Emergency Response

Our board meetings are now 100% remote, and one trustee has failed to attend every session since the start of the pandemic.  How can our board address that, if we know the move to virtual meetings (unfamiliarity with Zoom, bad internet, etc.) is the reason for the absence?  Is removal an option?

Earlier this week I was having a conversation with Brian, one of my paralegals, about the challenges we—our office and our clients—are facing due to the pandemic.  The conversation ranged from the personal (Brian is a musician whose band hasn't been able to play; my father-in-law is in the hospital and we can't go see him), to the professional (how to handle a contract breached because people c

Can an employer require a negative COVID test before an employee comes to work? We have discussed it on our [public library system] member directors list but have not come up with a clear yes or no answer.

Here's something positive and affirming I can say: it's possible that the members expressing different opinions on the member directors' list are actually all correct.

Are public or private libraries obligated to give paid time off for eligible employees to get the vaccine during work time? A staffer is planning to go upstate for it on a work day and the question came up if they have to use sick time or just "get the day" to take care of this. Thank you!

Non-governmental employers

Recent changes to the Labor Law make the "private" part of this question easy to answer: since all employers must now offer all employees sick leave (unpaid if the employer has under four employees, paid if five or more), an employee may use that sick leave for the purpose of obtaining medical care, including to get vaccinated.

The governor announced that the vaccine rollout to public employees would be through our unions and health groups, but also said that WE need to prioritize who receives the vaccine first (based upon risk factors/comorbidities) since the supply is limited (as the governor mentioned in Friday's press conference) --it will probably take a few months to vaccinate every staff member who wants on

The member's caution shows how important it is to get this one right.

Before delving into it, I want to say: for public libraries with a union, this is one to confer with union leadership on. 

For public libraries without a union, it will be good to think about not only your internal prioritization, but the messaging around it. 

We are a private association library. There is a "difficult" patron who sits on a bench (almost everyday doing nothing but trying to talk to anyone nearby) which is immediately next to our front doors on library property. We are doing curbside pick-up so the staff places the library items immediately outside the front doors on a table. The patrons come to the table to pick them up.

***THIS ANSWER IS NOT FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIES***[1]

Here is what else you can do:

Any private association library currently[2] operating in the State of New York is required[3] to have a pandemic Safety Plan.

A member of my board of trustees would like for us to meet in person. There would be 9 people in the room. They wanted to know if allowing the meeting to be simultaneously on Zoom would satisfy the requirements of open meetings law even though only one member of the public would be able to be physically present in order to stay under the 10-member cap for small gatherings.

Since the onset of the pandemic, we have had two questions about the impact of Executive Orders on the Open Meetings Law.

The first question, back in March 2020 (remember March 2020?  Ugh.), led to this advice:

Under the executive order, the modifications to Open Meetings Law meant we (I'm asking for several libraries in our system) record our Board meetings.

Before attempting to answer this one, my team and I looked to see if anyone else "out there" has tackled this question.

New state guidelines list face shields as acceptable face coverings:
https://regs.health.ny.gov/volume-1a-title-10/content/section-66-32-face-coverings [NOTE: This link was confirmed as no longer active and removed on 02/25/2022 as part of the routine review of "Ask the Lawyer" materials.]

This question came into "Ask the Lawyer" with a request for a quick turnaround, so we'll keep this brief.

Are we permitted to make our own safety rules?

Yes...and no.[1]  But that doesn't matter for this question, because the member's real objective is...

Can you provide a template facility use agreement for renting or allowing community groups to regularly use space in a public or association library?

Yes, I can!  But first, a few caveats:

I work with a number of municipal public libraries - some are village, others are town. Some libraries use their municipality's employee handbooks, payroll, services like snow blowing and building maintenance, and have the municipalities cut the checks.

Many of the questions we get at "Ask the Lawyer"[1] relate to this concern.  As the priorities cited by the member suggest, the library-municipality relationship is a Big Issue.