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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLibrary Promotion Cmte - 07/21/2010 � ��w�� � CITY OF PALM DESERT �-��---� � � PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE - APPROVED MINUTES ' Wednesday, July 21, 2010 — 3:00 p.m. Administrative Conference Room I. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Kermode called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. II. ROLL CALL Present: Absent: Member Joan Beasley Member Betty Carapellese Member Lois Cardona Member Marilyn Hahn Member Ella Manor Vice Chair Bobbie Rosenberg Chairman Louise Kermode Also Present: CITYCOUNCILACTION APPROVED _.._DF.NiF.D Jean M. Benson, Councilmember RECEIVEDi,.� OTHER Jeannie Kays, City Librarian Jodi Elowitz, Special Events Coordinat�'IEETING DATE /��� -��-c�� Eileen Strain, Volunteer Coordinator AYF,S:��]Sc�� r o�-���-.�.;.,F«F.l. ;��F,-��� Rachelle D. Klassen, City Clerk NOCs: ��� �� Mary P. LaCross, Recording SecretaryABSENT: ����� ABSTAIN: - I`��� III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS VP:RIF[EU BY: � � _._ _ Ori�inal on File with City Clcr�t's Ofiice None IV. CONSENT CALENDAR A. MINUTES of the Palm Desert Library Promotion Committee Meeting of April 28, 2010. Rec: Approve as presented. 1 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 Upon motion by Member Beasley, second by Member Manor, the Consent Calendar was approved as presented by a 4-0 vote. Chairman Kermode requested clarification of several items from the last Library Committee meeting: -- Sister Cities Art Display Ms. Klassen noted that Mr. Marman had indicated he wanted to make a special presentation, and she would contact him to remind him to do so. Councilmember Benson stated that the Sister Cities Committee was dark in July and August, so perhaps Mr. Marman was preparing for the presentation. She added that Sister Cities Committee was happy that the Library Committee had approved the display of this artwork and felt it would be a good outlet for people to see it. Chairman Kermode asked whether there was an issue with regard to where to place the artwork, and Ms. Kays responded that they had exhibited a Sister Cities display in the past, and there was some space available at the Library to do this again. -- Budget Line Items Ms. Klassen stated that the way the City recognized the Library fund was one item; however, the Committee does make recommendations line by line. She said if adjustments and/or increases needed to be made in certain areas in the future, that could be done, and staff could take that forward. -- LSSI and Riverside County Economic Development Agency Councilmember Benson stated that LSSI is a company that runs libraries. Six or seven years ago, when the County decided it wanted out of the library business, it prepared a Request for Proposals (RFP), and LSSI was given the contract. 2 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 Mr. Sergio Pena, Development Specialist with the County of Riverside Economic Development Agency (EDA), explained that the EDA was a department within the County of Riverside. He said there had been some restructuring within the County with regard to how the libraries are managed, and they are now being managed under the EDA umbrella. Financial transactions and the costs for LSSI are now coming to and from the Economic Development Agency. The County Librarian is employed within the EDA, and there is a management figure as well. Councilmember Benson noted that the late Supervisor Roy Wilson used to have his own quarterly committee meetings of all the librarians throughout Riverside County; however, it was her understanding that group had not been meeting for some time, and she suggested that Supervisor Benoit's office be contacted to find out whether he intends to carry that forward. Ms. Klassen stated that Leticia DeLara from Supervisor Benoit's office just happened to be present at this meeting. Ms. DeLara said she would look into this matter. Chairman Kermode noted that she was talking to people at College of the Desert today and found out that they do not expect to move out of the Library for at least four to five years. She said she was hoping that the meeting room could be expanded somehow, especially since there was a lot of land there. Councilmember Benson said there were no funds to expand anything at the present time. She added that, in her opinion, it would be better to put another branch somewhere else in the City rather than expand this one, but that would be sometime down the road. V. NEW BUSINESS None VI. CONTINUED BUSINESS None 3 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 VII. OLD BUSINESS A. PRESENTATION OF APPROVED LIBRARY FUND BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010/2011 Ms. Klassen noted that the Library budget was approved by the City Council at its meeting of June 24, 2010, in the amount requested by the Committee. She added that while the total was the same as last year, some of the individual line items had been adjusted. With Committee concurrence, the report was received and filed. B. UPDATE ON LIBRARY REFRESH PROJECT The following is a verbatim transcript of this portion of the meeting: � SP Sergio Pena, Riverside County Economic Development Agency LK Louise Kermode, Library Committee Chair TH Tim Holt, Holt Architects JB Joan Beasley, Library Committee Member AR Andrea Redewill, Holt Architects JK Jeannie Kays, City Librarian JMB Councilmember Jean M. Benson RDK Rachelle D. Klassen, City Clerk EM Ella Manor, Library Committee Member SP First of all, thank you for having us...myself, again. I'm joined by Leticia DeLara from Supervisor Benoit's office, Tim Holt and Andrea from Holt Architects out of Rancho Mirage. LK Would anyone like something to drink? We have cold drinks, cookies...help yourself. SP Okay. Just to reiterate my role in this whole process...l'm basically acting as an agent for the County of Riverside. I review the project concepts that 4 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 Tim generates, or will generate. I'll review the cost estimates, adhering to County standards, City standards, your standards, and I'll communicate the facility needs that, you know, you request, the Committee requests, and anyone else, to make sure that they're integrated into the project and monitor the different aspects of the project and then provide reports to whomever would like one. So at this point I would like to really turn it over to Tim Holt and his team to just give us an overview of his design process. TH Thank you very much. We appreciate the opportunity to sit and discuss this with you because I believe it could be said fairly accurately this is not a real cut and dried, well-understood process. Many times the design effort that is put forward, not only to create new buildings but to renovate existing ones, can bring about more questions sometimes than answers. We interviewed with Sergio's department at Economic Development Agency about four months ago I believe, something like that, and at that time proposed to provide a design service to the County and the City and the Library to...which would include a consulting architectural firm. I know you just asked that question, so perhaps I'll bounce right to it. We identified another firm that is San Francisco area based. They are literally library specialists, having completed over 250 libraries in the last decade in the United States. Right now their work load is spread out from Massachusetts to Ohio and Minnesota, Kansas, and they do a lot of work here in California because, of course, they're based here. Library design is becoming very, very specialized. As with many others area of life that we deal with right now, emerging technologies have brought about a number of new changes and new ways to display, to control books, for staff to handle things most efficiently, and there are a number of new factors evolving rather rapidly within the library industry today. It's for that reason that we felt that our team could be strengthened by a consultant that really is a hands-on expert and is dealing with these things on a very large basis continually. So we brought a proposal forward to the County which includes a firm called Group 4 Architects from the San Francisco area. They're a consultant to our team, and they will participate primarily in the programming and the schematic design phases. Those are the initial design phases as we begin to explore options and that type of thing: They're very innovative. They've done some extraordinary work. And in addition to them, we've added to our team a program specialist. She works exclusively to help to program libraries...that is, to visit the existing facilities, look at all the various functional aspects within the library itself, and make recommendations and suggestions as to how that can improve, 5 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 how the system and the display and everything can improve. Her name is Linda Demmers. She's rather well-known nationally and has provided this service for some of the most significant new libraries in our country. So we feel we've got a team assembled that can really bring a very high quality, innovative, and state-of-the-art response to some of the challenges that we have here at this library. We'll undertake this beginning the very first week in August, if that's alright with you, and we'll initiate the programming process. That, involving those other two entities, Group 4 and Linda Demmers, is going to take about 60 days to unfold. There will be a series of ineetings here at the Library, on-site. We'll have some other teleconference type of exchanges with them as well during that time. But Jeannie's staff will be getting very familiar with Linda and their Andrea and others that will be here. There will be a series of workshops, interviews...we're really going to kind of break down your Library function and then reconstruct it from a conceptual standpoint. And, of course, in that process, as you might imagine, there will be many options identified. There's just not one best way to do this that will be arrived at real quickly, but a series of alternatives or options will be brought forward, and then we'll have another workshop with you and exchange which of these three...for example, you may like component parts of each of the three of them, and so our challenge will be to take that information, that input back, combine it, and bring forward a final conceptual plan so that when this work will be done in that first 60 days, so let's say August and September, that amount of intensity will underway...a lot of interface with the building and with staff. Following that; which will largely generate the input that we need, we have another 60-day timeframe to allocate to the schematic design phase. This is where we'll be bringing forward options of various floor plan design modifications and alternatives. In the meantime, we'll be looking at a number of other things that we've been asked to consider in the building. Those would be such things as sustainable, perhaps new sustainable materials, updating the ADA compliance aspect in terms of toilet room facilities, there's an exiting issue that needs to be dealt with over on the south side that enters up to the bathroom area, bringing those toilet rooms up to ADA compliance standards, looking at the energy consumption issue of the building and what the energy cost history has been...we'tl be exploring some of that information and searching in the process for those types of alternative appendages or changes within the building that might enhance the energy responsiveness of the building. We'll be looking at 6 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 functional aspects...book drop functions and things like that. There are a number of new systems out that we would like to explore and see if we can squeeze them into the budget — that's always a problem, of course, and a challenge, but that's what you're asking us to do. So we'll bring forward those types of alternative things as well. I think you can probably expect, based on what we now view as the scope of this project, it will be...it will be contained within the existing building, at least inasmuch as the budget that we have been given to this date. As Jean said, we don't have any thoughts of additions to the building right now. The funds just aren't there, but internal modifications...we'll look to enhance the performance of the climate control system. We'll look to improve the lighting quality in several areas. We'll look at acoustical issues and where we have a lot of reverberation that perhaps could be eliminated. The interior finishes in large measure will be new and changed, the floor covering for example. We'll be bringing forth several ideas and options for you in terms of new possible floor coverings, a new color scheme, and lastly, the furniture issue, everything from book stacks to tables and chairs, those types of things...we'll be bringing forward alternatives. Sergio's created a separate budget for the furniture aspect of the project, which is kind of separate from the building, the actual building modifications themselves, and from that standpoint, then, we'll deal with those issues and interface with them as well. I could probably go on to needless detail right now, but it might be more beneficial if I just stop right there and ask you what's important to you. What would you like me to respond to? JB All of this also includes the College half of the Library, or not? TH In terms of the programming, we were not asked to reprogram, realign if you will, redesign the College area. The discussion with regard to that northerly portion of the building was regarding floor covering and painting, I believe, was the scope that we were given to consider. And so that's really the limit of what we expect to do on that northern portion. AR There was an aspect of consideration in terms of maybe possible future phasing and looking at kind of a master planning aspect of looking at that space as a future possibility...limited in the amount of detail that we would go into. 7 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 TH Realizing, as has already been mentioned, that at some point the College wili move out, and the rest of the building can be brought up to, hopefully, the standard that this portion's at. �B So you will try to maintain the integrity of whatever flooring, cotoring, painting, whatever...throughout the entire building so that in fhe future it would mesh. TH Yes, indeed. JK And the College did say they would find the money somewhere, at least for the carpet and possibly the paint (inaudible) .1B It looks like it will be the beginning of December before the two phases are done? TH That is correct. We've been asked to consider possible incremental periods when there may be a necessity for, or a desirability for, public exposure, a public meeting, or it's been stated that we will be presenting this to the City Council at some time, so I've created a schedule that I'll give to Sergio, and that would allow for the possibility, if they so desire, to have a presentation to City Council and/or County officials or anyone else thaYs interested, right at the very beginning of November, the month of November, right after Halloween, and then another one, if it works out, about mid-December. I realize the holidays will be coming on quickly at that time, but we look to wrap up these first two phases, which will then bring to conclusion Group 4 and Linda Demmers' involvement. And then my firm, Holt Architects, will take the project to design development, to the preparation of construction documents, the approval process at DSA, which is necessary, I think you are aware of that, and then the bidding and construction administration phases of the work as well. JB How long is that usually? TH I kind of roughed out some thoughts for you as to what we might expect. So assuming the first two phases are completed by mid-December, the design development phase will occur in January and February of 2011. That will need your approval prior to moving on to construction documents, the preparation of the construction drawings. That's a three- to four-month process. That will take us through about April of... 8 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 AR June TH ...June, I'm sorry, June of 2011, and then we'll submit at that time to the State agency, DSA, for the plan check review... RDK ThaYs the State Architect, right? TH The Office of State Architect, exactly. And Steve Renew is pretty emphatic about the need to do that because the building is located on the campus...many students will be coming in and out...l suppose somebody could contend that, but it's okay. The accessibility issues will be resolved. There will be no new structural concerns for them, and the Fire Marshal we work with all the time, so those are the finro primary components at the DSA office, so I'm not expecting an overly lengthy or complex plan check process at the State. That would be followed by a competitive bidding process, and we usually allow about 60 days for that from the time of advertisement to the construction industry, conducting pre-bid walk-throughs or conferences at the Library for bidding contractors, receiving bids, analyzing them, confirming the validity of their bonding situation, and then getting a contract written to enter construction and authorize them to proceed...that's about a 60-day time frame. So that's going to take us into about September of 2011. And the construction period, I believe, is going to be a real challenge because I know that you want to operate the Library and have us rebuild it all at the same time, so there will be, I think, a need to recognize that the construction duration will be a little longer than it would be if the building were vacated or if it were new. I'm allowing in my mind right now about an eight-month...l think that's very conservative...it may be as short as six...for construction. If that were the case, you could look to occupy the entirely refurbished building, with new furniture and finishes, at about May or June of 2012. SP Okay. So these dates and time frames, I'm sure, are kind of a shock to everyone...Tim and I, we did kind of digest them and go through them. Comments? JK So...okay, I have a comment. So this schedule that you originally presented where construction was going to start in January is... SP Correct 9 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 JK ...wrong. SP Well... JK Because we planned our adult programs based on your schedule, and now... SP Okay...well, we were two weeks away...we were two weeks behind on executing his agreement, so I lost two weeks there... JK Okay, so construction is expected to begin when? TH About October. JB Of 2011... TH Of 2011... and it will extend through the early portion of 2012. It may be able to wrap up in April/May. JB Six to eight months. JK Okay, so January is now October. TH Yeah, we're...it's like six to eight months. JK Okay...because we, you know, we have seasons, and... TH Okay JK ...summer reading, so (inaudible) SP Now, in previous conversations I've had with, you know, yourself, Barbara Howison, the initial kind of reaction we get is...the design process, as defined, can...l don't want to say it can be a leisurely pace, but we can do it in such a way... RDK (inaudible) SP Oh, okay...is that what it is? 10 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 RDK Since you're soft spoken anyway (inaudible) doesn't amplify, but we do need it for the tape, but you could speak up just slightly. SP Oh, okay, I'm sorry. So the initial direction, I think, from the comments/reactions we received is make sure we can do it right because once we get into construction, we're going to have to do it very quickly or in such a way that there are no disruptions or very minimal disruptions to the library operations. So, you know, that's the direction Tim Holt received. He has generated this schedule based on those interpretations. There are always ways we can do...to compress this schedule. This is, I think, a first take, you know, a first choice and a preferred schedule, but I think the question maybe we have to you is...is this acceptabte, is this kind of what you're expecting? JB What's the choice? SP I mean, there are ways, there are things we can do, but is the necessity there for us to speed it up? JB You could. SP Tim? TH I think... JB (inaudible) to wait for are the way they are. TH That's my feeling. Thank you. At the same time, there's a full-on recognition, on our behalf, that to expedite the project is in everyone's best interest, and we fully realize that. We might ask Jeannie if there's a particular time of the year that you would favor or that would be most beneficial for the intensity of the construction operation to occur. Would you rather have it in the summer, or would you rather have it in the winter? Or does it really make that much difference based on the function and how many folks are coming and going? JK Yeah, the least busy time because we have about 20,000 people a month coming through the Library, and we circulate 33,000 items a month. We're very busy. When you say the working with Linda Demmers is going 11 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 to take place in August and September, those are probably our slowest months. So she's going to see us at our most leisurely. You know, she's going to see us at our down time, and she's not going to see us in our busy, busy time, so we'll have to, you know...l know she's a professional (inaudible), but those months would be really good for construction. It's really hot here, but those would be the months where we don't have anything of significance going on. As far as our big season, the snowbirds arrive in October, and they stay til about April, so October through April is one of our busiest times of the year, and then right now we're in the middle of summer reading program, so June and July are really busy. TH So if construction were to wrap up in September, that would almost be ideal for you. If construction could conclude... JB That would be a miracle, wouldn't it? JK Would it make much of a difference if we were closed? I can't make that decision, but a lot of us are looking at each other going "How are we going to be open with paint fumes and carpet glue and noise?" TH It's a very good question. If it were possible to not be open during that period, it would, one, expedite the process. It would keep the public and staff from having to deal with the issues of dust and construction activity, which is...it's virtually impossible to do it without some of that. The contractors will be directed to shield everything and to tape it all of and everything, but it's a significant challenge in any public building to do that. You can imagine what it's like in your own homes, but now take it to a public building. And this one's got an unusual shape to it, as you very well know. This room right here would be a whole lot easier to work in than that fibrary, so...with curved surfaces and the roof situation and things like that. It's going to be something that we have to handle delicately, but I, for one, am not expecting the construction operation to be 100% dust-free and that kind of thing...it's not going to happen in this world, so...they'll do the very best they can, I don't want to alarm you. But if you could work on something like that, it would enhance the process and keep everybody healthy and so on. And if it's that much of a benefit, Sergio, I'm certainly willing to look at what we might be able to do in terms of the sequencing to accelerate the schedule. I hesitate to make too many promises this early. I think that we are collectively going to have a really interesting and informative, insightful experience this fall with this process, with Linda and 12 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 Group 4, and if we can move that process along very, very much according to schedule and have a really good understanding, the rest of the project, I believe, can go very smoothly, and we can look at ways that we might expedite things. And perhaps something like a pre-meeting down at DSA's office will help us, if we go down when we're maybe three-quarters completed with the construction documents and give them a heads-up and that type of thing. We're certainly willing to do that. That is probably in my mind the single greatest variable, by the way, on this schedule. I offer that perhaps they can do it within a 30-day time frame, and I hope I'm not being too optimistic, but we'll do everything we can to contain it. JMB Would it be possible if you could set, number one, if you were going to close, would it be a week, two weeks? How much time...in closing, how much time do you need? TH I need more like three to four months. �B Yeah, there's no point in closing for two weeks. JMB I thought he was just saying that the carpet and the things that were disruptive to the people coming in and out. Painting is... JK There's a...l think there's a lot. TH There's a lot... JK (inaudible) the ceiling's got stains... JMB So would it be possible to have the Bookmobile outdoors during that time so that it isn't completely closed and you've got a place to... �B People could check out books. JK The other big problem is that the College of the Desert will be open during the school year, and they'll expect us to have their side open. �B Right 13 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 JK So the schedule you listed October through May, it almost seems like it should be the opposite... TH May through October JK ...May through October, because the College is closed for the summer, and I expect that they will probably be closed (inaudible) RDK Or would there be a possibility with limited hours...maybe open four hours a day and then give the rest of the time for construction? I know the City does a lot of projects at night and has in the past, even when we did some remodeling in the interior. TH Absolutely, that is a possibility. JK I mean, I'm flexible, but I'm not in charge of the schedule. RDK Right. We might have to work very closely with the County...so maybe like a limited schedule. JK And maybe we could find an alternative location for our summer reading program (inaudible) LK What's in the old library building on Portola? JK That's the Community Center. RDK That's for community purposes, and there are some offices there. It's rented out for other purposes, for community purposes. JMB You know, you might want to look at, for the alternative reader...for the kids' summer program...the Senior Center is always looking for inter-generational programs. Maybe they'd be interested, and they've got room over there. They might be interested in hosting the kids for the summer for their reading program... JB I think that's a great idea. 14 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 JMB ...and it's convenient, you know, it's not that far. I'm sure Peter Rittenhouse would be willing to work with you in their community rooms that they have there, and it would be an inter-generational thing, and some of the seniors can help with it. AR One of the things that, also, during the early programming and schematic design phase that will probably help in the phasing of construction is something called the marketplace that Group 4 originally presented, and that will provide some opportunities for us to explore different ways for the library to operate in a limited function while construction is going on. And for those of you who are not aware of the marketplace concept, Group 4 will be talking about it a lot more in depth, but it goes into looking at areas of the library that can function at limited hours without your full staff, whether it's the book drop or the check out situation, while the remaining library remains closed...and kind of looking at how we can design a building that can operate in different modes and with different capacities of staff. So that would probably be one aspect that we'll be looking for, and I think as we move forward, as Tim said, a lot more things will come into place, and we can continue to look at how we can appropriately construct a building that meets your operations. JK And just to...l appreciate your honesty about the timeline. Nothing would be more annoying than to say, "Oh, we're behind (inaudible)" instead of saying, "Look, it's going to take this long", you know....l appreciate that. I'd rather know up front than to be surprised and have it keep being pushed back. TH Public sector design and construction is virtually exclusively what we do, and I understand extremely well the steps that must be taken and the approval processes that are appropriate to it, the factors that must come into play. The timeline that I've identified also seeks to accomplish high-quality documents. So if we can have high-quality, complete, error-free documents, it means so much more during the construction process because we don't have to continually be contending with contractors regarding change orders but even worse, coming back to you requesting additional funds, which could be very awkward, and iYs a place I don't like to be. So we work hard to try to control that on the front end of the project. Does it take a little bit more time to do it well and do it thoroughly? Of course. That's what we're going to seek to do. 15 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 JB in the first phase, from August 1St to October 1St, the first 60 days, where you said there would be meetings and workshops... TH Yes JB Is that just within the Library or for the community or...? TH ThaYs up to you. We're going to be scheduling things witfi Jeannie and her staff, and if you want to bring other folks into those interchanges, they are more than welcome. I think, speaking for Group 4 and Linda, we'd rather err on the side of getting all this information up front.and not leaving it till down in the sequence where that will cause two steps forward, three steps back dancing, and we'd like to stay away from that if we could. So whoever, the stakeholders, the end users, the folks that really need to provide input, we'd invite that to happen. Yes (inaudible) �B Well, the August to October 1St time, the year-round residents are available and are here. The winter people aren't. So I don't know if they're kind of being left out of that. I don't know if that matters that much. EM I think it does. They always say we do things in the summer time when people can't... �B ...give their input? I don't how big of a deal that is, and I don't know how you could change that when, you know, August to October... SP A way we can consider that is we can push it back (inaudible) but then again, it puts everything else back. .1B But that's opposite of what we're trying to do. SP Yeah AR Do you have a database of users that, you know, maybe if people aren't around, they can still be contacted (inaudible)? SP Yeah, that's a great idea. Do we have a way to communicate with them...email, phone...to invite them? 16 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 JK We do have...well, we have our library card database, but I'm not sure of the privacy (inaudible) EM What about the newsletter? RDK The newsletter we can do, and that goes online, but it only...it won't hit people that aren't here. It only hits residences that are in Palm Desert, but definitely we will make announcements as appropriate, you know, that there is a public forum or a public idea session...absolutely. We have gone down to two...our BrightSide is a two-month item instead of a monthly item now as a cost-saving measure. SP Oh RDK And I believe the September/October is about full, but if you knew here within the next two to three weeks...two weeks, yeah, I think about August 15t" would be the deadline...we could announce it in the September/October, and then the next one would be November/December, the next BrightSide issue. SP Any other comments on...for Tim, his group, moving forward? I do have to apologize a little bit, before we move on, about the last schedule that I sent out. I did notice from one of the phases, from construction documents to 50% construction documents, that the dates did not populate themselves, they weren't linked, so the durations did not add to themselves. So...it's a mistake on my part. So what that means is that...do you have copies of what you have? TH I do. SP Now, take them with a grain of salt. IYs a work in progress. TH Andrea prepared these this afternoon, and we were very careful to put the word "draft" on it. SP Great, thank you, I appreciate that. TH It's just the first shot on the wall here, and I think in the coming weeks and months, we'll be able to refine this more and, if anything, we'll try to see if we can tighten it up as best we can. 17 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 SP So, with that being said, I think we're...l apologize we don't have any visuals to show or more progress, but hopefuliy...you know, we've already contracted...we've had it before, and so we are showing some (inaudible) and hopefully we are meeting your expectations. If we're not, please let us know. We'll be more than happy to be accommodating and respond to your requests. LK Is there any date for another meeting at (inaudible) SP Well, actually, I think we do. For this particular group, I don't know, we haven't decided, but, you know, Rachelle...you let us know. RDK September? �B Well, that's when they said they'd be getting...taking ideas...after September they're putting it on paper. SP Correct AR And I think we are looking to have our first site visit with Group 4 and Linda Demmer to be August 30th and 31St, if that would work with you all. JB To attend it or to plan our next meeting after that? AR Well, probably... TH I think if you can coincide them, it might be most time-efficient, unless you have other things to deal with that... JB And when and where...that's going to be at the Library? TH At the Library the final two days of August...the 30th and 31St. JK I know you talked about programming...during the month of August, will people be contacting us about (inaudible)? TH Yes, we will. JK Will you be working privately or...? 18 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 TH Pretty much privately, but we will be in contact with you about information that we're going to ask of you, and there will be some forms that we'd like to get filled out prior to that first site visit. �B What other groups of people or...who else should be there to give input at that time do you think? AR I think we're still working out...within the next week or so, we're working on kind of a final agenda. We wanted to proposed a date for you to make sure there is no conflict, and then we're putting together the exact schedule of the days, and then we can conform... JB For example, would City Council people be coming to that? You know, is that what it's for? TH If they would like to provide input into library functions and some of their preferences, of course. SP Is it okay to have kind of an expanded discussion at this time? RDK Yes, that's exactly what this is for. SP Okay, great. If I can answer that in two parts. One part is how Tim responded to the question before, trying to get all the input all at once so that, you know, we can digest all the different issues, concerns, and idiosyncrasies of problems that we could have if we're not thinking about this quite right. That's one approach that requires a lot of due diligence, a lot of work. It looks like he's up for the task, so that's great. A different approach is to select a narrow group of people that creates a strata of a lot of opinions within the community to expedite the decision making process. Now, when I talked about maybe consolidating the schedule, I was thinking along those lines. Are we creating the right process for this group? Is it too cumbersome? You know. Is expediting it more important than community input? It sounds like we want some input. JB So by the end of August you wilt have already spent a month with staff... SP Correct 19 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 JB ...(inaudible) you know, suggestions, ideas and looked at the library and gotten (inaudible) TH We will, but Group 4 will be here for the first time... JB Yeah, but they'll be the kind of things they (inaudible) they will have gathered information for 30 days, seemingly, so then... EM 60 days JB No, the end of August... AR We would be planning on kicking off early in August, within this two or three weeks, and we'd be looking at a lot of data and, you know, demographics and a lot of research and data that... JB Will you be talking to Library staff? AR Yeah, and requesting information, you know, like this information (inaudible) looking at that. The first site visit, with Group 4 and Linda Demmers, we'd be looking to really start to engage the staff with staff interviews, possibly some user surveys, focus group meetings, and then potentially a meeting with whoever that you guys decide are the key decision holders... JB The meetings with the staff that you just mentioned are in late August? AR Yes JB Prior to this date or... AR This is the date (inaudible) two-day workshop... SP I think that's where....l'm getting lost myself. Okay, so the difference between Holt and Group 4 and the meetings with staff...l think that's where we need clarification. 20 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 TH We'll all be there, together, on the 30t" and 31 St to conduct interviews, workshops, we're going to probably ask Jeannie to set those two days aside and give us accessibility to the building and her people as much as is possible. SP And prior to is the fact finding for preparation for those two days. TH Exactly. JMB I think it would be...in looking at the schedule here, if your 10/4-10/5 Site Visit 3 to Present Draft Program and Design Option...l think if you presented that at the last Council meeting September...we only have two, and we'll be busy the first couple ones because we don't meet till the end of August and first of September, but if we had at the first of September's meeting that design that you're going to present... RDK But what about the Library Committee seeing it on the 15t"? The Library Committee would be set to meet on the 15th, and then we could take that to Council at the second meeting... JMB At the second meeting? RDK But it sounded to me as though they weren't making a presentation to the Council until November. I heard that earlier. SP Yeah. TH Yes. If you look... RDK With something more fleshed out. They'll be getting...l'm taking something...l'm just going to say that we've discussed this, we'll take these Minutes to the August 26th meeting as an informational item. That was the City Manager's and my thinking, so we will be making it, other than the question in the press already, we will be making everyone aware... JMB Then you might tell John to add to that information that if any Councilmember wants to add any... 21 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 RDK Provide input JMB ...in the interim to contact you. RDK Yes JMB And that would expedite that because somebody's going to have something to say, I'm sure, but we don't want them to say, "Well you asked us last." RDK Right JMB In that memo, then, on September, you could get the Council input. RDK Sure. And then....we typically take August off. This group is typically...hardly any committees meet in August, so if we did meet again, the next available date would be September 15tn JMB That would be before the presentation on the 17th, so...for the Library Committee, because we said the 17�h, right? 10/04... RDK Right JMB ...10/5, Site Visit to Present Draft Program, and that draft program could be at that... RDK Our next regular meeting would be September 15t". How does that fit in...and you would have more information, you'd have more background then, that you'd have something more to show us, or...? TH Oh sure, we'd bring you updates. RDK And we could invite you as a Committee, you could be...the only thing is, any time you have a quorum, we have to notice it. As you know, Brown Act regulations and things, so if you were all...we'd have to notice it as a Study Session on the 30t", on the 31St....which of the days did you want to be there, did you want to be there both, how much staff, you know...? JB Oh yeah, we can deal with that. 22 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 RDK Okay. That is the only... JB We can use a pseudonym or something. RDK I mean if two at a time were to go, or something like that. JK You know, we can invite the Friends President... RDK Sure JK ...and volunteers. (inaudible) RDK There you go, okay, right. TH This group, right? RDK Right, we're the Library Promotion Committee. TH And thaYs the 15th of... RDK September. TH September, yeah. RDK That would be our regular meeting date at three o'clock. JB Okay, my question is...on the 30th and 31St, are there going to be reporters there? SP I don't know....Miss Blake? RDK There would be if it's a noticed meeting. (inaudible) SP I'm sorry, has everyone met Miss Blake? 23 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 RDK We didn't introduce her. Blake Herzog is our new reporter, beat reporter, for the City of Palm Desert. JB She does a fine job. RDK Yeah. She wrote the nice article that we received. SP Thank you. JB There will be notice to the public, so other people might be there. SP Oh, I see. JK Probably what we would do is focus on staff the first day and then have the second day for input. And Indio (inaudible) and invited different people (inaudible) JB Okay, that sounds good. SP Have there been any other public notices where you ask the public to come to...l'm trying to get a sense for the amount of public that actually comes out. JB Well, on August 31 St, there won't be a heavy turnout. RDK I think school starts on the 30th, if I'm not mistaken, for some districts. And I believe...yes, I have someone on my staff who has already asked for that day, that morning, because she needs to take her kids to school, and they go to Washington Charter. (inaudible) SP Is that the right day? I mean, this is kind of why, you know... RDK That's why we're here. SP ...we need to ask. You don't have to answer it now. Just take it home and let us know. JB This is the first day of school? Oh, boy. 24 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 (Inaudible) JB You know you have to go forward and do what you have to do (inaudible) JK (inaudible) TH That's fine. Just so you know, this is just a proposed series of dates, and we certainly can be flexible. If the two prior days work better for you or something, don't hesitate to suggest that. We can maneuver this a little bit. JB Now's the time (inaudible) JK Well, if we could push it up a week, that would be good, but I know (inaudible) your prep work, and you can't get it done, we'll make it work, but the 23rd 24m Would be better. I didn't realize that that was the first day of school. TH Let us explore that and see if we can schedule that with Group 4. JK Okay. SP Great, thank you for your input, again. Do you have anything else for us? JB Very coherent presentation...thank you. SP Thank you. LK And we will be seeing you. RDK Thank you. SP Thank you for your time. 25 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 VIII. REPORTS AND REMARKS A. Councilmember Jean M. Benson Councilmember Benson said she felt the Library Refresh Project would be very well received by Council, which is willing to do anything it can to help with the project. B. Librarian (Jeannie Kays) Ms. Kays provided updates/reports on the following: 2010 Census — The Palm Desert Library is a Census Partner and had agreed to provide meeting space for them. This meeting space was used to train Census workers and was now being used during the counting process. Younq Adult/Teen Proaram — Attendance is up, and the Program is really active. The Teen Librarian was doing a nice job in building rapport with the teens and developing programs that they like. This week, as part of the Summer Reading Program, the kids made hydro-bracelet, which were plastic tubing filled with water and glitter. The cost for the entire craft for 50 kids was $7.00. Summer Reading Proqram — Sign-ups are up 15% over last year. As of the end of June, 770 children and teens were enrolled in Summer Reading compared with 668 last year. Book Budqet — LSSI and the County were still working on the contract, so the amount for the book budget this year had not yet been established. Right now, only funds from the Friends of the Library and the City of Palm Desert were available to purchase books. C. Event Coordinator (Jodi Elowitz) Ms. Elowitz reviewed the recent events at the Library, including the cardboard cutouts of the three characters in the "Twilight" movies, which were very popular with Library attendees, 26 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 Adult Summer Proqram — There were no real adult programs this summer, as Ms. Elowitz had been spending her time getting ready for 2010/2011, which would now be extended due to the Library Refresh Project schedule. She noted she had bookings through February and did not think it would be difficult to find someone for March. T is for Tuesdav — New program for the fall where every Tuesday night there will be some form of adult programming beginning with the letter "T" — different topics or themes such as Talent, Technology, Teaching, etc. The entire staff of the Library will be involved, and each staff member with a particular interest or particular expertise will lead the program one of those Tuesday nights. Breakfast. Books and Banter — This book club was being held Wednesday mornings at 9am and is being moved to Tuesday nights, and the topics will be changed to appeal to a wider age group. Chef Series — This event will continue, and she has eight chefs already, including a few new and some old favorites. Ms. Elowitz distributed copies of fliers that had been printed for the Summer Reading Programs and noted the new "Dog Days of Summer" program being launched this week. She said there would be dog books in the display areas of the Library for both adults and kids, and there was also a listing of the books on Facebook and Twitter. D. Volunteer Coordinator(Eileen Strain) Ms. Strain noted that the volunteer numbers from May this year had increased to 85 compared with 61 last year. Total volunteer hours for June were 966 compared with 558 hours in May. The number of teens/young adults had increased as a result of Library staff going to the schools, with three teens indicating they wanted to volunteer year-round. 27 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 She noted that last meeting she mentioned getting in touch with the home assisted living people, which she had done, and she felt it was paying off in a small way. She had made several visits, chatted with them, gave them programs, and they signed up. In addition, she spoke with a gentleman from Segovia today who said this facility would have approximately 200 residents, and he was ready to tell them about the volunteer homebound program. E. Budget Review Ms. Klassen noted that this was discussed under Old Business Item A. F. Friends of the Palm Desert Library (Joan Beasley) Ms. Beasley distributed and reviewed the Friends of Palm Desert Library Mid-Year 2010 Financial Status (January — June). She also reviewed the CFLAC (County Free Library Advisory Committee) report from the meeting of July 15, 2010, noting that the Palm Desert Library was the second-most active library in Riverside County behind Temecula. She noted that someone at the prior CFLAC meeting had brought up a question about the laws dealing with access to people's library records. She said what she could glean from the Minutes of that meeting was that nobody could come to the library to see what someone else has checked out. Parents cannot see what their children have checked out. She said there was some discussion about that issue at the meeting, and it would be discussed further at some of the staff training. Ms. Kays noted that the library card applications had been changed, and new information had been received regarding confidentiality. The bottom of the children's application included a section where the child can give parents permission to see what he/she has checked out. The law does not specify an age as far as right to privacy, so from the Library standpoint, every person has the right to privacy, even a child. 28 APPROVED MINUTES PALM DESERT LIBRARY PROMOTION COMMITTEE MEETING JULY 21, 2010 G. Committee Chair(Louise Kermode) None H. Committee Members None I. Staff Ms. Klassen distributed copies of the Holt Architects summarized presentation that led to that firm being selected as the architectural group for the Library Refresh Project. IX. ADJOURNMENT Member Cardona moved to adjourn the meeting at 4:20 p.m. Motion was seconded by Member Beasley and carried by a 4-0 vote of the Committee. Mary P. LaCross, Recording Secretary 29