Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Library Leadership topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Carmel-by-the-Sea names Melinda Cervantes interim library and community activities director
Summary
Carmel-by-the-Sea welcomed Melinda Cervantes as interim and acting library and community activities director. Cervantes, who has led and advised library projects in several jurisdictions, said she is already engaged in community outreach and the conceptual phase of a Harrison Library renovation and will help during the search for a permanent hire.
Carmel-by-the-Sea officials on an agenda update welcomed Melinda Cervantes as the city’s interim and acting library and community activities director. Cervantes said this week was her first in the role and that she has attended community engagement meetings with the project architects and staff.
Cervantes said she has “been a library director more than 20 years” and has worked on significant renovation projects. “I have... located to PG, but I am in Carmel, most every day, every week and this week being my first was exceptional because the architects were in town to work on the community engagement meetings,” Cervantes said. She identified past projects including work in Richmond, where a 1947 main library is undergoing renovation, and in Milpitas, where a new structure was wrapped around a historic grammar school.
The city representative who opened the item said Cervantes would help the city as it advances a joint City–Carmel Public Library Foundation project, and suggested the council could expect a more formal design update before year’s end or in January. “Designs are not there yet, it's still conceptual,” Cervantes said; she said the design team would likely return to the council with a formal update by the end of the year or in January.
Cervantes described her prior experience with merged departments, citing Saint Helena and Richmond as examples where libraries and community services were combined under a single umbrella. She said she would assist “when you get to the point of hiring a permanent director.”
The council or official remarks also thanked library staff and the Carmel Public Library Foundation for recent presentations about library services; those presentations were described as comprehensive by officials at the meeting.
The remarks also included a short overview of planned city-supported events the library and community activities office helps support, including the Pumpkin Roll, homecoming parade and holiday tree lighting; officials said Cervantes will be involved in planning those events in the near term.
No formal vote or hiring motion was recorded in the meeting transcript for this item; the meeting record shows this as an introductory and informational presentation and an interim appointment already in place.
