That means there is no official religion and the comments were unnecessary and inappropriate. Also, the chairman didn't want critical race theory taught. Is the chairman a college professor or college president? And the people in college are adults. They can choose what they want to take. She says she doesn't know what subject the chairman’s college degree is in but Ms. Schneider has a degree in library science and history. She talks about the taking of Osage Indian land and the Tulsa Massacre. She has a problem with some of the things that have been said because they are inappropriate and they violate an oath that Ms. Schneider has taken several times to protect and defend the Constitution.
Lora Stewart- She says that all the members of the Board are successful business owners. She asks the Board members what their favorite book was to read while they were on their journey to becoming successful business people. John Shewalter explains to her that this is her time to make comments and questions are not answered by the Board. She mentions a number of books that she likes and says that she is sad that many of them have been banned.
Kelly Green- The entire ALA executive board including the president are not allowed to vote on ALA matters unless they need to break a tie. You (the Board) voted against the ALA because you don't like the ALA president’s personal politics but those are not her professional beliefs. She will be out of office in June and she has no vote in the direction that the ALA takes.
Item 8- Approval of the Minutes:
Brian Shoemake makes a motion to approve the meeting minutes for October, 9th 2023. Dave Ochenreider seconds the motion.
There are no public comments.
Board comments:
Dave Ochenreider says he was unable to review the minutes because the packet was too large.
Minutes are approved 5-0.
Item 9- Presentation of the Treasurer's Report: Library Director Vanja Anderson presents the treasurer's report on expenditures for October 2023, as found in the backup. John Shewalter asks about the amount spent on salaries. Vanja explains that the total is year to date not just one month. Shewalter asks what the Other Contractual expense includes. Vanja says that is on page 11 and consists of pest control, alarm, computer assistance, Destiny (our LMS [Library Management System]), and our accountant. Shewalter asks if the $2,221.60 charge for the alarm is an annual charge. Shewalter mentions that the year to date salaries figure on page 11 matches that of page 12, which is great, but he asks what did we spend in October on payroll? Shewalter says he appreciates the cumulative figures but where is it monthly? He says that the alarm charge was also on last month's report because it's cumulative. Vanja explains that on page 16 it shows all the vendor names and what was paid and which month it was paid on so you can see that the alarm payment was made in August. Vanja explains to John Shewalter that she was putting in the monthly, so she had it for the previous month and then she totaled it for the year to date. And then the numbers weren't matching and so she removed that so the numbers from the Expense Report and from Expenditures match. Shewalter says he doesn't believe that removing data is an effective way to get the two reports to match up. Vanja explains that the data isn't removed but those expenditures haven't been paid yet because they're from this current month.
Item 10- Approval of the Vouchers
Brian Shoemake makes a motion to approve the vouchers for October 2023 through November 2023 and Dee Mounts seconds the motion.
Candace Hunt- States that she has a comment about page 12 but John Shewalter interrupts her telling her to restrict her comments to the vouchers which is page 15. Ms. Hunt begins speaking again talking about salaries and John Shewalter interrupts her again telling her to keep her comments restricted to the payment vouchers. Ms. Hunt says that her public comment is that John Shewalter mentioned earlier that the employees of the library should be listed as vendors. John Shewalter interrupts her, yet again, telling her that that was a presentation and there are no public comments on presentations. Michelle Nelson, from the district attorney's office, says that because Ms. Hunt is commenting on Item 10 on page 15, she is allowed to finish her comments. Ms. Hunt says there was a discussion earlier about how to determine the monthly salaries based on the spreadsheet. She says (referencing page 12) you can just subtract the previous year to date total from the current month’s year to date total and you get the monthly expenditure for the current month.
Dave Ochenreider says that last month he asked for the frequency of payment to be added to the vouchers. He is informed that it is there under Recurrence. John Shewalter asks if there is anything unusual in petty cash. Vanja says there is nothing unusual.
Vouchers are approved 5-0.
Item 11- Presentation of Librarian’s Report:
Vanja reads her report that can be found in the backup.
Shanna Gibbons reports the statistics for October 2023 which can be found in the backup.
Alysha Wogee reads the statistics for the children's programs which can be found in the backup.
John Shewalter asks Shanna Gibbons if she will be able to track the amount of our users who access Duolingo the way we were able to do it through Mango. Shanna says she is trying to figure out if that will be possible.
Regarding the Librarian’s Report, John Shewalter asks Vanja Anderson who Marcie Smedley is. Vanja replies that she is the executive director of Henderson Libraries. John Shewalter asks about the information on pages 18, 19, and 20 of the backup. Vanja replies that she contacted Sourcewell and pages 18, 19, and 20 is a list of all their suppliers and contracts that deal with flooring.
John Shewalter says what he wants to find out is who was the general contractor? Who did their flooring? So we can talk to them.
John Shewalter asks how the microschool/homeschool program is going. Alysha Wogee says she has been in contact with several families in the community. Alysha says she is planning on having a meeting with a woman named Sabel Marandi sometime in December. Ms. Marandi is building a school out here and may have useful information to provide. Alysha says interest is slowly growing in the homeschool program and families are trickling in. John Shewalter says it seems like there is a lot of interest in the community once we start asking people. Vanja says that homeschooling families have been looking for socialization opportunities for their children. John Shewalter says that two months ago he asked for a meeting with the homeschool people that Vanja had contacted. He says he wants a timeline of when that meeting will happen. Alysha says she can have a meeting set up in December with Ms. Marandi who is setting up a charter school in this area. John Shewalter asks if the home school organizations out here have been contacted. Alysha says she contacted several of them and they are more interested in social opportunities so their kids can meet other people. Shewalter asks if a questionnaire has been created like what was done for the bookmobile. Before anyone can answer this question, Michelle Nelson calls for a 5 minute break. Time is 10:58 AM.
The meeting reconvenes at 11:09 AM. John Shewalter asks Vanja Anderson if a meeting date and time has been set for the micro school program. Vanja says a meeting can be set up and she suggests January. Shewalter agrees to that. 
Item 12- Presentation by Vanja Anderson on Bookmobile Status
Vanja gives a presentation about the bookmobile. Specifically focusing on the data derived from two questionnaires that were created and distributed. One questionnaire was for libraries that had bookmobiles and another questionnaire was given to people in the community to gauge their interest in a bookmobile. The results from both of these surveys can be found on pages 36-55 in the backup.
When Vanja begins going over the data derived from the survey given to members of the community, John Shewalter asks who the respondents are. Vanja explains that all of the responses for this survey are from people who live in Pahrump. Shewalter asks how this survey was posted. Vanja explains that we went out into the community and handed surveys to people and we asked people to fill out the surveys when they came into the library at the desk. When Vanja finishes the presentation, Brian Shoemake praises the effort put into gathering this data and said he would like to see the same kind of enthusiasm for the microschool project. John Shewalter says he is most impressed. Vanja asks the board if they would like a survey created regarding the microschool project. Shewalter responds by saying, “Any information that you have as an advisor to the board, you are welcome to distribute to the board members.” Michelle Nelson tells Vanja that if she has any questions with respect to her communications with the board and how to handle that, to please call Michelle and she will go over that with her.
Item 13- For Possible Action: Discussion and deliberation to 1) approve or reject a Reading With Dogs program 2) assign Dee Mounts and Vanja Anderson to develop and implement the program.
Dave Ochenreider makes a motion to approve a reading with dogs program and Brian Shoemake seconds the motion.
Public comments:
Helen Schneider- Says it is a fabulous program and it has worked in many schools and libraries. She recommends that the library board approve this program.
Kelly Green- She says she loves the idea of a reading with dogs program.
Ginnie Okawa- She said it sounds like a fabulous program and she wholeheartedly supports it.
Board comments:
Matt Morris says it sounds like a great plan and let's get it done.
Dee Mounts says she's been trying to get this program started for a long time. She says that everyone is super excited and kids love reading to dogs.
Dave Ochenreider says he never heard of this kind of program until he read the agenda but he says it sounds like a great program.
Brian Shoemake says he loves the idea and jokes that “anytime you can teach dogs to read it's great.” (crowd laughs)
John Shewalter says it's a great program and he's been involved in it before.
Measure passes 5-0.
Item 14- Trustee/Director/Liaison Comments:
Frank Carbone says it was a great meeting and and likes to see how everyone's cooperating.
Matt Morris says that when the packet is very large and can't be printed, he would like some foreknowledge of what is being talked about before he comes to the meeting, and not vote on it and then read it later.
Dee Mounts thanks Brian Jacobs for coming in this month and doing the invocation. She thanks the public for coming and says she hopes the Board made them happy today.
Brian Shoemake says he wants to correct the record of a public comment that was made earlier in the meeting that this country was not founded on religion or God. He mentions the Declaration of Independence. He says, “one of the most famous lines from that document is that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is a direct reference to God, whoever your God might be. I am not contesting who your God might be but this country was founded on spiritual beliefs. And John Adams the founding father and former president”
At this point, Michelle Nelson interrupts saying this agenda item is for future workshops, committees and agendas and Brian Shoemake’s comments are off topic.
Brian Shoemake says he understands but ignores what she says picking up right where he left off. He recites the John Adams quote, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Brian Shoemake goes on to say that these quotes are in our documents of freedom.
John Shewalter says he wants to address some comments that were made during public comment and he starts to talk about our library’s withdrawal from the ALA but Michelle Nelson interrupts him saying that this item is regarding future meetings, workshops, and agendas. Not to address comments that were made earlier in the meeting. That is off the agenda.
John Shewalter says, “when you quote me please quote me correctly.”
Item 15- Adjournment at 11:33 AM.
 

ARCHIVED MINUTES

AGENDA FOR NOVEMBER 13, 2023