Hackers accessed Warsaw Community Public Library’s website, but only for a day.
During the WCPL Board of Trustees meeting Monday, Assistant Director Joni Brookins said, “We had a mishap with our website. We got hacked, and it was resolved. He got us back up within a day.”
As a result, she said the library decided to have a support agreement with a company that deals exclusively with the software the library uses to create its website. “They will actually be able to get us up to the most recent, current version of that software. And we’ll actually be hosting our website off-site and maintaining it and making sure all those patches that they issue (are up to date) so we won’t have this problem happen again,” Brookins said.
She stated they tried to move to the latest version a while back, but didn’t have much luck doing it in-house so this should be a better option. The board wasn’t required to take any action on that matter, but did decide not to reverse an action it took at its Oct. 10 meeting.
Fair Labor Standard Act rules were to go into effect Dec. 1 that would have shrank the so-called “white collar exemption” that allows employers to skip overtime pay for salaried administrative or professional workers who make more than about $23,660 per year. Under the rule, those workers would have been eligible for overtime pay as long as they made less than about $47,500 a year, and the threshold would readjust every three years to reflect changes in average wages.
On Nov. 22, a federal court blocked the start of the rule. At its Oct. 10 meeting, the library board approved a pay hike to push those five employees’ salaries above the threshold to avoid having to pay any overtime. The additional pay totaled a little over $4,000 with the increase in salaries, FICA and PERF. The five individuals included the facilities supervisor, IT, cataloging supervisor, circulation supervisor and administrative assistant.
Monday, Board President Barbara Beck said that due to the federal judge putting an injunction on the FLSA rules, the board needed to assess whether it wanted to continue with its Oct. 10 decision or rescind it. Library Director Ann Zydek recommended the board move forward with its Oct. 10 decision and not rescind it.
In reviewing all the information, she said, “In essence, the Indiana State Library law consultant and general counsel, Sylvia Watson, basically said that we must following the existing (law), if you want to do more, you can, but you don’t have to at this point. As I was looking through this, the library has funds available. The library can do more than the existing rules. I believe it’s the right thing to do to honor the salary changes.”
No action had to be taken if the board wanted to keep its Oct. 10 decision in place, she said.
Beck said she personally felt the decision should remain as is.
Board member Chris Merrill said at this point the rule was just being challenged. “So it’s probably safer not to change because there is a possibility that it won’t be (overturned), and there could be retroactive dollars that have to go back and change it … so it’s probably a good idea that it stay the way it is.” No motion was made, keeping the decision in place.
In other business, the board:
• Heard from Brookins that the 3D printer has been ordered and should be ready for pick-up either this week or next.
• Approved the 2017 staff salaries and wages as presented to the board during its October budget discussions.
• Approved a 2017 slate of board officers. The officers, which will be approved at the January board meeting, include Merrill as president; Jill Beehler as vice president; Paulette Sauders as secretary; and Sherri Dalrymple as treasurer.
• Approved some minor changes to the library’s credit card policy as presented.
