Galante: We’ll Open Books For Comptroller
The head of the Queens Library had to answer for how his organzation spends its money during a City Council hearing last Wednesday, Feb. 5.
The hearing was prompted by recent news that the library spent $140,000 to renovate CEO Thomas Galante’s office-including $27,000 for a teak tile deck adjoining the office.
Galante has also come under fire for his salary, which eclipses the mayor’s and edges out the the chairman of the MTA at $391,000 a year. Meanwhile, the library has trimmed 255 jobs via layoffs and attrition since 2008, noted Council Member Julissa Ferreras, who chairs the Finance Committee and presided over the hearing.
The library is a private entity that is mostly funded by public money. It is among the largest employers in the borough, with an annual operating budget of $125 million and a capital budget of $327 million.
The city kicks in about 80 percent of that total-the rest comes from state and federal grants and fines and fees, Galante explained.
Executive pay
For much of the hearing, the CEO defended his salary.
Galante said his salary is paid through public money and approved by the library’s board of trustees. Half of the board is appointed by the mayor; the other half by the borough president.
The library looks at 30 New York nonprofits with similar revenue and uses the top-five highest compensated employees’ salaries to determine Galante’s pay, according to the CEO.
Organizations used in the study include Brooklyn Law School, Juilliard School and Wagner College, Galante said.
Galante made $391,594 last year-about $8,000 less than the heads of comparable nonprofit CEOs, he said. The salary, however, was $12,000 than he was paid in 2012.
The library chief’s total salary including perks and benefits reaches over $400,000 a year, according to city officials who said he also recieves $37,000 for a car every three years.
Galante said the pay and benefits must be competitive, adding that his strong leadership justifies his high price tag.
Galante called the pay “average,” saying that the salary ensures “I don’t bounce to somewhere else, because I’ve got kids to put through college and what have you, like anybody else.”
Members of City Council said the salary was anything but average.
“I think it’s too high,” said City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley.
She said the library gets a larger portion of its funding from taxpayers than the nonprofits used to calculate Galante’s salary.
“And you’re more, in my eyes, a city entity than a traditional nonprofit organization,” she said.
Galante refused to say whether he had any sources of income aside from his job as Queens Library CEO.
City Council Member Eric Ulrich posed the question, saying that another job would force Galante to split his time between jobs and could affect his performance as CEO of the Queens Library.
Since the hearing, the New York Daily News reported that Galante has held a position with a Long Island school district. He reportedly made about $140,000 a year working 20- hour work weeks in 2009-2010. The News reported that Galante is still on the distrcit’s payroll, though his salary after 2010 is unknown.
CEO’s pay up climbs as library tightens belt
The inquiry broached library worker’s pay and the outsourcing of cleaning jobs to non-union contractors.
Public Advocate Letitia James touched on themes of inequality in an opening statement, noting that library has outsourced custodial jobs and that the system’s rank-and-file workers haven’t received a raise in four years while the CEO makes more than $250,000 a year.
“All of this while libraries in or near the Rockaways are still shuttered more than 15 months after Sandy…” she said.
During his statement, Galante defended the library’s wage practices, blaming the Great Recession for stagnant salaries. Since 2008, the library handed out 513 promotions that included pay raises, he said.
He also indicated the library system will resurrect union cleaning jobs if the economy continues to rebound.
“So when the economy is fully back where the council has the funding back to us from where we were we could totally relook at that,” Galante said.
Costly renovations
The hearing also touched on the $140,000 the libary spent last year to renovate Galante’s offices. The renovations included a teak smoking deck only accesible through Galante’s office.
Galante said taxpayers did not fund the renovations. The library maintains several separate accounts for each source of income, and the construction work was done with money raised through fees, grants and private donations, he said.
Moreover, publicly funded projects are routed through the city’s design and construction process rather than through the library, according to Galante.
“Not a single dollar flows through the Queens Library,” he said.
He said the library “welcomes a complete audit of city tax payer funds.”
During questioning, council members indicated the hearing would be one in a series.
“I’m disappointed by some of your answers today to be quite honest with you,” Ulrich said to Galante. “And I think that this council, the mayor’s office, the borough president and every other elected official who is a stakeholder and an investor in the public library system has a lot of work to do to restore the public’s confidence in our ability to serve them with public libraries. This will not be the last hearing, and this will not be the last that you hear from us on this matter.”
