Calls For Hearing On Spending
Reacting to reports about the six-figure salary of the Queens Borough Public Library’s boss, a local City Council member is calling for an oversight hearing on the non-profit’s operations.
City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, who was recently appointed the body’s majority leader and is chairman of its Cultural Affairs and Library Committee, stated on Tuesday, Jan. 28, he was disturbed by articles in the New York Daily News regarding the finances of Queens Library and its president and chief executive officer, Thomas W. Galante.
Reportedly, Galante was paid $391,594 last year-a figure that he claimed to be “average” for leaders of non-profit organizations, according to the Daily News article.
Reportedly, Queens Library also spent $140,000 renovating Galante’s office at the Central branch in Jamaica. The project included the installation of a private patio.
Meanwhile, it was noted, much of the library’s staff has gone without a pay increase since 2008 and some 130 positions at Queens Library have been dropped in recent years. The library system also faced proposed budget reductions in recent years that have threatened additional cutbacks, including branch closures.
“Over the last two days, I have read reports and statements about the Queens Library that cause me great concern,” said Van Bramer, who previously worked for Queens Library prior to his election to the City Council in 2009. “I am deeply offended by comments made by president and CEO Tom Galante about the library’s hard working and dedicated janitorial staff.”
Galante charged in the Jan. 28 Daily News article that the controversy over his salary had been stirred up by disgruntled members of Local 1321, which represents Queens Library custodians, in protest of the outsourcing of positions to a thirdparty vendor.
“This whole thing was set up by them,” Galante was quoted as telling the Daily News. “I was paying $35 an hour to janitors to mop floors and now we’re paying $15.”
The savings from such costcutting decisions, he claimed, would help Queens Library open certain branches on Sundays.
Van Bramer said on Tuesday he loves the library and remains “proud to be its bigest supporter,” but “stories of private outdoor patios and questionable spending deserve great scrutiny, and they will get it.”
“The Queens Library is a great institution which changes lives for the better every day in every neighborhood in Queens,” the Council member added. “It is bigger than any one person and its mission of educating and transforming lives is one we all hold dear.”
Van Bramer stated he had the support of City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito in his call “for an immediate oversight hearing on the Queens Library, its Central Library project and its operations.”
Both Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and City Council Member Eric Ulrich issued statements Tuesday supporting Van Bramer’s call for the Queens Library oversight hearing.
City Comptroller Scott Stringer also announced his office would conduct “comprehensive” audits of Queens Library as well as the Brooklyn Public Library and New York Public Library systems.
