Disgraced former Queens Public Library President and CEO Thomas Galante indicated this week that he is suing the Library for more than $2 million because he believes his termination was politically motivated, according to a New York Post report.
The 19-member Queens Library Board of Trustees last December voted unanimously to ax Galante, 54, who pulled down $392,000 per year, reportedly after reviewing his expense accounts.
In July, City Comptroller Scott Stringer released an audit and investigative report that painted a vivid picture of a disingenuous and reckless Library under Galante.
According to Stringer, 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.
On Monday, Galante said he’s a victim.
“After giving 27 years of my life to the Queens Library and raising millions of dollars to make it better, the political winds changed overnight and my name was dragged through the mud,” he said in a statement to The Post.
Among other claims in the suit, Galante said Stringer’s office never reached out to interview him for probe.
During Galante’s tenure, according to the audit and report, 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, Stringer said, 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, Stringer said, 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 3 percent.
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and the dark days of this saga are finally behind us,” Queens Borough President Melinda Katz said in December after Galante was axed.
Asked to comment on the lawsuit, the Library Trustees said in a statement, “After reviewing the complaint brought by Mr. Galante, we believe his claims are without merit and our actions to remove him were completely justified.”
By Michael V. Cusenza michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
