Tali H: It is now 11:02 AM and we have a quorum and I'd like to call this regular meeting
Tali H: of the Seattle Public Library Board of trustees to order.
Tali H: If there are no changes to the agenda, may I hear a motion to approve the agenda
Tali H: as published.
Yazmin Mehdi: So moved.
Faith Pettis: I'll second that.
Tali H: It has been moved and seconded all in favor.
Tali H: Opposed.
Tali H: Approval of the agenda is completes, as noted at the top of the agenda.
Tali H: The library board does accept public comment by e-mail in person at the
Tali H: Central Library and in this remote meeting, public comments should.
Tali H: Be focused on the particular agenda item.
Tali H: And are there any public comments for today?
No one has signed up in Q& A in this meeting.
There is no one present at the Central Library and they did not receive public
comment via e-mail.
Tali H: Thank you. OK.
Tali H: So we are moving forward with no public comment for today.
Tali H: We have a consent agenda for the Minutes of February 27th.
Tali H: With from our February board meeting, no one has changes.
Tali H: May I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as a published.
Yazmin Mehdi: So moved.
Faith Pettis: 2nd.
Tali H: All in favor?
Yazmin Mehdi: Hi.
Bendixen, Carmen: Bye.
Tali H: Opposed.
Tali H: OK.
Tali H: Now let's jump into our Chief Librarian report. Tom.
Tom Fay: All right.
Tom Fay: Well, thank you very much.
Tom Fay: Want to 1st congratulate trustee Carmen Ben Dixon on our March 18th reappointment
Tom Fay: to the Library board for a second term? Congratulations, karma.
Tom Fay: Happy to have you back.
Tali H: Congrats, Carmen.
Bendixen, Carmen: Thank you.
Tom Fay: And I always value your time and experience, Carmen,
Tom Fay: especially with our friends group and all the time you spent there as well.
Tom Fay: I think that also brings.
Tom Fay: Some focus when you're at the foundation meetings as well because you can bring
Tom Fay: that background to the to those meetings.
Tom Fay: So thank you for that.
Tom Fay: Let's see, we have global reading going on.
Tom Fay: Just a note for everybody.
Tom Fay: We're kind of in the semi final rounds of that as we move into this week,
Tom Fay: so that'll be wrapping up soon.
Tom Fay: Always fun if you haven't had a chance to go to global reading.
Tom Fay: The kids are amazing.
Tom Fay: Teams are very, very competitive.
Tom Fay: It's probably one of the funnest things you'll see out there for reading
Tom Fay: competition, so.
Tom Fay: Encourage you if you can, to take a look at those.
Tom Fay: Amy can provide you some dates if you just want to pop in and see them.
Tom Fay: As usual, the team's done a great job with the
Tom Fay: questions and obviously these things roll through pretty quickly in the semi finals.
Tom Fay: But there's hours and hours and hours of preparation for the teams and obviously
Tom Fay: our librarians and staff who are working on creating those questions.
Tom Fay: I also wanted to let folks know.
Tom Fay: That we've had some very preliminary discussions about a potential 2026 levy
Tom Fay: with the deputy mayor and the mayor's office.
Tom Fay: Those will be discussions that will occur over the next year at various times as we
Tom Fay: continue to to work with.
Tom Fay: The Mayor's office on that.
Tom Fay: Also I attended.
Tom Fay: In early March, the Epsco Public Library Leaders Advisory
Tom Fay: Board.
Tom Fay: Meeting both, Heidi Daniel, the executive director of the King County
Tom Fay: Library system, and I did a presentation on foresight and
Tom Fay: strategic planning as she now also shifts to doing strategic planning for KCLS.
Tom Fay: And then we talked about how to shift tactics when confrrted with a lot of new.
Tom Fay: Conditions like some of those things happening at the federal level that.
Tom Fay: Are providing new challenges.
Tom Fay: I also spoke at the Foundation CEO lunch and learn.
Tom Fay: That was hosted at the Queen Anne branch.
Tom Fay: With Brian Lawrence.
Tom Fay: These have been great donor events.
Tom Fay: It's really been a chance for both Brian and I to meet a lot of donors that we
Tom Fay: have seen their names on the donation roster,
Tom Fay: but not always had a chance to actually meet in person.
Tom Fay: So that's been great and I know it's been meeting one of Brian's goals of really.
Tom Fay: Being out there in the public and really meeting with donors,
Tom Fay: so appreciate his time.
Tom Fay: The foundation's time in providing me an opportunity to meet folks as well.
Tom Fay: One of the fun things as well this in this next month is for a little over a
Tom Fay: month is our Central Library is hosting artwork created by employees of SPL of
Tom Fay: the library.
Tom Fay: So hopefully if you get a chance, take a look at the artwork.
Tom Fay: It's on level 8 at the Central Library.
Tom Fay: That's a great chance to see how creative our staff is.
Tom Fay: And this will be going between now and April 25th.
Tom Fay: So again, if you'd like to stop in, just check in with Amy to make sure you
Tom Fay: have the proper location and glad to have you take a look at the art.
Tom Fay: One other note not listed here, just for board awareness.
Tom Fay: I have been invited to the American Library Association.
Tom Fay: Fly in to DC next week to represent Washington.
Tom Fay: To represent Washington, along with a colleague of Susan Hempstead.
Tom Fay: Said who?
Tom Fay: Overseas government affairs at Snow Isle Library.
Tom Fay: So we will be talking about some of the most recent challenges around the IMLS.
Tom Fay: In which the federal government looks to.
Tom Fay: Absolutely remove that particular part of the government,
Tom Fay: or at least defund a considerable portion of it. We have made a statement at SPL.
Tom Fay: Our foundation has been doing that work and now more people across the country.
Tom Fay: We are starting to push their congressional delegates to respond to
Tom Fay: this issue and to reject the attempts to.
Tom Fay: Defund the IMLS so I will be there much of next week representing and to come
Tom Fay: back next month with a report on how that. Pardon me how that visit went with our
Tom Fay: congressional delegates.
Tom Fay: And with that, I open it up to any questions anyone
Tom Fay: might have.
Tali H: Pat yazmin.
Yazmin Mehdi: I actually don't have a question.
Yazmin Mehdi: I just wanted to note that I thought it was wonderful to see that inspire
Yazmin Mehdi: Washington sent out an e-mail to all of their members,
Yazmin Mehdi: membership about the defunding of enlist and encourage people to write to their
Yazmin Mehdi: delegation regarding that.
Yazmin Mehdi: And thanks to Tom, I had in my back pocket some examples of
Yazmin Mehdi: how SPL benefits.
Yazmin Mehdi: From endless, but I also noted that having when I
Yazmin Mehdi: served on the Library Council of Washington 20 years ago, you know,
Yazmin Mehdi: the disproportionately LSTA money, librarian,
Yazmin Mehdi: library services and Technology Act money would go to small libraries throughout
Yazmin Mehdi: Washington state and.
Yazmin Mehdi: Those tend to be.
Yazmin Mehdi: In rural areas and so it's really this funding is small.
Yazmin Mehdi: But incredibly important statewide.
Yazmin Mehdi: So I just, I think it's important for people to
Yazmin Mehdi: understand who actually gets impacted by these cuts and and SPL does benefit from
Yazmin Mehdi: them in again small but important ways.
Yazmin Mehdi: So.
Yazmin Mehdi: I think the other one to to note here is what Tom shared about how you know the
Yazmin Mehdi: state librarian negotiates special rates.
Yazmin Mehdi: For databases, for example, and those databases are things that our
Yazmin Mehdi: patrons you know, rely on.
Yazmin Mehdi: So if if we can't get the negotiated prices, then it costs us more.
Yazmin Mehdi: Which you know has an impact on the rest of our budget.
Yazmin Mehdi: So I I I it's really important for everybody who cares about the library to,
Yazmin Mehdi: you know, send messages to our delegation so that
Yazmin Mehdi: they're armed with concrete examples.
Yazmin Mehdi: Of what?
Yazmin Mehdi: The loss will will mean if, if the federal government defunds IMLS.
Yazmin Mehdi: And I also just wanted to say that I had the opportunity since Queen Anne is my
Yazmin Mehdi: branch, I went to the lunch and learn with Brian
Yazmin Mehdi: and Tom and it was packed.
Yazmin Mehdi: It was packed, so people really care about their
Yazmin Mehdi: libraries in the city and they're they want to like, yes, they got free lunch.
Yazmin Mehdi: But I don't think that's why they came.
Yazmin Mehdi: Like they really care about the library.
Yazmin Mehdi: So that was fun.
Tali H: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm. I'm glad I got a chance to go to that.
Tom Fay: That that we are aware of, yes.
Tali H: And how are those employees chosen with itself like?
Tali H: It didn't make people do it. Did you talk?
Tom Fay: No, no. Didn't make people do it. People volunteered.
Tali H: How were they selected?
Tali H: Or they volunteered. OK.
Tom Fay: They volunteered their work, yes, and I I know everybody who knows.
Tali H: Nice.
Tom Fay: I have a Fine Arts degree is always asking me, well,
Tom Fay: why isn't yours in there one of these days when I have some time,
Tom Fay: I hope to be able to get something in there, but we have some very,
Tali H: OK.
Tom Fay: very talented people in all of the arts for sure.
Tom Fay: And even the musical arts, there are some impressive voices in the
Tom Fay: staff.
Tali H: Nice. I'm glad for them to have that
Tali H: opportunity.
Tom Fay: And I'll make one other point and thank you yazmin for that.
Tom Fay: On the IMLS one other point on the IMLS, it is a critical piece,
Tom Fay: A2 actually one is the talking books in Braille library that could be affected in
Tom Fay: Washington considerably if this is defunded.
Tom Fay: That helps so many people, you know, SPL can do a lot for folks with site
Tom Fay: issues or other physical disabilities, but it is the sole function.
Tom Fay: Talking books in Braille library to support all of Washingtonians in in,
Tom Fay: in those needs.
Tom Fay: And they can provide material that we can't for a variety of legal and or
Tom Fay: copyright reasons.
Tom Fay: So that would be a huge loss if that was not available and the other area in which
Tom Fay: we really probably have the most to gain is when we do partner with the University
Tom Fay: of Washington.
Tom Fay: Whose high school has several different grants with IMLS that we work on for
Tom Fay: research and development that might be around our most recent teen mental health.
Tom Fay: Project that we were working on. It could also be a project that we were
Tom Fay: looking at with a number of large systems in the country.
Tom Fay: To develop.
Tom Fay: Kind of ongoing.
Tom Fay: Training for librarians or library staff.
Tom Fay: In a number of key areas that the modern life Public Library needs that was
Tom Fay: looking with looking at San Jose State University.
Tom Fay: So there are a number of those, and those grants generally are very.
Tom Fay: Considerable.
Tom Fay: Amount of money. They can range up to $1, 000,000.
Tom Fay: They might be some subset thereof. Over the course of a number of years.
Tom Fay: So there is benefit not only to SPL but to the profession when this research and
Tom Fay: development occurs.
Tali H: Very true.
Tali H: OK, so time in your systems report.
Tali H: Says here Library Foundation grant funding with Kirsten.
Tali H: Is that next on our agenda?
Tom Fay: Correct. So I would invite Kirsten to come forward
Tom Fay: she overseas?
Tom Fay: Our as most of you know, our government relations and but also our
Tom Fay: partnerships and so she is in constant contact with the foundation and other
Tom Fay: partners here at the library.
Tom Fay: But we had a very successful 2024 and I'd like Kirsten to give you a little bit
Tom Fay: more detail.
Kiersten Nelson: Thank you all. And moving on from the bummer news of
Kiersten Nelson: IMLS, I get the pleasure to announce that last
Kiersten Nelson: year we were able to extend about 99. 8% of the total Foundation grant award
Kiersten Nelson: from 2024.
Kiersten Nelson: So this means that the foundation awarded the library just over $5.
Kiersten Nelson: 6 million and we were able to expend $5, 597,
Kiersten Nelson: 871 and this is an increase over the 5.1.
Kiersten Nelson: Million we received in 2023.
Kiersten Nelson: As we all know, it was not an easy feat. 2024 saw a host of challenges right out
Kiersten Nelson: the gate.
Kiersten Nelson: The first quarter, we had the official hiring freeze that
Kiersten Nelson: went into place, leaving uncertainty and unfilled
Kiersten Nelson: positions dotting the organization in years past.
Kiersten Nelson: This might have been a harbinger for a massive underspend for the grant. However,
Kiersten Nelson: over the past several several years, Tom has been a diligent leader.
Kiersten Nelson: In gathering.
Kiersten Nelson: Senior senior members of staff together early in the year to identify areas where
Kiersten Nelson: underspend.
Kiersten Nelson: Impossible. And strategizing how we can pivot those
Kiersten Nelson: funds in order to use them to maximum value. 2024 was no different.
Kiersten Nelson: Department started meeting really early, identifying those particular areas where
Kiersten Nelson: underspend was going to occur.
Kiersten Nelson: And those that were unable to be filled because of the hiring freeze and
Kiersten Nelson: strategizing ways to reallocate that money very early on.
Kiersten Nelson: So when we reached May and we were the victims of ransomware attack.
Kiersten Nelson: That took us several months to recover, with a lot of these things falling into
Kiersten Nelson: programming that is supported by foundation grants.
Kiersten Nelson: We were already on top of identifying programs in areas that we could
Kiersten Nelson: reallocate for underspend the foundation.
Kiersten Nelson: I want to acknowledge very much that they were not without their own upheaval last
Kiersten Nelson: year. They saw a long time leader Jonna Ward
Kiersten Nelson: depart in the installation of Brian Lawrence as the new CEO of the
Kiersten Nelson: organization.
Kiersten Nelson: Brian, for his own part, really wanted to make sure that he had a
Kiersten Nelson: better understanding.
Kiersten Nelson: Following Tom's leadership of the way that our programs were spending the money
Kiersten Nelson: and where they were at, so he set up quarterly meetings with a
Kiersten Nelson: lot of the main groups for our grant recipients to really drive an open flow
Kiersten Nelson: of communication and understand what project managers needed.
Kiersten Nelson: Helping them to sort of talk through where some areas of funding might be
Kiersten Nelson: lacking and get them to start thinking of some ways that they could also spend some
Kiersten Nelson: money.
Kiersten Nelson: In different manners, as well as discussing potential grant
Kiersten Nelson: opportunities that the foundation was hearing and really trying to bring.
Kiersten Nelson: Our own project managers along so that they had ideas,
Kiersten Nelson: thinking forward of how they could use this money and in 2024 that was huge.
Kiersten Nelson: It was a big year, so I really, really want to take a moment to just
Kiersten Nelson: highlight some of the major wins that we have in that particular grant.
Kiersten Nelson: So we'll start with books and materials sending.
Kiersten Nelson: We received a generous grant and it was very specific and focused.
Kiersten Nelson: On Japanese language collection and through that money we were able to
Kiersten Nelson: purchase 1270 copies of 437 book titles.
Kiersten Nelson: We were also able to then use some of our funding or underspend to purchase a
Kiersten Nelson: number of holds by down the holds at the end of the year for our digital content.
Kiersten Nelson: And then we were able to use some of that that grant award to identify target langu.
Kiersten Nelson: For 2025.
Kiersten Nelson: It is worth noting that in 2024 the library had 5.
Kiersten Nelson: 48 million OverDrive and E material checkouts and 5.
Kiersten Nelson: 47 million print item checkouts, and that's when you consider that we had
Kiersten Nelson: a massive pause in the system for the middle of the.
Kiersten Nelson: Year just as sort of school was winding down and summer was ramping up,
Kiersten Nelson: so that's very impressive additionally.
Kiersten Nelson: With foundation funding all of 2024, we were able to purchase 80,697.
Kiersten Nelson: Nine items that were.
Kiersten Nelson: Then distributed to the community.
Kiersten Nelson: So that's a huge win.
Kiersten Nelson: For those that might not know, we happen to have this new branch.
Kiersten Nelson: Well, it wasn't a new branch and Old Branch
Kiersten Nelson: reopened.
Kiersten Nelson: The Grand Lake reopened and that was huge, and that was where a lot of our capital
Kiersten Nelson: and major maintenance focus was.
Kiersten Nelson: We were able to use the grant award from the foundation to help with.
Kiersten Nelson: Furniture purchases.
Kiersten Nelson: At Green Lake as well as furniture and interior upgrades for the West Seattle
Kiersten Nelson: Delridge, Capitol Hill High Point, Beacon Hill, Northgate, Rainier Branch,
Kiersten Nelson: Rainier Beach, Ballard, Greenwood, Broadview and Broadview branches.
Kiersten Nelson: So the funding for capital and major maintenance was really able to be spread
Kiersten Nelson: amongst a lot of our branches and make that that upgrade happen.
Kiersten Nelson: We also were able to use some foundation funds to cover.
Kiersten Nelson: The final payments.
Kiersten Nelson: Of the northeast and southwest HVAC projects.
Kiersten Nelson: So last summer we were able to have two new branches fully on board, fully a seed,
Kiersten Nelson: which was a nice lovely benefit. And the foundation also helped cover some
Kiersten Nelson: of the end of the construction project.
Kiersten Nelson: Cost at Green Lake.
Kiersten Nelson: Then the one that we all know probably had a lot of spent come its way was
Kiersten Nelson: technology and online services. A lot of the overspend in this particular
Kiersten Nelson: category was in response to it purchases for the second-half of the year in
Kiersten Nelson: response to the ransomware attack.
Kiersten Nelson: I think it's easy to say that it had a challenging year at the least,
Kiersten Nelson: so the financial support from the Foundation for technology upgrades was
Kiersten Nelson: absolutely impaired.
Kiersten Nelson: We were able to move a lot of our transitions to new software programs at a
Kiersten Nelson: pace that was not anticipated in response to the May events.
Kiersten Nelson: And it also allowed us to use some understand from various other programs to
Kiersten Nelson: purchase some new IT equipment as the year wound down.
Kiersten Nelson: That's not to say that we were overspent or right on target for all of our areas.
Kiersten Nelson: We did have a few areas that experienced some.
Kiersten Nelson: Understand. That's not to say that the value they
Kiersten Nelson: provide is no less important, even given the understand and these
Kiersten Nelson: couple of categories, the bulk of the funds were extended and
Kiersten Nelson: they made huge impacts.
Kiersten Nelson: So for hours in access, our budget was the understand was largely
Kiersten Nelson: due to the equity discussion and planning budget that had been led by Valerie
Kiersten Nelson: Garrett Turner until her retirement. And with hiring freeze and staff capacity,
Kiersten Nelson: this was just an area that did not have the ability to.
Kiersten Nelson: Be focused on as much as we would have any normal staffing year.
Kiersten Nelson: So instead other programmatic buckets like technology and online services were
Kiersten Nelson: able to receive some of that underspend while the rest of the team were able to
Kiersten Nelson: focus on their particular areas.
Kiersten Nelson: This includes things like English conversation circles,
Kiersten Nelson: which remain insanely popular.
Kiersten Nelson: It's a testament to our partnerships with the community and the work that our team
Kiersten Nelson: does that they move times around.
Kiersten Nelson: And even more people show up. And so it's a constant.
Kiersten Nelson: Constant puzzle that the that the team is doing to find just the perfect spot so
Kiersten Nelson: that we can support as many patrons as possible and then at the end of 2024 we
Kiersten Nelson: were providing monthly visits or deliveries to 29 preschool via our mobile
Kiersten Nelson: bookmobile 70.
Kiersten Nelson: Two adult facilities and buildings and two tiny house villages.
Kiersten Nelson: We also provided services to 66 individuals through books by mail and
Kiersten Nelson: made monthly deliveries to 30 home service patrons.
Kiersten Nelson: We also brought the bookmobile to 11 separate events and reached over 2000
Kiersten Nelson: people.
Kiersten Nelson: And then another category to make sure that we address is that an overwhelming
Kiersten Nelson: portion for literacy and early learning underspend was not due to attendability
Kiersten Nelson: for the team to spend their money, but actually because we had one of our.
Kiersten Nelson: Lovely staff members moved to an out of class role during the hiring freeze to
Kiersten Nelson: help support some branch staff, and that position wasn't wasn't back
Kiersten Nelson: filled until she returned. So that was over half of the under spend
Kiersten Nelson: in this particular category was due to that one person moving.
Kiersten Nelson: To an out of class assignment.
Kiersten Nelson: We were able to reallocate those funds because we knew early on that they had
Kiersten Nelson: moved. So using Tom's sort of special power of
Kiersten Nelson: identifying, hey, we've got some areas, let's start looking at.
Kiersten Nelson: New ways to identify spending priorities we're able to.
Kiersten Nelson: Early on, start thinking about where we could use
Kiersten Nelson: that money in other areas.
Kiersten Nelson: Literacy and early learning had the joy of a summer of learning program that
Kiersten Nelson: returned to the branches for the first time since the pandemic,
Kiersten Nelson: which is a huge win. They hosted 43 programs on site with more
Kiersten Nelson: than 1900 youth attending.
Kiersten Nelson: And for the first time, 100% of the teaching artists,
Kiersten Nelson: presenters and performance performers in 2024 were black,
Kiersten Nelson: indigenous or people of color.
Kiersten Nelson: I also want to throw a shout out to the homework help program which saw a 39%
Kiersten Nelson: increase in drop in visit.
Kiersten Nelson: They offered over 200 / 650 tutoring sessions and reached 6146 students.
Kiersten Nelson: At our 9 branch locations last year.
Kiersten Nelson: Here which include Broadview, Columbia, Douglas, Truth, High Point, Lake City,
Kiersten Nelson: New Holly, Northgate, Rainier Beach and South Park.
Kiersten Nelson: And we also had a new area identified last year for ways that we can partner
Kiersten Nelson: with the Community at a much more organic fashion and that was with thanks to
Kiersten Nelson: foundation funds, we were able to really bolster the coffee
Kiersten Nelson: and conversations program specifically at Ballard they have around.
Kiersten Nelson: 20 to 35 patrons attend weekly events.
Kiersten Nelson: These include movie nights and over the course of the year.
Kiersten Nelson: For about 1300 people participated. The foundation also supported the high
Kiersten Nelson: point 20th anniversary event and they paid for the purchase and installation of
Kiersten Nelson: a sensory wall at the Northeast Branch, which you guys can see in the board
Kiersten Nelson: packet.
Kiersten Nelson: There's also some pictures of some of the sensory boards,
Kiersten Nelson: which is fantastic and is so exciting that we're reaching out to all of the
Kiersten Nelson: youth to make sure that you know.
Kiersten Nelson: We're considering everything.
Kiersten Nelson: And finally, the administrative services was one of
Kiersten Nelson: our areas where we had a bunch of overspend and part of that includes about
Kiersten Nelson: $100, 000 that the foundation is using to help
Kiersten Nelson: us create a patron survey this summer ahead of the 2026 levy as we.
Kiersten Nelson: Conducting what priorities our community really wants to focus on as we move into
Kiersten Nelson: the next 10 years.
Kiersten Nelson: So that is by and large, the lovely news.
Kiersten Nelson: About the foundation and we are so excited with the continued partnership
Kiersten Nelson: for them and just really working on starting from the beginning of the year
Kiersten Nelson: to make sure that we are having those conversations. In fact,
Kiersten Nelson: just yesterday I was in a conversation with the foundation and the E.
Kiersten Nelson: Group to really talk about where some of our program spending was and we had a
Kiersten Nelson: lovely conversation with Medea about the hotspots.
Kiersten Nelson: And it was.
Kiersten Nelson: It's a really good opportunity that we are now.
Kiersten Nelson: Transitioning from being a very sort of siloed money goes into the library from
Kiersten Nelson: the foundation, and nobody really talks about it.
Kiersten Nelson: To much more. How's it going?
Kiersten Nelson: What's new? Can we look for ways to identify donors
Kiersten Nelson: from the foundation side that would support something?
Kiersten Nelson: And are you guys hearing about grants?
Kiersten Nelson: Oh, we have a program that might actually
Kiersten Nelson: align.
Kiersten Nelson: So it's been wonderful and given all the challenges for 2024, the fact that.
Kiersten Nelson: 99. 8% of the grant was spent is a huge
Kiersten Nelson: testament to staff into the leadership of this library,
Kiersten Nelson: about the value that our programs have for the community.
Tali H: I think there's agreement there that.
Tali H: Yeah, cheers for that work and being able to
Tali H: operationalize that much of the grant during a very difficult season.
Tali H: Is something I I can speak for the board on this to say, you know,
Tali H: great work by everyone involved to make that,
Tali H: not just something we're throwing money at things,
Tali H: but in significant areas and important areas that really make a difference,
Tali H: Carmen.
Bendixen, Carmen: I just had a comment if that's OK. Are we on to the Q&A?
Tali H: Yep.
Bendixen, Carmen: Kiersten, just wanted to say thank you for this.
Bendixen, Carmen: The the memo that's in our packet is jam packed full of information,
Bendixen, Carmen: so I appreciate that. And you know, you kind of alluded to previous, you know,
Bendixen, Carmen: historically the library has just taken the money and had tracked it in a certain
Bendixen, Carmen: way. But having a a cumulative report.
Bendixen, Carmen: Out on where was.
Bendixen, Carmen: To overspend, where was the underspend?
Bendixen, Carmen: Why? You're not only anticipating our
Bendixen, Carmen: questions, but also the the tracking.
Bendixen, Carmen: And accountability is really helpful to know.
Bendixen, Carmen: And also just as a side note, I didn't know Valerie got Garrett Turner
Bendixen, Carmen: had retired.
Bendixen, Carmen: So, Valerie, wherever you are, I hope.
Bendixen, Carmen: You're happy and doing well.
Bendixen, Carmen: So yeah, just wanted to say thank you for this.
Bendixen, Carmen: And I really like how this is this is going to be standard practice from here
Bendixen, Carmen: on out.
Bendixen, Carmen: Out right. I think we got one last year also, but.
Bendixen, Carmen: Yeah, just kudos to the whole.
Bendixen, Carmen: To everyone.
Kiersten Nelson: Thank you.
Tali H: Yasmin, did you have a comment?
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah, I have a question, but I also just wanted to note that.
Yazmin Mehdi: You know what you just ran through is an incredibly important part of the work
Yazmin Mehdi: that the library does. All those coffee and conversations.
Yazmin Mehdi: Summer of learning homework help. The ability to survey patrons.
Yazmin Mehdi: Those are huge parts of how SPL deliver services, and it's also the way that.
Yazmin Mehdi: We bring in new people to the library who might not otherwise have understood that
Yazmin Mehdi: the library was there for them.
Yazmin Mehdi: So I also want to, besides your great work on the report and
Yazmin Mehdi: obviously the staff's great work in all this, all this programming.
Yazmin Mehdi: And other funding, you know, thank you to the Library Foundation for
Yazmin Mehdi: providing this, because obviously without it,
Yazmin Mehdi: SPL couldn't reach as many people as we do.
Yazmin Mehdi: It's pretty significant funding that we get and to get a boost of a $500,
Yazmin Mehdi: 000 over the previous year.
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm just really grateful as a board member.
Yazmin Mehdi: My my quick question is that I wasn't clear what the external grants are that
Yazmin Mehdi: you footnoted on the first page. If you could just speak to that.
Kiersten Nelson: For sure, that is the things like our IMLS grant
Kiersten Nelson: for teen mental health.
Kiersten Nelson: So they're they're grants that go over multiple years.
Kiersten Nelson: So when you add them into the in the run through the foundation.
Kiersten Nelson: So when you add them in for the actual line,
Kiersten Nelson: it doesn't quite look the way that it actually is,
Kiersten Nelson: because for the IMLS grant as an example, there's 250,000 / 3 years.
Kiersten Nelson: So you spend down a portion of it each year?
Kiersten Nelson: So the first year, the grant, you're like, wow, we didn't even spend.
Kiersten Nelson: 33% of this particular budget. So.
Kiersten Nelson: It's not actually that way, but it's hard to sort of calculate
Kiersten Nelson: specifically, so it would be.
Kiersten Nelson: Imls teen mental health if the kids team it is the TW grant that's run out of
Kiersten Nelson: Capitol Hill or Douglas Truth.
Kiersten Nelson: It's those kind of external grants that we have.
Tali H: Comments as well.
Faith Pettis: Yes, thank you for this report, Kirsten.
Tali H: Question.
Faith Pettis: It was so thorough and so exciting to read it.
Faith Pettis: I love the fact that it was both high level with the overarching numbers,
Faith Pettis: but also dug into the details and got people's comments about how the impact to
Faith Pettis: them personally appeared and the part that jumped out at me that I wanted to
Faith Pettis: just call out because I.
Faith Pettis: Thought it was so well put was the foundation's trust based philanthropy,
Faith Pettis: that phrase that you used in the report.
Faith Pettis: And you know that I just wanna extend a big thank you to the foundation.
Faith Pettis: I think Brian's on to to the foundation for their trust in the library to put
Faith Pettis: these monies out appropriately and I hope that we are earning that trust through
Faith Pettis: things like this really detailed report and tracking of what we do with the
Faith Pettis: numbers that it is very.
Faith Pettis: Clear to me and and Yasmin said it very well,
Faith Pettis: but the money goes to really good uses and it's not only.
Faith Pettis: Fundamental uses for the library, but it's also that.
Faith Pettis: Icing on the cake type of use that we really want to do, that's important to do,
Faith Pettis: but often make it left behind just because of all of the other fundamental
Faith Pettis: things that we need.
Faith Pettis: So big.
Faith Pettis: Big thank you to the foundation, and kudos to the team for building that
Faith Pettis: trust relationship between the two parties so important.
Tom Fay: Jenni, thank you for that. And it's it's a partnership piece is a
Tom Fay: big element as many of you who have been here for a while know that was something
Tom Fay: that took about two years to to kind of hammer in place between Friends
Tom Fay: foundation and library, but I think.
Tom Fay: You see it paying off and how all the organizations now work together.
Tom Fay: The one thing that wasn't mentioned in this report because.
Tom Fay: It doesn't directly come to the library.
Tom Fay: Is that the foundation also for the first time?
Tom Fay: Provided a grant.
Tom Fay: For the trends organization so that they weren't out having to raise the funds,
Tom Fay: which is something we all agreed to in the partnership agreement and really
Tom Fay: allows them to stay focused on all the awareness and grassroots work that we
Tom Fay: need them to do and they do on a.
Tom Fay: Daily basis.
Tom Fay: In areas that we as a library could not do and most certainly couldn't do as
Tom Fay: efficiently as they do with volunteers.
Tom Fay: So a lot of good things have changed and I think you know when I first came here
Tom Fay: 10 years ago, our spend was not good. At one point,
Tom Fay: they were giving us 5 million and we were hitting about.
Tom Fay: 60% of that sometimes, maybe sometimes as high as 80 on a
Tom Fay: Goodyear, and we just didn't have great processes
Tom Fay: in place and we tend to have the trust.
Tom Fay: Based philanthropy in place at the time.
Tom Fay: So a lot of kudos to the foundation for their trust in us and that's their board
Tom Fay: of directors.
Tom Fay: That's Brian Lawrence and Brian coming in as a new CEO.
Tom Fay: Has also tasked the foundation with raising more.
Tom Fay: He wants to see us at at see the give at 8 million in three to five years.
Tom Fay: He wants to see it at 10 million, you know, 10 years down the road.
Tom Fay: Maybe sooner if you can make it happen.
Tom Fay: So the one thing to note here too, which is very,
Tom Fay: very important and I can't say that it's absolutely unusual,
Tom Fay: but it's at least unusual in my experience,
Tom Fay: the foundation and all their good works and donors is what allows us to put on
Tom Fay: programs at all.
Tom Fay: There would be no funding other than some of the staff support either leverage
Tom Fay: through general fund or through the levy to do the program.
Tom Fay: So these dollars are critical.
Tom Fay: For programming to occur in the system, and that is unusual,
Tom Fay: usually there's a line item for that to at least make sure you have a baseline.
Tom Fay: But the foundation is our baseline, and I greatly appreciate all their
Tom Fay: efforts on our behalf and on behalf of all the patrons of our library.
Ron Chew: Can I mention one thing since we're talking a little bit about the foundation
Ron Chew: and the leadership of Brian, I was at a meeting of friends of Little
Ron Chew: Saigon yesterday, and they mentioned that Brian had made a
Ron Chew: stop, and I've been chatting about ways to
Ron Chew: partner and really listen.
Ron Chew: This wasn't the first time, by the way.
Ron Chew: Last few weeks.
Ron Chew: I know he's been out there in the community and.
Ron Chew: I think it's really a tribute to the foundation, of course.
Ron Chew: Saraswathi out there talking to folks really building some new relationships,
Ron Chew: and I really like that.
Ron Chew: Proactive approach because it's rippling down people saying, well,
Ron Chew: how can we help out and then just finding out about the programs the library has
Ron Chew: oftentimes reaching out to some of the leaders in these community groups can
Ron Chew: have a huge impact in terms of spreading the SBL word, so.
Ron Chew: Just a, just a little additional shout out to
Ron Chew: Brian.
Ron Chew: And the team at the foundation.
Tom Fay: Well, thank you, Kiersten.
Tom Fay: Greatly appreciated and thanks for your work on it.
Kiersten Nelson: No problem, I'm sure I will see you guys next month
Kiersten Nelson: with a much less exciting update on politics.
Kiersten Nelson: So see you all.
Kiersten Nelson: Thank you.
Tali H: Thank you, Kristin.
Tali H: But we don't have any old business, so we'll move on to new business.
Tali H: We'll begin with the library report.
Tom Fay: Great. Well, ask Jan Oschowicz to come forward.
Tom Fay: She's our levy administrator and just a note for board members.
Tom Fay: We do need to vote on this report at the end of her presentation.
Tom Fay: Jan, are you here?
Jan Oscherwitz: Yes.
Tom Fay: We can hear you alright and we can see you alright.
Jan Oscherwitz: I am here, OK?
Jan Oscherwitz: Great.
Jan Oscherwitz: Hi, I'm pleased to be here to present the
Jan Oscherwitz: 2024 fourth quarter and annual levy report for your review and approval and
Jan Oscherwitz: it's good that I followed Kiersten because we have a lot of overlap.
Jan Oscherwitz: So you'll hear a few things again, because the two funding sources really do
Jan Oscherwitz: leverage each other in a lot of ways.
Jan Oscherwitz: Each quarter, the board reviews and approves the
Jan Oscherwitz: quarterly levy report, which documents levy spending and
Jan Oscherwitz: accomplishment of levy priorities.
Jan Oscherwitz: These supports are then posted on the library website.
Jan Oscherwitz: Every year we combine the fourth quarter report with the annual report that we
Jan Oscherwitz: submit to the Mayor and Council by April 15th.
Jan Oscherwitz: Normally we make a presentation to the City Council committee responsible for
Jan Oscherwitz: libraries prior about the prior year. Progress on the levy after this annual
Jan Oscherwitz: report is submitted this year. However, at Councilmember Rivera's request,
Jan Oscherwitz: chief librarian Tom Fay made a presentation to the library's education
Jan Oscherwitz: and neigh.
Jan Oscherwitz: Committee.
Jan Oscherwitz: On February 27th, using preliminary 2024 results.
Jan Oscherwitz: Before I present this report to you, I want to point out that the version you
Jan Oscherwitz: received has an inset on page 10 that needs correcting.
Jan Oscherwitz: It was the list of the top ten peak picks titles,
Jan Oscherwitz: and it's missing the 10th most popular book.
Jan Oscherwitz: And for those of you who are curious, it's Barry pickers by Amanda Peters.
Jan Oscherwitz: And it also has another formatting glitch that makes the list hard to read.
Jan Oscherwitz: Both of these errors will be corrected in the version that will go to the mayor and
Jan Oscherwitz: Council and be posted on the web.
Jan Oscherwitz: When I ask you to act on the report, I would ask that as in your past,
Jan Oscherwitz: you approve the report with the authority for staff to make corrections to any
Jan Oscherwitz: additional typos that we find before the report is formally submitted to the Mayor
Jan Oscherwitz: and Council.
Jan Oscherwitz: So on to the highlights of the report. In 2024, we spent 31.
Jan Oscherwitz: 7 million of levy funds.
Jan Oscherwitz: This was 63% of our revised budget of 50. 3 million and has that has been true for
Jan Oscherwitz: the last couple years. Most of the delays in spending.
Jan Oscherwitz: Are associated with projects in our capital improvement program and those
Jan Oscherwitz: tend to be really big ticket items. For example, like the Green Lake branch.
Jan Oscherwitz: So where did the money go?
Jan Oscherwitz: The levy laid out a clear framework for how proceeds were to be spent to support
Jan Oscherwitz: levy investment areas of hours and collection hours and access collections,
Jan Oscherwitz: technology and online services, children's programming and maintenance.
Jan Oscherwitz: And as you know, as you heard many times, 24 was a Challen.
Jan Oscherwitz: Year for the library, starting with the hiring freeze in
Jan Oscherwitz: January.
Jan Oscherwitz: Ary in response to citywide budget challenges,
Jan Oscherwitz: followed by the cyber attack on Memorial Day weekend that had major impacts to our
Jan Oscherwitz: technology for several months.
Jan Oscherwitz: These challenges were unforeseeable when the levy was proposed,
Jan Oscherwitz: and while they disrupted some of our day-to-day operations,
Jan Oscherwitz: they didn't stop us from making progress on delivering key levy promises.
Jan Oscherwitz: What I'll do is I'll go through each living investment area and the promises
Jan Oscherwitz: we made.
Jan Oscherwitz: And so the first area is ours and access.
Jan Oscherwitz: Our promise was to keep libraries open when patrrons needed them.
Jan Oscherwitz: We started the first quarter off strongly with significantly more open hours than
Jan Oscherwitz: we had in 2019, but we had to roll those hours back in
Jan Oscherwitz: the second quarter after the hiring freeze led to staff shortages and
Jan Oscherwitz: unexpected closures during the second and third quarter, we were able.
Jan Oscherwitz: To stabilize operations and by the fourth quarter,
Jan Oscherwitz: we were able to increase our open hours once more when the remodeled Green Lake
Jan Oscherwitz: Branch reopened in late October. We were operating at 99% of our 2019
Jan Oscherwitz: baseline and we were planning for.
Jan Oscherwitz: An increase of in hours that took place in January of this year that brought the
Jan Oscherwitz: library above the 2019 levels and closer to our levy promises.
Jan Oscherwitz: Other access improvements include the work of our social services team,
Jan Oscherwitz: which is in supported, supported in part by levy funds.
Jan Oscherwitz: The team highlighted new programs in 2024 to help our most vulnerable patrons,
Jan Oscherwitz: including holding three resource fairs.
Jan Oscherwitz: They also help community members over 1100 times,
Jan Oscherwitz: including referrals to Lifeline services. In 2024,
Jan Oscherwitz: we also celebrated five years of fine free borrowing.
Jan Oscherwitz: We found, contrary to what some expected, that fine free borrowing did not result
Jan Oscherwitz: on average in changes in return rates, and many patrons have told us that going
Jan Oscherwitz: fine free had benefited them from reducing financial anxiety about
Jan Oscherwitz: borrowing materials to giving parents a few extra worry free days.
Jan Oscherwitz: To keep a favorite board book for a child in the area of collections,
Jan Oscherwitz: we promised a robust collection of books and materials.
Jan Oscherwitz: And we continue to make significant investments in both digital and physical
Jan Oscherwitz: materials.
Jan Oscherwitz: While responding to increased demand for digital books even as those costs of the
Jan Oscherwitz: materials continue to sharply rise in 2024,
Jan Oscherwitz: the levy funded 47% of our collection budget and overall we added 45,
Jan Oscherwitz: 000 titles and nearly 100, 000 copies to our E.
Jan Oscherwitz: And E audiobook collections. We also made some changes in our
Jan Oscherwitz: borrowing and purchasing practices that helped us manage the high cost for ebooks.
Jan Oscherwitz: The impacts from the cyber attack meant that fewer digital materials were checked
Jan Oscherwitz: out in 2024.
Jan Oscherwitz: Compared to 2023, but despite the service disruption,
Jan Oscherwitz: the number of people who checked out at least one digital item increased over
Jan Oscherwitz: year over year.
Jan Oscherwitz: We also added 168, 000 items to our collection, including 19,
Jan Oscherwitz: 000 copies of the peak picks. The no holds,
Jan Oscherwitz: no wait collection that's 100% Levy funded since that collections launched in
Jan Oscherwitz: 2017. Peak pick titles have been checked out
Jan Oscherwitz: over a million.
Jan Oscherwitz: Times.
Jan Oscherwitz: And in terms of overall physical materials?
Jan Oscherwitz: Nearly as many people checked out items physical items in 2024 compared to 2023,
Jan Oscherwitz: a strong showing despite disruptions in do the cyber attack we also acquired over
Jan Oscherwitz: 1000 items for a Seattle room collection and digitized 3800 local history items.
Jan Oscherwitz: For for our collection, including Northwest Asia Weekly and
Jan Oscherwitz: Marine Digest.
Jan Oscherwitz: In the technology and access area, we promised to improve computer and
Jan Oscherwitz: online resources as mentioned in other parts of this report and by Kirsten,
Jan Oscherwitz: we fell victim to a ransomware attack which significantly disrupted library
Jan Oscherwitz: services. The incident forced us to take most of
Jan Oscherwitz: our technology based services off.
Jan Oscherwitz: The library restored most of the services during the summer and by Labor Day.
Jan Oscherwitz: Through the summer and by Labor Day, most of the services were restored.
Jan Oscherwitz: In the wake of the ransomware attack, we accelerate our efforts to improve
Jan Oscherwitz: cybersecurity, including moving systems to the cloud and
Jan Oscherwitz: implementing multi factor identification systemwide.
Jan Oscherwitz: The key areas of that we provided from levy funding in technology include our
Jan Oscherwitz: levy funded hotspot program we made over 5700 loans of our general collection and
Jan Oscherwitz: outreach hot spots and hotspots remain one of the most popular items in the
Jan Oscherwitz: collection.
Jan Oscherwitz: We also made significant progress on a new library app,
Jan Oscherwitz: which is about to launch in beta to the public and that will allow patrons to
Jan Oscherwitz: manage their library transactions through an app in the area of children's
Jan Oscherwitz: programming. We promise to add more programming for
Jan Oscherwitz: children 0 to.
Jan Oscherwitz: Five in 2024, we offered over 290 in person,
Jan Oscherwitz: weekly play and learn programs at 7 different branches.
Jan Oscherwitz: The sessions were conducted in Amaric, Chinese, English, Somali and Spanish.
Jan Oscherwitz: We also offered over 1000 story times at 23 branches,
Jan Oscherwitz: the Central Library and in the community.
Jan Oscherwitz: Our offerings included world language story times in Spanish and Arabic,
Jan Oscherwitz: and a perennial patron favorite firefighter story time.
Jan Oscherwitz: Although funding is reflected in the hours and access levy investment category.
Jan Oscherwitz: Than in children's program, it's important to note that the levy pays
Jan Oscherwitz: for 35% of the library's children and teen service librarians.
Jan Oscherwitz: In the area of maintenance, we promised to maintain buildings for the
Jan Oscherwitz: next generation and after a lengthy closure we for renovation,
Jan Oscherwitz: we reopened the Green Lake Branch on October 28th with a levy funding 65% of
Jan Oscherwitz: that project. The renovation preserved the historic
Jan Oscherwitz: features of the.
Jan Oscherwitz: Carnegie Air Branch while updating it with seismic reinforcement,
Jan Oscherwitz: an electricity powered HVAC system.
Jan Oscherwitz: And accessibility upgrades, thanks to the levy and other funding
Jan Oscherwitz: sources to support upgrades to electric HVAC systems,
Jan Oscherwitz: we were also able to offer air conditioning at Northeast and SW branches
Jan Oscherwitz: in the summer of 2024.
Jan Oscherwitz: And our facilities and custodial janitorial staff,
Jan Oscherwitz: despite being staff short staffed most of the year,
Jan Oscherwitz: completed nearly 6000 work orders in 2024 and worked hard to keep our buildings
Jan Oscherwitz: safe and clean in the area of administration we planned to we we
Jan Oscherwitz: promised to plan for.
Jan Oscherwitz: The library for the future and in November you adopted the 10 libraries,
Jan Oscherwitz: 10 year strategic plan which was informed by a levy funded multi year process that
Jan Oscherwitz: engaged dozens of community organizations.
Jan Oscherwitz: Hundreds of library patients, library patrons,
Jan Oscherwitz: library staff and other invested parties. The plan seeks to help the library build
Jan Oscherwitz: the community sense of belonging and the organization's resiliency,
Jan Oscherwitz: and it identifies steps the library will take to address 21st century challenges
Jan Oscherwitz: and improve community outcomes. It also.
Jan Oscherwitz: Lays the groundwork for developing a 2026 levy proposal.
Jan Oscherwitz: We began implementing stage one of the plan in January of this year.
Jan Oscherwitz: And that concludes my report.
Jan Oscherwitz: I want to shout out to our communications team for their help with this report,
Jan Oscherwitz: especially Elisa Murray for her hard work on this document.
Jan Oscherwitz: I welcome any questions and feedback you have and when you're ready,
Jan Oscherwitz: I would ask that you approve the report with the provision for staff to make
Jan Oscherwitz: typographical corrections. Like I noted at the beginning of my
Jan Oscherwitz: presentation.
Tali H: George.
Yazmin Mehdi: I guess I'll go in Jan.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you again for a great report.
Yazmin Mehdi: I just wanted to point out it's not a question.
Yazmin Mehdi: I just want to make sure that the public recognizes just how important the levy is
Yazmin Mehdi: and in terms of its leveraging.
Yazmin Mehdi: For example, I did not remember that the levy doesn't
Yazmin Mehdi: fund 100% of the Green Lake branch or didn't fund 100% that the levy funds
Yazmin Mehdi: leveraged funds.
Yazmin Mehdi: And real estate excites tax and I forgot what the third major funding source was.
Yazmin Mehdi: But it's really important that we have the levy, the levy,
Yazmin Mehdi: because we have the levy, we can leverage these other sources and
Yazmin Mehdi: that's really how we make these major upgrades to our branches.
Yazmin Mehdi: So despite the fact that we may be underspent the levy,
Yazmin Mehdi: unlike the report that Kirsten just gave us, where we.
Yazmin Mehdi: We almost 100% spent the foundation funding.
Yazmin Mehdi: It's different with the levy because of these capital projects and I just want to
Yazmin Mehdi: make sure the public understands why that is.
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm curious yours.
Yazmin Mehdi: This is a weird question, but like we don't have ebook peak picks,
Yazmin Mehdi: do we?
Yazmin Mehdi: They're all tangible.
Jan Oscherwitz: Yes.
Yazmin Mehdi: Would we?
Jan Oscherwitz: Correct.
Tom Fay: Or hoping to do that in the future but was not at the moment.
Yazmin Mehdi: OK. Gotcha.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you.
Tali H: Any other comments or questions or Chan?
Bendixen, Carmen: Great work as usual. Thank you.
Tali H: Could there be no comments or questions?
Tali H: Do I have a motion to accept this levy report?
Faith Pettis: I can make that motion subject to corrections and updates that the staff
Faith Pettis: needs to make to to correct any typographical errors.
Ron Chew: I 2nd.
Tali H: Second, OK, it has been moved.
Tali H: And second, all in favor.
Faith Pettis: Aye.
Bendixen, Carmen: Hi.
Tali H: Opposed.
Tali H: What is unanimous? We accept the report with addition,
Jan Oscherwitz: OK.
Tali H: deletions, edits and other typographical exercises
Tali H: that she must go through to complete this report.
Tali H: Thank you, Jan.
Tali H: This is beautiful.
Tali H: Well done.
Tali H: And the impact of this reporting is significant for us as a board.
Tali H: And so while this goes on to others, we will actually sit with this a little
Tali H: bit longer as well as we prepare for the next levy.
Tom Fay: Thank you, Jan.
Jan Oscherwitz: Thank you.
Tali H: Next we have our severe 2024 Cyber Attack report.
Tom Fay: Yes, will be asking Rob Gannon to come forward
Tom Fay: and I believe maybe Charles Wesley as well.
Tom Fay: This is our after action report that you see before you today and Rob will be able
Tom Fay: to ask or answer some general questions on this if you have them after having
Tom Fay: reviewed it.
Tom Fay: And Charles, I see you there, Rob, have you made it?
Rob Gannon: I have.
Rob Gannon: I believe I'm here. If everybody can see me.
Tom Fay: Alright, see you now.
Rob Gannon: Yeah.
Rob Gannon: Thank you.
Rob Gannon: Good morning. Members of the board.
Rob Gannon: Thank you for the opportunity to give a short presentation on this after action
Rob Gannon: report.
Rob Gannon: As has been alluded to, a number of times already in the meeting,
Rob Gannon: we're all well aware that we had a ransomware attack that significantly
Rob Gannon: impacted our year 2024.
Rob Gannon: And one of the things that we committed to doing coming out of that event was to
Rob Gannon: evaluate the library's response.
Rob Gannon: Its effectiveness in the recovery and to identify lessons that we could learn and
Rob Gannon: also recommendations that we could carry forward and begin to implement as part of
Rob Gannon: our work on the information technology side of of the library.
Rob Gannon: So we are here to present the report. It was conducted by an outside consultant,
Rob Gannon: Cybertrust America.
Rob Gannon: It was also work conducted under the direction of our attorneys,
Rob Gannon: both from the City Attorney's Office and Auric, are outside legal counsel,
Rob Gannon: and I should mention that I am joined by.
Rob Gannon: Anna Stuart from Oreck, who was very helpful and instrumental
Rob Gannon: throughout the after action review.
Rob Gannon: And I believe Joe Santiesteban also from Oreck is available as well as Aaron Valla
Rob Gannon: from the city attorney's office.
Rob Gannon: We engaged this report.
Rob Gannon: In the late fall of last year, in an effort to have a timely review of
Rob Gannon: our incident, we worked in partnership with the City of
Rob Gannon: Seattle's Department of Information Technology to conduct this review so that
Rob Gannon: the lessons learned were not simply for the for the benefit of.
Rob Gannon: The library, but also for our relationship with the
Rob Gannon: city and city it specifically.
Rob Gannon: The report took some time to create and that is a testament to all that went on
Rob Gannon: during the period of the ransomware attack and the careful nature of the
Rob Gannon: after action review itself.
Rob Gannon: We also did this under the direction of our attorneys so that we could be sure to
Rob Gannon: protect the information from security perspective so that in conducting the
Rob Gannon: report we were not simultaneously.
Rob Gannon: Revealing any of our.
Rob Gannon: Any issues?
Rob Gannon: That could be further or could be exploited by bad actors in the future.
Rob Gannon: We aren't set to make a presentation on the contents of the report.
Rob Gannon: We instead are here to answer any questions you may have and let the report
Rob Gannon: and speak for itself in essence.
Rob Gannon: But we also recognize that as members of the board,
Rob Gannon: you may have some specific questions as you have reviewed it or as you may take
Rob Gannon: up a review in in the coming weeks.
Rob Gannon: So with that, Charles from our information.
Rob Gannon: Our IT team is here and the the attorneys have joined us as well and we welcome any
Rob Gannon: questions.
Rob Gannon: Things you may have.
Tali H: Yasmin.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thanks rob.
Yazmin Mehdi: I I just want to note some of it.
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm gonna sit with because there's some language in here that I don't fully
Yazmin Mehdi: understand, so I will be asking Tom about that.
Yazmin Mehdi: But I have two questions for you from the report.
Yazmin Mehdi: How would the recommendations that Cybertrust has made have impacted the
Yazmin Mehdi: efficacy of the response since the response was already in the top 5%?
Yazmin Mehdi: Of responses. So like I'm I'm just curious like
Yazmin Mehdi: marginally what do the recommendations earn us?
Yazmin Mehdi: And maybe you can't talk to some of that because it's stuff that's sensitive and
Yazmin Mehdi: you don't want to bring up here. But that's one question.
Yazmin Mehdi: And then second is.
Yazmin Mehdi: In reading the recommendations, I did wonder how much some of how much
Yazmin Mehdi: really ought to sit at the city level as opposed to the SPL it level.
Yazmin Mehdi: For example, I think one of them was to set up a an
Yazmin Mehdi: SoC, which I'm not going to what it stands for,
Yazmin Mehdi: but like a command center kind of thing.
Yazmin Mehdi: And why wouldn't it be more appropriate for that to happen at the city level?
Yazmin Mehdi: So I'm just curious.
Yazmin Mehdi: Those are questions I have.
Rob Gannon: Thank you.
Rob Gannon: I will try to answer both those questions and I'll invite Charles to jump in with
Rob Gannon: additional detail.
Rob Gannon: As a general statement, I think that in in terms of how was our
Rob Gannon: response rated? What value will the recommendations have
Rob Gannon: going forward?
Rob Gannon: I will give this answer when we engage cybertrust.
Rob Gannon: We didn't know how good or bad or acceptable our response was,
Rob Gannon: so some of this was to do that evaluation and understand better.
Rob Gannon: How the library?
Rob Gannon: Performed in the midst of the attack in response to the attack and in the
Rob Gannon: recovery phase, and I will say that I think we thought we
Rob Gannon: did a fair job.
Rob Gannon: We also were working very hard and very diligently and relying on things that
Rob Gannon: were not always well practiced. And so one of the values of the
Rob Gannon: recommendation is to see that the good work that was conducted by the library
Rob Gannon: and our consulting partners.
Rob Gannon: Was beneficial and now we can take steps to make that part of our response plan to
Rob Gannon: be better prepared to institute that, should it occur in the future,
Rob Gannon: but also use it as indications of where we need to strengthen our day-to-day
Rob Gannon: resources, even absent an attack.
Rob Gannon: So I'm gonna pause there and and see if Charles has anything he wants to add as a
Rob Gannon: response to that first question.
Charles Wesley: Yeah. So for the first question, I think the.
Charles Wesley: The response that we had was we're proud of how we responded and there are always
Charles Wesley: lessons that you learn when you do something.
Charles Wesley: In a real world versus kind of a theoretical environment and so
Charles Wesley: incorporating those into our our ongoing practices is a good opportunity and the
Charles Wesley: security landscape is always evolving and always changing.
Charles Wesley: And so it is also keeping pace with how that landscape change,
Charles Wesley: how the threats change. So our our game plan can't be a static
Charles Wesley: one. And so we have to continually be
Charles Wesley: responding and evolving.
Charles Wesley: And so I think for me that is the gist of that.
Charles Wesley: Take away is to ensure that we are maintaining pace with the environment.
Charles Wesley: Our response to this one incident notwithstanding.
Rob Gannon: As to your second question, what things might better be,
Rob Gannon: or better taken up by Seattle? It compared to the IT department within
Rob Gannon: the library. I think this is also part of what we want
Rob Gannon: to continue to explore the nature of our relationship with Seattle it and given
Rob Gannon: the.
Rob Gannon: Standing of the library within the city structure is that we are substantially
Rob Gannon: independent and so we are relying on a lot of our.
Rob Gannon: Library based it resources.
Rob Gannon: And practices and structures to respond.
Rob Gannon: The learning, however, of this report is that we do have great
Rob Gannon: dependence and interdependence with the city.
Rob Gannon: That's independent structure notwithstanding.
Rob Gannon: So we want to figure out how to continue to strengthen those bonds.
Rob Gannon: Some of without going into specific details,
Rob Gannon: some of the structures that are contemplated in the report do exist in
Rob Gannon: the city at the city it level.
Rob Gannon: So we're now figuring out what might we establish ourselves or how could we.
Rob Gannon: Appropriately connect with city IT resources and what does that?
Rob Gannon: Ongoing relationship mean in terms of its structure and how can it be durable and
Rob Gannon: to Charles Point it's also.
Rob Gannon: Information sharing or relationship that is 2 way so that as threats evolve as
Rob Gannon: circumstances change that were always in that in that better posture of connection
Rob Gannon: with city it.
Rob Gannon: So I hope that makes sense, Charles, again,
Rob Gannon: I'll invite you to add any additional response if you have any.
Charles Wesley: Yeah, we really have as a result prior to the
Charles Wesley: attack, we had a good report in relationship with
Charles Wesley: Citi it, particularly their security group as a
Charles Wesley: result of our experience last year, that was only strengthened.
Charles Wesley: And so I think there are opportunities for us to align.
Charles Wesley: In terms of strategy and approach and the details of kind of how closely we can
Charles Wesley: interoperate will be dictated by a a variety of factors.
Charles Wesley: And so I think where it makes sense and where we're able to leverage each other,
Charles Wesley: there's definitely.
Charles Wesley: Mutual interest in that.
Charles Wesley: But there are trade-offs depending on kind of who is is taking the lead on
Charles Wesley: which aspect and how that's actually implemented.
Charles Wesley: So there's some some details I think that we're in a good position to be able to
Charles Wesley: work out with them. Most importantly, I think in in the report it mentions this
Charles Wesley: a risk based approach.
Charles Wesley: I think looking at the risks and looking at mitigations and where interoperability
Charles Wesley: and cooperation with them.
Charles Wesley: Is the best strategy to manage those risks?
Charles Wesley: I think that's where the opportunities lie.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah. OK.
Yazmin Mehdi: Well, thank you for those responses.
Yazmin Mehdi: I I think I would just say.
Yazmin Mehdi: Kudos. I think we all knew that SPL it and SPL
Yazmin Mehdi: in general were doing a remarkable job at getting the system back.
Yazmin Mehdi: All the systems back.
Yazmin Mehdi: So like it's wonderful to have it underscored how good a job this the
Yazmin Mehdi: library staff did.
Yazmin Mehdi: So I just I want to just add on my kudos, especially after reading this report.
Yazmin Mehdi: And then just to under score that, you know,
Yazmin Mehdi: we do have to pay the city for for the city's it we you know we pay basically
Yazmin Mehdi: overhead if you will.
Yazmin Mehdi: And so I just want to make sure that we're getting the kind of support that
Yazmin Mehdi: we're due in in exchange for that overhead payment.
Yazmin Mehdi: So thank you both.
Tom Fay: Yeah, I do want to point out one thing here as
Tom Fay: well is that, you know, Seattle's it was a critical partner in
Tom Fay: supporting us throughout. And when we had the crowd strike issue
Tom Fay: that.
Tom Fay: Raised itself right on top of all of this.
Tom Fay: It was Seattle it who sent over several staff members to help us get through that
Tom Fay: and actually accelerated our entire recovery time considerably.
Tom Fay: So that I will point out was also done at a point in transition in Seattle,
Tom Fay: I TS leadership.
Tom Fay: That is a rarity, especially with the complexities of
Tom Fay: relationship, but showed the professionalism of the of
Tom Fay: the IT team at the Seattle at the City of Seattle as well.
Tom Fay: So we do have a good working relationship. We generally have always had one,
Tom Fay: you know, like anything, it can go back and forth when there's
Tom Fay: disagreements.
Tom Fay: Some things, but in general cyber security is not one
Tom Fay: that we any of us disagree with, and one that we know we have to work
Tom Fay: together as a team.
Tom Fay: Anything that happens at the library could be pushed onto the city.
Tom Fay: Anything that happens at the city could come whipping back at the library,
Tom Fay: so we want to stay engaged in that.
Tom Fay: We also have great relationship with the EOC,
Tom Fay: the Emergency Operations Center at any time. As a director I can make that call.
Tom Fay: To have that activated.
Tom Fay: Along with the mayor's office, etc.
Tom Fay: So we didn't rise to that level fortunately,
Tom Fay: but we do have several of those components in place.
Tom Fay: As just a city department that's always at our disposal.
Tali H: Well, thank you, Robin and Charles. And let me just say I think the board
Tali H: would probably interested in those next step conversations given the
Tali H: recommendations maybe at some time you can come back and talk to us about the
Tali H: next steps and how those are going.
Rob Gannon: Happy to do that.
Tali H: Thanks.
Tali H: Thank you, Roger and Charles. Appreciate it.
Tali H: OK, rules of conduct update.
Tom Fay: Hi I'm not sure on this one.
Tom Fay: I do apologize.
Tom Fay: I do think it's Rob and I'm not sure if we have someone else joining Rob,
Tom Fay: but I'll turn it over to you.
Rob Gannon: Thank you, Tom. And I think our colleague Valerie Wonder
Rob Gannon: needs to be promoted. I think Amy's working on that.
Tom Fay: Right, I think I see Valerie here on the screen,
Tom Fay: but I'm not sure if she's.
Tom Fay: Val, are you there?
Valerie Wonder: I am.
Valerie Wonder: Can you hear me?
Tom Fay: Yes.
Valerie Wonder: OK, great. Hello.
Rob Gannon: Excellent.
Tali H: Hello, Valerie.
Tom Fay: And Valerie, just for everyone's edification,
Tom Fay: as our regional manager for for the downtown region and also was an interim
Tom Fay: director.
Tom Fay: During part of 23 and 24.
Tom Fay: I think I have that right.
Tom Fay: My years maybe are getting mixed up here, but also helped in support of a lot of
Tom Fay: the work on the rules of conduct.
Rob Gannon: Now, good afternoon. Members of the board.
Rob Gannon: Thank you for the opportunity to give you this update.
Rob Gannon: So in your packets we have brought forward a general overview of where we
Rob Gannon: are in our process to revise the rules of conduct.
Rob Gannon: As it describes, it was a process that began way back in
Rob Gannon: 2019.
Rob Gannon: And encountered both a number of interruptions,
Rob Gannon: but as well some very diligent and concerted work to thoroughly think
Rob Gannon: through.
Rob Gannon: To how the rules could be revised. Our effort here today is to really give
Rob Gannon: you a preliminary update on some of that background work.
Rob Gannon: And I'm gonna turn it over to Valerie, who will describe a lot of that and is
Rob Gannon: prepared to answer some of your questions.
Rob Gannon: This is a precursor to us bringing forward more formal documents for your
Rob Gannon: review and consideration at your April meeting.
Rob Gannon: So as Valerie will describe the rules of conduct.
Rob Gannon: Is in a process of becoming significantly revised.
Rob Gannon: Didn't be coming. What we'll refer to as a Community use
Rob Gannon: agreement and some of the underlying policy and rules will also receive some
Rob Gannon: modest modifications that will be reflected in the policy documents that we
Rob Gannon: bring forward. But for the benefit of all of you and to
Rob Gannon: sort of.
Rob Gannon: Set the stage for that.
Rob Gannon: I we wanted to be sure that Valerie could give a description of her involvement in
Rob Gannon: this. In this process, describe some of the interactions she's
Rob Gannon: had.
Rob Gannon: With a number of community members.
Rob Gannon: There's patrons and other groups as well as speaking to some of the preparations
Rob Gannon: that we've undertaken to have our patron community, our library, community,
Rob Gannon: our and and our security staff and branch staff ready to take on these revisions
Rob Gannon: and put them into meaningful, effective.
Rob Gannon: So with that as stage setting, I'm gonna turn it over to Valerie and
Rob Gannon: Valerie. I'll just acknowledge was also going to
Rob Gannon: be joined by her partner, Richard Counsel, regional manager,
Rob Gannon: who has also been deeply involved.
Rob Gannon: But unfortunately he had an unavoidable conflict this morning and had to bow out.
Rob Gannon: So Valerie will be flying solo and I will try and pinch it for Richard.
Rob Gannon: If anything comes up and I can give service.
Rob Gannon: All right, Valerie.
Valerie Wonder: OK.
Valerie Wonder: Well, nice to see all of you and and meet those
Valerie Wonder: I haven't met.
Valerie Wonder: I'm just gonna share my screen because I I have a simple.
Valerie Wonder: Presentation that I'm just gonna walk through.
Valerie Wonder: So the rules of conduct was last updated in 2013.
Valerie Wonder: So it had been six years back in 2019.
Valerie Wonder: It's now close to 12.
Valerie Wonder: And at the time.
Valerie Wonder: We've been way back in 2019.
Valerie Wonder: We felt that it was really not reflective of the strategies that we were currently
Valerie Wonder: using, the values that we had around.
Valerie Wonder: Equity and inclusion and our our the efforts that we had made to create a more
Valerie Wonder: welcoming environment.
Valerie Wonder: The team came together.
Valerie Wonder: And as Rob indicated, the there were a variety of setbacks
Valerie Wonder: including the pandemic.
Valerie Wonder: Oh, and here's the team calling out Richard
Valerie Wonder: Counsel, who has been the chair of the entire six
Valerie Wonder: years.
Valerie Wonder: So I hope he'll be able to join you in later in the spring when we bring the
Valerie Wonder: actual document.
Valerie Wonder: When we resumed after the pandemic, we came together to really focus on how
Valerie Wonder: we could engage Community in this process. We worked with an external consultant and
Valerie Wonder: actually brought community members onto the task force.
Valerie Wonder: So initially there were eight members of the Community,
Valerie Wonder: folks who were either leaders or advocates and communities of color and
Valerie Wonder: people with lived experience of homelessness.
Valerie Wonder: Who sat in most of our sessions?
Valerie Wonder: For two years.
Valerie Wonder: So really kind of provided a voice and some accountability to us through the
Valerie Wonder: process.
Valerie Wonder: We also did community listening sessions with communities that we've we knew were
Valerie Wonder: desperately impacted by the rules of conduct. So we worked with youth of color,
Valerie Wonder: people experiencing homelessness, and also we engaged frontline staff.
Valerie Wonder: So those were the librarians and library associates and frontline managers and
Valerie Wonder: security officers.
Valerie Wonder: Who are charged with keeping maintaining this welcoming environment and also?
Valerie Wonder: Implementing the rules of conduct.
Valerie Wonder: This is just a an image of one of our community listening sessions that
Valerie Wonder: happened at the South Park Library led by Lupine and one of our community members.
Valerie Wonder: So we heard some really consistent feedback.
Valerie Wonder: The rules of conduct are unwelcoming and negative.
Valerie Wonder: It's just a long list of no's.
Valerie Wonder: It's way too long.
Valerie Wonder: It's too complicated.
Valerie Wonder: Informal doesn't reflect our values of equity and inclusion,
Valerie Wonder: and I'm going to just try to.
Valerie Wonder: Are you all seeing?
Valerie Wonder: Are you all seeing the rules now?
Valerie Wonder: Just the brochure.
Valerie Wonder: Just just we're not going to look through this,
Valerie Wonder: but just to kind of give you a sense of what people see when they look at our
Valerie Wonder: rules of conduct.
Valerie Wonder: This is not a friendly document.
Valerie Wonder: This doesn't lead with.
Valerie Wonder: A notion that we want you here in our space.
Valerie Wonder: So what's different now?
Valerie Wonder: So we have a new name, those community members,
Valerie Wonder: who are part of the team.
Valerie Wonder: Were felt strongly that the word community should be a part of our title
Valerie Wonder: and they really wanted to use the word agreement.
Valerie Wonder: They felt that that emphasized the mutuality of this.
Valerie Wonder: It is not a long list of Nos that we are.
Valerie Wonder: We are inflicting on a community, but it's an agreement that we're coming
Valerie Wonder: to together and it's it's setting out responsibilities and values that we are
Valerie Wonder: all abiding.
Valerie Wonder: By including our staff.
Valerie Wonder: It's much shorter, far fewer rules, or in this case, agreements.
Valerie Wonder: It's much easier to read simpler language.
Valerie Wonder: A lot of positive language.
Valerie Wonder: We tried not to have every we. We went through a practice actually where
Valerie Wonder: we didn't use the word no and tried tried to list all of our agreements in a
Valerie Wonder: positive way which didn't entirely work.
Valerie Wonder: So so we made some adjustments there, but.
Valerie Wonder: When we could we use positive language?
Valerie Wonder: We have sidebars that really call out our commitment to equity and accessibility
Valerie Wonder: and intellectual freedom. So whenever we could,
Valerie Wonder: we're we're emphasizing our values.
Valerie Wonder: There's a preamble that emphasizes the fact that we want you here in our space
Valerie Wonder: and highlight some of the ways that we want to work with community.
Valerie Wonder: I'm not going to go into the details because you will see this.
Valerie Wonder: It's it's still in draft form, but just an as an example,
Valerie Wonder: we had a rule that that we currently have a rule that says using restrooms for
Valerie Wonder: bathing or shampooing or doing laundry or changing clothes isn't allowed.
Valerie Wonder: So proposed language now says use restrooms responsibly and keep them safe
Valerie Wonder: and usable for others.
Valerie Wonder: So it emphasizing the impact that we want we.
Valerie Wonder: We want to make sure that our restrooms are safe.
Valerie Wonder: We want them to be usable.
Valerie Wonder: We do not want we do not need to call out all of the ways that you might use them.
Valerie Wonder: That could be problematic.
Valerie Wonder: Could potentially be problematic and may not be changing your clothes in the
Valerie Wonder: restroom isn't necessarily problematic.
Valerie Wonder: Umm, see.
Valerie Wonder: So the team.
Valerie Wonder: Spent hours working on this document thinking about the language,
Valerie Wonder: thinking about these specific items. But what we also talked about was the
Valerie Wonder: safety strategies that we use to keep people safe and well and create a
Valerie Wonder: welcoming environment.
Valerie Wonder: And what we're though what you will see is a document with a list of agreements
Valerie Wonder: as we roll this out to staff, we're really emphasizing the work that.
Valerie Wonder: We're the kind of environment that we want to create.
Valerie Wonder: And the steps that they can take to make that happen. This is not all new.
Valerie Wonder: We do de escalation training.
Valerie Wonder: Now we talk about safety strategies in trainings and onboarding,
Valerie Wonder: but we're really integrating this now and talking about it as sort of two sides to
Valerie Wonder: the same ecosystem.
Valerie Wonder: So I wish Richard was here because this is really his baby.
Valerie Wonder: He can speak very poetically about the safety strategies and how we're rolling
Valerie Wonder: these out.
Valerie Wonder: But I I just want to introduce the notion, because it's as we do the roll out to
Valerie Wonder: staff, this is part and parcel to this new
Valerie Wonder: Community use agreement.
Valerie Wonder: OK, so implementation.
Valerie Wonder: Though we are in still in draft stage.
Valerie Wonder: We have already started.
Valerie Wonder: Socializing this with our staff, we went to.
Valerie Wonder: Quarterly trainings with all of library programs and services and talked to
Valerie Wonder: people providing a presentation that's similar to what you're getting now with a
Valerie Wonder: little more detail.
Valerie Wonder: So staff are excited and have expressed that they do.
Valerie Wonder: They feel that we're moving in the right direction.
Valerie Wonder: This really does.
Valerie Wonder: Create a new tool that they can use to build trust and support in community.
Valerie Wonder: When we are rolling it out, we will have an elearn that everyone will
Valerie Wonder: take.
Valerie Wonder: We're also doing supervisor training with operations managers, RMS,
Valerie Wonder: supervising librarians and others who work on the front lines.
Valerie Wonder: We're creating a workbook and that's something that we see is key to kind of
Valerie Wonder: shifting the culture and rolling this out long term.
Valerie Wonder: The idea will be.
Valerie Wonder: It has a variety of scenarios and talking points.
Valerie Wonder: That addresses some of the the key questions and concerns that have been
Valerie Wonder: expressed by staff so that over the course of many months,
Valerie Wonder: supervisors can be speaking to these during unit meetings.
Valerie Wonder: And reflecting on them locally with their staff,
Valerie Wonder: we will have a unit meeting based trainings that members of our team will
Valerie Wonder: join along with those supervisors to work through this in more depth.
Valerie Wonder: And then we'll have virtual drop in so that staff who have questions or concerns
Valerie Wonder: or want to talk through a scenario will be able to reach out to keep members of
Valerie Wonder: security lpsd library programs and services to to talk through
Valerie Wonder: implementation.
Valerie Wonder: We will also have brochures and signage and social media around this new language.
Valerie Wonder: We really think that it's it's created in a way that.
Valerie Wonder: Lends itself instead of having a large poster that looks similar to that
Valerie Wonder: brochure you saw, which is what we have now.
Valerie Wonder: We may have.
Valerie Wonder: Pieces of the the document pulled out that address a particular rule or a
Valerie Wonder: particular interest.
Valerie Wonder: And highlight those around, for example, the restroom rule may show up
Valerie Wonder: independently in the restroom.
Valerie Wonder: So that work will happen, most likely in the summer.
Valerie Wonder: The staff training we expect to start.
Valerie Wonder: This spring.
Valerie Wonder: Will be.
Valerie Wonder: Coming back to you later in the spring with the final document we have just had
Valerie Wonder: our final conversation with legal and.
Valerie Wonder: Are are just in the very final stages of finishing up that draft and working with
Valerie Wonder: SMT to move it forward.
Valerie Wonder: Rob, do you have anything to add?
Valerie Wonder: What questions do folks have?
Tali H: Any questions or comments?
Tali H: Yeah, Yasmin.
Yazmin Mehdi: So I have two two questions.
Yazmin Mehdi: One thing is that.
Yazmin Mehdi: Situation conformed to certain standards of behavior is that it's hard to
Yazmin Mehdi: implement something that's not clear or that is subject to interpretation.
Yazmin Mehdi: And so I'm. I'm sure that you guys have thought taken
Yazmin Mehdi: that into account, but Valerie, the example you gave of the restroom
Yazmin Mehdi: using it responsibly.
Yazmin Mehdi: I don't know.
Yazmin Mehdi: I.
Yazmin Mehdi: I guess I worry that.
Yazmin Mehdi: That is open to interpretation.
Yazmin Mehdi: And the thing that I guess I would point to as maybe being useful is when the
Yazmin Mehdi: library changed rules around eating and drinking.
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm just curious.
Yazmin Mehdi: Like, did you guys take that into account? The language that was used in making that
Yazmin Mehdi: transition and has is that at all helpful to you?
Valerie Wonder: Say that.
Valerie Wonder: I'm sorry, Yazmin, can you repeat?
Valerie Wonder: Specifically, the language around eating and drinking.
Valerie Wonder: And maybe you did cut out at one point, so I'm worried I might have missed
Yazmin Mehdi: I.
Valerie Wonder: something.
Yazmin Mehdi: Oh, OK.
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm sorry if I cut out.
Yazmin Mehdi: I.
Yazmin Mehdi: I know we made a shift in allowing people to eat and drink in the library,
Yazmin Mehdi: and so maybe it's not a good example because I think we just basically,
Yazmin Mehdi: if I remember correctly, we just did away with that rule that you
Yazmin Mehdi: cannot eat. But on the other hand.
Yazmin Mehdi: I know there was some specificity around where you could eat and drink.
Yazmin Mehdi: So I'm just curious like did you take into account how that implementation that
Yazmin Mehdi: change in policy and the implementation of that change in policy,
Yazmin Mehdi: did you take into account how smoothly that did or did not go in thinking
Yazmin Mehdi: through just exactly how clear we want to be with?
Yazmin Mehdi: Patrons, when we roll out this community, use agreement.
Yazmin Mehdi: I hope that's not too convoluted.
Valerie Wonder: No, it's not too convoluted.
Valerie Wonder: We I don't know that that specific rule change influ.
Valerie Wonder: Enced.
Valerie Wonder: This specifically though it's reflected in the the draft document.
Valerie Wonder: I do think we have talked a lot about.
Valerie Wonder: A shift towards a shift away from some of the more specific language and the the
Valerie Wonder: tension that that can create.
Valerie Wonder: And talked through that with officers and staff and and there is.
Valerie Wonder: An acknowledge that that that.
Valerie Wonder: Places some additional burden on staff.
Valerie Wonder: And also are prepared for that.
Valerie Wonder: Sorry, Rob, do you want to add anything to that?
Rob Gannon: I can, sorry.
Rob Gannon: There was distraction in the background. I think if I were to add something I
Rob Gannon: would say that there are elements of that the Community use agreement that remain
Rob Gannon: quite specific and explicit, but present it in a way that is short,
Rob Gannon: understandable statements and not long complicated rules and.
Rob Gannon: Legalese, if you will.
Rob Gannon: So I think there is a balance that we are presenting in the Community use agreement
Rob Gannon: that will help.
Rob Gannon: Staff effectively put these into play and patrons understand what is going on and I
Rob Gannon: think the other thing I would add is, as you will see,
Rob Gannon: when we present these to you at the next meeting,
Rob Gannon: there are many different places in the Community use agreement that can be.
Rob Gannon: Brought to bear.
Rob Gannon: And complement each other about how we're keeping the environment safe.
Rob Gannon: And secure and welcoming while also restricting or limiting certain
Rob Gannon: activities.
Rob Gannon: So it's not one rule for every single possible event. It is a set of.
Rob Gannon: Parameters and indications of what the Community should be using the space to do,
Rob Gannon: and those can be used in concert to address areas that evolve as problematic.
Yazmin Mehdi: I I see that my colleague faith has a question.
Yazmin Mehdi: So I'm gonna stop, but I would just say that I'll be.
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm sure that you guys will provide an update on how implementation of this
Yazmin Mehdi: Community use agreement.
Yazmin Mehdi: Goes and so I'll. I guess I'll be interested to know
Yazmin Mehdi: whether or not it feels like in in ensuring that those agreements are met,
Yazmin Mehdi: that the level.
Yazmin Mehdi: Of clarity and transparency is useful to that.
Yazmin Mehdi: I hope that makes sense.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you for answering my questions.
Faith Pettis: Husband is always four or five steps ahead of me and her questions,
Faith Pettis: and I so appreciate you raising those.
Faith Pettis: I had similar concerns that I applaud the effort to replace the other language
Faith Pettis: 'cause.
Faith Pettis: I agree with you.
Faith Pettis: I think people start reading and then just stop reading and it was looked very
Faith Pettis: lawyer like.
Faith Pettis: So I I agree with replacing it with something that is much more welcoming and
Faith Pettis: open. But I do wanna make sure that.
Faith Pettis: Staff feels like they have.
Faith Pettis: Have a basis upon which to tell someone.
Faith Pettis: No, I think it needs to be absolutely clear
Faith Pettis: and not subject to a lot of interpretation about whether someone is
Faith Pettis: misusing library space to the detriment of other people,
Faith Pettis: so that I will be very interested to see what you come up with because I think it
Faith Pettis: is Poss.
Faith Pettis: To come up with something that is clear.
Faith Pettis: Welcoming but also enforceable. So.
Faith Pettis: I would appreciate us just chalking up a future date.
Faith Pettis: After these go into place to come back and formally check in to see how it's
Faith Pettis: going and to make sure that staff feels like they're able to adequately.
Faith Pettis: Use these rules.
Faith Pettis: In this agreement, once it goes into place and and to that
Faith Pettis: end as well, I would love to hear how the change to
Faith Pettis: allow eating and drinking and library has played out as well to see if it's working
Faith Pettis: as we thought it should.
Faith Pettis: Thanks.
Tom Fay: I think the in all of this, we want to do, we want to make these changes with the
Tom Fay: understanding that this is still going to be iterative, right?
Tom Fay: Conditions will change.
Tom Fay: We've talked about that many times.
Tom Fay: What we can't have is what's what has happened in this particular case with the
Tom Fay: rules of conduct, where really there was no essential
Tom Fay: review of them formally for 10 years.
Tom Fay: Now, that's not to say that.
Tom Fay: Different practices might not have been put in place.
Tom Fay: Spin up formalized.
Tom Fay: We can't do that.
Tom Fay: So in this case this is really also built to be iterative,
Tom Fay: be able to get again information from staff who are trying to work through
Tom Fay: these, but also the community that's also
Tom Fay: experiencing the environment.
Tom Fay: And I think that's where we want to make the change,
Tom Fay: not have this be a 10 year review, but as conditions change,
Tom Fay: we may indeed need to change.
Tom Fay: These community use agreements.
Valerie Wonder: Yes. And maybe in the let me stop sharing, sorry.
Valerie Wonder: In the implementation, I probably should have added an
Valerie Wonder: evaluation which we're looking towards.
Valerie Wonder: And I think that ideally you will be will be coming to you to adjust that language,
Valerie Wonder: you know, every year, every two years.
Valerie Wonder: We we absolutely understand that things need to iterate and 12 years is far too
Valerie Wonder: long so.
Valerie Wonder: And we do.
Valerie Wonder: We'll be working closely with staff and the the emphasis is what do you need to
Valerie Wonder: be successful with this and an examination of what maybe does need to
Valerie Wonder: iterate over time.
Tali H: Great. Thank you, Valerie.
Tali H: All right.
Tali H: Thank you, Rob as well.
Tali H: For those updates and our next item on our agenda is,
Tali H: is to discuss the Chief Librarian performance review process.
Tali H: I don't believe that this requires.
Tali H: A motion and A and a vote of the board to.
Tali H: Determine a way forward for that review process, but I may be wrong,
Tali H: so let me I'll put it out there.
Tali H: But let me begin.
Tali H: Kind of.
Tali H: With the preface to this, which is that we have reached out to you
Tali H: after individually, Yasmin and myself, to discuss.
Tali H: The chief Librarian's performance review process, if you recall in 2024, we did.
Tali H: Vote to for pay raise and that was.
Tali H: Attached to a desire to do a performance review.
Tali H: In 20/25/26.
Tali H: Were things looking very busy in 2026?
Tali H: We thought we need to get this done in 2025.
Tali H: And so we discussed with Brian at HR several opportunities, strategies,
Tali H: approaches we could take to do a performance review.
Tali H: Our discussion.
Tali H: My discussion with each of you or Carmen Yazmin's discussion with the with one of
Tali H: you.
Tali H: Is that there is an opportunity for us to take an approach that we think will work.
Tali H: And and I'll state what I believe that to be.
Tali H: And that to be something we can discuss if I'm incorrect in that assumption,
Tali H: after discussing this with you all.
Tali H: That is that.
Tali H: We would, you know, say it differently, I will.
Tali H: Lead a review process by gathering a list of names.
Tali H: And constituent groups to discuss the performance of the Chief Librarian.
Tali H: We will develop or could develop.
Tali H: A list and a set of questions that I would take and go and seek to complete by
Tali H: December 2025 or by our I would suggest our last board meeting of the year.
Tali H: To to report out what that is.
Tali H: In terms of a review process.
Tali H: Yes, we did not.
Tali H: And and I think I can speak for Yasmin here when I say we we did not anticipate
Tali H: needing to do a more comprehensive review that required additional resources to
Tali H: accomplish.
Tali H: We determined that we could do an effective performance review internally
Tali H: through the resources of the board. Each of us preparing a list of
Tali H: individuals, constituent groups and.
Tali H: Questions that we would then seek to develop our review.
Tali H: So, Yasmin, do you wanna add anything to that?
Tali H: Given you've been a part of this conversation offline.
Yazmin Mehdi: Sure, I I think.
Yazmin Mehdi: First of all, I fully agree with what tally just
Yazmin Mehdi: described.
Yazmin Mehdi: I think there are two things that were useful to me in thinking about this.
Yazmin Mehdi: One is talking to former library board members about how this process was run in
Yazmin Mehdi: the past.
Yazmin Mehdi: And this this idea, I mean it puts a lot of work on tally's
Yazmin Mehdi: shoulders. And I would say that as as Vice President
Yazmin Mehdi: of the board.
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm very happy to be helpful if he needs that at any point.
Yazmin Mehdi: But that it in the past, this is what this is the process Library
Yazmin Mehdi: Board has used where it's the library board itself that is conducting the
Yazmin Mehdi: review and asking the questions and having the conversations.
Yazmin Mehdi: And frankly I feel like that makes the most sense because.
Yazmin Mehdi: Then it's not filtered through a consultant and then second.
Yazmin Mehdi: I think this the other.
Yazmin Mehdi: They're salient.
Yazmin Mehdi: Point I would make is that in a year of actually one of several years of the
Yazmin Mehdi: library having to make budget cuts, it just made sense to me that this is not
Yazmin Mehdi: a year to go expend resources on a on an external consultant.
Yazmin Mehdi: Especially again work that we.
Yazmin Mehdi: Can do ourselves, so I hope that helps to describe what we
Yazmin Mehdi: talked about.
Tali H: It does.
Tali H: Thank you.
Tali H: Yes.
Faith Pettis: I'd say thank you to both of you for being willing to shoulder that. I I have,
Faith Pettis: as you all have been through other review processes with outside consultants and
Faith Pettis: they can get very spending quickly. And I I do think it is appropriate given
Faith Pettis: the circumstance we're in, right?
Faith Pettis: How to be as as mindful of cost as we can?
Faith Pettis: But that means it is shouldering a lot tallie.
Faith Pettis: So thank you for doing that. And Yasmin for volunteering.
Tali H: Yes, Carmen.
Ron Chew: Can I ask?
Tali H: Oh, go ahead, Ryan.
Ron Chew: Say yeah, I'm fully aboard.
Ron Chew: I thank you for shouldering this. I having been through past processes I
Ron Chew: think.
Ron Chew: This simplified process.
Ron Chew: Will yield better results.
Ron Chew: And yeah, it's really the burden of the work that
Ron Chew: you guys are agreeing to to move forward on.
Ron Chew: I'm fully. I'm fully on board. Thank you.
Tali H: And karmen.
Bendixen, Carmen: Sorry, I just wanted to agree, but also a couple clarifying questions.
Bendixen, Carmen: I also agree you know the the use of a consultant can sometimes be helpful and I
Bendixen, Carmen: think in terms of tally and yazmin as well, your schedules might be useful.
Bendixen, Carmen: But the other issue too, the underlying thing for me is that we as
Bendixen, Carmen: a board are the H.
Bendixen, Carmen: And firer, if that's a real word.
Bendixen, Carmen: Of the chief librarian.
Bendixen, Carmen: And so I feel like us directly having a hand in this is important.
Bendixen, Carmen: But I also wanted to clarify tally for the the kind of the list of folks you're
Bendixen, Carmen: gonna talk to.
Bendixen, Carmen: And the questions did you want input from us or did you want us to hand over? OK.
Bendixen, Carmen: I assume you're gonna get into that, OK.
Tali H: Yes, definitely. The idea would be that we would gather
Tali H: those names from a variety of folks, but but the board and the questions to
Tali H: shoulder that process ourselves now, there are other individuals,
Tali H: thankfully who are out there who have been very helpful in, in identifying.
Tali H: Conversations that we need to have, for instance,
Tali H: former board member Jay was important to helping me understand both the previous
Tali H: process, but also the the types of conversations.
Tali H: That they had had before previous previous situations.
Tali H: So that was very helpful and we'll continue having those kind of
Tali H: conversations so that we can get the the right folks.
Tali H: In in the process.
Tali H: Any other discussion? Questions, considerations.
Tali H: Again, I don't believe this needs a board
Tali H: approval. A vote of the board. I believe it is an agreement for us to
Tali H: move in a particular way and to come back towards the end of the year with the
Tali H: final report would be the goal and something we would.
Tali H: Take up offline outside of board meetings, in individual conversations around that
Tali H: around this process. So, OK. Thank you, Tom.
Tali H: I think we're good for.
Tom Fay: We have our Union report, Jesse.
Tom Fay: Let me double check and see if I saw Jesse here.
Jessica Lucas: I'm here.
Tom Fay: There you are, Jess.
Jessica Lucas: Thank you.
Tom Fay: Welcome.
Jessica Lucas: So thank you and thank you so much.
Jessica Lucas: I really find these meetings so informative and enjoy hearing all of your
Jessica Lucas: interests and and how the library works.
Jessica Lucas: For my report, it was a little bit negative and I
Jessica Lucas: apologize for that.
Jessica Lucas: But it is a reflection of how our staff are feeling right now.
Jessica Lucas: In light of that, though, management reached out to us.
Jessica Lucas: In collaboration to bring new our agreement to work together towards fixing
Jessica Lucas: some of these things, our shared interests and I really
Jessica Lucas: appreciate that olive branch and to rob and Shawna Rob Gannon,
Jessica Lucas: who's here and Shawna Dennard, who is our HR interim for Brian.
Jessica Lucas: For listening and for making suggestions, and I think we came out of that meeting a
Jessica Lucas: little bit stronger.
Jessica Lucas: We're gonna move forward in a positive direction and hopefully we'll be able to
Jessica Lucas: rectify remedy some of these issues that staff are feeling very hard right now.
Jessica Lucas: In addition to, you know, the burdens at work.
Jessica Lucas: That people are feeling the IMLS defunding is definitely one of the things
Jessica Lucas: weighing on people right now, and I will say that it's very heartening
Jessica Lucas: to see the joint statement.
Jessica Lucas: Between SPL, SBL and King County library systems.
Jessica Lucas: In addition to hearing about Tom's work with our partners in the state to,
Jessica Lucas: you know, plan around these the C funding.
Jessica Lucas: So I just want to say that we appreciate that as well.
Jessica Lucas: And thank you.
Jessica Lucas: I don't know if anyone has any questions or comments for me.
Jessica Lucas: Well, thank you very much.
Tali H: Thank you. I think we're, I would just say I think we're we're all
Tali H: concerned about staff morale.
Tali H: We're definitely.
Tali H: Feeling the tone of your report and.
Jessica Lucas: Yeah. I mean, one of the problems that we have is that
Jessica Lucas: tone isn't, you know, implied and emails even where it's not
Jessica Lucas: meant.
Jessica Lucas: And there's definitely a tone in this in this message,
Jessica Lucas: but a lot of tone and emails has been seen where it might not actually exist.
Jessica Lucas: So we're working on that and we'll continue to try to move in positive way.
Jessica Lucas: Sorry to interrupt you.
Tali H: No, no, I took it.
Tali H: I was gonna say we're for it.
Tali H: So it's, you know, it is what it is and we want to speak to
Tali H: that, especially support our concern for the
Tali H: culture of the library and the Community in which we serve are things we hold
Tali H: tightly together. So thank you.
Jessica Lucas: Thank you.
Tali H: Alright, so we have a library foundation and
Tali H: friends update and I think the foundation is Carmen and the friends is Yasmin.
Yazmin Mehdi: Sorry, did you did you say something to me?
Yazmin Mehdi: I froze up, didn't I?
Tali H: You you did, you did.
Tali H: But we you you have the friends report.
Tali H: Is that true? OK, got it.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yes, I do. OK.
Yazmin Mehdi: Sorry about that.
Yazmin Mehdi: My Wi-Fi sometimes acts weird.
Yazmin Mehdi: And I I know Jesse's gone, but I just wanted to under score what you
Yazmin Mehdi: said. Tally that.
Yazmin Mehdi: You know, there's a lot of external stuff coming at
Yazmin Mehdi: our staff.
Yazmin Mehdi: Enlist is just one.
Yazmin Mehdi: The nationwide book banning and.
Yazmin Mehdi: All that, I mean, there's just a lot of stuff coming at
Yazmin Mehdi: staff. And so I I think we all recognize the,
Yazmin Mehdi: the.
Yazmin Mehdi: Some of I think what they're feeling is, is stuff that is just in the ether.
Yazmin Mehdi: But to the extent that the morale is affected by things that we.
Yazmin Mehdi: Can actually impact.
Yazmin Mehdi: I think we're all here for that.
Yazmin Mehdi: So I just wanted to under score that I'm sorry for my freezing up.
Yazmin Mehdi: Here's my report from the friends.
Yazmin Mehdi: The just a few things the friends are going to be signing a three-year lease
Yazmin Mehdi: with the orcas business park in Georgetown for the continuation of sales
Yazmin Mehdi: and events at that location, which is pretty awesome because that
Yazmin Mehdi: means they don't have to move again. And that space has.
Yazmin Mehdi: Been a good one for.
Yazmin Mehdi: I think they can always use more space actually,
Yazmin Mehdi: but that one has been good for these small sales and also community volunteer
Yazmin Mehdi: efforts.
Yazmin Mehdi: So anyway, that's good news.
Yazmin Mehdi: There, the other kind of cool, good news is that the Seattle waterfront
Yazmin Mehdi: folks have asked to partner with the friends.
Yazmin Mehdi: So the friends are going to be selling books on Pier 62.
Yazmin Mehdi: Throughout the summer.
Yazmin Mehdi: Mostly Sundays, but I think there's one Saturday.
Yazmin Mehdi: And then they've they are reviewing and updating their own internal manual.
Yazmin Mehdi: And then the other thing that they're doing is that now that the SPL strategic
Yazmin Mehdi: plan is complete, they are they like I think the foundation
Yazmin Mehdi: too are working on their own strategic plan that takes into account what's in
Yazmin Mehdi: the SPL S.
Yazmin Mehdi: So that's my report.
Tali H: Thank you, Carmen.
Bendixen, Carmen: Yes, excuse me.
Bendixen, Carmen: So the foundation met on March 12th, which was a couple weeks ago.
Bendixen, Carmen: I was getting over a bad cold, so I actually only was there for the
Bendixen, Carmen: first part, but I will give a report on the full on
Bendixen, Carmen: the full meeting. I will say to kind of reiterate the theme
Bendixen, Carmen: of today. They did talk about, I think the first item.
Bendixen, Carmen: Was an appreciation of Tom and Rob and Nick Merkner.
Bendixen, Carmen: And the whole team.
Bendixen, Carmen: For achieving that 99. 8% spend rate of the $5.
Bendixen, Carmen: 6 million from the foundation.
Bendixen, Carmen: So they expressed their gratitude for spl's thoughtful approach to spending and
Bendixen, Carmen: then also receiving reports from SPL throughout the year.
Bendixen, Carmen: And then I think I might have mentioned this last time,
Bendixen, Carmen: but they the board and staff had 1/2 day retreat back in February that they
Bendixen, Carmen: focused on strategic planning.
Bendixen, Carmen: So they're actually going to be.
Bendixen, Carmen: Receiving proposals from consultants and then they're going to decide on hiring a
Bendixen, Carmen: consultant next month to get that work going.
Bendixen, Carmen: And then this is what.
Bendixen, Carmen: I'm sorry I missed Shawn Lanksbury presented historical literacy,
Bendixen, Carmen: the black Spatial Histories Institute, and so they had a a really good
Bendixen, Carmen: explanation.
Bendixen, Carmen: I don't have any information further on what that specifics from that
Bendixen, Carmen: presentation, but I definitely want to know more about
Bendixen, Carmen: that.
Bendixen, Carmen: It's in partnership with SPL and support of that project.
Bendixen, Carmen: So it's something that, that.
Bendixen, Carmen: The organization has had to hand in.
Bendixen, Carmen: Along the lines.
Bendixen, Carmen: Back to Strategic Planning Foundation staff.
Bendixen, Carmen: Did present their 2024 and then 20 review and then 2025 goals.
Bendixen, Carmen: To talk about their own goals, but also including.
Bendixen, Carmen: The board president and then also the committees within the board,
Bendixen, Carmen: their goals and their work plans.
Bendixen, Carmen: So kind of collaborating on all of the work that the the board and the
Bendixen, Carmen: organization does. And then finally on fundraising,
Bendixen, Carmen: they're in a great.
Bendixen, Carmen: Position they started off this year with raising over 500 K so that exceeded last
Bendixen, Carmen: year's amount by 78%.
Bendixen, Carmen: So already off to a great start.
Bendixen, Carmen: The and then the 2024 grand total for last year was 8.3 million in fundraising.
Bendixen, Carmen: So that and that does include estate giving.
Bendixen, Carmen: So it's.
Bendixen, Carmen: A.
Bendixen, Carmen: It's a positive.
Bendixen, Carmen: Positive news.
Tali H: Awesome. Thank you.
Tali H: OK, any individual library board member
Tali H: updates before we bring this one to a close?
Ron Chew: Can I be really, really brief?
Ron Chew: I know the meeting's been going on, but I just want a little shout out.
Ron Chew: I can't give in a meeting a few minutes late as you were talking about.
Ron Chew: I am LSI, like all of you, deeply, deeply concerned about what's happening
Ron Chew: with funding cuts.
Ron Chew: Thanks to Tom and Lisa Murray for helping gather some information.
Ron Chew: Because I I wasn't aware that we had an IML S grant.
Ron Chew: To support 15 mental health programs. So that was very informative,
Ron Chew: partly because I was.
Ron Chew: Approached by several media sources to do stories on Imlsi have served probably for
Ron Chew: over 2 decades as a reviewer, and they do amazing work.
Ron Chew: They support amazing stuff and it's tragic.
Ron Chew: It's very, very tragic.
Ron Chew: So just to shout out to Tom and SPO staff for helping gather information for me.
Ron Chew: And then also.
Ron Chew: My thoughts on not even the last I did have.
Ron Chew: A.
Ron Chew: A question related to cyber security stuff because I've talked to some folks
Ron Chew: around the country.
Ron Chew: I mean, their big question always like, how did you deal with cyber security
Ron Chew: breach and so forth?
Ron Chew: Ala, I think is coming up and I think a few of
Ron Chew: us are going this year is is it Philadelphia?
Ron Chew: Tom, were you or somebody else on a panel to
Ron Chew: talk about this and all just curious and just let me just finish real quickly.
Ron Chew: The one and it's a question of Tom as well.
Ron Chew: The one thing I keep getting approached by people about is the elevator,
Ron Chew: the central branch.
Ron Chew: And so, you know not to pesky.
Ron Chew: I'm simply not the scheme of things.
Ron Chew: Much smaller thing, but throw those two questions out.
Ron Chew: Thank you.
Tom Fay: I can answer the question on the elevator.
Tom Fay: I will answer it quickly in that one of the elevators is back up today because I
Tom Fay: did get an e-mail from one of our facility or actually our one of our
Tom Fay: facility engineers at Central.
Tom Fay: So that's a positive and Rob Gannon and Dennis Reddinger,
Tom Fay: who's our capital improvements and facilities manager also have been working
Tom Fay: to get a new.
Tom Fay: Firm on board.
Tom Fay: That will be servicing the elevators. It's been a lot of complexities with
Tom Fay: elevators in the world because it used to be that people could get parts from
Tom Fay: anywhere.
Tom Fay: Now they're a little more proprietary about how they do that.
Tom Fay: So it's been very challenging.
Tom Fay: For our previous service provider and now we'll be dealing with the manufacturer
Tom Fay: directly and they have already ordered the parts and as probably indicated,
Tom Fay: they obviously able to start getting these elevators back.
Tom Fay: In service just a point of reference here for the board.
Tom Fay: That means they're back in service.
Tom Fay: They're up to all the standards and obviously anything that we need to do for
Tom Fay: code, but we know we need to modernize these
Tom Fay: elevators.
Tom Fay: Because the tech in all of them get old, and so those things have to have to be
Tom Fay: considered as well.
Tom Fay: We have 4 elevators, one very large freight elevator.
Tom Fay: That's the staff elevator.
Tom Fay: So there will be.
Tom Fay: Additional resource needed to modernize those elevators and Central's obviously
Tom Fay: not the only elevator that we have in buildings.
Tom Fay: So we have to always take that in consideration when we're talking about
Tom Fay: that capital maintenance need over time.
Tom Fay: But All in all, we hope to, and I will, you know, say this for Rob,
Tom Fay: because it's always hope they can find something else along the way, but.
Tom Fay: They hope to have all the elevators back up and running by by Monday morning.
Tom Fay: So that'll that'll be a good thing. If it can happen.
Tom Fay: But we know that you know the challenges with something as complex as elevators.
Tom Fay: It it might take a little bit longer.
Tom Fay: And then the other comment on cyber attack.
Tom Fay: Ron Charles Wesley, our library technology officer,
Tom Fay: has been doing a variety of seminars on this LOR Gentry,
Tom Fay: our head of communications actually did one from a communication perspective
Tom Fay: because they they all did such a great job.
Tom Fay: Helen and Team and Laura and team communicating out to the public.
Tom Fay: On the the attack and the progress we were making.
Tom Fay: So there's been several different presentations that we've done or some of
Tom Fay: our staff have done as well.
Tom Fay: I can't remember. I don't.
Tom Fay: One of my text me here but I don't remember anything being at Ala but I
Tom Fay: could be wrong and I we do have I believe 4 board members going to Ala.
Tom Fay: So I'll be making sure I meet up with all of you.
Tom Fay: So for some of you it might be your first time or.
Tom Fay: Might need a little experience walking the halls and where to start.
Tom Fay: And will also help provide some of that too, as we review the program.
Ron Chew: Thank you, Tom. This is very helpful.
Tali H: All right folks, we are.
Tali H: We are over time.
Tali H: And we don't have an overtime session. So we are going to dismiss and bring this
Tali H: board meeting to a close.
Tali H: Thank you very much everyone for your participation.
Tali H: Thank you, Tom. Thank you, staff.
Tali H: And we look forward to our next meeting in April.
Tom Fay: Thank you all.
Faith Pettis: Thanks all.
Bendixen, Carmen: Thank you.