WebJunction

MLA Legislative Committee

Wednesday,  September 3, 2008


Chair Mike Bloomberg called the meeting to order at 10 :00 AM.

Present in St. Paul:  Bill Wittenbreer, Mike Bloomberg, Bill DeJohn, Ann Walker Smalley, Bob Boese, Elaine Keefe, Maureen Bell, Suzanne Miller,

Present in Mankato:  Dave Henning, Dale Carrison and Nancy Steele, Doug Johnson

Present in Mountain Iron:  Jim Weikum

Present in Pelican Rapids:  Peg Werner

Present in Rochester:  John Huntziger

Present in St. Cloud:  Verne Olekowicz

The agenda was approved as distributed.  Maureen/Bill moved approval.  Carried.

Legislative Update - Elaine said that very little was going on, but she reported on a meeting that she, Doug Johnson and Mark Ranum had with Rep. Mindy Greiling concerning Greiling’s second “Minnesota Miracle”.  Greiling stated that she wants this to be the new framework as any new dollars going into education in the next session.  The general education formula would be tied to inflation, as the aid programs are now for cities and counties.   Elaine will work with the fiscal staff for Greiling’s committee to discuss adding libraries to that bill. Technology funding is still under discussion.  This is a very, very expensive bill and is carefully balanced for many different types of school districts.  Partial rather than full funding would be problematical for some types of school districts.  The Senate is still very wary of this approach.

Elaine also reminded us that the entire House is up for election; while there are only two empty Senate seats.  One of these is Betsy Wergin’s seat.  The other seat is in Richfield/Bloomington. 

Elaine said that there have been noises about some counties not accepting the Governor’s letter on MOE mix-up.  The counties are also complaining that the State has abandoned fiscal support for child welfare cases.  Peg said that she’s hoping that MLA can work with AMC to solve the problem, rather than make it a legislative issue. 

Maureen asked about support from other organizations for Mindy Greiling’s “Minnesota Miracle” program.  Elaine said that there are at least four major school organizations that were supportive of the program, but there are some groups that are concerned.  Rural schools and Education Minnesota are two of the groups that are concerned.

Platform Update - Mark Ranum could not attend the meeting, but he has sent out an early draft of the Platform for the committee’s examination.  The document has been posted on WebJunction and is open to comments there.  

Dale Carrison said that the RLTA and Telecom Equity programs should relate to each other in the platform.  He also said that the telecom equity aid program for schools needs to be put into the base.   Dale and Peg will work on this issue.

Bill DeJohn asked if the first two items on the Minitex plank might be included in the Greiling bill rather than from the Higher Education committees (Delivery/ILL and ELM).   Suzanne agreed that this might be an appropriate move, but she wasn’t sure how this could be structured.   Suzanne pointed out that the legislature’s committee structure is a problem.  Bill said that it is impossible to get increases to serve public libraries in the higher education committees.

Ann Walker-Smalley reminded us that individuals need to be members of WebJunction before they can comment or get some documents.

Reports -

State Librarian Suzanne Miller - she has begun budget narratives and Form A’s have been submitted.  The certification for Maintenance of Effort has been sent to all cities and counties.  She has had numerous queries about this process.  The construction grant round for public libraries is now open.  Elaine asked what Form A’s have been submitted, but Suzanne indicated that this was not something she could make public.
              
Minitex - Bill DeJohn- ILL requests are now up, especially on Monday’s.  Staff is now scheduled for Saturdays in an effort to speed up delivery and cut down on the Monday load.  The subcommittee on ELM portal authentication has met and is reviewing a statement.

MLA Board - Mike indicated that there was some discussion of the November conference.  The Legislative committee has one program and the committee is meeting in Mankato.   About half of the contracted hotel rooms have been reserved.  Allison is now back on staff until the end of 2008.

Doug Johnson said that MEMO is working to get people to the Greiling hearings. 

CRPLSA - Jim Weikum said that the Regional Public Library System Administrators met in Thief River Falls in July.  The next meeting will be in October.  Directors have been busy meeting with cities and counties about budgets for 2009.

Multi-types - activities have picked up with the start of school.   There was a new WebJunction interface launched in August.  There will be an Internet café sponsored at the MEMO conference by the Multi-types.  They are also sponsoring a speaker at MLA.

Telecom - Dale indicated that there will be at least two people attending the Hopkins meeting and someone at each other of the Greiling hearings. 

Doug asked about getting legislative information - Ann said that it’s under “Minn Resources”.

The meeting adjourned at 10:50 AM. 

Bob Boese,

Writer of the Minutes