Library Board: 15-Minute Meeting

Library board makes quick work of brief agenda

Ann Arbor District Library Board (Feb. 16, 2009): With three trustees absent and little discussion on items in a thin agenda, Monday evening’s Ann Arbor District Library board meeting was an exercise in brevity. As is its custom, the board met in executive session an hour prior to the public portion of the meeting. The public meeting lasted 15 minutes, with financial issues touched on in several ways.

Ken Nieman, the library’s associate director, gave his monthly update on the current budget with a summary of January’s financial statement. He noted that AADL’s cash balance as of Jan. 31 was about $11.5 million. The library received a $30,000 grant from the Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library, prompting a thank-you from board president Rebecca Head.  Nieman said the roughly $46,000 in capital outlays for the month included the final amount paid to Luckenbach Ziegelman Architects, for work done on the proposed downtown library building project, which was halted last November.

After Nieman’s presentation, Ed Surovell gave a brief report from the budget and finance committee. He said the committee met with staff earlier this month  and had an extensive discussion about the economy and what might happen to the library’s revenue base. Projections are going down, not up, he said.

[All local governments are facing lower revenues, primarily due to a drop in the property tax base. The impact of Pfizer's departure was another blow, coupled with the likely acquisition of Pfizer's Ann Arbor property by the University of Michigan, which is tax-exempt. What's more, Pfizer is appealing the taxable value of its land for 2008 and 2009. The library board's packet for Monday's meeting contained a letter to Ann Arbor taxing authorities, which includes the AADL, from city treasurer Matthew Horning, city assessor Dave Petrak, Ann Arbor chief financial officer Tom Crawford, and city administrator Roger Fraser. The letter stated that Pfizer is appealing the taxable value of its land for 2008 and 2009, and if the company is successful in its appeal to the Michigan Tax Tribunal – a process which could take several years – the library could lose $242,072 already received in 2008 and the same amount anticipated for 2009. Starting in 2010, the AADL will also stop receiving roughly $456,000 annually as a result of UM's purchase of the Pfizer property.]

The economy came up again in Josie Parker’s director’s report. She said that earlier in the day the library had an all-staff meeting that more than 110 people attended, focused on the local economy and its impact on the library. Describing the meeting as very productive, open and straightforward, Parker said they discussed the fact that revenue projections are down. Following Monday’s board meeting, Parker added that they’ve made no decisions about how to deal with the decline in revenues yet, and that a draft of the library’s annual budget will be ready in April.

The meeting included two other staff reports: Ken Nieman gave the last in what had been monthly updates about the new Traverwood branch, reporting that a dedication plaque will be installed there later this week. Celeste Choate gave an update on the Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled, which opened at the AADL earlier this month after transitioning from operation by Washtenaw County. She said there are 482 registered patrons, and that library staff will be calling each one to welcome them to AADL and update their profiles on things like author and topic preferences. Parker gave Choate a shout-out for managing the transition.

The board also unanimously passed resolutions to revise AADL’s exhibitions policy and to approve $235,000 for the purchase and installation of two air handlers for the downtown building. The issue of replacing outdated air handlers had been discussed at the board’s January meeting, as had the proposal to change AADL’s exhibits policy to eliminate specific references to the application process. Both resolutions were passed without comment on Monday.

Present: Rebecca Head, Margaret Leary, Josie Parker, Carola Stearns, Ed Surovell.

Absent: Barbara Murphy, Jan Barney Newman, Prue Rosenthal

Next meeting: Monday, March. 16, 2009 at 7 p.m. in the library’s fourth floor meeting room, 343 S. Fifth Ave. [confirm date]