Bloomfield Township Public Library Trustees Meeting on April 28, 2026

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Transcript

Click any timestamp to jump the video to that moment. Auto-transcribed; expect occasional errors on proper nouns.

1. 0:00

   it is the time of the hour so let's call the meeting order and is there a request to remove any items from the consent agenda nothing for me i definitely wanted to ask a question about at least one item on 6a so does that mean i need to no that's it every time oh we'll do that every time so i don't need to remove it okay okay so motion to approve the order of items so moved second hi uh my verbal report and uh judy i had to say i thought of you as i drove in here as you see i'm going to go on a limb here there's little tulips coming up right by the sign i know some of them didn't get wiped away and so they're very pretty and they're daffodils but that's okay oh the only other comment i want to make is just as and i've said this before but i'm continually surprised by the just the professionalism of the materials that you guys put together and i don't see linden linden's in sicily who's going to do linden's job just me me and katherine yeah katherine katherine's taking notes they brought all the stuff for them how long is our trip good for her i know i'm so happy that she certainly made me sound better on page 12 of the minutes than i remember sounding thus concludes the president's report Well I do have to comment about the weather. We're halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. It's May Day on Saturday. May Day is Friday. My nephew's birthday. I've been told 20 times. So yeah, it's a lovely time of year and the flowers look beautiful. Good except for allergies, right? Yes. Today is also Library Advocacy Day. Every year the Michigan Library Association coordinates a day where library workers go to Capitol Hill and visit our representatives in the Michigan Legislature. And our very own Catherine Dupuis took part in the Advocacy Day today. Oh, yay! Can you dance some of that? Yeah, thank you. She's lived several lifetimes already today. Yeah, and now she's here to take minutes for the meeting in London's absence. So multi-talented. It was a great day. The governor opened up the day speaking about the importance of libraries and the role they play in literacy in Michigan.

2. 1:15

   katherine katherine's taking notes they brought all the stuff for them how long is our trip good for her i know i'm so happy that she certainly made me sound better on page 12 of the minutes than i remember sounding thus concludes the president's report Well I do have to comment about the weather. We're halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. It's May Day on Saturday. May Day is Friday. My nephew's birthday. I've been told 20 times. So yeah, it's a lovely time of year and the flowers look beautiful. Good except for allergies, right? Yes. Today is also Library Advocacy Day. Every year the Michigan Library Association coordinates a day where library workers go to Capitol Hill and visit our representatives in the Michigan Legislature. And our very own Catherine Dupuis took part in the Advocacy Day today. Oh, yay! Can you dance some of that? Yeah, thank you. She's lived several lifetimes already today. Yeah, and now she's here to take minutes for the meeting in London's absence. So multi-talented. It was a great day. The governor opened up the day speaking about the importance of libraries and the role they play in literacy in Michigan. And I, along with folks from the Franklin Library and Farmington Community Library, met with Representative Stuckloff and had a great conversation with her about our libraries and their importance in her communities and for her constituents. Good. Wonderful. Thank you for coming. And of course we requested... More money. Yes. ...for libraries. Thank you. Overall. Well, not to expect that. Yes. She, in particular, Representative Steckloff, loves this library and has some of her community conversations in this library, and we're lucky to have that kind of support. Last Wednesday was our much-anticipated author visit featuring Patrick Ryan, author of Buckeye. This was held at Temple Bethel. It was a really, really wonderful event. Joy was there. We did this in conjunction with the West Winfield Township Public Library as a partnership between our two libraries, underwritten by both of our friends' groups. It was a lovely evening. Patrick Ryan wrote this book, Buckeye, it came out last year to much critical acclaim.

3. 2:30

   It was a great day. The governor opened up the day speaking about the importance of libraries and the role they play in literacy in Michigan. And I, along with folks from the Franklin Library and Farmington Community Library, met with Representative Stuckloff and had a great conversation with her about our libraries and their importance in her communities and for her constituents. Good. Wonderful. Thank you for coming. And of course we requested... More money. Yes. ...for libraries. Thank you. Overall. Well, not to expect that. Yes. She, in particular, Representative Steckloff, loves this library and has some of her community conversations in this library, and we're lucky to have that kind of support. Last Wednesday was our much-anticipated author visit featuring Patrick Ryan, author of Buckeye. This was held at Temple Bethel. It was a really, really wonderful event. Joy was there. We did this in conjunction with the West Winfield Township Public Library as a partnership between our two libraries, underwritten by both of our friends' groups. It was a lovely evening. Patrick Ryan wrote this book, Buckeye, it came out last year to much critical acclaim. He's written five other books, and in his words, this is the first one that anyone's paying any attention to. He's very humble and still kind of surprised by all this attention. He said that our event was one of the biggest that he's been to as an author on the road promoting this book. He said it was really professional and well done. There were about 270 people there. Oh, I thought there were more. There were more registered. I forgot about it, that's crazy. It was really engaging and fun, and I also had the feeling that a lot of folks that maybe aren't that familiar with libraries were there or they brought friends. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I thought it was terrific. This is the second time that we've had a collab with West Boone Field. Both have gone really well. Great. We should just keep going. Yeah, I know. Many patrons ask when we're going to do another one. Do you get in touch with the publisher, or how are you getting these authors? I mean, I don't really do anything. Okay. Kathy Russ does most of the work. She is the former president of the Metro Detroit Book and Author Society. She's got a line on how to do this.

4. 3:45

   Patrick Ryan wrote this book, Buckeye, it came out last year to much critical acclaim. He's written five other books, and in his words, this is the first one that anyone's paying any attention to. He's very humble and still kind of surprised by all this attention. He said that our event was one of the biggest that he's been to as an author on the road promoting this book. He said it was really professional and well done. There were about 270 people there. Oh, I thought there were more. There were more registered. I forgot about it, that's crazy. It was really engaging and fun, and I also had the feeling that a lot of folks that maybe aren't that familiar with libraries were there or they brought friends. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I thought it was terrific. This is the second time that we've had a collab with West Boone Field. Both have gone really well. Great. We should just keep going. Yeah, I know. Many patrons ask when we're going to do another one. Do you get in touch with the publisher, or how are you getting these authors? I mean, I don't really do anything. Okay. Kathy Russ does most of the work. She is the former president of the Metro Detroit Book and Author Society. She's got a line on how to do this. And so their staff does a lot of work, and then our staff does a lot of work. We secured the venue this time. It was in our turf last time. It was at the Berman. The Berman, yeah, in West Boone Field. So, yeah. Gotcha. It was really great. Really wonderful to get 300 people together around a book. Really wonderful. The library's 2025-2026 audit. I'm sorry. Let me start that over. The audit on the fiscal year 2025-2026 has officially kicked off. The engagement letter is in the pass-around folder if you're interested to read that. And that has been received by Alan Pantor, our partner at Yo & Yo. Kathy has already begun gathering reports and other documents and things to prepare for the audit. The field work will take place the week of May 11th. That means audit professionals from Yo & Yo will be on site. asking Kathy and mine questions and asking for different things and doing their work so that is in process. Tomorrow Katherine and I are going to spend the whole day in meetings related to the library design project so we're

5. 5:00

   She's got a line on how to do this. And so their staff does a lot of work, and then our staff does a lot of work. We secured the venue this time. It was in our turf last time. It was at the Berman. The Berman, yeah, in West Boone Field. So, yeah. Gotcha. It was really great. Really wonderful to get 300 people together around a book. Really wonderful. The library's 2025-2026 audit. I'm sorry. Let me start that over. The audit on the fiscal year 2025-2026 has officially kicked off. The engagement letter is in the pass-around folder if you're interested to read that. And that has been received by Alan Pantor, our partner at Yo & Yo. Kathy has already begun gathering reports and other documents and things to prepare for the audit. The field work will take place the week of May 11th. That means audit professionals from Yo & Yo will be on site. asking Kathy and mine questions and asking for different things and doing their work so that is in process. Tomorrow Katherine and I are going to spend the whole day in meetings related to the library design project so we're going to go through all the furniture information in the morning we're going to meet our new interior designers too for the first time and then in the afternoon we're getting together with Aaron Phillips from McCarthy and Smith and Jared will be here of course and Kyle Hanning of library design associates library design associates is a firm that specializes in library shelving and furniture and they also help libraries move when they need to move so we're going to walk through the building with Kyle and the team and try to figure out we're going to move everything to do construction so do they literally help move the Tetris as well as tech stuff up and yeah they do in our last meeting you mentioned one new designer so now we have two new interior designers both under the same umbrella yes okay correct yeah so yeah we're looking forward to it should be a good day I hope we get a little bit more detail firmed up on the plan for the fall so we can start sharing that information with our patrons and of course staff are extremely anxious to know what's going to be happening in the future so we're going to get on that

6. 6:15

   spend the whole day in meetings related to the library design project so we're going to go through all the furniture information in the morning we're going to meet our new interior designers too for the first time and then in the afternoon we're getting together with Aaron Phillips from McCarthy and Smith and Jared will be here of course and Kyle Hanning of library design associates library design associates is a firm that specializes in library shelving and furniture and they also help libraries move when they need to move so we're going to walk through the building with Kyle and the team and try to figure out we're going to move everything to do construction so do they literally help move the Tetris as well as tech stuff up and yeah they do in our last meeting you mentioned one new designer so now we have two new interior designers both under the same umbrella yes okay correct yeah so yeah we're looking forward to it should be a good day I hope we get a little bit more detail firmed up on the plan for the fall so we can start sharing that information with our patrons and of course staff are extremely anxious to know what's going to be happening in the future so we're going to get on that that's my report. Okay, 6A, Keith. Yeah, I just, I had a very quick question. Can you tell us about the Sky River cataloging services? I just don't recall, we've maybe discussed this in the past, I just don't remember it. So that one. Yeah, Sky River is a bibliographic database. So what that means is they create cataloging records for libraries, and then we pay a subscription rate, and then we can go to this database and download those cataloging records. So when we get a new book in our database, you know, we have to catalog it so that people can find it, people know what it's about, and who wrote it. That's the information that we get from that database. So it's a very specialized database. It's not public facing, it's for staff. So our crew and material services uses it to populate our catalog. So it's not the one when I go search a book out there and it has all that info. It feeds into it. It does. Because every item that comes in this library, whether it's a database, or a book, or a piece of AV equipment, has to be itemized. And that cataloging information then is machine read into the catalog, so that you

7. 7:30

   that's my report. Okay, 6A, Keith. Yeah, I just, I had a very quick question. Can you tell us about the Sky River cataloging services? I just don't recall, we've maybe discussed this in the past, I just don't remember it. So that one. Yeah, Sky River is a bibliographic database. So what that means is they create cataloging records for libraries, and then we pay a subscription rate, and then we can go to this database and download those cataloging records. So when we get a new book in our database, you know, we have to catalog it so that people can find it, people know what it's about, and who wrote it. That's the information that we get from that database. So it's a very specialized database. It's not public facing, it's for staff. So our crew and material services uses it to populate our catalog. So it's not the one when I go search a book out there and it has all that info. It feeds into it. It does. Because every item that comes in this library, whether it's a database, or a book, or a piece of AV equipment, has to be itemized. And that cataloging information then is machine read into the catalog, so that you can check it out, or put it on hold, or move it along. And we, so you'll notice... So you'll notice... remember we talked about this last year because we pay that up front at the very beginning of the year so that line item on the budget will be like 100% spent and it'll be a source of concern until you get to the end of the year and stays that way the whole rest of the year I'm not surprised we talked about it before I just didn't remember that's okay it's a weird name and it doesn't make a lot of sense yes I just wanted to ask about the the TK elevator is here and it just reminded me to ask where are things with the elevator it's actually pretty stable right now okay there have been no problems okay so like we're in good shape so this is yeah so that's just our I

8. 8:45

   itemized. And that cataloging information then is machine read into the catalog, so that you can check it out, or put it on hold, or move it along. And we, so you'll notice... So you'll notice... remember we talked about this last year because we pay that up front at the very beginning of the year so that line item on the budget will be like 100% spent and it'll be a source of concern until you get to the end of the year and stays that way the whole rest of the year I'm not surprised we talked about it before I just didn't remember that's okay it's a weird name and it doesn't make a lot of sense yes I just wanted to ask about the the TK elevator is here and it just reminded me to ask where are things with the elevator it's actually pretty stable right now okay there have been no problems okay so like we're in good shape so this is yeah so that's just our I think it's just our monthly maintenance oh okay okay annual me it's not for air okay yeah I had a few though the water bill is the same that I pay at my house the water bill we have I don't I don't noticed that the water bill is a little strange every year i feel like we talk about it it is um i don't know how they do it but i don't either some some months it's like 500 and some months it's like six thousand yes yeah and some i don't know but it's all kind of no and it's very strange but it just all we do this every year i feel like we talked about we paid more overall this year than we did the previous year and i know this is a complaint of residents with the township all the time about the water and sewer rates but i assume they're the same in every community i don't know i don't know i don't understand it either yeah and when we talked about this before i also recall us

9. 10:00

   problems okay so like we're in good shape so this is yeah so that's just our I think it's just our monthly maintenance oh okay okay annual me it's not for air okay yeah I had a few though the water bill is the same that I pay at my house the water bill we have I don't I don't noticed that the water bill is a little strange every year i feel like we talk about it it is um i don't know how they do it but i don't either some some months it's like 500 and some months it's like six thousand yes yeah and some i don't know but it's all kind of no and it's very strange but it just all we do this every year i feel like we talked about we paid more overall this year than we did the previous year and i know this is a complaint of residents with the township all the time about the water and sewer rates but i assume they're the same in every community i don't know i don't know i don't understand it either yeah and when we talked about this before i also recall us saying that we do have separate meters for we do yeah lawn right and just for outside so because it's really the sewer you may want to talk about maybe having somebody to look at it might have to be recalibrated because i know my friend who lives in the township closer to cranbrook she was getting exorbitant and she doesn't have a sprinkler system and they recalibrated her system so and she has two meters on her house so i don't know how often that happens but sometimes it happens maybe a little squirrel or something instead of being in the library got in that thank you and then on the partner walsh the certificate i didn't really understand that 20. thousand yeah they for their regular customers they sell a certificate in the winter months I assume this is business reason because they're not getting they don't have a lot of business in the winter so if you pay for your services upfront in advance in the winter time you get a discount later on in the year so we paid $20,000 and we got I think like twenty three thousand dollars worth of gardening services it's a really smart idea on both sides okay and then 6b

10. 11:15

    i don't know i don't understand it either yeah and when we talked about this before i also recall us saying that we do have separate meters for we do yeah lawn right and just for outside so because it's really the sewer you may want to talk about maybe having somebody to look at it might have to be recalibrated because i know my friend who lives in the township closer to cranbrook she was getting exorbitant and she doesn't have a sprinkler system and they recalibrated her system so and she has two meters on her house so i don't know how often that happens but sometimes it happens maybe a little squirrel or something instead of being in the library got in that thank you and then on the partner walsh the certificate i didn't really understand that 20. thousand yeah they for their regular customers they sell a certificate in the winter months I assume this is business reason because they're not getting they don't have a lot of business in the winter so if you pay for your services upfront in advance in the winter time you get a discount later on in the year so we paid $20,000 and we got I think like twenty three thousand dollars worth of gardening services it's a really smart idea on both sides okay and then 6b which is our kind of scorecard here and I guess them what jumps off the page for me you also wanted to know who all the people were on the check register it's mostly staff and it's mileage there's some conference fees and so the program supplies as well thank you so this is page seven so revenues at 10.7 and expenditures at 7.8 which in any business or organization is a spectacular results thank you Kathy that's it since you got here so I think we did a really nice job of watching our expenses here I did know that our personnel is is under budget I think that's just due to vacancies people come and go and it takes us like three months to hire somebody so there's always a period of time where you know we might not have that person and then least when new people start they're starting at a lower rate so it's not just payroll there's a payroll in the other month or anything like that there's three weeks that three weeks from let's see the last two weeks of margin the first week of April are actually hit in April so that number will go up once we

11. 12:30

    of gardening services it's a really smart idea on both sides okay and then 6b which is our kind of scorecard here and I guess them what jumps off the page for me you also wanted to know who all the people were on the check register it's mostly staff and it's mileage there's some conference fees and so the program supplies as well thank you so this is page seven so revenues at 10.7 and expenditures at 7.8 which in any business or organization is a spectacular results thank you Kathy that's it since you got here so I think we did a really nice job of watching our expenses here I did know that our personnel is is under budget I think that's just due to vacancies people come and go and it takes us like three months to hire somebody so there's always a period of time where you know we might not have that person and then least when new people start they're starting at a lower rate so it's not just payroll there's a payroll in the other month or anything like that there's three weeks that three weeks from let's see the last two weeks of margin the first week of April are actually hit in April so that number will go up once we get the actuals at the end of this month and then the other one there's a line item um maybe it was I just never focused on it but if you look at investment earnings you'll see interest in dividends I understand that's revenue then there's change in asset value I didn't understand why that is deduct off revenue that's just us tracking the investment earnings that we get from Schwartz and company each month we just track that from the statement so that's just a record of a snapshot in time of where we were since the beginning of the year right and why would that hit revenue because there's no other good place to put it so if we get when we start spending a lot of money on the very construction then you're gonna see a massive deduct off revenue because our asset value will decrease dramatically because we're gonna pull funds out well well I mean I guess we'll adjust it using that formula the assets you mean cash or assets mean depreciation building in no this is just investments it's just investments just as the fund balance lowers this number you for you

12. 13:45

    first week of April are actually hit in April so that number will go up once we get the actuals at the end of this month and then the other one there's a line item um maybe it was I just never focused on it but if you look at investment earnings you'll see interest in dividends I understand that's revenue then there's change in asset value I didn't understand why that is deduct off revenue that's just us tracking the investment earnings that we get from Schwartz and company each month we just track that from the statement so that's just a record of a snapshot in time of where we were since the beginning of the year right and why would that hit revenue because there's no other good place to put it so if we get when we start spending a lot of money on the very construction then you're gonna see a massive deduct off revenue because our asset value will decrease dramatically because we're gonna pull funds out well well I mean I guess we'll adjust it using that formula the assets you mean cash or assets mean depreciation building in no this is just investments it's just investments just as the fund balance lowers this number you for you get huge it will we can definitely revisit that i think you need to and what is there another place that you would suggest putting that line i wouldn't put it anywhere i was to say i don't know that it's that necessary i think with the reports that they it would just look if you look at the bottom you see the fund balance it just naturally will show up down here uh-huh okay yeah we can take it out we don't really have a balance this is in my mind an income statement not a balance sheet okay i'll let you guys think about that one so should there then if we're putting it in a fund balance area should there be a line item for well it will already be reflected see how you have beginning and ending correct so we went up because we had a two million dollar surplus we're not going to run surpluses like this year next year and even to show a change is almost insignificant to mention it here because one it's obvious and two it's there there's a story that's missing right from from that number you know there will always be a story missing from the number yeah it'll also be reflected i guess on the asset allocation summary

13. 15:00

    get huge it will we can definitely revisit that i think you need to and what is there another place that you would suggest putting that line i wouldn't put it anywhere i was to say i don't know that it's that necessary i think with the reports that they it would just look if you look at the bottom you see the fund balance it just naturally will show up down here uh-huh okay yeah we can take it out we don't really have a balance this is in my mind an income statement not a balance sheet okay i'll let you guys think about that one so should there then if we're putting it in a fund balance area should there be a line item for well it will already be reflected see how you have beginning and ending correct so we went up because we had a two million dollar surplus we're not going to run surpluses like this year next year and even to show a change is almost insignificant to mention it here because one it's obvious and two it's there there's a story that's missing right from from that number you know there will always be a story missing from the number yeah it'll also be reflected i guess on the asset allocation summary two correct except we don't show the change there we just show the ending the month end balance almost still we'll know it's there if you look at that page we're still you still see the 21. number at three three point six which i think is a still a very good result anybody else anything on this section and then there's a motion which i'm happy to read uh i move to approve monthly cash disturbance in the form of the checks noted for a grand total of four hundred and thirty two thousand five hundred dollars and eighty one cents in the amounts in subcategories listed second all in favor all right next is a motion to approve the remaining consent agenda items so moved no favor all right and the call to the public which is that kathy give more stuff that's this way too i'm here to represent the soc um i am a new member for this current year i'm acting as the treasurer big surprise i brought some visual ages we've started something new this year the btpl pet of the month we put out a call you know through um email for

14. 16:15

    story missing from the number yeah it'll also be reflected i guess on the asset allocation summary two correct except we don't show the change there we just show the ending the month end balance almost still we'll know it's there if you look at that page we're still you still see the 21. number at three three point six which i think is a still a very good result anybody else anything on this section and then there's a motion which i'm happy to read uh i move to approve monthly cash disturbance in the form of the checks noted for a grand total of four hundred and thirty two thousand five hundred dollars and eighty one cents in the amounts in subcategories listed second all in favor all right next is a motion to approve the remaining consent agenda items so moved no favor all right and the call to the public which is that kathy give more stuff that's this way too i'm here to represent the soc um i am a new member for this current year i'm acting as the treasurer big surprise i brought some visual ages we've started something new this year the btpl pet of the month we put out a call you know through um email for people to send their pictures in and honestly the first day we already got 12 so we're already set for the year but we're still expecting more what we're doing with these is we've got this made into a bigger poster and it's laminated and it's in our staff hallway so everybody who comes into the building is going to be looking at the space for the next month we're also putting it up on our intranet and then in our um inside the library news or two so it's just a good way to kind of build more people to be able to see their pets honored that way and then also don't you just get like a dopamine hit like can you need that out of the 12 do you have others i think maybe so um yeah there are some rumors that we might get a picture they're hungry i have to make it happen you got we have to put it on here i can't see from this far away what is that animal's name his name is uh dio or dio if you would like to pass him that oh that is so cute and she took the photo yeah oh that's a cute idea

15. 17:30

    something new this year the btpl pet of the month we put out a call you know through um email for people to send their pictures in and honestly the first day we already got 12 so we're already set for the year but we're still expecting more what we're doing with these is we've got this made into a bigger poster and it's laminated and it's in our staff hallway so everybody who comes into the building is going to be looking at the space for the next month we're also putting it up on our intranet and then in our um inside the library news or two so it's just a good way to kind of build more people to be able to see their pets honored that way and then also don't you just get like a dopamine hit like can you need that out of the 12 do you have others i think maybe so um yeah there are some rumors that we might get a picture they're hungry i have to make it happen you got we have to put it on here i can't see from this far away what is that animal's name his name is uh dio or dio if you would like to pass him that oh that is so cute and she took the photo yeah oh that's a cute idea so while that's going on we also april is um puzzle month so what we do we've got these you'll notice they're in your notebooks they're in your folders if you're interested in doing bt pale trivia or crossword board search or word scramble these also we've got pronounce in our break room and then they're also up on the internet too if people prefer to play online and then lastly as you probably know we do um casual day for a cause and our um the money that we raised in march and april is going to everylibrary.org and my little summary for them is that every library library.org helps grassroots organizations that are working to support libraries facing threats of book bans, firings, or defunding through pro bono consulting and strategic training. They also hold voter awareness campaigns and help local library ballot committees win at election time. We really are proud to have money in them. Very nice. This is a great idea. And that is our report. Thanks, Kathy.

16. 18:45

    oh that is so cute and she took the photo yeah oh that's a cute idea so while that's going on we also april is um puzzle month so what we do we've got these you'll notice they're in your notebooks they're in your folders if you're interested in doing bt pale trivia or crossword board search or word scramble these also we've got pronounce in our break room and then they're also up on the internet too if people prefer to play online and then lastly as you probably know we do um casual day for a cause and our um the money that we raised in march and april is going to everylibrary.org and my little summary for them is that every library library.org helps grassroots organizations that are working to support libraries facing threats of book bans, firings, or defunding through pro bono consulting and strategic training. They also hold voter awareness campaigns and help local library ballot committees win at election time. We really are proud to have money in them. Very nice. This is a great idea. And that is our report. Thanks, Kathy. Do you guys want to say anything? You're the public. We're here on some of your new business. So my name is Cassie Clark. This is Madison Verdone. We're here with JamPro. So Madison had the opportunity to hopefully meet with Katherine on your guys' open RFP for janitorial services. It's just kind of standard practice for us. We want to make sure that you guys know and see our faces and that we're not just another proposal on the table. I'm just kind of taking some notes while you guys were talking. I just, like Connections mentioned, Samantha Stephoff has been at a multitude of our events. We love having her around. Temple Bethel has been one of our customers since 2017. We work with the West Bloomfield Library. We work with the Farmington Community Libraries. You know, we've been on staff with West Bloomfield through their construction. Farmington Community Libraries, as I'm sure you guys are aware, is getting ready to go through a huge facelift that we're super excited for them for. and really just wanted to be here to potentially answer any questions you might have for us when it comes to the RFP, on our company, on ourselves, our process, and really just go from there. And I also want to compliment your guys's, I'm on three different boards,

17. 20:00

    Do you guys want to say anything? You're the public. We're here on some of your new business. So my name is Cassie Clark. This is Madison Verdone. We're here with JamPro. So Madison had the opportunity to hopefully meet with Katherine on your guys' open RFP for janitorial services. It's just kind of standard practice for us. We want to make sure that you guys know and see our faces and that we're not just another proposal on the table. I'm just kind of taking some notes while you guys were talking. I just, like Connections mentioned, Samantha Stephoff has been at a multitude of our events. We love having her around. Temple Bethel has been one of our customers since 2017. We work with the West Bloomfield Library. We work with the Farmington Community Libraries. You know, we've been on staff with West Bloomfield through their construction. Farmington Community Libraries, as I'm sure you guys are aware, is getting ready to go through a huge facelift that we're super excited for them for. and really just wanted to be here to potentially answer any questions you might have for us when it comes to the RFP, on our company, on ourselves, our process, and really just go from there. And I also want to compliment your guys's, I'm on three different boards, and we are not this organized. You guys are fantastic, and that's not like a, this is organized and very thought-driven, and there's definitely never any photos of dogs. So I gotta start introducing them. That's for a meeting ever. Yes, yeah, I gotta pepper that in. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for inviting us. Thank you. So is this, do you want to talk about the LDP attachment now, or do you want to do that later? Oh, let's do it later, I guess. We'll do it under other. Oh, okay. And then, as the case, we go to new business, and I'll turn it back to you, Karen. Yeah, and I'm gonna turn it over to Catherine, and she's going to share our process that we ran through for this cleaning services RFP, and take it away, Catherine. Hey, well, I do have one request for you, Tara. If there are questions from the board, can you take notes of those? Because I am incapable of taking notes and answering questions at the same time. Yes. And I'll just note that I'm on page 32 of our packet. Thank you. Yeah, so we do release on RFP for cleaning services every three years. This one was released on February 2nd. So it's just done a couple of months. And we'll need to walk then. We need to walk then.

18. 21:15

    I'm on three different boards, and we are not this organized. You guys are fantastic, and that's not like a, this is organized and very thought-driven, and there's definitely never any photos of dogs. So I gotta start introducing them. That's for a meeting ever. Yes, yeah, I gotta pepper that in. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for inviting us. Thank you. So is this, do you want to talk about the LDP attachment now, or do you want to do that later? Oh, let's do it later, I guess. We'll do it under other. Oh, okay. And then, as the case, we go to new business, and I'll turn it back to you, Karen. Yeah, and I'm gonna turn it over to Catherine, and she's going to share our process that we ran through for this cleaning services RFP, and take it away, Catherine. Hey, well, I do have one request for you, Tara. If there are questions from the board, can you take notes of those? Because I am incapable of taking notes and answering questions at the same time. Yes. And I'll just note that I'm on page 32 of our packet. Thank you. Yeah, so we do release on RFP for cleaning services every three years. This one was released on February 2nd. So it's just done a couple of months. And we'll need to walk then. We need to walk then. We put this on BidNet. This was the first time our cleaning services RFP was on BidNet because we began using them about a year and a half, two years ago. We had an outstanding response to this RFP, bigger than any response we've had for any other RFP since I've been here. We had 38 companies attend our mandatory walkthrough. We had to split everybody into two groups because we could not tour. Many of the companies sent more than one representative. We could not tour that many people around at the same time, so we did two groups, went in two different directions, answered a lot of questions. We received 29 proposals. One of those was from a firm that did not attend the walkthrough, so their proposal was not considered any further. So we reviewed a total of 28 proposals. They are on the table here. If you are interested in taking a look through those, I reviewed those, Tara reviewed them, and Tom Corliss, our facility services department head, reviewed them. We have been working with our current cleaning company, Augie's, for the last three years. We have been very pleased with their service.

19. 22:30

    We put this on BidNet. This was the first time our cleaning services RFP was on BidNet because we began using them about a year and a half, two years ago. We had an outstanding response to this RFP, bigger than any response we've had for any other RFP since I've been here. We had 38 companies attend our mandatory walkthrough. We had to split everybody into two groups because we could not tour. Many of the companies sent more than one representative. We could not tour that many people around at the same time, so we did two groups, went in two different directions, answered a lot of questions. We received 29 proposals. One of those was from a firm that did not attend the walkthrough, so their proposal was not considered any further. So we reviewed a total of 28 proposals. They are on the table here. If you are interested in taking a look through those, I reviewed those, Tara reviewed them, and Tom Corliss, our facility services department head, reviewed them. We have been working with our current cleaning company, Augie's, for the last three years. We have been very pleased with their service. They are in excellent communication. They provide an app through which we can communicate issues or follow-up on things. They have had several of the same staff members for the entire three years. We need respect to the program. layers. um they are friendly they are clearly identified when they come into the building at night and they have done an excellent job and matt the owner of augie's has been in excellent communication with tom over the last several years in their proposal they kept their budget exactly the same as it has been for the last three years uh they did not raise it a penny um and they have repeatedly told us how much they want to continue working with the library and continue building this relationship that we've built over the last three years so of the other 27 proposals 17 uh submitted proposals that had rates higher than augie's and since we have been so pleased with augie's we did not wish to consider those none of them seem to demonstrate any additional value beyond what we are already receiving the remaining 10 companies offered either about the same or lower

20. 23:45

    We have been very pleased with their service. They are in excellent communication. They provide an app through which we can communicate issues or follow-up on things. They have had several of the same staff members for the entire three years. We need respect to the program. layers. um they are friendly they are clearly identified when they come into the building at night and they have done an excellent job and matt the owner of augie's has been in excellent communication with tom over the last several years in their proposal they kept their budget exactly the same as it has been for the last three years uh they did not raise it a penny um and they have repeatedly told us how much they want to continue working with the library and continue building this relationship that we've built over the last three years so of the other 27 proposals 17 uh submitted proposals that had rates higher than augie's and since we have been so pleased with augie's we did not wish to consider those none of them seem to demonstrate any additional value beyond what we are already receiving the remaining 10 companies offered either about the same or lower rates um but many of those proposals were either incomplete lacked a level of professionalism or didn't reflect the level of experience that we were seeking a few of them didn't list the number of personnel hours which for us was a really key metric in looking at these proposals because the personnel hours proposed shows that the company responding understands the scope of the work and how long it's going to take to to get that work done and shows just a realistic view of the work versus the price versus the number of people needed to complete it for these reasons we are recommending going with Augie's or this proposal but I'd love to hear if you have any questions about any of the other companies I do okay there were two proposals that had significantly lower amounts in my mind that would be professional building services and with Wellesley to those two absolutely professional building services came in at

21. 25:00

    beyond what we are already receiving the remaining 10 companies offered either about the same or lower rates um but many of those proposals were either incomplete lacked a level of professionalism or didn't reflect the level of experience that we were seeking a few of them didn't list the number of personnel hours which for us was a really key metric in looking at these proposals because the personnel hours proposed shows that the company responding understands the scope of the work and how long it's going to take to to get that work done and shows just a realistic view of the work versus the price versus the number of people needed to complete it for these reasons we are recommending going with Augie's or this proposal but I'd love to hear if you have any questions about any of the other companies I do okay there were two proposals that had significantly lower amounts in my mind that would be professional building services and with Wellesley to those two absolutely professional building services came in at about a hundred and eighteen thousand per year they did not include that key metric of personnel hours so it was unclear to us if they really understood the scope of work necessary they also were missing some items we asked for such as insurance licensing and bonding proof and frankly with such a large competitive field it felt like if they couldn't if a company couldn't read through the proposal and provide the requested information on the first pass we weren't going to go chasing it I'm sorry which one was that professional professional building services services yes okay professional building the one that is yes that is not the one that's BELFOR right because professional building services is one professional building maintenance is another another and yeah the maintenance one is the one that it has was acquired yes by BELFOR yes and that is that's another one that didn't include some of the requested information the professional group which professional building maintenance is part of handles our landscape like our lawn services and snow removal but it's was not even

22. 26:15

    Wellesley to those two absolutely professional building services came in at about a hundred and eighteen thousand per year they did not include that key metric of personnel hours so it was unclear to us if they really understood the scope of work necessary they also were missing some items we asked for such as insurance licensing and bonding proof and frankly with such a large competitive field it felt like if they couldn't if a company couldn't read through the proposal and provide the requested information on the first pass we weren't going to go chasing it I'm sorry which one was that professional professional building services services yes okay professional building the one that is yes that is not the one that's BELFOR right because professional building services is one professional building maintenance is another another and yeah the maintenance one is the one that it has was acquired yes by BELFOR yes and that is that's another one that didn't include some of the requested information the professional group which professional building maintenance is part of handles our landscape like our lawn services and snow removal but it's was not even mentioned at all in their proposal that they already do that work for us which made it feel like one arm of the company isn't talking to the other which again raised an eyebrow and they were slightly above Augie's price point and then Shane you asked about Wesley they quoted 28 to 32 hours of work per night with four to five staff members which was more than double what Augie's was proposing and at the lower rate we weren't really sure how they were going to pay that much personnel again it felt like there was a disconnect between the scope of work needed and what they were proposing I understand that Augie's did not change their rate correct you year to year or cycle to cycle. And what about the personnel hours? Did that change at all? I mean, just with their, okay. Now they know what it takes. Yes. That's probably reflective

23. 27:30

    part of handles our landscape like our lawn services and snow removal but it's was not even mentioned at all in their proposal that they already do that work for us which made it feel like one arm of the company isn't talking to the other which again raised an eyebrow and they were slightly above Augie's price point and then Shane you asked about Wesley they quoted 28 to 32 hours of work per night with four to five staff members which was more than double what Augie's was proposing and at the lower rate we weren't really sure how they were going to pay that much personnel again it felt like there was a disconnect between the scope of work needed and what they were proposing I understand that Augie's did not change their rate correct you year to year or cycle to cycle. And what about the personnel hours? Did that change at all? I mean, just with their, okay. Now they know what it takes. Yes. That's probably reflective of what they're actually doing. Yes. They typically arrive just before 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday when we're closing. So a few minutes before closing and they're here for three to four hours. I have a question about the rates in that they're not charging any more than they're charging currently. Did we ask or did anyone provide what's it going to look like year upon year upon year? Is there a reasonable amount? Auggies is committed to that rate flat for the next three years. That's what I thought I read. They did indicate that they had enough cushion built in that they were making a comfortable profit and didn't, and were able to pay staff enough to stay and they didn't see a need to raise that. And Catherine, did you discuss the building project that we have? Because there's going to be so much dust and the bathrooms, I don't know how they will be affected, but certainly around. And what, did they have any suggestions and or did you, or how is that, how is that going to be led when they start cleaning during that period? Yeah, we didn't get into the nitty-gritty of that for the sake of the RFP. We did talk about that at our walkthrough and explain that this was going to be reality for...

24. 28:45

    I mean, just with their, okay. Now they know what it takes. Yes. That's probably reflective of what they're actually doing. Yes. They typically arrive just before 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday when we're closing. So a few minutes before closing and they're here for three to four hours. I have a question about the rates in that they're not charging any more than they're charging currently. Did we ask or did anyone provide what's it going to look like year upon year upon year? Is there a reasonable amount? Auggies is committed to that rate flat for the next three years. That's what I thought I read. They did indicate that they had enough cushion built in that they were making a comfortable profit and didn't, and were able to pay staff enough to stay and they didn't see a need to raise that. And Catherine, did you discuss the building project that we have? Because there's going to be so much dust and the bathrooms, I don't know how they will be affected, but certainly around. And what, did they have any suggestions and or did you, or how is that, how is that going to be led when they start cleaning during that period? Yeah, we didn't get into the nitty-gritty of that for the sake of the RFP. We did talk about that at our walkthrough and explain that this was going to be reality for... nine months starting this fall um and they indicated that they had no problem taking care okay i also thought about that and given just the rate of change that we're going to have and the different conditions to me to change our incumbent partner for an unknown quantity would be a really bold move without some significant savings right because these are people that know everybody and know everything i had not considered that that's a good point yeah i also was impressed as well with it let the bid net it's just the greatest thing in the world i got it it really is i need that for like my personal home services you have to be a municipality okay does anybody else have any thoughts or comments yeah i i moved to approve awarding the cleaning services bid to augie's building services 4147 darling court waterford michigan four eight three two nine beginning on june 1st 2026 second thank you thank you catherine yeah yes thank you the very detailed um there should be something

25. 30:00

    nine months starting this fall um and they indicated that they had no problem taking care okay i also thought about that and given just the rate of change that we're going to have and the different conditions to me to change our incumbent partner for an unknown quantity would be a really bold move without some significant savings right because these are people that know everybody and know everything i had not considered that that's a good point yeah i also was impressed as well with it let the bid net it's just the greatest thing in the world i got it it really is i need that for like my personal home services you have to be a municipality okay does anybody else have any thoughts or comments yeah i i moved to approve awarding the cleaning services bid to augie's building services 4147 darling court waterford michigan four eight three two nine beginning on june 1st 2026 second thank you thank you catherine yeah yes thank you the very detailed um there should be something any more tickets for the 10 flex show you you and so this will take us three years right yes let's begin june 1st and take us through 2029 may 2029 wow it's crazy okay great thank you catherine so much i believe it takes us to another yeah other so you want to talk about them and if you guys want to stay you're welcome to it's not rude if you choose not um so the cdp then that's yeah the other way so i don't know if you guys look at that attachment i thought this was we talked last meeting of having a template for how we're going to track this and we're going to look at it i know can you go to the page number i'm sorry oh that's right i you can see mine thank you put it in the packet how do you guys feel about i'd rather keep it up i think yeah i would too yeah but i thought this was right right down the fairway for what i was looking at good okay great

26. 31:15

    thank you catherine yeah yes thank you the very detailed um there should be something any more tickets for the 10 flex show you you and so this will take us three years right yes let's begin june 1st and take us through 2029 may 2029 wow it's crazy okay great thank you catherine so much i believe it takes us to another yeah other so you want to talk about them and if you guys want to stay you're welcome to it's not rude if you choose not um so the cdp then that's yeah the other way so i don't know if you guys look at that attachment i thought this was we talked last meeting of having a template for how we're going to track this and we're going to look at it i know can you go to the page number i'm sorry oh that's right i you can see mine thank you put it in the packet how do you guys feel about i'd rather keep it up i think yeah i would too yeah but i thought this was right right down the fairway for what i was looking at good okay great anybody else have thoughts i think it was great and i'll keep updating this every month just one quick question on the last page you have something called 75 estimated actual what is an estimated actual we estimated where is that at the last at the bottom of the third page there's oh oh in the numbers um let me think about this for a second because we're projecting oh because we split we split the total cost of the project over the two fiscal years and so I think that was just our way of saying that's what you expect to be yeah 70 load into one year versus the other year right yeah many five percent of the estimated actual budget right okay I just never heard the term estimated yeah maybe that's the plan to budget or something so okay fair enough thanks got

27. 32:30

    yeah but i thought this was right right down the fairway for what i was looking at good okay great anybody else have thoughts i think it was great and i'll keep updating this every month just one quick question on the last page you have something called 75 estimated actual what is an estimated actual we estimated where is that at the last at the bottom of the third page there's oh oh in the numbers um let me think about this for a second because we're projecting oh because we split we split the total cost of the project over the two fiscal years and so I think that was just our way of saying that's what you expect to be yeah 70 load into one year versus the other year right yeah many five percent of the estimated actual budget right okay I just never heard the term estimated yeah maybe that's the plan to budget or something so okay fair enough thanks got it seems like an oxymoron I'm not here at our last board meeting because that was the great sixth grade band concert and I'm the proud mother of a sixth grader who plays the trumpet so I was unfortunately unable to attend but I as I'm reading through the minutes I I noted that Tara made mention of the um terror attack that happened at temple israel on march 12th which was just a few days five days before the last um meeting and um i i appreciate you mentioning that it was a difficult thing for many people in our community yes he did oh yes wasn't in the minutes they're in there they're written better than my comments actually okay but yes it was a joy um i

28. 33:45

    maybe that's the plan to budget or something so okay fair enough thanks got it seems like an oxymoron I'm not here at our last board meeting because that was the great sixth grade band concert and I'm the proud mother of a sixth grader who plays the trumpet so I was unfortunately unable to attend but I as I'm reading through the minutes I I noted that Tara made mention of the um terror attack that happened at temple israel on march 12th which was just a few days five days before the last um meeting and um i i appreciate you mentioning that it was a difficult thing for many people in our community yes he did oh yes wasn't in the minutes they're in there they're written better than my comments actually okay but yes it was a joy um i wanted to mention that i just feel that it's more important than ever to ensure that we are creating a safe space for all people of all communities and identities and cultures here in our library and there's just um so much um heightened anti-semitism right now that there's so much fear and um i will tell you because i feel my voice shaking i even feel at risk talking speaking up about it sometimes um but i know people who have been to other public libraries in our county and in our local area who have heard other people you know talking putting other cultures down and it's just such a a sad and terrible thing because I know you guys have heard me say this a million times, but my most favorite thing about public libraries is that it doesn't matter what you look like, what you have in your wallet, your education, any of it, how you identify, anything.

29. 35:00

    wanted to mention that i just feel that it's more important than ever to ensure that we are creating a safe space for all people of all communities and identities and cultures here in our library and there's just um so much um heightened anti-semitism right now that there's so much fear and um i will tell you because i feel my voice shaking i even feel at risk talking speaking up about it sometimes um but i know people who have been to other public libraries in our county and in our local area who have heard other people you know talking putting other cultures down and it's just such a a sad and terrible thing because I know you guys have heard me say this a million times, but my most favorite thing about public libraries is that it doesn't matter what you look like, what you have in your wallet, your education, any of it, how you identify, anything. Everybody is the same in a public library. Everybody has the same equal access to all the information and materials in the collection. And I'm just so grateful that this library worked so hard to include everybody and be a safe space. So that was my only other. Thank you for sharing. Although I will, I will also say in the last few weeks, I attended both the volunteer appreciation that the library put on and the friends annual meeting, luncheon. I don't know what they call it, but the report is here available for us to see. And, um, just a huge thank you again to the friends for all that they do and all the work they do to raise money for programming and, um, for our library. Thanks, William. Thank you. Anybody else go ahead? Other, other, other? There. There.

30. 36:15

    Everybody is the same in a public library. Everybody has the same equal access to all the information and materials in the collection. And I'm just so grateful that this library worked so hard to include everybody and be a safe space. So that was my only other. Thank you for sharing. Although I will, I will also say in the last few weeks, I attended both the volunteer appreciation that the library put on and the friends annual meeting, luncheon. I don't know what they call it, but the report is here available for us to see. And, um, just a huge thank you again to the friends for all that they do and all the work they do to raise money for programming and, um, for our library. Thanks, William. Thank you. Anybody else go ahead? Other, other, other? There. There. no other other is everybody happy with the 6 30. yes why you're not no i am okay this is the first meeting she never like you know told us all since oh yeah i like 6 30. yeah i like it i've gotten used to the rhythm of the telegraph going down oh yeah so it's still crowded but yes i am too okay um when we were talking about the budget um and the income statement or balance sheet i every month it always looks so surprising that we're actually going to get hit that i know property taxes yeah right and here it is i know this is the month i know you're sort of like ripping in your uh yeah like no we might not no we didn't i just have one quick question about the um the building so once you meet you said tomorrow when does the ordering process start for the furniture and if it comes in um i've been ordering furniture i've been very lucky it's coming in much sooner than i thought okay are we creating an area where that's going to be stored are they going to store it their facility because some of the things will be a number of them so i'm just wondering um if they let's say that they won't be ready for it until april but we get it in february where will that be kept have you talked about that

31. 37:30

    no other other is everybody happy with the 6 30. yes why you're not no i am okay this is the first meeting she never like you know told us all since oh yeah i like 6 30. yeah i like it i've gotten used to the rhythm of the telegraph going down oh yeah so it's still crowded but yes i am too okay um when we were talking about the budget um and the income statement or balance sheet i every month it always looks so surprising that we're actually going to get hit that i know property taxes yeah right and here it is i know this is the month i know you're sort of like ripping in your uh yeah like no we might not no we didn't i just have one quick question about the um the building so once you meet you said tomorrow when does the ordering process start for the furniture and if it comes in um i've been ordering furniture i've been very lucky it's coming in much sooner than i thought okay are we creating an area where that's going to be stored are they going to store it their facility because some of the things will be a number of them so i'm just wondering um if they let's say that they won't be ready for it until april but we get it in february where will that be kept have you talked about that and that might be something you want to talk to them about yeah because there's there could be a chance if that happens so yeah we'll talk about that okay gotcha um yeah all right just one of those little things are going to be able to talk to them about that okay so yeah so things you have to put on your list so yeah there's there's going to be a lot of it's going to be like a game giant game of tetris to move things around and get things my one suggestion is just to have a look at every piece because i had a piece that they got to come in and just do a little repair but it's obvious so um just make sure that they look at particularly things that are upholstered yeah yeah we're working with american interiors and then the interior designers and um i'll tell them yeah they should be on site when things come in and unpacking yeah because i don't know what the return policy would be or what the let's fix it policy okay yeah thank you for that a question um has there been further thinking about the the tile work that you're going to be putting around fireplace no not yet not yet okay we'll get there okay fair enough yeah yeah you may have new input from these new designers maybe you know maybe yeah i'm eager to talk to them supposedly britney um is got the handoff from chloe on what

32. 38:45

    be ready for it until april but we get it in february where will that be kept have you talked about that and that might be something you want to talk to them about yeah because there's there could be a chance if that happens so yeah we'll talk about that okay gotcha um yeah all right just one of those little things are going to be able to talk to them about that okay so yeah so things you have to put on your list so yeah there's there's going to be a lot of it's going to be like a game giant game of tetris to move things around and get things my one suggestion is just to have a look at every piece because i had a piece that they got to come in and just do a little repair but it's obvious so um just make sure that they look at particularly things that are upholstered yeah yeah we're working with american interiors and then the interior designers and um i'll tell them yeah they should be on site when things come in and unpacking yeah because i don't know what the return policy would be or what the let's fix it policy okay yeah thank you for that a question um has there been further thinking about the the tile work that you're going to be putting around fireplace no not yet not yet okay we'll get there okay fair enough yeah yeah you may have new input from these new designers maybe you know maybe yeah i'm eager to talk to them supposedly britney um is got the handoff from chloe on what the conversation was like previously with poetic so i would think they're they're going to keep the same level of yeah exactly yeah yeah and we weren't far enough along into making any decisions about it for them for them to say like oh i hate it or oh i love it or it's basically my guidance picking back up to say hey we started this conversation gosh almost a year ago so we'll have Yeah, wow. Okay. Great. Anybody else? No. All right. Move to adjourn. Thank you. 7-10.