##VIDEO ID:4iW4XZ6ZtGk## this is a meeting of Franklin Public Library Board of Trustees it's Wednesday August 28th 2024 this meeting is being held by Zoom um I will call the role Agnes yes Anya is here yes mayor here Nicholas trampa I am here Kevin mcneel I'm here um Tiana Grisham is not here at the moment Amy arala is not here and our new member Aisha Ali here and of course we have welcome turn and this this meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meetings ACT public law 1975 also known as the Sunshine Law the schedule and notification of this meeting have been provided to The Courier News the home News Tribune and we also uh uh the Franklin Township Clerk and uh the notice has also been posted in the library's vestibule I would like to open the public portion the first public portion of the meeting um if there is anyone here who would like to speak um I will is there anyone here who would like to speak at this first portion of the public meeting if not I will dispense with reading the rules for the portion seeing nobody uh I I would declare the uh part one of the public portion of the meeting closed um and I would ask for a motion U to approve the minutes from the uh June meeting do we forget to pledge to pledge how did I run right over that I'm sorry yes let's pledge allegiance to the flag I think you can see it on the screen there pledge allegiance to the flaged states would anyone like to uh make a motion to approve the minutes from the Janu from the June 26th meeting I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting Kevin thank you uh is there a second I second the motion gevin and Agnes okay is there any discussion about the motion is it now to bring about the taing the ISS table or that be on Old I'm I'm sorry Agnes can you repeat that I I didn't no no I was thinking of the tabling of the dates vacation dates if this is the time or wait wait until oh well yes as you recall at that meeting uh there was a motion made to uh increase the number of vacation days and the motion was tabled um so this isn't exactly the right time but it will come up again under old business okay okay thank you January can we go to your reports great we haven't voted on the minutes I'm sorry we have not we have not voted we have not voted on the uh motion there was a motion made by Kevin to approve the minutes of the June Meeting those in favor signify by raising their hand one two three four uh I see four positive votes and that's unanimous approval of the June meeting minutes and now we should go to uh January's reports okay start with the financial reports uh this is the first one of this uh new fiscal year and uh there's nothing really outstanding on it unless uh anybody has questions or comments I I have a question about uh there's a building maintenance account 9112 uh what comes under that is this outside contractors or combination have um it's the cleaners it's uh anything that we have to do for the building like the HVAC that sort of thing okay so cleaners are they an outside yes okay thank you that's that's what I was wondering thank you very much any other questions on the financial report no okay and the program report all right um as those of you who have been in have probably noticed the roof is finally done and there have not been any complaints about it being hot out there so I've got my fingers crossed that this that this has fix that particular problem the lighting is also much much nicer it's much Kinder I think um The Adult Services Department had 37 adult programs that 409 people came to the youth services department had 31 programs that 1,569 people came to the summer teen virtual volunteering program ended on August 15th the final session of the volunteer reading buddies program was on the 12th of August and the summer reading uh programs also ended and I'll have statistics on that for you at the next board meeting we have a new team program it's called the team reading challenge that um looks like it's going to be very interesting and uh the attendance at programs at Franklin Park is really doing quite well and even Lewis Street has shown a modest increase and I think that's all the highlights that I have thank you very much moving on um I had not expected to um have a president report uh this time around but I found something I would like to mention sitting here somewhere in today's Star Ledger there was an obituary for Mr Leonard Rio he's a man who took Barnes & Noble in 1970 and built and over the next 30 or 40 years built it into the big book selling uh company we we knew um there was a lot of acrimony as he grew bigger and bigger from the uh independent book sellers um who were un fortunately going out of business because they could not compete with his large um large stores uh there were even lawsuits between the uh Association that the American assoc book The American book sellers Association and Warnes & Noble moving forward Amazon came along and uh took over a very Major Market sh share of uh book selling so the obituary goes into a lot of u u history of book selling and I thought that might be interested interesting to us as people involved with books so U we will get a copy of that uh history uh for the next packet that you get EXC okay correspondence and Communications we have two articles that I put in everybody's packet uh on the books library legislation 2024 which was very interesting and depressing and an editorial about AI about ai's relationship to libraries I enjoyed both of them um and uh AI is really something where the point to that is that uh authors and writers information went into the all of the training of the AI apps thank you for that January I have U yes I have a letter unfortunately I have a letter here from a letter of resignation from NBC uh data August 11th 2024 please accept this letter as my formal resignation from the library Board of Trustees I am grateful for all of your support during my time here and appreciate all of the valuable experiences I have gained during all of these years as a member of the board it has been a sincere pleasure with you and the team best wishes and thank you for everything sincerely NBC um okay I have tried unsuccessfully to talk to NBC um he has not responded to uh couple of phone calls I think at this time it's important for us to U accept this resignation the main reason being that he is our vice president and Treasurer and um I think if we accept this resignation we can go move on and uh elect a new vice president and Treasurer um is there a motion to accept this letter of resignation a motion that we accept NBC's uh resignation the letter of resignation is there a second Okay Kevin has made a motion um Agnes has seconded it is there any discussion did he give any reason or he just has something else to do I have no reason I have not been able to discuss any reasons with him I have attempted to but I haven't gotten a response so to answer your question he has not given me a reason sorry I'm sorry I didn't catch the name what was the name NBC is his name is Nabil Keri um we have always called him NBC his middle name is utos it's a little bit difficult so he has gone by NBC oh okay only with us here at the library but in some of his other dealings um but yes his actual name is n a b i l Nabil utos b o u t r oos coeri c h o u e i r i okay thank you okay is there any uh further discussion on the motion do we do we as board members give him write a letter of thank you or what do we do appreciation for his service we were talking about giving Agnes I mean Agnes a iris a plaque I think he'd be equally deserving yeah I would U as far as the letter goes Kevin Mr secretary yes uh um I could uh have something write something up and you know forward it uh forward it to you guys for approval we don't well I would think that secretary uh your approval is good enough and uh maybe you can get some letterhead from uh January and yeah I'll do that yes NBC has served a very long time longer than I have and I recall that uh when I joined he mentored me and uh I appreciated that okay okay um where are we here old business don't you have to vote didn't you vote yeah yeah let's vote on this one those in favor of the uh acceptance of the res a please signify by raising your hand okay it is unanimous for positive votes here thank you for so as is my question when there's an opening like this I move the person who's the my representative to the full position Aisha you probably will set the record in Franklin for having the uh representative position the shortest time ever but I will um I don't need to vote or anything on it I will name her as to fulfill um NBC's remaining term January do you know when his term expires December 31st 2024 okay so the same length of term you would have had um so you are now a full member and I have to find another representative for myself and now I can vote at this meeting you certainly did set a record for the shortest term thank promotions were this easy thank you may okay um now uh going on to old old business um as you recall we have uh tabled a a proposal made at the June meeting to increase the uh vacation time uh by two days um the vacation time for people whove been here uh 20 years or more January who made that chart Nick I did good J that I mean that chart is extremely useful and informative thank you but you know how how many words it takes to say the same thing yeah it's it's perfect thank you and uh thank you January for cranking up your color copy so that everybody could get a copy the um oh the motion that uh let's see I'm entertaining a motion to uh first of all is there a motion to take this issue off the table I think Robert's Rules provide for that uh Mo I will take it off the table is there a second I'll second okay uh those in favor of taking the issue of vacation policy off the table signify by raising your hand it passes and this time it passes unanimously with five positive votes now you're right now um would anyone like to make a motion to uh accept the uh the uh the new policy to provide 26 days for those full-time staff members who have been employed by the library for 20 years or more um and right now they're getting 25 days oh okay so it's 4 day increase for those who have uh been here been employed for 20 years or more I so move that we increase the people who have served for 20 years or more 26 days vacation leave thank you is there a second I'll second that okay now Agnes may I read um something that uh just adds a little more to it this was please okay moved to increase the number of vacation days to 26 days for those full-time staff members who have been employed by the library for 20 years or more effective September 1st 2024 Agnes would you accept that wording I I do accept that W yeah because that's online with with government anyway that's like one one day per pay period well also well by if you get paid bi-weekly I don't know how they get paid is 26 pay periods it is bi-weekly it's bi-weekly right one one day a pay period well okay um which seems pretty fair for 20 years of service any comment I would make is that uh it seems that the Somerset County library system is more generous than most they give the 26 days right right from the get-go um so that's why they charge so much more for their Library than we do okay uh is there any other discussion those in favor of the motion please signify by raising the hand okay thank you um I see five yes votes this uh this motion has passed unanimously okay and you've made the staff very happy how many people uh does this four four and what's uh interesting is is one from each department okay so that's very equal considering how hard people work sometimes it's good to give them some benefits yeah it's good for marel yeah okay is there any new business other old business I'm sorry um I just have one quick thing on the old business business to let you know that um iris's plaque has been made and produced I want Amy's not here but uh Amy was able to find me a great place it got some great um artwork done on it and uh we just we're just waiting to give it to Iris so just wanted to let you know that was done great I'm I if I can make an appointment with Iris I will deliver it to her tomorrow good I'd like to make a motion that we give a similar plaque to NBC second is there a second second Agnes already did Agnes second okay under new business we have a motion and it's been seconded to give a a similar plaque to NBC who has served many years and U is there any discussion on this motion no no not me I agree okay and January I assume you you know who made it and uh we can get another one from okay thank you uh those in favor of uh plaque for NBC please signify looks like again five to nothing we certainly have a lot of arguments in this organization do we so far okay um going on to um with continuing with new business I would like to uh propose that we um elect Agnes kulab as uh vice president and Treasurer to fill the spot that NBC has left this will be for the remainder of his term which will be to the end of the year and uh I have talked this over with Agnes and Agnes kindly said she would accept it I second is there any discussion seeing none I will ask for a vote um those in favor signify by raising their hand okay okay thank you mayor five votes five positive votes congratulations Agnes all right you are now the uh vice president and uh Treasurer thank you congratulations I hope I'll be able to fill your your shoes I'm sure you're going to do a great job job okay um is there any other new business there is no reason that I can see for an executive session so we will go to uh the the second part of the public portion of the meeting is there any member of the public out there who would like to speak at this time seeing none I will close this second portion and announce that our next meeting will be September 25th 20124 um Again by Zoom at I wonder if we should we we got new members now should we have one in person just a thought not yes it's a very good thought um there'll be there'll be a i pick someone to replace Aisha's position by then so might be a good idea to we go face to face it would be it would be um January yes um do we still have all the equipment we need yeah I'll have to I'll have to get it out and test it but uh yeah it's it's de okay uh one thing I I would note that uh we probably should be making a little better use of the uh audio better audio uh the way we are now we're all speaking into our computers or our cell phones and I think the audio is coming through pretty well there have been complaints from the last um well okay we'll look into the to the uh equipment and um is there any discussion about this would anyone like to make a comment as to whether we should go to I think we should go back to the U uh inperson meetings and thank you mayor for making that for reminding us this is I don't I don't vote but I think it's a good idea okay next meeting will be September 25th 2024 held in person at the uh main library history room and uh January I'm sure you'll have to um make that known to the newspaper sure yes you're right okay if possible a welcome back party oh you're probably going to want food food too huh food beverages does no food all out in the library that's what I understand yeah just a joke is there an a motion to adjourn so moved mayor Kramer Agnes seconds any discussion of this motion no none those in favor please signify by saying I I by by and bye by and bye okay we are adjourned at 6:17 p.m.