Former Queens Library president makes a pretty penny

From onrockaway:

Only in New York City would a man who used more than $250,000 in public funds on “inappropriate” expenses be rewarded with a $300,000 windfall and be protected from paying back the money he used.

City officials, have agreed to just that deal with Queens Library president Thomas Galante, who got canned for his actions and then sued the city for violating his contract. The city caved and paid out the money. The library has agreed to settle Galante’s severance suit for $1.5 million, most of which will go to legal fees, except for $300,000 that he will pocket.

An audit by the city Comptroller’s Office found that he racked up roughly $260,000 in “inappropriate” expenses on his library-issued credit cards over two years including for food, booze, casino trips and concert tickets.

Nevertheless, Galante filed suit last year in Brooklyn federal court after he was terminated in December 2014, claiming he was due severance pay under his contract because he was not fired for cause. But even though the library argued that he was indeed fired for cause, it decided not to fight Galante in court.

Library sues Galante

From the Daily News:

The ex-CEO of the Queens Library expensed books he bought on Amazon for his Kindle, the library says in court papers.

The library filed the complaint about Thomas Galante in a countersuit to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses and legal fees it forked over to the ousted executive, the Daily News has learned.

In the scathing answer to Galante's breach-of-contract suit demanding $2.2 million in severance pay, the Queens Library seeks more than $200,000 in questionable expenses from 2009 to 2014.

Thomas Galante sits on the board meeting briefly before leaving for the evening. He was later voted on Administrative Leave with pay, September 11, 2014.
In addition, the library wants Galante to return $260,715 it paid to his attorneys after he and his consulting company were slapped with subpoenas by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office.

Library audit very revealing

From The Forum:

With the audit and investigative report he released on Wednesday, City Comptroller Scott Stringer has painted a vivid picture of a disingenuous and reckless Queens Library under ousted President and CEO Thomas Galante.

Galante and other Library executives spent more than $300,000 on prohibited items such as extravagant meals, alcohol, Apple TVs, smokeless ashtrays, airline upgrades, and tickets to a Maroon 5 concert and Disneyland, all while claiming that the Library was running a deficit, according to the audit and report.

The results of the investigation have been referred to the Internal Revenue Service and law enforcement authorities.

During Galante’s tenure, the Library charged nearly all of its operating expenses to its internal “City Fund” account, which was subject to oversight by the comptroller’s office. As a result, Stringer said, from Fiscal Year 2008 to FY 2013 the Library appeared to run deficits that ranged from $5.7 million to $6.9 million, enabling Galante to go before the City Council and plead for more funds.

In reality, the Library had anywhere from $17 to $27 million in unrestricted funds in its fines and fees, state and board designated funds over the same period. Stringer said that Library executives could have drawn upon these so-called hidden funds. Instead, they used the money in part to pay for a wide range of inappropriate expenses.

At the same time they were improperly spending public funds, the Library was eliminating services to the reading public, cutting branch operating hours by an average of four hours per week. During that same time period, Library executives’ salaries increased, with compensation growing by nearly 7 percent—even as they cut services staff and their salaries by 2.8 percent.

Additionally, the audit and investigative report found that from July 2007 to December 2013, Galante made $670,000 in credit card charges that were never approved by the Library’s Board or Chief Financial Officer. And from FY 2012-2014, Galante and then-Chief Operating Officer Bridget Quinn-Carey incurred more than $310,000 in expenses that violated the Library’s Credit Card, Travel, and/or Purchasing Policy (roughly $260,000 of which were incurred by Galante.)

Galante gone

From the Queens Chronicle:

The Board of Trustees of the Queens Library voted unanimously on Wednesday night to oust embattled CEO Tom Galante for cause. The board approved a resolution following an executive session of more than two hours at the library's Jamaica central office.

Attorney Dan Kurtz was in the session.

Galante has been under fire for more than a year since a series of reports in three Daily News led to investigations by city agencies and the FBI, who are probing the library's and Galante spending of the library's funds.

He's suing.

Katz prevails against library trustees in court

From the Queens Chronicle:

A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit brought against Borough President Melinda Katz by six former Queens Library trustees who had sought to have their dismissals overturned by the court, Katz announced Sunday.

The six were members of a faction that had shielded now-suspended library President and CEO Tom Galante from attempts by a minority of the board to put him on leave while investigations into alleged financial mismanagement played out, and that had refused to provide City Comptroller Scott Stringer with all the documents he sought for an audit of the system.

Already planning structural reforms to the library, and faced with the bloc’s intransigence, which she and other officials considered a slap in the face of the public, Katz spearheaded state legislation carried by state Sen. Mike Gianaris (D-Astoria) and Assemblyman Jeff Aubry (D-Corona) that allowed for the immediate removal of board members by the office that had appointed them.

Galante placed on leave

From DNA Info:

The embattled head of the Queens Public Library was put on leave Thursday after a months-long conflict with elected officials and a series of investigations into the institution's spending.

Thomas Galante, who makes $392,000 a year, will continue to receive his salary and benefits, the library said.

The decision from the library's board comes amid a series of ongoing investigations by the FBI and the city's Department of Investigation probing construction spending at the library.

The board also decided Thursday to provide City Comptroller Scott Stringer with all of the library's financial documents, which the trustees had initially refused to do.

Mayor and BP ax library board members

From the Queens Courier:

Eight trustees of the Queens Library were banished from the board in a sudden email blitz Wednesday.

Six members were dismissed by Borough President Melinda Katz and Mayor Bill de Blasio cut loose two board members.

The eight members cut loose were Joseph R. Ficalora, Jacqueline E. Arrington, Patricia Flynn, William Jefferson, Grace Lawrence, Terri C. Mangino, George Stamatiades and Stephen Van Anden.

Van Anden and Flynn were the mayoral appointees.

One of the trustees fired by Katz, who wished to remain anonymous, called the move “politics at its worst.”

“I got a letter emailed to me today,” the former trustee said. “I’m not surprised. I’m okay. I’m not shocked; I was waiting for it.”

The firings came after a protracted battle over the tenure of library director Tom Galante, who drew fire after a smoking deck was built outside his office in the Central Library in Jamaica as well as revelations that he augmented his $400,000 salary with more than $200,000 in part-time pay from the Elmont, L.I., school district.

Lawmakers reacted strongly and recently enacted legislation gave politicians the power to summarily remove board members.

Shady library board plans to pull a fast one

From the Daily News:

The trustees of the Queens Public Library have scheduled an emergency meeting for Thursday night to remove their controversial director Thomas Galante, while also granting him more than $800,000 in a golden parachute consulting deal, the Daily News has learned.

Word of the hastily scheduled meeting prompted Public Advocate Letitia James, an ex-officio member of the library’s board, to request State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who regulates non-profit organizations, to join her in seeking a court order to halt the proposed vote.

In a letter late Wednesday to Schneiderman, a copy of which the News obtained, James blasted the trustees’ attempt “to reward the current President with an employment contract that is too favorable in terms, or that will provide him with assets of the Library upon his departure or removal.”

Under the proposed deal, Galante would resign the $392,000-a-year chief executive post he has held for 10 years, and would be given instead a consultant job until July 31 on an “as needed basis” - at a salary of $407,876, said two trustees who were briefed on the deal.

Then on Aug. 1, Galante would begin a two-year consulting job for the library at $386,779 annually. He would also be paid an additional $50,000 on Aug. 1, 2015.

UPDATE: The meeting was canceled.

Legislatures try to reform the library

From the Daily News:

City Hall and Albany both came down hard on the Queens Public Library this week after its embattled chief executive, Thomas Galante, refused to open the organization’s financial records.

In Albany, a bill to reform the library’s governance was approved by the State Senate by a vote of 59-1 on Friday. The measure was previously approved by unanimous vote of the Assembly, and Gov. Cuomo is expected to sign it into law.

Introduced by state Sen. Mike Gianaris (D-Queens), the bill would reduce the terms of the library’s trustees to three years, from five. It also would empower the mayor and the Queens borough president, who together appoint half of the library’s trustees, to remove an appointee at will. And it would subject the library to the state’s Freedom of Information Law.

In Albany, a bill to reform the library’s governance was approved by the State Senate by a vote of 59-1 on Friday. The measure was previously approved by unanimous vote of the Assembly, and Gov. Cuomo is expected to sign it into law.

The bill would allow Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, who championed the measure, to replace trustees who have rebuffed her demands to open the library’s books to the City Controller’s office and to suspend Galante from his $392,000-a-year post.

“I don’t want to remove members just to remove them, but I need for them to do the right thing,” Katz said Friday. “Taxpayers need to know the money they are spending on a great library system is being spent properly.”

The de Blasio administration’s budget deal with the City Council, reached Thursday night, granted the city’s three library systems just $10 million in new funding, far less than the $65 million they were seeking in order to restore full, six-day service at all branches.

The FBI and the city’s Department of Investigation launched probes of the library’s construction contracts after the Daily News revealed questionable expenditures by Galante, including a renovation of his executive suite that added a $27,000 private smoking deck.

The mayor’s office offered more money if the libraries agreed to open their books, two sources involved in the talks told The News. But when Queens library officials refused to do so, the administration limited the budget increase to just $10 million.

Machine appointees save Galante

From the Daily News:

The nine Queens Library trustees who voted against placing President Tom Galante on leave put loyalty to the man over their duty to the institution.

They should be booted from office along with him.

Nine trustees came to their senses and voted to shelve Galante pending FBI and Department of Investigation probes. One trustee missed the vote. And the Galante 9 prevented the resolution from passing.

They severely damaged the library, run as it is by a nonprofit organization that is funded with city money and must have the trust of elected officials. That trust is now irreparably broken.

The mayor and Queens borough president appoint board members. Mayor de Blasio and BP Melinda Katz, who called for Galante’s ouster, must eliminate the nine as their terms come due.

First up for canning are George Stamatiades and William Jefferson, whose tenures expire at the end of the year. Katz should announce their replacements now.

The rest to be let go in time are Grace Lawrence, Leonard D’Amico, Joseph Ficalora, Stephen Van Anden, Patricia Flynn, Mary Ann Mattone and Terri Mangino. Of note, Mangino, who has been on the board since 1972, was hauled in from Florida to cast the vote that saved Galante.

Katz wants Galante to step down

From the Daily News:

Embattled Queens Library boss Thomas Galante should take a leave and stay out of circulation while the latest chapter of his spending and payment scandal plays out, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz said Monday.

Katz sent sharply worded letters to both Galante and the library’s board of trustees, calling for the board to formally suspend him at their meeting set for Thursday.

She said faith in library leadership has been dangerously undermined by recent revelations involving Galante, and the “thousands of children, adults and seniors” who rely on the $120 million-a-year Queens Library system are at risk.

“In order for the library to operate effectively and more importantly, to continue to receive taxpayer money, I believe it is best for the institution that you take a leave of absence effective immediately, and continuing until the various investigations and audits into the Library’s operations are resolved,” Katz wrote Galante in a letter obtained exclusively by The News.

“Given the current state of uncertainty and turmoil, I don’t believe you will be able to successfully lead the institution through this budget cycle, and the library will suffer, which is an outcome nobody wants,” she said.

The city Department of Investigation, the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office are reviewing library records and conducting interviews as part of a possible criminal probe, The News previously reported.

The Feds have been brought in

From the Daily News:

Thomas Galante, embattled director of the Queens Library, is facing a criminal probe by the FBI, federal prosecutors and the city’s Department of Investigation, the Daily News has learned.

The first sign of the joint probe came Friday when agents for the FBI and DOI suddenly appeared at the Queens Central Library in Jamaica with subpoenas for both Galante and the library’s construction management consultant, Frank Marino, according to a library source.

Marino, owner of Advanced Consulting Corp. in Merrick, L.I., has received contracts to manage 15 Queens Library improvement projects since 2008.

The probe appears to center on how Galante — who received more than $390,000 in salary last year, plus a city-supplied $37,000 sports car — spent millions in taxpayer dollars on various library renovations, a second source said.

Representatives for both the FBI and DOI declined comment. And Queens library officials did not respond to repeated emails and phone calls from The News.

Hopefully, less expensive = less ugly

From LIC Post:

Residents of the Hunters Point section of Long Island City will have to wait longer for their public library — perhaps several years.

Groundbreaking for the 21,500-square-foot, state-of-the-art waterfront library was supposed to take place last summer with completion scheduled for 2015, but now the entire project is in limbo.

In a letter to Friends of Queens Library at Hunters Point, Thomas Galante, the beleaguered president and CEO of Queens Library, wrote that the building project was vastly under-budget at $28.6 million with a construction budget of just $23 million. When construction bids came in, they ranged from $33 million to $42 million.

Galante wrote of “the overall complexity of the design and several unique, difficult to source, or expensive to procure, interior and design features.” Celebrity architect Steven Holl’s plans were too elaborate, with features that included a rooftop terrace, gardens and a gallery, he said. If and when the library is built on the parcel of land at Center Boulevard and 48th Avenue, next to Gantry Plaza State Park, it will not resemble the original plans.

In the letter, Galante said there would be significant design changes. Gone is the Geothermal Well system in favor of a more traditional heating and cooling system. The aluminum exterior facade will now be cement and glass and custom interior fixtures are replaced with standard fixtures. In all, the changes save $4.7 million.

The entire project will be open to rebids by “a new and more extensive list of contractors,” Galante wrote.

He's gotta go (or take a pay cut)

From the Daily News:

The trustees of the Queens Library system are standing by their $392,000-a-year director who moonlights as a highly paid consultant to a Long Island school district. Of course they are.

They’re the bunch who awarded the money to Thomas Galante, along with freedom to conduct a side business . That work got him an additional $287,000 from 2008 to 2010, the only period for which figures are available.

After Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez revealed Galante’s salary — and before his consulting work came to light — Galante argued his case before this Editorial Board. Here is what he said about the salary he negotiated with his board:

“It’s good money. I am not saying it’s not good money, but the reality is, you know what, I am going to kick ass, work a hundred hours a week, I am going to do great by the organization.”

Now it is clear that he is not working “a hundred hours a week” for the library, not when he was also billing the Elmont school district for an average of 22 hours a week at $150 an hour.

Do the math: One hundred hours for the library plus 22 hours for the school district equals 122 hours. To cover all that, Galante would have to work more than 24 hours a day in a five-day workweek, or more than 17 hours a day in a seven-day workweek.

Even allowing that Galante was using a figure of speech when he said “a hundred hours a week,” the clear import of his remarks was that he has devoted his life entirely to running the Queens system.

And that is not the case.
______________________________________________________________

Dear Mr. Galante:

It is with deep sorrow that I am writing to you regarding the recent controversies about your salary and expenditures as Executive Director of the Queens Borough Public Library.

I have always considered you a friend; but for the sake of the Queens library, whom we both share a tremendous devotion, I ask you to step down as Executive Director.

I was shocked to learn of your $392,000 salary, which by any common sense standards, is out of line for your position. It was further disturbing to learn of the reported tens of thousands of dollars spent on questionable office renovations. You indicated during your recent testimony before the City Council hearing on these matters that money for this project did not come from municipal funds. Did it come from donations to the Queens Library Foundation? If it did, which seems likely, were donors to the foundation made aware that their contributions were not going directly to services, books or operations.

While these are serious issues, the fact that you are reportedly employed by another municipality, the Elmont School District, as the same time serving as Executive Director with a huge full time salary, is simply unacceptable, and raises questions about a conflict of interest.
You have always advocated for more funding for the Queens Library and I applaud your efforts in that regard. However, these issues not only seriously jeopardize your ability to function as Executive Director; but also to advocate for the necessary funding to operate and expand the most heavily used library system in the country.

I urge you to consider the interests of the library and its patrons and resign.

With deep regret,
Tony Avella
State Senator
11th Senatorial District

Jimmy come lately

From DNA Info:

City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer is calling for an oversight hearing on the Queens Library, following news reports about the library system's president collecting a large salary while shedding more than 100 jobs over the past five years.

Van Bramer, the council's new majority leader and chairman of the committee on cultural affairs and libraries, called for the hearing following stories in the New York Daily News that said Queens Library President Thomas Galante collects a $391,594 salary and spent $140,000 last year on renovations for his offices at the Queens Central Library in Jamaica, including a "private smoking area."

The library has eliminated nearly 130 jobs over the past five years, the paper reported.

In a statement, Van Bramer — who worked for the Queens Library for 11 years before his election to the City Council — called for "an immediate oversight hearing on the Queens Library, its Central Library project and its operations."

"Stories of private outdoor patios and questionable spending deserve great scrutiny and they will get it," the councilman said.

So let me get this straight...Jimmy worked for the library for 11 years, has been chair of the library committee since he entered the council in 2009, and regularly hobnobs with these people at cultural events, but he didn't know a thing about what was going on until the Daily News story?

Why does the Queens Library director make more money than the mayor?

From the Daily News:

For a classic study of the “Tale of Two Cities,” Mayor de Blasio should visit the Queens Central Library.

Patrons of that dilapidated two-story building on Merrick Blvd. in Jamaica have faced years of unending construction and diminished services.

But that didn’t stop library President Thomas Galante from spending $140,000 last year to renovate his offices on the building’s second floor. Galante managed this after eliminating nearly 130 library jobs through layoffs and attrition over the past five years.

We paid a visit last week to tour the Central Library renovations, which include:

- A 250-square-foot rooftop deck adjacent to Galante’s office for use as his private smoking area. Built with teak tile, furnished with wrought-iron furniture, and surrounded by two dozen evergreens that shield it from onlookers, the deck’s tab alone was more than $27,000.

- Two new executive conference rooms, one of which looks more like a private lounge area, featuring sparkling wood floors, a half-dozen leather sofas and chairs, a stylish drop ceiling, and a giant flat-screen television. Cost: more than $110,000.

- A paint job for his existing personal bathroom and shower.

All this came courtesy of you, the taxpayer.

And that’s on top of Galante’s eye-popping salary last year of $391,594 — an increase of $12,000 from the previous year.