This blog advertised this meeting as a summer re-run and it was, but with a cliff-hanger ending thrown in to keep us coming back. The Mullett Township Board sat as the unelected Mullett Township Library Board on August 2, 2011 at 7:30 PM. Township Clerk Rachel Osborn’s posted agenda consisted of another attempt to sway the other four Board members to agree with her choice for a vendor for a library automation software system.
Public comments were supposedly limited to 2 minutes, so you have to talk really fast, but the floor was never formally opened to public comments. Her next meeting may require the public to summit written comments only. I know, I shouldn’t give her any ideas. Quick now, in ten words or less, my problem is…
Township Clerk Rachel Osborn did unfortunately coerce the Topinabee Library staff to publicly denigrate the vendor chosen by majority vote in January 2011 with hearsay comments. These remarks and additional comments from Ms Osborn might be seen as slanderous to a business’s reputation and I think the vendor is fortunate to not have to deal with the Mullett Township Clerk. Ms Osborn should not ask Mullett Township employees to do her dirty work.
In the end, the Board did make the right decision by passing a motion directing her to again research and find at least two qualified vendors of suitable automation software for the Topinabee Library. I’m on the edge of my chair waiting to see how this all ends.
Automate or back to the old card catalog? Wait, the Topinabee Library has never had a card catalog. Started and always operated as someone’s pet project, adopted by the Mullett Township Board in some primordial haze, it has never been legally organized as a Free Public Library under Michigan Laws and now is illegally sucking $58,000 a year out of the Township’s General Revenue Fund. I’m a supporter of libraries, but libraries under Michigan laws must operate with a millage approved by the electorate and oversight by an elected Library Board. More on this later.
The Library Board again passed a motion to have Architects Forum advertise for half a dozen electrical outlets to be installed in the library and some service outlets at the Park Pavilion. This bid process was originally budgeted at $1,400, but may eventually exceed the actual project cost. It is just another case of over-engineering a simple job.
The two hard-working Librarians, Patty King and Connie Ogg presented the most recent Library usage stats to the Board. It was good and better and visitors have left nice comments about the great location on Mullett Lake. This blog tips our cap in salute to them for all of their hard work. Patty King will be ordering a big laminator, to laminate book dust jackets, at a cost not to exceed $1600.
The Mullett Township Library Board adjourned shortly after 8 PM, and after only lifting their butts from their chairs for the Pledge of Allegiance, sat down again as the Mullett Township Board of Trustees.
