W Tali Hairston: We do have is now 11:01 AM. We do have a quorum and I'd like to get
W Tali Hairston: this to call this regular meeting of the Seattle Public Library Board of Trustees
W Tali Hairston: to order.
W Tali Hairston: Order.
W Tali Hairston: If you can everyone hear me OK, great. Awesome. OK,
Tom Fay: Yes.
Tom Fay: 6.
W Tali Hairston: so our first order of business is to approve our agenda.
W Tali Hairston: If there are no changes to the agenda, may I hear a motion to approve?
Faith Pettis: So moved.
Yazmin Mehdi: 2nd.
W Tali Hairston: Moved and seconded. All in favor?
Yazmin Mehdi: Hi.
W Tali Hairston: That is unanimous.
W Tali Hairston: Secondly, as noted at the top of the agenda,
W Tali Hairston: we do as a board accept public comment by e-mail in person at the Central Library
W Tali Hairston: and in this remote meeting. Any public comments?
We do not have anyone signed.
Or heard me signed up in the Q&A. We did not receive any by e-mail,
but we do have one public commenter, Yashar cheyan,
present here at the Central Library.
W Tali Hairston: Please go ahead with your public comments.
Hi, my name is Yasha. Diane.
I'm a Ronnie and American immigrants and a member of the MENA Community,
Middle Eastern and North African.
We are a ethnic category that is recognized by the US Census Bureau in the
Office of Management and Budget as one of the major ethnic categories here in the
United States.
April is Mina Heritage Month and Governor Bob Ferguson of Washington State Pastor
Proclamation declaring April as me the heritage month.
The The Seattle Library.
Does not recognize this heritage month.
The spy, recognizing heritage months of other
major categories as and other communities such as Pride Month, Black History Month,
women's History Month.
Latin American or Latin X History Month? Asian American History Month,
but for some reason has not recognized Meena Heritage Month.
I first reached out to the library in January of this year.
I then came to a board meeting.
In February of this year, I have emailed with the Chief Librarian
as well as two of their staff.
We've had some emails over the course of what has been almost 12 months and have
made no progress. Mina Heritage Month is in April of 2026.
There's plenty of time, and I would.
I was very polite last time when I was here and asking for recognition,
and now I'm asking for a response.
Are.
You going to recognize me in a heritage month?
And how will you recognize it in a way that is in line with your mission?
Equitable to the treatment and recognition that you give other
communities.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you for your public comment.
W Tali Hairston: We are as a as a practice and as our policy public comments that do not align
W Tali Hairston: with the agenda for for our meetings. I have the authority to allow those
W Tali Hairston: public comments.
W Tali Hairston: If I feel like it is an issue of values or something that we can address because
W Tali Hairston: it is a part of our organizational values. In this case,
W Tali Hairston: that was the reason that though the public comment is not directly related to
W Tali Hairston: our agenda, I allowed for the public.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you. Next we have consent agenda approval and
W Tali Hairston: we have minutes of our October 3030 meeting and minutes of our November 5th
W Tali Hairston: Special Library Board meeting.
W Tali Hairston: So we have a consent agenda with those. May I have a motion to approve the
W Tali Hairston: consent agenda as published items one and two?
Yazmin Mehdi: So moved.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah.
Bendixen, Carmen: OK.
W Tali Hairston: All in favor, raise your hand or say aye.
Yazmin Mehdi: Aye.
W Tali Hairston: That is unanimous. Thank you.
W Tali Hairston: Next is our Chief Librarian report, Tom.
Tom Fay: Well, with the president's permission, I'm going to have that stand so that we
Tom Fay: can move to the system report so we can spend a little bit more time there,
Tom Fay: if that's acceptable.
W Tali Hairston: That is acceptable. The board has the Chief Librarian report
W Tali Hairston: in their e-mail inboxing and Tom, feel free to move to the system report.
Tom Fay: Thank you. All right. We're going to invite Kate Tang,
Tom Fay: our Director of Library Experience and Engagement to the table,
Tom Fay: and she's going to talk about our 2026 library survey results.
Tom Fay: These are preliminary, so wanted the board to see these.
Tom Fay: And then we will be doing deeper analysis on this over the next couple of months.
Tom Fay: And Kay, are you with us?
Tom Fay: Looks like she's still coming on. She'll have a PowerPoint to share with
Tom Fay: you as well.
W Tali Hairston: And Board, do feel free if you have questions for
W Tali Hairston: Tom about the Chief Librarian report, feel free to e-mail him any particular
W Tali Hairston: questions that you may have or clarifications. Hi Kay, how are you?
Kai Tang: Hey, good morning, Kelly. Thank you so much.
Kai Tang: Thank you for letting me be here today. Like Tom said,
Kai Tang: I'm going to be going over the a little bit of the engagement survey and updates
Kai Tang: that we have been doing in September, the the end of August and September.
Kai Tang: And so this is just preliminary information, but if it's OK,
Kai Tang: I can go ahead and try and share my screen now.
Kai Tang: All right, wonderful. Are you able to see that?
W Tali Hairston: Yes.
Kai Tang: Excellent. OK. So again, thank you so much.
Kai Tang: I'm going to go over a lot of information and make it as digestible as possible.
Kai Tang: And I'm really excited to share both our service design and passive engagement as
Kai Tang: well as our library community survey that we've done.
Kai Tang: For some of you, parts of this might sound familiar.
Kai Tang: So again, I'm just really excited to share the prep
Kai Tang: work as well as all some preliminary information that we have received.
Kai Tang: The library uses this community feedback in myriad ways and throughout the life
Kai Tang: cycle of our levy, we have developed a series of questions.
Kai Tang: Questions that allow us to benchmark and find through lines for comparison
Kai Tang: throughout the years and these surveys are important and integral to that
Kai Tang: process. Our surveys are not only the only way
Kai Tang: that we are able to solicit feedback and information from the community.
Kai Tang: This year we did introduce some service design.
Kai Tang: workshops, as well as some passive engagement
Kai Tang: activities.
Kai Tang: So for some of you, you've heard this, but service design or human centered
Kai Tang: design comes from design thinking and is an approach to problem solving that
Kai Tang: understands that the user in the design process is the whole person.
Kai Tang: It puts their thoughts, feelings, perceptions and needs at the center of
Kai Tang: the design process because.
Kai Tang: To create better services, products, resources, programs,
Kai Tang: all of the things that we do at the library,
Kai Tang: we need to understand the user's world and life so that we can identify how our
Kai Tang: services can make that user's life better. So this is just some of the examples that
Kai Tang: we have from our service design works.
Kai Tang: Shops, but the basics is really active listening,
Kai Tang: inclusive design, making sure that our design addresses the
Kai Tang: diverse needs of our community, particularly our individuals that may
Kai Tang: face barriers to access, such as our community members with
Kai Tang: disabilities who are differently abled.
Kai Tang: Native English speakers or those from marginalized backgrounds.
Kai Tang: It also relies heavily on feedback mechanisms so that the library can listen
Kai Tang: to and learn from our community.
Kai Tang: So another tool from human centered design that was included in this year's
Kai Tang: information gathering was our passive engagement activities.
Kai Tang: I want to give a huge shout out and thank you to Bo Kinney,
Kai Tang: one of our service managers here who really led this initiative and effort for
Kai Tang: us.
Kai Tang: As well as all of the teams that were excited and held these passive
Kai Tang: engagements at their locations and departments,
Kai Tang: we had a total of 15 locations participate and it included six
Kai Tang: engagement activities in English and in Spanish, as well as 4 outreach activities.
Kai Tang: Activities.
Kai Tang: We can see here one of our examples is from our story time,
Kai Tang: our bilingual story time at our Ballard branch.
Kai Tang: But passive engagement allows the library more opportunities to connect with
Kai Tang: patrons and languages other than English. And so these passive engagement
Kai Tang: activities were placed in branches.
Kai Tang: as well as featured before and after programming.
Kai Tang: So some of the things I just want to highlight that we got as takeaways.
Kai Tang: Library staff are kind and welcoming that patrons identified with specific library
Kai Tang: branches or with specific library members, that the library was important for play,
Kai Tang: fun, celebration, joy and entertainment.
Kai Tang: And you know, cultural and language specific
Kai Tang: programming is important now. So we've we've received some really rich
Kai Tang: takeaways from our passive engagement that we're able to include.
Kai Tang: Good.
Kai Tang: So now we'll move on to something that we're a little more used to seeing with
Kai Tang: our levy prep work, and that is our library community survey.
Kai Tang: The work for this was really through through longer than this,
Kai Tang: but it runs from July to October of this year.
Kai Tang: So here just some basic methodology. I do want to let you all know that we had
Kai Tang: 1067 validated responses to the survey. So it might sound like we sent out a lot
Kai Tang: and didn't receive a lot back, but.
Kai Tang: The actual goal was to have a 5% response rate and we exceeded that with a 7.
Kai Tang: 1% response rate. Again, we wanted to make sure that our surveys
Kai Tang: were validated, meaning that we didn't have chat bots
Kai Tang: responding to these.
Kai Tang: And so it did take down the initial response rate that we had to that 1067.
Kai Tang: To make sure we're representative of demographics in our system,
Kai Tang: we did weight our results to match the actual demographics. So for example,
Kai Tang: if we received fewer.
Kai Tang: Responses from a group, we applied a weight to make that
Kai Tang: reflective of the demographic group. So I know there were very few changes to
Kai Tang: the weights. We actually were very representative of
Kai Tang: the demographics of our city, but one example is a 66% response rate
Kai Tang: from individuals that.
Kai Tang: Responded identifying as white. We move that down to a 59% response rate.
Kai Tang: OK, so the survey was offered on paper as
Kai Tang: well as online. Our online version had seven languages.
Kai Tang: There were 15, 000 surveys that were mailed randomly to
Kai Tang: selected residents, and each physical packet included
Kai Tang: instructions as well as a unique pin.
Kai Tang: Per address and with the option to complete the survey online or to to
Kai Tang: return the survey in a prepaid US mail envelope. Outside of the mailer survey,
Kai Tang: we did utilize the four outreach opportunities and we did have staff with
Kai Tang: language premiums meaning.
Kai Tang: Staff who have language skills other than English available for those community
Kai Tang: members who are interested in completing the survey in their preferred language,
Kai Tang: just in order to help increase access and the opportunity.
Kai Tang: So this was surprising to me, but we had more physical surveys
Kai Tang: completed with a 59% response rate submitting their surveys in the paper
Kai Tang: form. And although we did have the seven
Kai Tang: languages available for the online surveys,
Kai Tang: the survey was only completed in three languages, just English, Spanish and.
Kai Tang: Chinese 99% of the surveys submitted were English,
Kai Tang: with 25% of those respondents sharing that they had additional languages used
Kai Tang: at home.
Kai Tang: So here we're going to pull some of the preliminary survey results for 2025 and
Kai Tang: we compared them to the survey that we did in 2018. It's really exciting.
Kai Tang: You can see that there's a significant improvement in all of the categories.
Kai Tang: So we've pulled out the categories that had a 5% or greater.
Kai Tang: Improvement from our 2018 survey and just to highlight a few of them,
Kai Tang: one was building cleanliness and maintenance as well as offering materials,
Kai Tang: services and programs in residents preferred language.
Kai Tang: This showed the greatest improvement increasing by over 9 percentage points
Kai Tang: from 2018.
Kai Tang: Another one I'd love to call is the access to safe spaces that showed a
Kai Tang: significant improvement, increasing by 8% points compared to 2018.
Kai Tang: Now, looking at what people are saying about
Kai Tang: the library for the prompts, the library is worth the money invested.
Kai Tang: A total of 97% of people agreed or strongly agreed that it is worth the
Kai Tang: investment. Some of the groups that were most likely
Kai Tang: to agree in.
Kai Tang: Included 8 individuals ages 71 or older and those individuals that lived in
Kai Tang: Seattle for over 10 years. I'm sorry for over 11 years.
Kai Tang: This is another prompt that we have the library books and collections meet my
Kai Tang: needs and interest. We had a total of 92% of our respondents
Kai Tang: in agreement that their needs and interests are met.
Kai Tang: Some things that we pulled out so far that the folks most likely to agree are.
Kai Tang: those individuals that make between 60 to $120,
Kai Tang: 000 a year or those that make over $180, 000 a year. So just we also found,
Kai Tang: we've highlighted and I should have said this earlier, I'm sorry,
Kai Tang: we've highlighted positives in green and opportunities.
Kai Tang: These.
Kai Tang: In a brick red color. So we do see that, hey,
Kai Tang: we have a respondent that there could be more availability for Chinese kids books.
Kai Tang: So right now again, this is preliminary survey results and so
Kai Tang: we'll be able to dig in further with more of the comments of what folks have
Kai Tang: provided to us.
Kai Tang: So our next prompt I want to highlight is an 87% of respondents that agreed that
Kai Tang: library the library provides access to safe spaces.
Kai Tang: Some of the groups that most strongly agree with this are respondents ages 17
Kai Tang: to 26.
Kai Tang: BIPOC and those without kids, it's interesting.
Kai Tang: We did pull out that the folks that were more likely to disagree was a very small
Kai Tang: 3% that identified as homeowners. So again,
Kai Tang: we have a lot of data to go through, but just pulling out some of the things
Kai Tang: that stood out and I do love.
Kai Tang: Of seeing this, it's always been a safe haven with
Kai Tang: educational tools, is one of the comments.
Kai Tang: So continuing with some of the results, this is the prompt.
Kai Tang: The library offers online services that meet my needs and interests.
Kai Tang: We did have 85% of respondents agree. The respondents most likely to disagree
Kai Tang: are actually those that make between 120, 000 to 180,000.
Kai Tang: $1000 a year with it's a very small 3% and a small percent of 2% homeowners.
Kai Tang: We did have some opportunities wishing to emphasize more online resources. So again,
Kai Tang: just things that we can learn and grow from.
Kai Tang: OK, so coming up for this, we have two prompts here.
Kai Tang: We see that older residents and long-time residents,
Kai Tang: those folks that have lived in Seattle for over 11 years,
Kai Tang: are less concerned about misinformation. So this prompt is looking at
Kai Tang: misinformation as a pressing issue and if the library.
Kai Tang: Should actively engage in efforts to combat this.
Kai Tang: We did get an overwhelming response of 97 or I'm sorry,
Kai Tang: 95% per respondents are concerned about the spread of misinformation or
Kai Tang: disinformation.
Kai Tang: The second prompt that we have is, is it important that the library helps
Kai Tang: combat this? And 90% of respondents agree that it is
Kai Tang: important that the library support these efforts.
Kai Tang: OK, now we're looking at the frequency of use
Kai Tang: for our in-person visits. This I find really interesting.
Kai Tang: We have 13% of our respondents that use the library daily,
Kai Tang: 30% said they use the library weekly and 39.
Kai Tang: Percent say monthly. So just really interesting on also when
Kai Tang: they've used it in the past and the most common individuals to use this are adults
Kai Tang: aged 27 to 49.
Kai Tang: OK, so I think this might be one of our last
Kai Tang: prompts that we have here and this is library staff and the website are
Kai Tang: critical information or resources for information and we can see where folks
Kai Tang: are getting their information. And overwhelmingly we see that 76% of
Kai Tang: folks get in-person information.
Kai Tang: from our staff members. It is neat to see those,
Kai Tang: the differences in how long folks have lived in Seattle and how what resources
Kai Tang: they are using. So it is really important to know that we
Kai Tang: need to have a variety of resources out there that make it accessible for us.
Kai Tang: Our folks anywhere from chatting on our website to our library app,
Kai Tang: our social media, and our in-person engagement.
Kai Tang: OK, I I'm sorry I I we have two more prompts.
Kai Tang: I was excited. We're at our word cloud now and I always
W Tali Hairston: OK.
Kai Tang: find that these are interesting to see common words that are pulled out it.
Kai Tang: We do need to take it with a grain of salt though,
Kai Tang: because sometimes we miss some words. But this one here is what if?
Kai Tang: Any impact has the Seattle Public Library had on your life?
Kai Tang: And we see access to resources, community and family learning and
Kai Tang: workspaces free and to save money on books.
Kai Tang: I love this fostering a love of reading so.
Kai Tang: So we get some really great insight into what impact we have just through this
Kai Tang: brief survey.
Kai Tang: Our last word cloud here is, is there anything else that would
Kai Tang: encourage you to use the Seattle Public Library more often?
Kai Tang: And I don't think it's a surprise if we offered more resources.
Kai Tang: Obviously we would have more offerings for more people,
Kai Tang: but it is really neat to see what folks are looking at.
Kai Tang: That especially atmosphere and environment and how we can create these
Kai Tang: opportunities going forward.
Kai Tang: I know I just sped through that, but are there any questions?
Kai Tang: Jasmine.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah. Thank you, Kate. This is always very interesting
Yazmin Mehdi: information. I love seeing those huge percentages of
Yazmin Mehdi: people who are happy with the services we provide.
Yazmin Mehdi: That's always great to hear and especially.
Yazmin Mehdi: You know, as we think about implementing our
Yazmin Mehdi: strategic plan in later years, but I guess maybe being the person I am,
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm always interested in where are those opportunities for improvement and
Yazmin Mehdi: especially if they're statistically significant percentages.
Yazmin Mehdi: And I suspect there's a wide variety of those things and that they aren't
Yazmin Mehdi: necessarily. It's not like there's big chunks of
Yazmin Mehdi: people who agree that, for example, we need more Chinese kids books,
Yazmin Mehdi: although I did see that one of the one of the slides.
Yazmin Mehdi: So anyway, I'm just, I would love to hear more about any of
Yazmin Mehdi: those opportunities for improvement where you know there's some value in us paying
Yazmin Mehdi: a little bit more attention and I don't know that you'll have that information
Yazmin Mehdi: right now for us, but maybe you could.
Yazmin Mehdi: Um, submit something later.
Tom Fay: Yeah, there will be, there definitely will be more. Sorry,
Kai Tang: Definitely.
Tom Fay: Kate, there will be more of that as we do the
Tom Fay: crosstab cuts on all of this. That's going to be key as Kate was kind
Tom Fay: of highlighting just a few of these. We look at any of those areas as
Tom Fay: opportunities to kind of dig in to the data more.
Tom Fay: And the team Jessica Smith and and her team.
Tom Fay: That includes Dan Auschwitz and David. I'm sorry,
Tom Fay: I'm just having a a brain melt here, but they they are working through that
Tom Fay: now. They're hammering through all those data
Tom Fay: points.
Kai Tang: So.
Faith Pettis: Could I, could I just ask, you know, I I kind of went through the response
Faith Pettis: rates really quickly. Are you happy with the response rate that
Faith Pettis: you got?
Kai Tang: I will say I personally am. I think that it was a really great
Kai Tang: response rate for. I know it sounds weird only sending out
Kai Tang: 15,000 surveys, but especially that they need to get 59%
Kai Tang: physically back to us. I think that in the short period of time.
Kai Tang: Time that we did it, it was a really fantastic response rate
Kai Tang: that we did receive our consultants. I want to give a huge shout out to ORS,
Faith Pettis: Right.
Kai Tang: our consultants for going through really and ensuring validation of the responses
Kai Tang: because again when we're looking at.
Kai Tang: Our world today with chat bots and the ability for say robots to respond back,
Kai Tang: they were really good and thorough to make sure that we had validated responses,
Faith Pettis: Hey.
Kai Tang: which is something that we I don't think had to worry about in our previous
Kai Tang: surveys, but to receive that 7. 1% and then have a.
Kai Tang: Solid baseline I think was was really good, but Tom, I'll throw it to you.
Tom Fay: Yeah. And I, you know, we went to a course added effort to make
Tom Fay: sure that we were covering each of the districts,
Tom Fay: council districts in the city as well, so that we didn't have, you know,
Tom Fay: one area more than another. They've done some some really good work
Tom Fay: in that and that statistical.
Tom Fay: Relevancy was key. Once we hit and went past that 5%,
Kai Tang: OK.
Tom Fay: then it just becomes that much more accurate for us. So yeah,
Tom Fay: overall very happy with with the results on that.
Faith Pettis: That's good. And and I what I wanted to connect was
Faith Pettis: that I think that people responding to surveys show some engagement and interest
Faith Pettis: on their part, which is great. Is there a way to provide people who
Faith Pettis: responded or even just the general community with a summary of the responses?
Faith Pettis: Because I think people will be interested to see.
Faith Pettis: How their responses line up with others and and because they were so positive,
Faith Pettis: it's not a bad message for us to give back.
Tom Fay: Yeah, well, yeah, we will definitely be sharing this once
Tom Fay: we get all the data analysis done. We may have a few things that we can put
Tom Fay: up as teasers to let people know that it's coming. But yeah,
Faith Pettis: Yeah.
Tom Fay: we we intend to have everything public on this.
Tom Fay: So people are aware of it.
Faith Pettis: Right.
W Tali Hairston: Any other questions for Kay?
W Tali Hairston: Thank you, Kate. Well then.
Kai Tang: Thank you so much. Thank you.
Faith Pettis: Next.
W Tali Hairston: All right. Uh, we do not have any old business,
W Tali Hairston: so let's jump to new business.
W Tali Hairston: And we have a third quarter levy report for our approval.
Tom Fay: Yes, we'll bring Elisa to the table today to
Tom Fay: present this. And also I'll just ask the board to,
Tom Fay: if they have a spare moment to read through the IT report that was included
Tom Fay: in the Chief Librarian's report. Some really good information about the
Tom Fay: really critical work that.
Tom Fay: They're doing to make sure our systems obviously stays secure,
Tom Fay: but also a lot of their efforts that actually drive this system every single
Tom Fay: day.
W Tali Hairston: And Tom, can I just ask a really quick question
W Tali Hairston: about that? When were the the tabletop exercises?
Tom Fay: Sure.
W Tali Hairston: When were they done? They said there were.
Tom Fay: Just just recently. And then the city's done.
Tom Fay: I participated in one several months ago. I know Charles has as well.
Tom Fay: And then we've had some internal ones here in the last few weeks.
Tom Fay: All right, Elisa, are you with us?
Elisa Murray: Um, can you hear me?
Tom Fay: We can hear you. Can't see.
Elisa Murray: OK, I'm having a hard time sharing turning on
Elisa Murray: my camera. I just had a forced restart of my
Elisa Murray: computer literally 2 minutes ago, so um.
Elisa Murray: Let's see.
Elisa Murray: Fun. Yeah, I can't figure out why that's not working.
Tom Fay: Not sharing.
Elisa Murray: It's just not. I can't have my camera on, but I can start without my camera and let
Elisa Murray: me see if I can do it on my phone. Well, thanks everyone for having me.
Elisa Murray: I am presenting the levy report in lieu of Jan Oscherwitz, who isn't here today,
Elisa Murray: who's our levy.
Elisa Murray: Administrator and it was another very full report.
Elisa Murray: We continue to try to make them under 20 pages and someday we're going to do that,
Elisa Murray: but not this time. So hold on, just going to try this again.
Elisa Murray: To add this.
Elisa Murray: Right.
Tom Fay: Can't hear you, Elisa. Can't hear you.
Kai Tang: 3.
Elisa Murray: Hello. All right, great. Thanks everyone. Yeah.
Tom Fay: There you are.
Elisa Murray: So I'll just kind of briefly go through some of the highlights and then feel free
Elisa Murray: to ask questions. So I think this levy report, so Q 3/20/25,
Elisa Murray: six year of the levy.
Elisa Murray: Really kind of showed steady progress across different areas funded by the levy.
Elisa Murray: It's our third quarter of consistent open hours that were increased in Q1.
Elisa Murray: The university branch renovation is really continuing to make good progress.
Elisa Murray: We've been focused on the seismic retrofit part of that renovation,
Elisa Murray: and we recently posted A blog post up on our Shelftalk blog that shows a lot of
Elisa Murray: great pictures and examples of what's happening there.
Elisa Murray: And if you like looking at reno pictures, as we do in the Communications team,
Elisa Murray: I really recommend that.
Elisa Murray: Also making good progress in the integrated library system,
Elisa Murray: put out an RFP in July and then we had two finalists and in Q3 we were gearing
Elisa Murray: up to do product demos in October with the goal of selecting the final vendor.
Elisa Murray: By the end of the year and I think we're in good pace to do that.
Elisa Murray: Our social services team and our youth focused community resource specialist is
Elisa Murray: funded by the levy also did you know more great work in Q3.
Elisa Murray: They had two well attended resource fairs including.
Elisa Murray: The youth resource fair at the Central Library and I personally had the chance
Elisa Murray: to go to that and it was just really exciting. Lots of resources,
Elisa Murray: really great vibe and a lot of fun as well.
Elisa Murray: And they also had a community resource fair at Lake City,
Elisa Murray: continued to offer overdose.
Elisa Murray: Prevention supplies for the for the second quarter in a row and then showed
Elisa Murray: an increase in referrals in Q3, which is kind of unusual for the summer
Elisa Murray: actually. So that was interesting. And then if you look at the we had a.
Elisa Murray: Graph, I believe on page three that shows our
Elisa Murray: quarterly usage trends and you'll see, you know it's been about a year since we
Elisa Murray: recovered from the ransomware attack and our indicators of library usage are
Elisa Murray: really either steady or increasing.
Elisa Murray: We had 890,000 in person visits, 325, 000 active library users,
Elisa Murray: digital checkouts increasing 15% since Q3 of last year,
Elisa Murray: 4% since last quarter and digital borrowers,
Elisa Murray: borrowers also increasing and borrowers of physical materials.
Elisa Murray: Just a small increase since last quarter, you know,
Elisa Murray: continue to add to the collection as well. Our peak picks continues to be very
Elisa Murray: popular. And then another big focus was that we
Elisa Murray: adopted the community use agreement. You know, it's been, as everyone knows,
Elisa Murray: a year is in the works.
Elisa Murray: And with lots of training and implementation,
Elisa Murray: we launched that and adopted it in early August 2025 and our new Environment and
Elisa Murray: Security Services manager, Andy Walton started I believe right on
Elisa Murray: that day or right around that time. So a big focus of the security.
Elisa Murray: Services team has been helping staff implement that, learn to apply it,
Elisa Murray: you know, use all the tools and do ongoing training.
Elisa Murray: So I think that's that's gone really well and I think everyone is happy to see that
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Elisa Murray: reflected in signs at the branch and the posters and a much more kind of.
Elisa Murray: welcoming agreement that really reflects what the library's values and our
Elisa Murray: strategic plan. You'll also see a one-page handout on
Elisa Murray: page six of our Here for You campaign, which launched with Library Card Signup
Elisa Murray: Month in September. And that's a really fun
Elisa Murray: Marketing campaign that offers collectible postcards of all the branches.
Elisa Murray: We've distributed 14,000 postcards. People can collect them.
Elisa Murray: They can also get an envelope or they can collect passports.
Elisa Murray: I worked with the UW Daily reporter this week who had her envelope out and was
Elisa Murray: collecting passports.
Elisa Murray: Of all the branches, which is really fun, and features local artists and then
Elisa Murray: photographs of the branches. There's been a lot of praise for that and
Elisa Murray: that'll continue through the fall. And let's see,
W Tali Hairston: Hey.
Elisa Murray: I think those are kind of my main highlights of this quarter.
Elisa Murray: I just want to thank Jessica Smith and Jan Oscherwitz and David Christensen,
Elisa Murray: who creates a lot of the cool visuals and graphs this quarter,
Elisa Murray: the quarterly usage trends. And then there's also a graph of the
W Tali Hairston: Pow.
Elisa Murray: public computer use which has also increased.
Elisa Murray: Faced in the last quarter and then all the library staff who submitted their
Elisa Murray: reports for this year's levy report. And then for the annual report,
Elisa Murray: you can expect slightly more robust reports with reports on kind of the the
Elisa Murray: annual.
Elisa Murray: The first year of the implementation of the strategic plan, as well as, you know,
Elisa Murray: the overview of how things, how things went this year for the levy
Elisa Murray: and beyond.
Elisa Murray: And I'm open to any questions.
W Tali Hairston: Any questions?
Bendixen, Carmen: I don't have a question, but just wanted to. Oh, sorry.
W Tali Hairston: OK.
W Tali Hairston: No, go for it.
Bendixen, Carmen: Just wanted to say thank you for another great levy report.
Elisa Murray: Yes.
Bendixen, Carmen: I really appreciate how the more graphics and kind of the.
Bendixen, Carmen: Explaining things and not just with text is helpful and I actually was going to
Elisa Murray: Yeah.
Bendixen, Carmen: point out the community use agreement page.
Bendixen, Carmen: That one pager was really helpful just as a reminder for someone who has seen it.
Bendixen, Carmen: But maybe hasn't seen the, you know, the the,
Bendixen, Carmen: the flyer that's been posted and that, yeah, was really helpful and yeah,
Bendixen, Carmen: great job on including a lot of things that we, you know,
Bendixen, Carmen: maybe we don't always hear about even though we're board members and we do.
Bendixen, Carmen: You know, kind of know what's going on, but this is a great detail, so thank you.
Elisa Murray: Thank you, Carmen. Yeah, Jasmine.
Elisa Murray: Yes.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you, Lisa. Thanks for being here to give us the
Yazmin Mehdi: report. I hope all is well with Jan. I just wanted to point out a few things
Yazmin Mehdi: that I thought were really particularly interesting in this report.
Yazmin Mehdi: One is amazing to get this Preserving Neighborhood Character Award.
Yazmin Mehdi: From Historic Seattle for the university branch or no, sorry, Green Lake branch.
Elisa Murray: Green Lake branch, yes, yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: That is like that's very cool because of course you know one of the things that we
Yazmin Mehdi: do when we retrofit our older buildings is we're ensuring that we're minimizing
Yazmin Mehdi: the.
Yazmin Mehdi: Carbon footprint of our buildings because we're reusing and making better these
Yazmin Mehdi: older buildings and I always feel like kudos should be shared for that.
Yazmin Mehdi: And then to have Historic Seattle recognize the the sort of aesthetic
Yazmin Mehdi: portion of that is really great.
Yazmin Mehdi: The other thing you mentioned this is the, you know, the social services teams work.
Elisa Murray: And.
Yazmin Mehdi: Of the 186 interactions I had, 161 involved a referral to an external
W Tali Hairston: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: agency like a shelter.
Yazmin Mehdi: This is amazing work that the library has recognized that is part of its work,
Yazmin Mehdi: and I think it's worth noting that it has a positive impact in the community.
Yazmin Mehdi: And then the other thing I wanted to note is.
Yazmin Mehdi: I guess more of a question. I saw that we're adding our first ever
Yazmin Mehdi: Portuguese language titles and I would just like you to explain how we picked
Elisa Murray: Mhm.
Yazmin Mehdi: Portuguese and why that's important.
Elisa Murray: So.
Elisa Murray: That is a great question. So let me just see about that.
Elisa Murray: I believe that was in response to some patron requests and then a community
Elisa Murray: partners because we're seeing.
Elisa Murray: More folks in the community, I believe from Angola who are speaking
Elisa Murray: Portuguese and I can follow up with you as well, Yasmin,
Elisa Murray: with information from our collections team.
Elisa Murray: But that's been in the works I think for a number of months.
Elisa Murray: So that's that's my understanding and then I we can provide more detail
Elisa Murray: afterwards.
Yazmin Mehdi: OK, would be great. Just so that people understand that we
Yazmin Mehdi: didn't pick Portuguese out of the air, which I'm sure people know.
Elisa Murray: Absolutely, yeah. It was a very thoughtful selection and
Elisa Murray: responding to a community.
Yazmin Mehdi: There is, I think, a typo on page 16 for what it's worth.
Yazmin Mehdi: I think it shouldn't be LATINE families, but probably Latinx or Latino,
Yazmin Mehdi: so just wanted to note that.
Elisa Murray: Oh, thank you. Yeah, um, we'll look at that and um.
Elisa Murray: and address it. Thank you.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you.
W Tali Hairston: And what's wonderful is the person on page 16 is a good friend of my wife and I.
W Tali Hairston: It's so weird.
Elisa Murray: Oh, fantastic. The play and learn facilitator with Via.
W Tali Hairston: Yes, her name is Sandra. Yeah, definitely. It's a wonderful human being. But anyway,
Elisa Murray: Yeah, that's great.
Elisa Murray: Yeah.
W Tali Hairston: I digree. Thank you so much.
Elisa Murray: OK. Appreciate knowing that, Tali.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you so much for the presentation. We do have to approve the levy report and
W Tali Hairston: so do I have a motion to approve?
Yazmin Mehdi: I'll make that motion.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you.
Elisa Murray: So.
W Tali Hairston: Have a second.
I can second.
W Tali Hairston: Jasmine seconds it all in favor to approve this report as submitted.
W Tali Hairston: That is unanimous. Thank you.
W Tali Hairston: It's a really a great report by the way. So it's just a lot of the pictures and
Elisa Murray: Thanks everyone.
W Tali Hairston: everything. Just you can like get a that 30,
W Tali Hairston: 000 foot view and get some of the particular stories that make make up this
W Tali Hairston: work. So it's great. Yeah. Thank you.
W Tali Hairston: OK. Next on our agenda, draft 2026 operations plan.
Tom Fay: Great. Well, I'll bring Rob Gannon, the Director of Administrative Services
Tom Fay: to the TIC and maybe bringing Nick Merkner, but I'm not sure,
Tom Fay: so I'll turn it over to Rob.
Rob Gannon: Thank you, Tom, and good morning, members of the Board. Good to see you.
Rob Gannon: And I'm here to give you an update on our 2026 operations plan.
Rob Gannon: So today I'm presenting the draft and I hope to give you some overview and point
Rob Gannon: out some areas where.
Rob Gannon: We're making important strides forward or we're noting certain things going on in
Rob Gannon: our budgetary environment. So as Tom mentioned, Nick Merkner,
Rob Gannon: Head of Finance and Accounting is also available.
Rob Gannon: So if you have any specific questions that are technical in nature.
Rob Gannon: We're happy to bring him forward and he can respond to those questions as well.
Rob Gannon: I'll also note that presenting the operations plan is far less beautiful
Rob Gannon: than the levy report and far less entertaining and informative than my
Rob Gannon: colleague.
Rob Gannon: Kate Tang's presentation on the survey results,
Rob Gannon: but so bear with me as I present this more dry material,
Rob Gannon: but all altogether important in supporting what we do.
Rob Gannon: So I can direct you to page 39 of your packet and that is the introductory memo
Rob Gannon: to our operations plan.
Rob Gannon: Important here is just to situate where we are.
Rob Gannon: So the Board is today reviewing a draft of the operations plan.
Rob Gannon: We expect the City Council to approve the Mayor's budget and for it to become the
Rob Gannon: city's budget and that should take place tomorrow.
Rob Gannon: We don't anticipate any notable or any changes.
Rob Gannon: At all really to the figures that you will see presented here in the operations
Rob Gannon: plan as it relates to city provided funds. So as I go through this,
Rob Gannon: we can consider those very solid numbers. We will of course be bringing the final
Rob Gannon: report to you for consideration at your December meeting.
Rob Gannon: And in advance you will receive the the the report,
Rob Gannon: the operations report in your December 4th packet.
Rob Gannon: So you should have ample opportunity to review not only this draft but also
Rob Gannon: consider its final form.
Rob Gannon: As I said, I'm going to just try and hit a number of
Rob Gannon: the highlights of the operations plan and the first comes in the overview.
Rob Gannon: So as we have discussed with you in prior sessions and provided updates to you,
Rob Gannon: the library's budget across all funding sources.
Rob Gannon: Remains in generally good shape, though for this year we do see an actual
Rob Gannon: decrease compared to the prior year. So we will be operating the library with
Rob Gannon: $2. 5 million less than we did last year and
Rob Gannon: that represents a 2% decrease.
Rob Gannon: And that is notable in that it is perhaps a troubling trend or is a troubling trend.
Rob Gannon: But we're also pleased to put forward this operations plan and say we are
Rob Gannon: keeping our General Services and specifically our open hours structure as
Rob Gannon: consistent as possible as we head into.
Rob Gannon: Into the next year. So we're able to absorb these reductions
Rob Gannon: without a notable decrease in services and without reducing headcount or
Rob Gannon: headcount in personnel terms or operating hours to our public.
Rob Gannon: The actual changes to our budget are then listed in those several bullet points
Rob Gannon: that follow in that first overview section.
Rob Gannon: And here we make note of the the reductions coming from our general fund
Rob Gannon: and the offsetting adjustment.
Rob Gannon: That we are using our capital fund to backfill some of those dollars.
Rob Gannon: So the end result is that as we indicated before,
Rob Gannon: we will be reducing our capital budget and not initiating the Columbia seismic
Rob Gannon: retrofit project in this levy term.
Rob Gannon: I'm going to jump now to the next section on page three of the actual report under
Rob Gannon: the heading of 2019 Library Levy renewal. So just to make note,
Rob Gannon: as I think we're all plenty aware that this is the final year of our existing
Rob Gannon: levy.
Rob Gannon: And as the Board has directed earlier in the year,
Rob Gannon: we're preparing a new levy proposal to bring forward to the next mayoral
Rob Gannon: administration and that work is well underway.
Rob Gannon: The levy provides an important component of our overall operating budget.
Rob Gannon: And it will be important obviously that we continue to steward all those
Rob Gannon: resources in the current year, but especially as we look forward to the
Rob Gannon: possibility of unrenewed levy funding, even more opportunity for the library in
Rob Gannon: Section 3, I just want to highlight that the
Rob Gannon: strategic plan area is an area of this particular operation.
Rob Gannon: Plan that we're continuing to work on. And so while we have some good reliable
Rob Gannon: draft language here, this is 1 area where you can expect to
Rob Gannon: see some additional information presented in its final form and we will have that
Rob Gannon: ready for the December 4th packet that you receive.
Rob Gannon: Jumping forward to the priority areas of library operations,
Rob Gannon: this is on page four of the report and again it's under the Section 4 priority
Rob Gannon: areas of library operations. I say again that we are very pleased that
Rob Gannon: this operations plan and our budget will allow us to hold hours.
Rob Gannon: Of operation steady throughout all of our systems.
Rob Gannon: So as a sort of simplifying statement, the hours that we are providing currently
Rob Gannon: are the hours with some very minor start and stop time adjustments for 2026 going
Rob Gannon: into effect, but the balance of operating days.
Rob Gannon: And frequency of branches will stay largely as it is right now the books and
Rob Gannon: materials section. So we see in the general trend here that
Rob Gannon: we're continuing our best to fund a robust collection and you see modest year
Rob Gannon: over year growth. So that is the good news of.
Rob Gannon: This particular section, but the discerning eye will also note
Rob Gannon: that the darker bars at the the darker sections of each of those bars are
Rob Gannon: declining or starting to decline and that represents the portion of our collections
Rob Gannon: budget that is provided by the general fund. The middle section is.
Rob Gannon: The amount provided by the levy and so that is expanding.
Rob Gannon: So our efforts to continue a robust collection are becoming unfortunately
Rob Gannon: increasingly relied upon for levy funds and also private resources.
Rob Gannon: So that is an area of note, but still good news in the overall
Rob Gannon: operations for him.
Rob Gannon: If I could, I'd just like you now to jump all the way
Rob Gannon: down to the conventional or much beloved operations plan overview by Personnel,
Rob Gannon: Collections and Buildings section. This is where you see the way in which a
Rob Gannon: dollar at the library is spent.
Rob Gannon: So we've included this graphic for many, many years and it is very illustrative of
Rob Gannon: what we do with the resources that we are provided.
Rob Gannon: So you'll see if you were to compare this to last year's figure,
Rob Gannon: you will see a slight increase in the balance of personnel costs. This is not.
Rob Gannon: Because we have more personnel, it's just because the relative position
Rob Gannon: of personnel cost has shifted largely due to that more narrow bar that you see
Rob Gannon: under the CIP and major maintenance projects.
Rob Gannon: So that 1% figure for our capital improvement program.
Rob Gannon: Is less than it was last year. Last year it was at 5% and for the most
Rob Gannon: part are almost entirely that is accounted for in the $5,000,
Rob Gannon: 000 reduction we're taking to support the general fund coming out of our capital
Rob Gannon: program.
Rob Gannon: So there are some adjustments, but there are there's nothing surprising
Rob Gannon: given what we're forced to account for in our overall budget.
Rob Gannon: And this illustration continues to be relevant,
OK.
Rob Gannon: but I just wanted to point out those.
Rob Gannon: Those distinctions, the chart below the dollar is fully
Rob Gannon: updated and accurate and we don't anticipate any changes there.
Rob Gannon: So that is good information for you to review and rely on as you evaluate the
Rob Gannon: full report of the full operations plan.
Rob Gannon: If we drop down to Section 6, the operations plan overview by funding
Rob Gannon: source. Again, this is a chart that we have provided
Rob Gannon: year over year and there are not any notable deviations in the presentation of
Rob Gannon: this pie chart.
Rob Gannon: And as with the general fund or the excuse me as the overall or the overview
Rob Gannon: of the prior slide or the prior page, the chart and the figures represented
Rob Gannon: below are also updated and accurate and will be.
Rob Gannon: The same that you see in the final draft of this report.
Rob Gannon: One other area I just wanted to point out is if you scroll to report page 9 or 48
Rob Gannon: in your packet, this year we've included a chart
Rob Gannon: depicting the relative portion of the levy budget compared to.
Rob Gannon: As a portion of the budget in years past, we've shown 2 circular charts,
Rob Gannon: 1 benchmark to 2019, one benchmark to the or one reflecting
Rob Gannon: the current year. And so this year to illustrate the
Rob Gannon: situation, we have provided a span of years, so.
Rob Gannon: That the report shows the role of the levy relative to the entirety of the
Rob Gannon: budget over a many year period, and it's fairly obvious,
Rob Gannon: but worth noting that the percentage of the that the levy provides of operating
Rob Gannon: resources has grown significantly even over the current levy period.
Rob Gannon: Period.
Rob Gannon: If I could direct your attention to what is page 11 of the report,
Rob Gannon: page 50 of your packet, there is one chart that will be updated
Rob Gannon: with significant figures for the final version of the operations plan and that
Rob Gannon: is.
Rob Gannon: The Seattle Public Library Foundation grant, which the library replies on,
Rob Gannon: relies on significantly. So last year's figure is shown there at
Rob Gannon: $5.2 million. The timing of the presentation of this
Rob Gannon: draft of our operations plan does not synchronize perfectly with the foundation.
Rob Gannon: Board's activities, but they will have finalized their grant
Rob Gannon: figure and that will be represented in the next report or in the final report
Rob Gannon: and we expect that figure to be 5. 6 million. So a increase year over year,
Rob Gannon: an important increase helping us fund a number of.
Rob Gannon: Critical positions and other innovative programming and we're very pleased that
Rob Gannon: that number increases year over year.
Rob Gannon: I'll point out just a few final figures or points of emphasis if you can scroll
Rob Gannon: to page 12 of the report under the staffing levels by funding source.
Rob Gannon: You'll be able to note this is on page 12 again of the operations plan that the
Rob Gannon: library levy contributes significantly to our overall personnel configuration at at
Rob Gannon: our organization, but I would have.
Rob Gannon: Point out here is that as we enter budget year 2026,
Rob Gannon: we're continuing to rely on a 5 1/2% vacancy savings or salary savings
Rob Gannon: assumption. So this is the number of positions that
Rob Gannon: we anticipate to be vacant.
Rob Gannon: Both either because we're planning to hold them vacant or with rolling
Rob Gannon: attrition. We have a certain number of vacancies
Rob Gannon: that do exist, but this is an important balancing figure
Rob Gannon: to our overall budget approach. It is not ideal,
Rob Gannon: but it is nonetheless something that we are.
Rob Gannon: Continuing to do in this current or this upcoming budget year,
Rob Gannon: the discipline that sits behind that, we will continue to monitor positions
Rob Gannon: very closely, also keeping in mind our commitment to
Rob Gannon: keeping buildings open and our areas as fully staffed as we possibly can.
Rob Gannon: So we're mindful of service levels.
Rob Gannon: And how we provide overall service to the public,
Rob Gannon: but we're also managing a budget that relies on a certain number of vacancies
Rob Gannon: year over year to be balanced.
Rob Gannon: And with that, I will just point out one final thing and
Rob Gannon: then I'm happy to answer your questions or take any direction you have as we move
Rob Gannon: to the next next meeting when you'll receive the final operations report.
Rob Gannon: I just want to point out that the attachment section.
Rob Gannon: The attachments are not included in this draft report, this draft presentation,
Rob Gannon: but they will obviously in your final operations plan and highlighting again
Rob Gannon: that attachment 3 will contain strategic plan insights. This is.
W Tali Hairston: Right.
Rob Gannon: Reporting out to the Board of Trustees and the public generally about some of
Rob Gannon: the significant achievements we've been able to recognize in the first year of
Rob Gannon: our strategic plan. So we will be sure to call that out in
Rob Gannon: our presentation at next month's meeting, but I did want to highlight that that is
Rob Gannon: in development.
Rob Gannon: And we'll be ready for your consideration. And right now it's contained as an
Rob Gannon: attachment in the operations plan, but we're of course happy to draw that
Rob Gannon: out and make a more formal presentation at an appropriate time. So with that,
Rob Gannon: I'll pause and I'll see if Tom wants to highlight anything or add any comment,
Rob Gannon: but if not, I'll.
Rob Gannon: Happy to take your questions or any other direction you have as we head into the
Rob Gannon: final version of this document.
W Tali Hairston: Rob, can you clarify when there's a there's a
W Tali Hairston: a sentence?
W Tali Hairston: aging building portfolio. The last line in that section. Umm
W Tali Hairston: Significant funding beyond the annual levy major maintenance allocation.
W Tali Hairston: Is that are you referring to the current levy or that the the next levy does not
W Tali Hairston: include? Well, I'm I'm trying to figure out what levy at
W Tali Hairston: that point you're referring to for as it relates to the aging buildings.
Rob Gannon: So I'm sorry, Tali, I just want to make sure I'm in the right
W Tali Hairston: Yeah.
Rob Gannon: place. You're looking at under the risk section
Rob Gannon: aging building portfolio area C, but which sentence in particular?
W Tali Hairston: Yes, yes, it's it's the very last line. It's it just speaks to the I'm trying to
Rob Gannon: I'm sorry.
W Tali Hairston: not read the whole sentence, but it says updating Central's mechanical
W Tali Hairston: and HVAC systems to align with current city policy and it goes and less than
W Tali Hairston: it's carbon foot.
W Tali Hairston: Require significant funding beyond the levy,
W Tali Hairston: beyond the annual levy major maintenance allocation that I can you clarify that
W Tali Hairston: line for me?
Rob Gannon: Yes. And thank you for pointing me
Rob Gannon: specifically. I see that sentence. So as a sort of general explanation,
Rob Gannon: we have in our current levy an amount of funds that help us maintain our buildings.
Rob Gannon: That currently is insufficient to all the needs of our library system and as we
Rob Gannon: anticipate a renewal, we know that we will have to expand just
Rob Gannon: the everyday maintenance costs of our building.
Rob Gannon: Central, given its unique characteristics, its age, its size, its importance,
Rob Gannon: can not be fully maintained with the current amount or even a inflation
Rob Gannon: adjusted amount of regular maintenance dollars in the levy.
Rob Gannon: To look at Central as a comprehensive building and all of its systems and to do
Rob Gannon: the maintenance required, we will have to in the future levy look
Rob Gannon: at ways of augmenting the amount of maintenance dollars that are available
Rob Gannon: with Central as a particular target for that.
Rob Gannon: So it would be in addition to and on top of what we're doing is as regular
Rob Gannon: maintenance funding. So I hope that answers your question.
W Tali Hairston: That does it. We can talk more about that, but I I think the question that this
W Tali Hairston: lists up is that we're we're approving an operations plan for 2026 in alignment
W Tali Hairston: with that is a levy that will also we will.
W Tali Hairston: Needs to address some of this aging building portfolio issue,
W Tali Hairston: primarily at Central, because the past levy did not.
Rob Gannon: Thanks.
W Tali Hairston: Function that way in terms of covering all of the maintenance needed on our
W Tali Hairston: aging building portfolio.
Rob Gannon: Yes, I agree with that assessment and I will
Rob Gannon: say also that the reason we're calling it out as a risk is in even in the current
Rob Gannon: year, we have things occurring at Central that
Rob Gannon: are drawing on our financial resources to repair or maintain and it's putting a
Rob Gannon: current.
Rob Gannon: Current stress on our financial system. So we will have to address that in the
W Tali Hairston: OK.
Rob Gannon: future, Levy, but we incur that risk even in the
Rob Gannon: upcoming operating plan year.
W Tali Hairston: Yes, Faith.
Faith Pettis: So I have a question and a comment and maybe let me start with a comment first.
Faith Pettis: I I would just note that the amount coming from the foundation is going up by
Faith Pettis: if it goes up to the 5.6, that's an 8% increase and that is no
Faith Pettis: small lift for them. So I just want to recognize how.
Faith Pettis: How significant it is for them and it is looks like it's going to be 5% of our
Faith Pettis: overall budget. So and and the point I would make on that
Faith Pettis: is it's the really important stuff that we can't get to.
Faith Pettis: So I just want to say thank you to the foundation for again stepping up for us.
Faith Pettis: My question is on Figure 4 on page 948 of the board book. Rob,
Faith Pettis: I like this chart that shows the library levy budget compared to in 2019 compared
Faith Pettis: year over year to 2026. And we just point out that our the levy
Faith Pettis: is going from 1/4 of our.
Faith Pettis: Budget to 1/3 of our budget and has over that six year period and that's really
Faith Pettis: scary and and troubling how dependent we are becoming on the levy and the passage
Faith Pettis: of the levy and.
Faith Pettis: It's also troubling this shift of having to take the $5,000,
Faith Pettis: 000 from the Columbia capital project to put back into operations.
Faith Pettis: It's it's a little scary. It creates that gap in our operational
Faith Pettis: funding that we'll have to deal with next year.
Faith Pettis: Question for you, Rob, on this chart is what happened in 2021
Faith Pettis: that caused that big spike?
Faith Pettis: It I don't know. That's an easy question to answer,
Faith Pettis: and if it's not easy, I'm happy to hear it offline as well.
Yeah.
Rob Gannon: So I would take your question and turn to Nick Merkner,
W Tali Hairston: OK.
Rob Gannon: who probably has the historical recollection to give you that directly.
Rob Gannon: And if he does not, then we can bring that back, OK.
Faith Pettis: Offline is fine, it's just it's it's an interesting spike
Faith Pettis: cause it's so high it's even higher than the 33% that we're projecting for 26.
Rob Gannon: Yes, if I could, we'll bring that back with good detail
Faith Pettis: Yep.
Rob Gannon: for your next meeting. I do have some insight,
Rob Gannon: but I don't want to misstate it, so.
Faith Pettis: Right.
Faith Pettis: OK, great. Thank you.
W Tali Hairston: Yes, ma'am.
Yazmin Mehdi: I had the same question as Faith, so I appreciate you.
Yazmin Mehdi: I have a sense that it has something to do with COVID where we had to shift some
Yazmin Mehdi: funding, but but anyway it will be useful to help
Yazmin Mehdi: understand that my question is about a line on page 2.
Yazmin Mehdi: Page 41 of the packet under capital budget changes,
Yazmin Mehdi: where we talk about that 5 million that Faith pointed out that got shifted that
Yazmin Mehdi: would have been used for Columbia. But then it talks about the remaining 6,
Yazmin Mehdi: 000, 000 that was a decrease in capital
Yazmin Mehdi: support.
Yazmin Mehdi: And I don't understand that sentence, so I'm curious if you could just explain
Yazmin Mehdi: that for me.
Rob Gannon: Yes, I can. And if Nick's here, he can also jump in and give some more
Rob Gannon: specifics. So the capital support provided is
Rob Gannon: decreasing by 6 million, 5 million of that is attributable to the
Rob Gannon: general fund swap that we're doing the additional $1,000,000 reduction.
Rob Gannon: Was otherwise anticipated just in our long term capital plan looking year to
Rob Gannon: year what we anticipated spending. Had we not done the the funding swap we
Rob Gannon: still would have seen.
Rob Gannon: This reduction. So if you think of our major building
Rob Gannon: portfolio, we finished Green Lake, we started university,
Rob Gannon: we would have expected to spend just a little bit less, $1,000,
Rob Gannon: 000 less in the current year and that is that $1,000,000.
Rob Gannon: So this is not a reduction, it's just.
Rob Gannon: It's sort of a a figure of our long-term capital plan that just happens to be this
Rob Gannon: year combining with this other $5,000, 000 reduction.
Rob Gannon: So I hope that answers your question, but I'm also happy to try and clarify
Rob Gannon: again if I didn't get to it.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah. I don't think I totally follow that. So maybe we could do this offline.
Yazmin Mehdi: And then I also had a comment, which is in an operations plan where
Yazmin Mehdi: we're mostly talking about reductions.
Yazmin Mehdi: I see that we do have some additions and they kind of they look stark compared to
Yazmin Mehdi: the the cuts and I would like to suggest that we contextualize these a little bit
Yazmin Mehdi: more than you already have because it it like for example the 30,000.
Yazmin Mehdi: $1000 for the Portuguese collection, which I already asked about in the levy
Yazmin Mehdi: report. It just looks weird. Why are we adding 30,
Yazmin Mehdi: 000 in a year where we're having to take some major cuts?
Yazmin Mehdi: And then the same for like the 126, 000 for assistive.
Yazmin Mehdi: Listening, captioning and other AV tech for meeting
Yazmin Mehdi: rooms. It just again, it's not that these are not things we
Yazmin Mehdi: shouldn't spend money on, it's just it looks weird in the context
Yazmin Mehdi: of an overall decrease in our in our budget.
Yazmin Mehdi: O That's just a request.
Rob Gannon: Thank you. We'll certainly take that and try and
Rob Gannon: provide greater context and other balancing examples.
Rob Gannon: I'd also just point out that in some instances here we're also trying to
Rob Gannon: highlight where private dollars are coming into those categories and making
Rob Gannon: certain things available.
Rob Gannon: Also doing a little bit to highlight the positive, but yes, I I hear your concern.
W Tali Hairston: All right. If there's nothing else for Rob,
W Tali Hairston: we look forward to the final 2026 operations plan.
Rob Gannon: Thank you all.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thanks, Rob.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you.
W Tali Hairston: All right, our library board liaisons reports.
W Tali Hairston: Let's start with the foundation.
Bendixen, Carmen: Okie doke. Um The Foundation Board met, I believe it was just last week on
Bendixen, Carmen: November 12th. So a few topics, fundraising for 2025.
Bendixen, Carmen: Is looking great. Donors have been very supportive.
Bendixen, Carmen: So as of the end of October, fundraising is about 3.5 million,
Bendixen, Carmen: which is over 100% of their goal for the year. So great news there.
Bendixen, Carmen: Their individual numbers are up from last year.
Bendixen, Carmen: And they're expecting that the totals will, you know,
Bendixen, Carmen: climb additionally before the end of the year or by the end of the year.
Bendixen, Carmen: So looking ahead to 2026, they're looking at about 5.
W Tali Hairston: Yeah.
Bendixen, Carmen: 6 million in library programming, which is an 8% increase, which.
Bendixen, Carmen: We we saw that in the in the plan. So their fundraising goal is 4.6 million.
Bendixen, Carmen: That projection they've decided is a is a reasonable stretch.
Bendixen, Carmen: So yes, grateful to them for that. There was a segment on their strategic
Bendixen, Carmen: planning. They've it's they're coming to an end for
Bendixen, Carmen: their strategic plan process. For those of us who were at the the three
Bendixen, Carmen: boards meeting a couple of weeks ago, we we got a bit of a taste of this.
Bendixen, Carmen: But as as we heard, their mission statement has essentially
Bendixen, Carmen: stayed the same. They like their mission. They want to stick with it,
Bendixen, Carmen: which is the Seattle Public Library Foundation inspires the community's
Bendixen, Carmen: philanthropic support of advocacy for and pride in the library.
Bendixen, Carmen: They and I think it's a slightly different vision statement and they
Bendixen, Carmen: adjusted the values a little bit. Sorry Tom, did I miss something?
Tom Fay: No, and I'm sorry Carmen for interrupting, but we actually don't have the the
Tom Fay: reports on here this month. That was an error.
Tom Fay: Actually this particular discussion is to be on.
Bendixen, Carmen: OK.
Tom Fay: The 2026 liaisons to the Friends and to the Foundation Board.
Bendixen, Carmen: Oh.
Tom Fay: So my apologies this we didn't get this clarified and we unfortunately didn't put
Bendixen, Carmen: OK.
Tom Fay: the the reports on from the other two groups.
Bendixen, Carmen: Oh, okay.
Tom Fay: So in this particular case, let me write, let me take my hand down here.
Tom Fay: In this particular case, what we are looking for is to start the
Tom Fay: discussion on who we would like to have serve in those positions for 2026.
Tom Fay: That would be liaison to the foundation and liaison to the friends group.
W Tali Hairston: OK. So you're not looking for our report outs
W Tali Hairston: like we normally do. You're looking for us to assign liaisons
W Tali Hairston: for next year?
Tom Fay: Correct. And then what we can do just so that the
Tom Fay: reports are not missed is because you each have the ability to do a report out
Tom Fay: at the end of the meeting, we can do those then if that's acceptable.
Tom Fay: Just didn't want that the agenda to get off track from the published.
Tom Fay: Agenda.
Ron Chew: Tom, sorry, are you looking for volunteers to be
W Tali Hairston: Yeah, what?
Ron Chew: liaison for next year? OK, I mean, I'm open depending upon when the regular
Tom Fay: Yes.
Ron Chew: meetings are scheduled because I've got some other regular standing.
Ron Chew: Meeting times, but I'm happy to happy to step up and and
Ron Chew: do something that other board members have been graciously doing the past year.
W Tali Hairston: But Ron, aren't we losing you next year?
Ron Chew: Oh, if that's the case, then hey.
Ron Chew: I've forgotten I've lost track. When? When is the? When does my term end?
Tom Fay: Well, it is April or until filled. As long as the until filled,
Ron Chew: OK.
Tom Fay: you're still willing, but we will begin that process here
Tom Fay: pretty soon actually.
Ron Chew: OK, well, that's fair.
W Tali Hairston: Would you, would you mind serving in one of those
Ron Chew: Hmm.
W Tali Hairston: roles until that happens?
Ron Chew: Yeah, happy to do that. It's sort of like there's light at the
Ron Chew: end of the tunnel, so I'm happy to bear whatever burden of
W Tali Hairston: Yeah.
Ron Chew: additional meeting to to make it to the end.
W Tali Hairston: Awesome.
W Tali Hairston: And is that friends or foundation? I I can.
W Tali Hairston: Well, does anyone else want to liaise with one
W Tali Hairston: of those?
Faith Pettis: You know, I I need to look at the dates of when the
Faith Pettis: Friends meetings would be in order to know if I can commit on the foundation
Faith Pettis: one. I'm reluctant to step up to that as much
Faith Pettis: as I would love to be a part of that because my colleague who I work with is
Faith Pettis: on the Foundation Board and for both of us to be out.
Faith Pettis: Attending those meetings at the same time is really hard for our business,
Ron Chew: Here, here would be, yeah, here would be one thought. You know,
Faith Pettis: so that one's good.
Ron Chew: I I basically started at the library of Libraries for all as foundation member
Ron Chew: and it'd be great to circle back again if it aligns to my schedule.
Ron Chew: I've worked in that development field for a long, long time, most of my career,
Ron Chew: and maybe there's some additional contacts or insight I can provide that
Ron Chew: would help bolster the foundation and its efforts to meet its higher goals in the
Ron Chew: coming.
Ron Chew: Coming year or so, yeah, maybe a yeah.
W Tali Hairston: Well, Ron, I I wonder then if if I am your wing
Tom Fay: And we.
W Tali Hairston: person, when you are no longer, I can in that role,
W Tali Hairston: I can step in and take the rest of the year.
Ron Chew: That'd be great. Yeah, absolutely.
W Tali Hairston: But the is that OK, that'll get, that'll get us through the busy first
W Tali Hairston: half of the year hopefully.
Ron Chew: OK, super.
Tom Fay: So what I'll suggest is that Amy will reach out to Faith,
Ron Chew: And.
Tom Fay: Ron and Talwe just because we need to. We should have a final or getting final
Tom Fay: meeting schedules from each entity. So we'll reach out and then see what
Tom Fay: syncs up in calendar.
Tom Fay: Calendars, if there's still an issue because of
Tom Fay: calendars and we'll talk to the other board members.
W Tali Hairston: OK, we still may need some help with the
Ron Chew: Thank you.
W Tali Hairston: friends, but let's let's see what we can do with
W Tali Hairston: the three of us.
Yazmin Mehdi: I am happy to continue to serve as liaison to.
Yazmin Mehdi: I have been the liaison to the Friends and they tend to meet Faith the second
W Tali Hairston: Mhm.
Yazmin Mehdi: Tuesday of the month, but they alternate between a morning
Yazmin Mehdi: meeting and an afternoon meeting.
Yazmin Mehdi: So for what that's worth, it's I think the morning meeting is at
Yazmin Mehdi: 9:30 and the evening meeting is at 5.
Yazmin Mehdi: But it's all online. But anyway, you can use me as a backup.
Faith Pettis: Great. Thank you.
W Tali Hairston: Great. Uh, thanks for that clarifying uh point there,
W Tali Hairston: Tom. Let's get.
Tom Fay: No, I'm sorry. We didn't make it as clear as it needed
Ron Chew: Yeah.
Tom Fay: to be and then we left off the other one. So I I missed that in my review of the
W Tali Hairston: Right.
Tom Fay: agenda, so apologies.
W Tali Hairston: No, I just assumed it was written differently,
W Tali Hairston: but it was our normal report outs. But that being said,
W Tali Hairston: we have our union report and I just want to highlight that the board also in this
Ron Chew: Yeah.
W Tali Hairston: time of Thanksgiving is celebrating as the union report does all of the amazing
W Tali Hairston: work.
W Tali Hairston: That folks do in all aspects of library services.
W Tali Hairston: It's just amazing how when we walk, I was just telling folks that it was at
W Tali Hairston: the Beacon Hill branch and it's thank you to everyone who does their part to make
W Tali Hairston: sure that library services.
W Tali Hairston: and library facilities and all that that means show up in the excellent way that
W Tali Hairston: they do.
W Tali Hairston: So a big Thanksgiving to you all.
Tom Fay: Thank you for that.
W Tali Hairston: All right, so our update from library board members
W Tali Hairston: is going to be a continuation of what Carmen started.
Tom Fay: Good evening.
W Tali Hairston: Did you have anything to add, Carmen, to what you?
Bendixen, Carmen: Yeah, I'll just there was just one more thing.
Bendixen, Carmen: You got most of the the foundation report, but they also the last item was they said
W Tali Hairston: Sure, go for it.
Tom Fay: No.
Ron Chew: Good.
Bendixen, Carmen: goodbye to three foundation board members who were terming off.
Bendixen, Carmen: So if any of you know or have met Roy Hamrick, Sharon.
Bendixen, Carmen: Camel or Tyler Mickey, they all said their farewells. So yeah,
Bendixen, Carmen: a lot of actually Sharon and Tyler have been on the board for a long time.
Bendixen, Carmen: So and for a little bit, just a few years, but.
Bendixen, Carmen: Really nice to see appreciation and gratitude again.
Bendixen, Carmen: So for for their service and leadership, that is the Foundation liaison report and
Bendixen, Carmen: I have nothing else to add.
Tom Fay: I will. I will say that. Thank you, Carmen.
Tom Fay: I will say that I also sent a personal note to each of the members that have
Tom Fay: that left the Foundation Board of Directors, Tyler.
Tom Fay: Has been dealing with the finances of the foundation for a very long time.
Tom Fay: Has overseen, as you can imagine, a variety of changes in the foundation
Tom Fay: from how it gives to the library. It's trust based philanthropy.
Tom Fay: He also helped.
Tom Fay: Steward in their DEI.
Tom Fay: Investment strategy as well or a portion of of that investment is DEI companies
Tom Fay: that support DEI at a variety of levels and that is not an easy thing to do and
Tom Fay: it's a very complicated thing to do so.
Tom Fay: Appreciated his work in that. And as you know, Sharon Hamel,
Tom Fay: many of you know, actually worked with our joint advocacy
Tom Fay: committee. That's the Friends Foundation and Library,
Tom Fay: really advancing advocacy at all levels, city, state and federal.
Tom Fay: Sharon was the one who was the in the inaugural position of cheering that up.
Tom Fay: And so when I asked when I first came on for rapid advocacy and how we were going
Tom Fay: to build that, she said yes, it's a scary thing when maybe that's not
Tom Fay: the thing you had the most experience in, but dove in.
Tom Fay: And definitely got it to where today we have approaching 1500 people on our
Tom Fay: Public Library Action Network and continued work.
Tom Fay: Brittany Murasky is going to be coming in to take over Sharon's role.
Tom Fay: And she's already making great strides in that area.
Tom Fay: And Roy is has always been a great board member that came to all the all the all
Tom Fay: the meetings, also hosted a very great fundraiser at
Tom Fay: the Capitol Hill.
Tom Fay: Branch with his friends, family, colleagues and just truly as a gentle
Tom Fay: soul and a very good human being to know. So he will be missed,
Tom Fay: although we know we'll see Roy around and.
Tom Fay: For sure. All the others too at various events.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you. Okay, update from friends.
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm happy to provide that. I just want to under score what Tom said
Yazmin Mehdi: about Sharon and Carmen. She's been an incredible leader,
Yazmin Mehdi: particularly at the Joint Advocacy Committee.
Yazmin Mehdi: And it's it's sad to see her go regarding the friends they had their they have
Yazmin Mehdi: voted on and approved their strategic plan and it will become public and will
Yazmin Mehdi: they'll have an internal implementation guide for that.
Yazmin Mehdi: They're working on their 2026 budget, which they hope to finalize in December
Yazmin Mehdi: and vote on in January. A note for those looking for gifts.
Yazmin Mehdi: The Friends shop at the Central Library is going to be open extra holiday hours
Yazmin Mehdi: on Sundays from 2:50.
Yazmin Mehdi: Beginning after Thanksgiving, they're also going to increase holiday
Yazmin Mehdi: hours at the Georgetown location, and as usual,
Yazmin Mehdi: they're going to participate in the Gates Foundation's Giving Marketplace December
Yazmin Mehdi: 5th through 6th.
Yazmin Mehdi: A couple of other quick things. They have just welcomed 10 new board
Yazmin Mehdi: members, which is a remarkable number. They did have some turnover because
Yazmin Mehdi: people had been serving for quite a long time, but they have a new secretary,
Yazmin Mehdi: a new treasurer and also a new president.
Yazmin Mehdi: Angel Sauls completed her two terms, and Jen Jennifer Lowe is now the
Yazmin Mehdi: president of the Friends. They have a YouTube channel,
Yazmin Mehdi: which I did not realize, and so that's worth looking at.
Yazmin Mehdi: They currently have a friends history video that they they've got up there.
Yazmin Mehdi: They also revamped their website and they have a new T-shirt that says friends with
Yazmin Mehdi: benefits. So another good gift item.
Yazmin Mehdi: Um, let's see. Yeah, it's a good one. Um.
Yazmin Mehdi: I think that's that's all I have to report from the friends,
Yazmin Mehdi: but they're doing great work and as is always the case,
Yazmin Mehdi: the new president is putting her imprimatur in how the organization
Yazmin Mehdi: functions and what the focus is. So it's always good to see what what's
Yazmin Mehdi: going to come out of that.
Tom Fay: Thanks. Yeah. And Angel Sauls, who many of you have seen or all of you
Tom Fay: have seen on here is going, it's going to be still involved in the
Tom Fay: board obviously, but not president and.
Tom Fay: I think anyone who has spent any time with Angel,
Tom Fay: she is probably one of the most energetic and joyful people you will meet.
Tom Fay: I don't even know how I would keep up with her.
Tom Fay: I could borrow some of that energy every day. It would be great.
Tom Fay: And she really stewarded friends through a lot of.
Tom Fay: Good transition, some hard decisions and especially was
Tom Fay: instrumental in the final push for our three-way agreement that her predecessor
Tom Fay: worked diligently on as well. But she saw a lot of change in the
Tom Fay: organization.
Tom Fay: A lot of the things that you see coming out of the Friends group now,
Tom Fay: the organization and again that connection with community is definitely
Tom Fay: part of that spirit that Angel will lead in the group from her presidential role.
Tom Fay: So many.
Tom Fay: Many thanks to her work over the last two years.
W Tali Hairston: Yes, we had a did. We did have a chance to to speak to Angel
W Tali Hairston: and and congratulate her at the three boards meeting as well and to thank her
W Tali Hairston: for all her work. OK, any personal updates from board members
W Tali Hairston: before we?
W Tali Hairston: Adjourned.
W Tali Hairston: Awesome. Our next meeting.
Faith Pettis: Happy Thanksgiving.
Tom Fay: Mhm.
W Tali Hairston: Yeah, Happy Thanksgiving. Our next meeting is a week earlier. Well,
W Tali Hairston: two weeks earlier than normal. It's December 11th,
W Tali Hairston: so it's right around the corner.
Tom Fay: Yes, indeed.
Yazmin Mehdi: Just a note that I might be on jury duty, so I'm looking to my colleagues to make
Yazmin Mehdi: sure we have a quorum.
W Tali Hairston: Yes, we will need a quorum.
Tom Fay: All right. Yes, we do. We want to get that budget passed.
Faith Pettis: Yeah.
W Tali Hairston: Right. All right. Thank you, everyone. The meeting is adjourned 12:21 PM.
Tom Fay: Thank you all.
Bendixen, Carmen: Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving.
Ron Chew: Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
Tom Fay: Thanks.