The Queens Library has shelved its president.
The library’s board of trustees voted Thursday night to suspend embattled library boss Tom Galante.
Galante will continue to collect his $392,000 annual salary while on administrative leave, library officials said.
His duties will be carried out by Bridget Quinn-Carey, the library’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.
“Queens Library has a critical mission to provide information and education. It has long been a model of excellence, “ Quinn-Carey said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the board of trustees, our elected officials and colleagues at all levels of the organization, including our union, to build on the library’s outstanding work. There are 2.3 million people depending on it.”
Galante declined to comment on Friday.
The board also voted to open its books for the city comptroller, Scott Stringer, to perform an audit on all financial data from the library, which receives 85 percent of its funding from taxpayer money.
Galante and the board, which has seen 10 trustees removed or resigned, had refused to surrender the information relying on a decades-old agreement with the city that allowed the comptroller to audit only that portion of the budget that came from public funds.
That dispute, as well as a revelation in the Daily News that Galante was earning a hefty wage moonlighting for the Elmont school district, sent lawmakers into action, granting the borough president and mayor the power to remove board members for cause. Galante has also been under fire after the renovation of his office that included a $27,000 outdoor deck was revealed.
In July, Borough President Melinda Katz fired six trustees and Mayor Bill de Blasio canned two. Two others resigned. Four new trustees have since been appointed.
Six of the ousted trustees filed a lawsuit in August demanding to be reinstated. They were unsuccessful in getting an injunction to prevent their permanent removal, which became official after Katz rejected their appeals. The suit, which also demands monetary damages from Katz, is pending in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Katz lauded the board’s decision, saying that it would allow them to “take immediate steps to improve the Queens Library’s governance and increase the transparency of its operations.”
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