Public Comment by an Anonymous Citizen - August 20, 2026

GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

Thank you very much, Commissioners. 

Speaking as an anonymous citizen: Stop the hate. Stop the ignorance. Don't give money to the Friends of the Library. Don't accept money from the Friends of the Library. 

I hope to make two points today and I will present them in reverse from the  natural order simply because the second part provides some context. It is a justly famous poem, a sonnet from Peter Bysshe Shelley from 1818. It is considered one of Shelley's masterworks because it is so successful on so many different levels. It progresses from the quotidian to the most profound perspective on the human condition. And it does this with a quotation inside a quotation. 

When you recite it for children, you change your voice because it dramatizes the progression and the change in perspective that is crucial to the appreciation of the poem. Beginning: 

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The other point, the preliminary point really is a couple of principles that we used to call kindergarten wisdom. We are fortunate if we learned them from our mother as I did, but we certainly learned them in kindergarten because that is what kindergarten is for. It is sometimes possible to forget them. But in fact, they are the enduring wisdom that we associate from kindergarten and continue to conserve within us. 

The first is if you are nice to others, they will be nice to you. The second is you only win when everyone wins. Now, aren't those nice basic principles that we all learned in kindergarten? Thank you very much. 

PUBLIC COMMENT ON APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

Yes. Good afternoon, Commissioners. 

Stop the hate. Stop the ignorance. Don't give money to the Friends of the Library. Don't accept money from the Friends of the Library. 

Completely omitted from these minutes is an introduction where your affairs analyst told you it is illegal for you to respond to public comment. History should preserve that you allowed yourself to be told that. 

Under general public comment, Mr. Warfield spoke for three minutes and these minutes represent a distorted view of his first minute 10 seconds and stops. Dr. Gibbs also spoke for three minutes and these minutes present a distorted view of his first 1 minute and 10 seconds and stops. Particularly significant in his case because he had some important things to say about those who maintain the standard of service. 

Artificial Intelligence has scrambled the Commissioners' comments for several meetings and it is appropriate that we have a characteristic example here. I direct your attention to page four where the Commissioners themselves discuss the social services presentation. What Mr. Bolander was said is completely omitted. What is ascribed to Commissioner Bolander was from Commissioner Menon. What was ascribed to Commissioner Menon was from Kenniston. And what was ascribed to Kennistn was actually from Lopez. 

This means that no human being even looked at these minutes. Even more significantly, after the end of these minutes, there is a separate document entitled addendum with these speaker summaries that I submitted. 

When did you decide this? After having no such document for three months, did you decide addendum means include? Did you decide this is illegal? Should we assume that you have illegal secret meetings where you decide all these things? Or should we assume that you are mute automatons, zombies who passively accept anything put in front of you? You receive no public input on your decisions because you have no opinions and you exercise no judgment.

We know why. It is because you feel the need to do blatantly illegal things and you don't want to admit you're aware of them. Do you think the city fathers told themselves that they needed seven citizens to form a Library Commission that will receive no information, have no diverse opinions because they exercised no judgment? And no, they thought there would be democratically informed opinions, public decisions, and public access. The question is answered. Not only do you have no opinions and no public access, you have no competence or professionalism because you pay no attention to anything you're doing. None at all.

Jason Gibbs public comment - Library Commission meeting January 15, 2026

GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

I'm Jason Gibbs, retired librarian.

During 2020 and 2021, I was assigned as a Disaster Service Worker, but towards the end I was allowed to come in one day a week to work with my staff. We had new staff that needed training. During that time there was an all-staff training where somebody from outside of the system who instructed us that libraries are at heart a racist institution. And I couldn't could not accept that because the the culture of sour system is not like that. It's contrary to our values of free and equal access and it's been a long time a part sof the culture.

Um there's a wonderful publication that you can view online called Pseudepigrapha which was the newsletter of staff from the 1970s and 1980s were you can see all the innovative things that library staff were doing to serve the community -- setting up foreign language collections for new immigrants trying to bring service to underserved neighborhoods. A lot of it comes from within the system.

So you place DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion as an important priority, but that made me wonder why when you appointed staff ambassadors for the Strategic Plan, there was nobody from our custodial department, which is probably the most my minority centered part of the library. These are people who are often English-language learners, immigrants. They see the library from a place very different from us. They're the ones who go from anywhere from cleaning up when a kid spills some juice to like cleaning up the the bathroom. People camp outside of branches and they leave a terrible mess. And we had suicides here. If somebody had to clean that up, the recent murder, the same thing. And it feels like if you're going to really understand the library, the custodial point of view is an important one to include. Thank you.

COMMENT ABOUT THE MINUTES

I'd like to continue with something that I mentioned at the previous meeting. In the past the minutes included the handout material that came with the meetings. I think of this previous meeting when Michelle Jeffers and Michael Lambert spoke about things that you guys are really enthusiastic about. 

The minutes are really your permanent record as commissioners of what happens. If you include the supplemental material in the minutes, then anybody in the future who wants to know the historical record and what the library is accomplishing and how the commission approaches it; you really should include that information. It it's part of the meeting and it should be connected with the me the minutes themselves. I'm thinking for your own historical legacy and for the convenience of future users. Thank you.

FACILITIES UPDATE

John Cunha, head of facilities

I wanted to say thank you to your comment earlier, sir. 

So our custodial unit here um I've always had a sentimental connection to uh custodians, both here at this department and my previous department. I've always really appreciated the, you know, I don't want to say the underdog but the unsung hero, right? Those people that show up to work every day and and get the job done. And that's to me embodied by our custodians um, more so than anyone. 

So, the custodial unit provides a clean, safe, and healthy environment that fosters productivity and well-being for all occupants through dedicated service and rigorous sanitization standards. 

FACILITIES UPDATE PUBLIC COMMENT 

I really enjoyed that presentation and that that staff was highlighted because they are often invisible to people. 

Going back to custodial, they are actually a forward-facing part of the library, too. They provide customer service. Often times they serve as Cantonese translators because they somebody recognizes of a face. But what I really appreciate is that they provide a public service to staff. They have at when I was working they were so reliable and often you ask them to do the most miserable things and not a complaint ever. So again, kudos to the custodial staff. 

I also want to applaud the security staff, but also wanted to note that their  numbers have grown incredibly large compared to what they used to be, having to do with conditions in the city. It was unheard of in the past when I started here that that you would find an officer, a building and grounds officer stationed at a branch. Now most branches have one. Unfortunately that's necessary and they're doing good work.

I've noticed that some of the calmer branches have I'm an active patron now have officers when branches that I know are sort of busier and more problematic haven't had one and when I've asked about it is because of vacations or something. So I think has to be they have to look at their incident tracker and see how they can be best deploying the staff that's going to the branches which I think everybody wants but is more needed at some locations than others. Thank you.

Jason Gibbs public comment - Library Commission meeting September 18, 2025

Jason Gibbs, retired librarian. One of the symptoms of retirement is losing track of days. And I'm really sorry I missed the previous library commission because it slipped my mind. I really would have been excited to hear about what was going on with collections, especially looking at the material and seeing that new non-fiction books are doing very well. And that's after the circulation of all of our physical books really being decimated by COVID and people being limited exclusively to use electronic resources. 

I co-chaired the New Non-Fiction Committee for many years. And for those who don't know what non-fiction is, it's everything except fiction. So it could be religion, philosophy, sociology, language learning, starting a business, recovery, learning an instrument, learning how to paint. 

It's a wonderful committee that people in the system just want to be on because it's just so great to be discussing books for a couple hours. But I want to relate a story. I have to give the city librarian credit that he frequently uses the staircase in the library. So he really sees what's going on. Many previous city librarians never did that. 

But one day I was walking up the stairs with him and I was telling him we're going to have a new Non-Fiction Committee. And I thought, well, he should be as excited as we are. But his remark was, "Well, we've got too much non-fiction space in the branch. We're gonna have to do something about that." And it just seemed like a downer to bring to bring this attitude to a meeting that we librarians view in a very positive. I would have liked to have reported to all reported that the City Librarian remarked how great your work is or something, But I could not do that. It really is a wonderful service and its a committee that people like to be on, and I'm glad to see the people of San Francisco using the collection in that way. 

AGENDA ITEM NO. 4 HUMAN RESOURCES UPDATE – TALENT ACQUISITION

Jason Gibbs, a former talent once acquired but no longer possessed. 

Talent Acquisition: Average Vacancy Rate

I wanted to note that your base number for fiscal year 22 on that chart was really abnormally high because we had just come through COVID. That was a time when over 500 employees were sent out as Disaster Service Workers and I don't know how many employees declined to be Disaster Service Workers. 

My first assignment was to be a site monitor in a shelter-in-place hotel for the vulnerable homeless. Many people did not want to do that and so they had to use up all their vacation, all their sick pay and then were separated from the library. So it was it was a very traumatic time for the workforce and so that high number is reflected by that.

But I would also say as a disaster service worker, I was put also put into the Department of Public Health and I can't say that I've ever been more appreciated for my work when I was working for the Department of Public Health. The library never showed that level of appreciation for the work that I did. I was even involved in interviewing people for the Department of Public Health, helping them with their talent acquisition. They recognized my abilities. 

But talking about talent acquisition, I think you have to also realize that you already have talent and that that talent needs to be built and appreciated. And I one of my regrets is that 35 years of experience I reached really the pinnacle of my abilities at the end of my career and I felt like there was no opportunity to spread that knowledge to to other people because there there is so much that I know about this institution not just about collections or reference but like who to go to if you need this problem solved, issues like space management and budget management. So I I would look really be interested more in talent appreciation and you using the talent you have. Thank you.

Collections Presentation - August 21, 2025 Library Commission meeting

City Librarian Michael Lambert

Thank you, President Wolf, and good evening, Library Commissioners, Library staff. 

Appreciate the opportunity to bring you an update on the latest collection utilization trends for our robust collections in both digital and physical formats. I'm pleased to report the fiscal year ending June 30th represents another banner year with a third consecutive year of setting an all-time new record for overall circulation. 

Shelley Cocking, our Chief of Collections and Technical Services [CTS], is joined by Alice Chan, our Collections and Technical Services Manager, Cataloging Manager. They are going to be presenting this presentation tonight. And I do want to emphasize that Shelley Cocking as the division chief, she really is the main architect in organizing our efforts to deliver customer focused collections that meet our residents needs for books and the content that they're seeking. Shelley, Alice, take it away...

Shellie Cocking

Thank you, Michael. Yes, I'm Shelley Cocking and this is Alice Chan, our collections and cataloging manager. We're going to talk about collection utilization trends and the library's role as a resource provider. 

This first slide shows you our seven-year circulation trend. And in CTS, we really want to take a look at how things have been changing since we closed for COVID. And you can see the orange part of the bar is for e-collections and the dark blue is for physical collections. During the closure, our e-collection circulation went up a lot. Our physical collection has continued to recover. But if you do look, even though we did have almost half a million increase in circulation, you will see that the increase has slowed a little bit this last year compared to the previous. So what that says to me is that we're now kind of in a new normal rather than in recovery. 

So, my staff has been taking a deep look at the statistics to see what that new normal is and where we should be applying our budget compared to where we did in the past, especially now that it's a slightly smaller budget. We taking a deeper dive. You can see here demand by format. 

Not surprisingly, the physical AV materials is down since 2019. That dark blue bar shows pre-COVID days and the dark orange bar is this last fiscal year. That's not a surprise to us because physical AV has really been going down even before COVID and in nowadays it's even hard sometimes to purchase it. We did see a little bit of a bump up in audio which I'll get to in a little bit. Digital resources are of course being used much heavier compared to fiscal year 2019 across the board. And I'm happy to let you know that books are still in a lot of demand and the usage has actually increased. 

Public Comment Ruben Juarez - June 18, 2026 Library Commission meeting

Public Comment:

My name is Ruben and I'm a Union officer and frontline worker. And there are a few items I wanted to bring up. I noticed a change in the order of the agenda topics last meeting with draft minutes being put at the end at of the meeting. Why the change? Maybe you can discuss at when we discuss this part and find out why it was moved to the end. 

Regarding the capital project presentation in May and the discussion of Ocean View branch, I believe it was important to list the Orizaba Way location prior to the meeting under evaluating opportunities. I believe it deserved a mentioned on the list for no other reason than getting clarification on a project that has been discussed broadly with the public. 

Don't our patrons deserve to be told where things are in the process? But more pointedly, I think it's important going forward where are we with the current location so we get more feedback on that piece. 

Where are we with the use of a slur in this forum? We had a variety of us come up and speak to it. Will some clarification be given on such language on how such language will be addressed in future meetings?

Public Comment on the City Librarian's report

There's so much there. There's so much wonderful things our workers do, all our staffs do. Because we learned about the summer dip that when the school year gets out, the propensity to dip. And there we jump in happily, readily to serve our patrons, to provide the presentation that Iliana so skillfully shared with us all. 

I think one of the commensurate challenges is the staffing levels to meet the demand.  I've come and spoken before but at this point I just wanted to dig in a little that to meet all the needs for our patrons requires you know happily like I said providing the service but one of the challenges is enough staffing being provided the extra hours to staff the programming and all the other pieces that go into it. 

It's just something for you all to consider when you're looking at uh what a wonderful service we provide and happily do so.

Public Comment Jason Gibbs - June 18, 2026 Library Commission meeting

 Jason Gibbs, retired librarian. 

My return to participating at library commission meetings has lasted a little over a year now. My former colleagues have been encouraging me to continue doing this so I can speak for them.

Today's commission is different from that of 30 years ago. That commission conducted business, held committee meetings, passed numbered resolutions. It was a substantive body. The current purpose of commission meetings is to polish an apple. The frankly delicious and beautiful apple that is the library. 

The city librarian has restructured library priorities to assemble a cadre of apple shiners to dazzle you. Public comment is your opportunity to ignore what's not going right beneath that shine. 

Your May 2026 meeting included an impressive presentation on staff appreciation and recognition. I was stupified to learn how much library administration values the library's employees and how appreciated library employees feel. Nothing like the library I worked for last year. 

I later spoke with staff at the main and branches and asked them about this sudden turnaround of staff morale. You may be shocked to learn that they fullthroatedly contradicted what we heard at last month's meeting. 

Do all of you know the Peanuts comic strip? One of the constant tropes is Lucy offering to place the football so that Charlie Brown can kick a field goal. He has grown wise to the fact that she's going to take the football away at the last minute. He's knows he's going to end up flat on his back. 

Welcome to the experience of the ambassadors for the San Francisco Public Library strategic plan. Several ambassadors told me about their first meeting with the Gensler crew. It was quite contentious. They knew about Lucy and Charlie Brown and expected that they would be asked to devote a good deal of time and thought into this exercise and find their contributions ignored in the final product. They were told that wouldn't be so, but they were right. It's a very old management trick. invite staff participation to present a notion of consensus and then take the project in the direction that they had intended to from the start. 

Throughout ambassadors were concerned mostly about safety and professional growth for staff. One ambassador tried to put it generously: The final plan translated the work of the library into balderdash. Circulating books is resource providing. Answering questions is thoughtful navigation. The resulting plan had nothing to do with anything they suggested. It became apparent that their role was to rubber stamp the City Librarian's pre-established goals. Lucy snatched away the football again. 

The leadership of the library can set any strategic priorities they like. They have done so. They don't even need your vote. It's going to take a lot of training to convince staff to believe in those priorities, but the library disbanded the training committee and the reference committee and the collections committee. Thoughtful navigation anyone? 

I've observed that the the current Library Commission is a powerless entity. The commissions of old actually managed the City Librarian, went into close session to conduct an annual appraisal. But you are here to shine the apple and you do it well. 

But you love data and surveys. I challenge the library to survey the staff on their morale, their safety, opportunities for growth, and on their opinion of the strategic plan and the city librarian. The results may not shine. 

Public Comment - City Librarian's Report

I really like the tote bag because the message is clear -  Read. But I'm a little puzzled that the learning goal or actually, is it a learning goal as opposed to a reading goal. It's it's just all the combin combined ways that it's possible to get this instead of just reading - the learning, listening, library time. I just think it should really be about the reading. 

Public Comment Anonymous Citizen - June 18, 2026 Library Commission meeting

Anonymous citizen

Good afternoon, commissioners. Speaking as an anonymous citizen, of course, and stop the hate, stop the ignorance, don't give money to the Friends of the Library, don't accept money from the Friends of the Library.

There is a very common literary conceit to take a real circumstance and put an fictional character into it in order to fully explore the implications. The tessential example is a Scottish sailor set ashore on a deserted coast and somebody says, "Aha, Robinson Crusoe."

So, let's do that. Let's take a fictional character, appoint him to the Library Commission, and make his very first commission meeting March 2026. Rich with possibilities, right? We need a fictional name since he's a fictional character. So, let's call him Josiah Bartlett.

Mr. Bartlett has never been to a library commission meeting, never even sat in the audience, which is typical. Before he sits down at his first meeting, he is told that the library commission that he is joining has been breaking the law for more than a year by illegally limiting public comment in an evident attempt to deter public participation.

The first thing that Josiah Bartlett says is, "Wow, San Francisco has a commission system to assure public participation." That's what they teach you in a high school. The second thing he says is, "Who do we fire?" I have a reputation for honesty and integrity. Integrity implies accountability. Nothing says accountability like firing someone. Besides, if someone let us into this, they really deserve to be fired. 

Next, we have to honor the person who blew the whistle and got this fixed. Most importantly, we have to apologize to the citizens whose rights were affected, assure them they have our deepest regrets and that it won't happen again. 

The City Librarian comes to him and says, "We're not going to do that. We undercut those laws completely because they promote democracy and reason. The city's librarian says, "Well, we undercut reason because we're the elite. And if they acknowledge reason at all, we won't be elite. Intelligent will be the elite." 

The Josiah Bartlett says, "Wait a minute. If we are against democracy and we're against reason aren't the advocates of reason and democracy our enemies? And the City Librarian says, "Aha, welcome to the library commission." Well, Josiah Bartley says, "I'm profoundly against this big, but it's going to take me a few minutes to organize my thoughts. Perhaps we'll hear what he thinks in July. 

Second Commentary - November 20, 2025 Library Commission Meeting

Jason Gibbs Public Comment

I too would like to highlight page 19, staff assistance. And when you're speaking of staff's assistance, you're talking about frontline staff, librarians, technicians, assistants, pages, custodians, security, people who are serving the public every day. And that's where the greatest satisfaction comes from. and and I feel like it would be worth your time to make a commendation to frontline staff of the San Francisco Public Library. The library has something called staff appreciation, but this past year it was relegated to people who were meeting with the city librarian strategic priorities as opposed to providing the everyday fine service that the public sees and appreciates. Um, I thought it was an apt metaphor to call the staff a symphony, but uh the problem is that I it feels like the library administration doesn't really know the musicians and the parts they play. Um, so that that's I so I again I want to be very happy about that. And when we look at circulation statistics and traffic, we also have to keep in mind that the population of the city of San Francisco has actually shrunk some. So the fact that we're holding our own is showing in a way that we're act growing and doing very well. Thank you.

Commissioner Shawn Calhoun

Thank you. I really just want to echo what Pete said. This is very difficult work. The statistical work in particular is impressive. To have the level of confidence that we need to be able to sit here and and truly trust these data is no small feat. So to all the folks who made this happen, uh one small just fact, the city population actually has been increasing the last 3 years. And so to actually um continue to do this when we are serving net new people is pretty remarkable as well. I just wanted to make sure that that was out there as well. But thank you to everyone who uh created this report. 

Email from Jason Gibbs to the Library Commission on December 7, 2025

During public comment at the November 20, 2025, I made a statement regarding to numbers of library visits remaining strong and steady. I remarked that this is outstanding because the population of San Francisco is actually decreasing. 

Later in the meeting Commissioner Calhoun contracted my statement asserting that San Francisco population is on the rise. The format of Library Commission meetings does not allow members of the public to comment on statements made by the commissioners, so I am I’ trying to contact the commission by correspondence. 

I am writing to provide evidence showing that my remarks were factual and accurate. Unlike the rest of California, San Francisco continues to lose population. This information comes from the state’s Department of Finance. 

https://www.kqed.org/news/12038968/californias-population-rebounding-san-francisco-different-story 

San Francisco's population has dropped 3,300 since last year and over 30,000 since 2000. 

I might also add that the Main Library used to get a great deal more foot traffic before the year 2000 before government workers in the Civic Center were permitted to work all or or parts of the schedule from home. 

In light of this the library’s public service numbers are quite robust and worthy of celebration.

Public Comment - July 17, 2025; skeptical comment Commissioner Connie Wolf

General Public Comment 

Jason Gibbs, retired librarian

I wanted to circle back to the previous meeting.

There was an agenda item about programming performance metrics. And um, in that the city librarian expressed a vision that was a prioritization of the experiential over the transactional. I wanted to speak on behalf of the transactional for a moment, which I which we call a public service.

I wanted to tell you about a service called Libhat where people can through the computer chat with librarians anytime that the Main Library is open. I was a very active participant of of that as a librarian and my observation of it was that about 80 to 90% were people asking to renew their library cards, which if you think about it makes sense because the people doing that are people using our eResources who are not coming to the library.

And they are so grateful for those resources and exceptionally grateful for this service of being able to renew their library card without coming into the library.

One thing I noticed about many of these patrons when we open up a patron's record, we can see how many physical books they have checked out and in the vast majority of cases it was zero. They just love the electronic resources which we are glad to provide.

But what I also wanted to get across like you were very proud of the ratings that you were getting for the programming -- this program you can get up to four stars rating of the transaction. It's it's totally voluntary if you do it. And my tendency is to only rate when I'm pissed off and give a bad rating. But we have 93% four stars of people with that service. So, I just wanted to let you know how important public service is and how great San Francisco Public Library staff is at providing it and that it is more than just a transactional institution. Thank you.

AGENDA ITEM NO.3 STRATEGIC PLAN INITIATVE IMPLEMENTATION

Public Comment - Ruben Juarez, Circulation manager Oceanview Branch, SEIU representative

One of the things that I was -- I heard was going to be looking at workforce culture. Commissioners, can you, um, speak to this at some point or ask about this? Looking at the staff handbook, what exactly does that mean? And just playing that out, teasing that out so we understand what that entails.

Additionally, whenever I hear about data-driven decision-making, get a little anxious because I'm not sure what that exactly means as well. I know Randall has done a lot of good work, but I think drilling down to that as well is to see what that means for our members.

I know we just had a wonderful celebration. I know some of the commissioners went to it where we celebrated our workforce. So I think out of respect for our workforce just getting more feedback I think what would go a long way as well is a survey of the workers who do the work. I don't ever really see that part of it so what do we think about these things a survey that addresses to us -- about what are your thoughts. Anonymous is also helpful so that we don't feel anything but clarity and share our viewpoints Thank you. 

 

Peter Warfield, Library Users Association -

The old slogan of the library or mission statement was uh to provide free and equal access to and a list of things including the joys of reading, independent learning, and a number of other things. 

You've completely gotten rid of the old slogan for this project's mission, for the library's mission statement. And it says basically connecting communities with other communities and learning not independent learning and not individuals and nothing about reading or about books or other materials that the library has in many cases in very good abundance and variety and depth. 

I'm concerned that there is very little here specific about what you're doing with respect to what I use the library for. What about the collections? What about the tremendous value of periodicals and newspapers? What about guides for people to understand how to access those and what they are and what the value of those is? What about when there's a long waiting list? Providing access as in some colleges having reference copies so speople will always at least be able to have a good chance of seeing a recent book or a popular book or a newly popular book and at least have a look at it because the current system with long waits for the limited uh number of materials. You might not see a brand new book that you might be very interested in for a long time. 

And collections management, collection optimization, what does that mean? To me, that's hiding getting rid of books and printed materials. What does it mean? Specifics needed. [Applause] 

Jason Gibbs -

I'd like to applaud the projects as they were presented. I think they're all good. Um, but I wanted to focus on employee engagement. And when that was spoken of, it was talking about acknowledging accomplishments, it's actually an accomplishment to open and close a library every day. 

And I feel like the day-to-day work is not acknowledged. It it doesn't it's not flashy. It's not it doesn't seem you know that doesn't attract a lot of attention but being there to serve the public to provide a safe space a welcoming space a space where people have put thought into the organization of the collection.

That is not acknowledged and I have to say that um most of the staff feel like their work is not known. I think it would go a long way if that were to change. The morale, in fact, I mean you go in and everybody seems very happy because they're happy to serve the public but the morale is very low and I feel like that's maybe the most important thing to address is staff morale. and you the workplace culture. 

I agree with Ruben that yeah need to really focus on what does the change to the staff handbook mean? And I also agree with him that a staff survey would be very important. Because I feel like it's not that we've put the cart before the horse, it's that the cart and the horse are not connected and and a lot more work needs to be done along those lines. Thank you.

Commissioner Connie Wolf:

When I hear that we have projects you want to do and you're going to do -- twentys seven new ones this year -- and we're not adding an enormous number of staff. We we're almost setting ourselves up for failure. Because what is the baseline of what we do? I'm kind of touching on what everybody said here so I just I'm looking at you at different points but you know how do we identify what is core to who we are and you know there are going to be staff who are just so like this is my project and I'm going to keep doing it but there has to be a a shared sense of how we can do things better and that certain things may need to sunset or completely be completely rethought and those criteria have to be in place because as new projects come online, they need to be subjected to criteria for analysis. And also so many of us have started programs and you have a vision of what you think it's going to be and it never is that and you have to be nimble to move and adjust. So I just want to really emphasize the need to learn from mistakes but also the sunsetting focus. 

A couple other sort of um summary comments. I did get a sense from the different comments and questions today. I think there's a little concern about the number of programs we're trying to accomplish and I think sometimes less is more and even twenty seven feels just huge in one fiscal year. So um and especially if you're not sunsetting, you don't have plans to sunset. You're just going to create the criteria to sunset. So I think we need to be incredibly cautious and realistic and honest. I think you use the word honest. I mean having that sense of intellectual honesty about what we're really doing and not trying to just shove it in and saying we'veaccomplished this because we can move it from a yellow to a green to a red or whatever to beige. Beige. Who wants beige? Um, so I really encourage that. I do want to then just say that I I think we're just really really excited about the partnership with what you're doing, 

Jason Gibbs - illegal public comment time limits

Jason Gibbs, retired librarian. 

Coming to these meetings again, I sometimes feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle. I last participated in commission meetings in the early 1990s. It may seem quaint now, but back then when we opened the meetings by standing up, placing our hands over our hearts, and pledged allegiance to the flag in the Lurie Room - yes, that Lurie family. This gesture of solidarity of commissioners and the public took 15 seconds.

Out of curiosity, I recently had the notion to research the evolution of the bylaws of the Commission. One statement has remained in the bylaws. "The commission shall hold meetings open to the public and encourage the participation of interested persons." Attending these few meetings, I have seen that each of you is accomplished, intelligent, dedicated, attentive, and wants to support the library and its users. I hope you would assume that the interested persons who attend these meetings share your outlook. There was always a barrier of sorts between the public and the government and the exhortation to encourage participation is the way to lower that barrier.

In the searly 1990s, when I began attending meetings, the bylaws stated no time limit for public comment. By the mid-90s, the commission adopted a 4-minute time limit, which by the end of the decade dropped to three minutes. In March 2024, the commission acted to amend the bylaws. Four present members of the Commission cast votes to do so. The current amended bylaws continue to state that each member of the public can address the commission for up to three minutes. 

 
The bylaws are a legal document vetted by the city attorney's office. Every meeting I've attended, the commission has violated its own bylaws. Bylaws that current commissioners approved. If you cut me off before three minutes have transpired, you are violating your own rules. You must either follow your bylaws or amend them. The public should learn the rationale for limiting public participation. If you amend the bylaws to shorten the time limit, you could also amend the statement about encouraging participation. But I cannot believe that you really want to discourage participation.

The people who stand on this side of the microphone are not the enemies of the library or of the Commission.

Commission President Wolf illegally interrupting [2 minutes have transpired]: 

Thank you for your comments.

Jason Gibbs

 
Everyone here supports the San Francisco Public Library. Thank you. 

Commissioner Wolf:  

Any further public comment? Seeing there's no further public comment, public comments closed. I just want to thank everyone for participating so actively today and passionately.