5/13/2010 BOARD OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES Minutes

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--BOARD LIBRARY T USTEES MEETM AY,IIAY 19 2010 MASHPEE LIBRARY CONFERENCE ROOM k ' I I Present: David Burton,John Kowalski,,fare Dolan,Carlo D' ste,Nancy Soderberg,and Helene DeFoe, Library Director, Absent: Patricia Garnache, and Dianna Smith. Also Present: Mark Gildea.,Attorney Barbara Notarius,President of 1lashpe Friends of the Library .David Burton,Chairman,called the meeting to order at 6;05 p.m. He welcomed Attorney hark Gildea and thanked him for corning tonight. David also welcomed Barbara Notarius on her return to the Cape and congratulated her and the Friends on their efforts toward the building of the new Library. Staffing Crisis I David said the focus of the meeting tonight will be directed largely to the staffing crisis situation. David said that Trustee members Carlo D'Este,,lane Dolan, and Nancy Soderberg attended the Board of S l ectmen meeting on Monday evening,May 1 'b. Unfortunately,the result so far is that Town will not accept the$15,000 offered by the Friends to be used to contract with temporary staffing. ,lack Kowalski commented as to the Friends' $75,000 gift. He said this Board labored under the misconception that the $75,000 was available to be re-gifted to the Friends to be applied toward hiring temporary staff for the long-tern. Because we were told many tines from the Town Manager.that the funds existed we agreed not to take the petition to the Town Meeting to create additional library staff. On at least 4 or 5 occasions,we were assured by the Town Manager that was the case. It never was the case because it was a line item the building fund budget for the library. hack added.- To keep it clear, it is gone and now we have to move forward. Since that is the case,.hack said we've asked Mark Gildea to be here tonight. Mark is an attorney for the town of Bridgewater and has a number of years o experience not only with the town of Bridgewater gewater but also Brockton and is versed in these problems. Mark Gildea addressed the Board. He said the Bridgewater library is only opened 15 hours because of budget cats. They've lost their accreditation and certification and are at risk for the state to ask them to pay back certain grant funds they've received. Mark said it is not a problem unique to lridgewter; it is happening state-wide. It is a tough issue that all boards across the state have to face. Mark mentioned that lick Pornr y,the project manager for the library bu11ding project, is from Bridgewater so Mark happened to call him and asked Rick about the issue of the$75,000. Rick said the roof panels would not have gone forward unless the Friends came forth with the money. In the end it helped them sage money by gating a lot of rebates and refunds from the Commonwealth. Mark said he spoke with Rick Porrmroy again today and he indicated there is going to be a surplus. So, what happens to the surplus? Mark suggested there may be an opportunity to capture some of that money for the library. Mark said he and lick agreed that the worse thing that could happen is after building this building to have the reputation of'the library and the project tarnished in any way by a fight over funding for library staffing. David Burton commented...we don't want to tarnish it;we want to staff the library, Mark Gildea suggested if the Board would like to authorize maybe one Library Trustee and Mark to sit down with Rick Pomroy and another Town representative arra try to have cooler heads prevail. Mark said he is impressed with all the ways the Board has gone about trying to accomplish this. He said.he thinks there would be significant liability exposure and that liability is to the Town.