Minutes Meeting of the
Columbus Library Board
April 8, 2004

The regularly scheduled meeting of the Columbus Library Board was called to order by the President, Charlie Bahr, at 4:30 PM on Thursday, April 8, 2004. Other members of the Library Board present were Jolaine Nielsen, Bill Merrill, Lynne Rambour, and Jerry Jirka. Also in attendance were Robert Trautwein, the Library Director, and Brad Hruska, the Children’s Librarian.

Notice of this meeting was given in advance with a copy of the agenda posted at City Hall, the County Court House and in the Public Library. All proceedings hereafter shown were taken while the convened meeting was open to the public.

The minutes of the March board meeting were reviewed and allowed to stand as presented with a motion from Bill Merrill and a second from Jolaine Nielsen. The motion passed by voice vote
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The Library Director distributed the April financial reports for the City Library, the Platte County Library and the Library Foundation. Following a discussion of each report, a motion was made by Jerry Jirka and seconded by Lynne Rambour to accept the financial reports. This motion passed by a roll call vote: Bahr-aye, Nielsen-aye, Merrill-aye, Jirka-aye and Rambour-aye.

Regarding the Director’s Report, Trautwein said that he had sent a letter on March 22nd to the “Palace of the Governors” in Santa Fee, New Mexico regarding the Villasur Hides. In a follow-up phone call, he had visited with the curator and learned that she believes that there might be some question about the copyright of the images. Trautwein said that the curator told him that she will be consulting with others about the issue and will get back to him.

There were committee reports.

Under correspondence Trautwein noted that Sally Hansen, a library employee, has been doing quite a lot of outreach by giving book talks at the various retirement homes in the community. He said that he had just received a thank you note Prairie Village Retirement Center.

Under Old Business, Trautwein said that the vestibule remodeling project was supposed to have begun that morning but did not. He said that he hopes it will begin early next week.

On the topic of the negotiations with the County Board of Supervisors for a new contract for county library services, Trautwein said that, following the 2nd City-County Joint Meeting of March 22nd, he sent the 3/25/04
letter to Ron Pfeifer, Chairman of the County Board of Supervisors. In this letter he expressed the willingness of the Library Board to meet with representatives of the County Board of Supervisors to discuss the renewal of the contract. 

Jolaine Nielsen said that she had been contacted by Tom Martens, a County Supervisor, about a county committee meeting with the Library. She had informed him that the Library Board would be meeting on the following Thursday. Mr. Martins later contacted Mrs. Nielsen to say that the Library Board meeting would not work out. He explained that he and two other Supervisors would be on a committee assigned to meet with representatives of the Library Board. When Mrs. Nielsen asked about setting a date for such a meeting, Mr. Martins said that the Supervisors didn’t want to meet until the latter part of May. She expressed concern that such a date was late, considering that the contract expires on June 30th.

Charlie Bahr said that he had visited with Jim Bulkley, a City Councilman, who is on the City-County Joint Committee. Mr. Bulkley said that the County Board representatives on the Joint Committee did not want to discuss the county library contract at the Joint Committee meetings. Instead, they want a special County Commissioner Committee to discuss the issues with a Library Board.

Mrs. Nielsen said that it is her understanding that even though a Library Board group meets with a committee of the County Supervisors and negotiates a new contract, that contract would have to be submitted to the County Board of Supervisors as a whole for their approval. 

Mr. Merrill asked if there is an official committee of County Supervisors who have been delegated the task of meeting with the Library representatives? Mrs. Nielsen said that there is such a committee and that Tom Martens is one of the members of the committee. (other members are John Woerth and Joe Tooley)
Mrs. Nielsen suggested that we send a letter to the County Board of Supervisors to advise them that the Library Board has formed a negotiating committee and that we would like to begin the process as soon as possible because of the June 30th contract ending.

Mr. Merrill asked if the City Council had delegated to the Library Board the task of negotiating a new county library services contract with the County Supervisors. Charlie Bahr said that in his discussion with Jim Bulkley, that was made clear. Trautwein said that Joe Frei had also told him that the County wanted to work through the Library Board rather than through the City-County Joint Committee.

Bill Merrill made the following motion: “That the Library Board will forward to the County Board of Supervisors the same proposal that was made two years ago. This proposal would include the same terms, including a escalator clause with the same formula. In addition, the proposal should include an “evergreen clause”. Included in the letter to accompany the proposal would be a statement that the Library Board is willing to discuss the terms.” Mrs. Nielsen seconded the motion.  This motion passed by a roll call vote: Bahr-aye, Nielsen-aye, Merrill-aye, Jirka-aye and Rambour-aye. Mrs. Nielsen suggested that in the letter sent we should ask to meet as early in May as possible. Mr. Merrill said that perhaps the letter should state that if negotiations continue beyond the end date of the contract, there needs to be an understanding that the contract will be extended for the duration of the negotiations.

Following some discussion, a committee was formed from the Board to meet with the County’s negotiating committee. Those committee members are: Charlie Bahr and Jolaine Nielsen.

On the topic of the “Friends of the Library”, Trautwein said that he had planned to unveil the proposal to have a “friends” group at the “Cowboy Poetry” reading. Unfortunately, there were only 32 people in attendance so he didn’t pursue the “friends” proposal. He said that he would continue to work on a way to begin the organization.

The last item on the agenda was a discussion on the 2004-05 budget. Trautwein said that he had added this item to the agenda in anticipation of some word from the city. However, the city has not yet addressed next year’s budget.

Under announcements, Trautwein said that he wanted to inform the Board that he will be taking a three week vacation beginning on May 25th. He will be going with a group from Columbus on a tour of China. 

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.