Public Library Board March 17

Public Comment
No public comment was forthcoming in this meeting as no one from the public attended.

Director’s Report

• The Boone County Public Library (BCPL) staff has started working on the fiscal year 2026 budget. An initial budget for 2026 fiscal year was projected at $11,087,000.

• The BCPL has applied for a grant from Mellon Bank. Four community grants will be given. If BCPL receives one of these, they will use it to replace the Archive and History Center’s software, as their current software is sunsetting. The remainder will be used for digitizing and staffing needs.

• The BCPL has been invited to march in the Cincinnati Reds Opening Day Parade. 

• Executive Director Carrie Herrmann (CH) has been monitoring the 2025 legislative session’s 1,200 bills put forward by the legislature. 

• House Bill 756 was not passed; this bill proposed the creation of a new section of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to limits on government spending and taxation. 

• Senate Bill 71 passed the Senate but is still in committee in the House. She believes it might be dead.  It might make it if added to another bill but would be subject to veto as it would be presented too late to override. This bill would allow a library board to make one recommendation rather than two to the judge/executive regarding appointments to a library board and allow the judge/executive to appoint an individual of his or her choice if the recommendation is rejected.

• Senate Bill 218 (now sitting in House committee) would require the Department of Revenue to ensure that taxpayers can access uniform financial information regarding local taxing authorities in a variety of ways: the local authority’s website or forwarded to its local county library or to the Department of Revenue.

Accountant’s Report
Revenues for the month ended January 31, 2025, totaled $10.3 million.

New Business
The Board discussed the various bids received from vendors for library maintenance/cleaning. CH advised that the five-year contract with the current vendor is expiring and she would like to use someone new, as the staff was not satisfied with the service received from the current vendor. 

A lengthy discussion was conducted regarding CH’s annual evaluation. CH stated she reviewed the procedures conducted by other libraries regarding this issue: Kenton County, Campbell County, Louisville, Lexington, Frankfort, and Bowling Green. She claims a number of executive directors aren’t being evaluated at all—just given raises, apparently. Some utilize self-evaluation. Basically executive directors are evaluated in a variety of ways. However, trustee Deborah Dutton-Lambert (DDL) stated that in the training video the executive director’s evaluation must be conducted publicly according to the Open Meetings Act under Kentucky Law. 

Board President Jackson indicated the Board can establish its own evaluation process.

• Reviewing Board members must be in place at least six months.
• An evaluation form is provided to each Board member for input with a self-evaluation completed by CH.
• Board members will then share the information compiled to determine if goals were met, exceeded, etc. 

However, DDL still contends that whatever methods are utilized by the Board, the evaluation must be conducted in public. This issue was not resolved and further discussion on the evaluation process will be placed on next month’s agenda. 

Adjournment followed.