June 16, 2023 Camden County Library Board meeting at 9:00 a.m.

I attended the June 16, 2023 Camden County Library Board meeting at 9:00 a.m.

This was the first Library Board meeting I’ve attended. I was a little curious about it because the most recent Camden County Commission meeting appointed some new members to the Board, and I didn’t really know a lot about the administration side of the county’s library system.

For the record, the Camden County Library District includes libraries in Camdenton, Osage Beach, Sunrise Beach, Stoutland, Macks Creek, and Climax Springs.

This meeting was held in the Camdenton Library. It was in a small conference room and there were six or seven people present besides the five board members, the Library Director (Michael Davis), and another library employee whose name I didn’t catch. I got the feeling they’re not used to guests since the room could barely fit all of us.

Commissioner James Gohagan was present along with the two newly appointed Library Board members: Denise Gay and Vicky Simbro. They will assume their positions on the Library Board on August 1, 2023.

The first item on the agenda was an annual audit.

This audit was presented by the auditor via Zoom. After some technical difficulties with the computer interface, the results of the audit were an unmodified opinion which indicated no issues of concern with the finances of the Library District.

According to the audit, the Library District has approximately 12 months worth of operating expenses in reserve.

During public comment, Nathan Rinne asked the auditor if her firm performs forensic audits? She responded that they do not. Their audit is generally not designed to detect fraud. They might detect questionable practices or behavior, but they are not trained as forensic auditors.

The second agenda item was a Policy Revision.

Director Michael Davis explained that, because of the Missouri Secretary of State’s new policy, the library policy will change to require that children use their own library cards to check out books from the library and not their parents’ library cards.

The revision was approved unanimously.

The third agenda item was LAGERS (Local Government Employees Retirement System).

Director Davis stated that, with staff encountering more difficult working conditions, he wanted to increase the LAGERS rate for current employees from the L-7 (1.50%) to the L-6 (2.0%) level. The other library employee present (I think he said her name was Vicky?) explained that moving up to the alternate plan L-6 would increase the district’s LAGERS expense for 2024 by $66,930. This was only an estimate and the number was based upon proposed salaries.

Board Member John Olivarri asked Director Davis how Camden County’s library employees’ pension level compared to other library systems? Davis responded that Camden County is on the lower end.

According to Davis, the Library District has 17 full time employees and 31 total employees.

Board Member Olivarri expressed some concern about the extra expense and potential expenses related to COLA increases for next year.

Director Davis responded, “If my plans that I’ve discussed at prior Board meetings (and we’re going to discuss in closed session), [we] would probably be reducing the costs in the future.” (At this point, I wasn’t sure what plan he was talking about.)

Nathan Rinne reacted to this statement, saying he had heard a rumor that the Library District was considering closing more remote, rural libraries like Stoutland Library, Macks Creek Library, or Climax Springs. He asked Davis if he could comment on that?

Director Davis replied that the potential closing of the rural libraries would be a closed session item. Board Member Olivarri confirmed that it was a closed session item. Olivarri said, “That’s not something that’s discussed in open session.”

Rinne told Olivarri that if they are considering that type of decision, it should be brought to the attention of those communities.

Several of the Board Members agreed that if they decide to close the rural libraries, they would make it public. Olivarri said that it will be [made public] “if we decide… that’s the route to go or whether this is the right time to do it.”

Rinne pointed out that closing the rural libraries would be a hardship for those rural communities.

Director Davis said he would present the Library District draft budget to the Board in July so he could make any desired changes to the budget for their approval vote on the budget in the August meeting.

There were different opinions on the Library Board regarding this LAGERS increase. Olivarri wanted to see two budget proposals, one with and another without the LAGERS increase.

The Library Board decided to revisit this issue at their next meeting.

Library Director Davis mentioned that the County Commission has requested information including financial records and vendor lists from the Library District. He told the Board he was going to treat these requests as if they were Sunshine Law requests. Commissioner Gohagan clarified that they had merely asked for this information. Nobody had demanded records or served the district with a Sunshine Law request. Davis agreed with him.

Gohagan also pointed out that the Library Board meeting agendas and dates are posted in the library, but these postings are inside the library itself and aren’t visible when the library is closed. Director Davis said they would start posting those agendas online on the website.

This was followed by a spirited discussion between Board Members and audience members regarding whether appointments to the Library Board are political appointments or not. This topic was not on the agenda.

The next agenda item was Director’s Comments.

The first issue was the condition of one of the library’s vans. It may need a new transmission. It’s currently being diagnosed.

The Director also discussed the status of exterior painting at the Osage Beach library. I’ll spare you the details.

Director Davis passed out the new library cards, which will be issued to juveniles, for everyone to admire.

Vicky Simbro and Denise Gay, the two new appointees, were then both given an opportunity to tell the Library Board a little bit about themselves. They recently toured the libraries in the district and spoke with employees. They expressed how they were looking forward to taking their seats on the Board.

The Library Board conducted a roll call vote to go into closed session. I asked them which subsection they were using to go into closed session and they told me it was the “real estate” subsection.

And that was that.

I was pretty surprised to hear the Director and Board Members reference the fact that they were considering the possibility of closing some of the rural libraries in the Camden County Library District. These are some of the areas of Camden County that are least served by government resources. It was even more disturbing to me that they were going to discuss this matter in closed session. As a strong advocate of transparency (heck, it’s why I do this), I find it hard to understand how they can justify not talking about these issues publicly.

I’m not convinced that the subsection they used to justify closing the session would even apply in this case. That subsection says they can close the session if “public knowledge of [leasing, purchase, or sale of real estate] might adversely affect the legal consideration therefor.” Is the Library Board considering purchasing or leasing new real estate? If not, I fail to see how selling real estate would be adversely affected by public knowledge of such a sale. If anything, advertising would help a sale.

However you look at it, it sounds like it might be bad news for those taxpayers who live in the more remote areas of the county. And the fact that it’s being discussed behind closed doors only makes it smell worse.

The good news for us is that Missourians are the absolute worst at keeping secrets. I can’t tell you how many times somebody has said to me, “Now I’m going to tell you this, but you can’t tell anybody else because the guy who told me swore me to secrecy.”

So there’s still hope.