DEARBORN DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARIES
LIBRARY COMMISSION MEETING
1.
ATTENDANCE:
In attendance were: MR. MARCEL PULTORAK,
Vice-Chairperson;
MR. ROBERT TAUB, MR. RONALD WATTERS, MRS SYLVIA
PRESSMAN,
MRS. CANDYCE ABBATT, MS. DIANE PEPPER, Commissioners;
DR. PATRICK COADY, Library Director, MRS. MARYANNE BARTLES, Deputy Library
Director, Excused: MRS. NANCY ZAKAR,
Chairperson; DR. ALEX SHAMI, Secretary-Treasurer;
MR. DAVID SCHLAFF, Commissioner.
Mr. Pultorak introduced the
new Library Commissioner Diane Pepper.
2. APPROVAL
OF MINUTES:
The minutes of the May
Library Commission retreat meeting and the minutes of the June Library
Commission meeting were approved as submitted.
3. VISION,
Mr. Pultorak stated that
the Commission had worked on the vision, mission and value statements at past
meetings. The strategic planning pyramid
gives a context to where these statements fit in. Dr. Coady stated that the statements are
unchanged from the May Commission Retreat meeting. He did not receive any further feedback from
the Commissioners regarding the statements.
The mission statement was shortened. Mr. Pultorak
asked if any of the Commissioners had any questions or comments which they did
not. Mrs. Abbatt motioned to adopt the
revised mission, vision and value statements, seconded by Mr. Taub, all
approved.
4. LONGER TERM GOALS DISCUSSION:
Dr. Coady stated that we
they last discussed the longer term goals the Commissioners discussed
developing the longer term goals as part of strategic planning. Dr. Coady’s conception of the longer term
goals is as a tool for guiding Library Administration rather than as a part of
the strategic planning role of the Commission.
Dr. Coady feels it is best to set these aside and to focus on reviewing
the library role statements. The
Commission reviewed the library role statements four or five years ago and
modified them from the nine basic library roles put out by the American Library
Association. Mr. Pultorak stated that
Dr. Coady feels the development of longer term goals is more of an
administrative function than a policy function. Mr. Pultorak feels that it is
important that the Commission be advised on long term goals because it is under
the overall context of Commission. He
agrees that the Commission should not try to micromanage things but he also
feels that it is essential that there be continual feedback between the
Commission and Library Administration. If goals were proposed by Administration
which were counter to policy that would become the concern of the Library
Commission. Mr. Watters felt that while
he is in agreement with Mr. Pultorak, he feels that the longer term goals
should be removed from the strategic planning pyramid as those goals then will
be open to public scrutiny. Mr. Taub
stated he felt that the recognition of and approval of long term goals was part
of the Library Commission function and had a hard time with the idea that it is
micromanagement to do so. A motion was made by Mr. Taub stating that any long
term goals as proposed by Administration should be brought forth to the
Commission and in the absence of any objection by the Commission can go forward,
seconded by Mrs. Abbatt, all approved.
5.
NOVEMBER COMMISSION MEETING:
The November Commission
meeting is scheduled to fall on Veteran’s Day, which is a legal holiday, when
the library will be closed. A motion was
made by Mr. Watters to change the November Library Commission meeting from
6.
DEPARMENTAL RULES UPDATE:
Dr. Coady stated that Mrs.
Bartles worked on simplifying, condensing and rearranging the departmental
rules. There was very little added to
the rules. The Commission has two
documents relating to the changes. The
first document is a summation of all the changes that were done. The second document is a copy of the revised
departmental rules. Mrs. Bartles
stated that this document is given to every new employee. We tried to go through the document and make
sure that everything was in logical sequence.
Over the years many additions were added to the end of the document and
were often not logical in their placement.
Mr. Watters asked if Administration looked at any other City departments
to use as a model. Dr. Coady stated that
actually our document will be used as a model for other City departments. The
last major revision was done in 2000. The current revisions have been through review
by the Administrative panel as well as a couple of different supervisory
reviews. The document has been put out
to the library staff as well as reviewed by the Legal Department, Human
Resources and the Mayors office. Debbie
Walling, who is Corporation Counsel, stated that this was a very well done
document. One item that was added to the
document states that each employee is responsible for keeping there work area
neat and organized. Mrs. Abbatt stated
that the section on phone etiquette is excellent and asked if there was a
section that deals with face to face contact with patrons. Mrs. Bartles stated that there was a section
relating to that on page three. Dr.
Coady stated there are role statements in the document that relate to what is
expected of staff. We may end up
removing them from this document because the City is in the process of adopting
our communications standard and role statements. Once they become City wide policy they would
be removed from the departmental rules.
Mrs. Bartles stated that this document is also online for staff and it
is hyperlinked to other documents so if another document is referenced they
will be able click on the link and be taken to that document including City
policy documents. Dr. Coady stated that
we have about 12 major manuals and they will all eventually receive this type
of review. Mrs. Abbatt asked if the
dress code policy was in this document.
Dr. Coady stated that our dress code was just a one sentence statement
that says you should dress in a businesslike manner. The City Development Initiative, which is the
department heads meeting weekly with Mark Guido, is currently working on a City
wide dress code policy. Ms. Pepper asked
if the dress code policy applied to volunteers.
Dr. Coady stated that we have not had to go there up until this point
but we may have to address it in the future.
Dr. Coady asked if the Commissioners could review the document in
preparation for next months meeting. We
will email copies of both documents to those Commissioners not present today.
7.
FOUNDATION-NEXT STEPS:
Mrs. Abbatt reported that
Ann Knoop has agreed to become the library foundation Chairperson. We have also been contacting potential board
members and currently have seven people who have committed to become board
members. The foundation sub-committee
will meet with Ann Knoop again on
8. CHANGE
OF COMMISSION MEETING TIME/DATE:
Mr. Pultorak stated that we
have been having a problem getting a quorum at our meetings lately. We discussed at the last meeting that Friday
may not be the best day for our meetings as they may not be working well for
everyone. Mrs. Abbatt stated that we
need to get to the core of why we have had a problem getting a quorum of
Commissioners at the meetings. Mr. Watters
stated he felt it was more an issue of time management. Even if we move the day to Wednesdays we will
probably have the same issues occasionally.
Mr. Pultorak stated that he liked Wednesday as a meeting day.
Mrs. Abbatt stated that she
was not sure it was the day of the week that was the problem. She stated that we need to look at
Commissioner attendance and evaluate it.
Any day that we would change the meeting to would be good for some
people but bad for others. We should
investigate why we do not have a quorum before we change the date or we may
just be moving the problem to another day.
Mr. Pultorak stated that if we have the same people who do not show up
regularly maybe those Commissioners need to think about moving on. Mrs. Abbatt asked if something could be put
together showing the record of Commissioner attendance and distributed to the
officers who can then decide what they want to do about it. Mr. Watters stated that the by laws of the
Commission have a section that deals with attendance and how many consecutive
meetings can be missed. Mrs. Abbatt
stated that the Commissioners role needs to be considered as well. For example, Mr. Shclaff has missed some meetings
but has also been instrumental in establishing the library foundation so there
can be some mitigating circumstances.
Dr. Coady stated that he had discussed this with Mr. Schlaff and told
him he felt that his input was very valuable even though he had offered to step
down. Mrs. Abbatt stated that four of
our new foundation board members were brought on board by Mr. Schlaff so we
could not have done that without him.
Mr. Pultorak stated that he and Chairperson Zakar will look at the
attendance record and see if we need to speak to any of our fellow
Commissioners regarding attendance. Mr. Watters stated there should be no reason
why we can not get a quorum of Commissioners at a meeting. Mr. Pultorak stated that sometimes there a
mitigating circumstances or some temporary situation that will change in the
future but if there is a long term problem with attendance we may need to
address that. Mr. Pultorak will speak
with Mrs. Zakar and they will report back to the Commission.
9. NEW
BUSINESS:
Marge Eckert from the AAUW
reported that their used book sale will be held Thursday through Saturday,
The meeting was adjourned
at