The Board of Trustees of the New Rochelle Public Library went into an extended executive session last night to discuss an issue related to financial mismanagement by a library employee.
Before the meeting, Board President Greg Varian told Talk of the Sound the issue was on the agenda but would not be discussed publicly but that a statement would be issued Friday.
Talk of the Sound has agreed to hold further reporting on the story until the statement is officially released. Check back here for further developments during the day.
UPDATE: On Friday, Talk of the Sound was contacted by Library Trustee Bo Kemp who told Talk of the Sound that the issue had to do with fund balance accounting and that the amount involved was $100,000. He stated that an official announcement would be forthcoming that day. In the meantime, our reporting was picked up by other media outlets and a formal statement was issued yesterday afternoon which is reprinted below:
Statement of New Rochelle Public Library Board of Trustees Concerning Library Accounting
The New Rochelle Public Library Board of Trustees has recently become aware of lower than expected cash balance for the library due to a series of accounting errors. These accounting errors reflect the need for increased internal controls for the library’s accounting process. The lower cash balance is not expected to result in any change in Library services for the public.
At the time of the development of the New Rochelle Public Library budget, the Board of Trustees believed that the Library had over $500,000 in cash in the bank, mostly from the result of bonding expenditures not spent the previous fiscal year. A portion of this cash was thought to reflect the $77,500 in fund balance from the previous year’s unspent funds.
In June 2011, the Board of Trustees was notified by the School District that our cash flow was low and that we needed to monitor spending until the receipt of the regularly schedule Temporary Anticipation Note (TAN) funding. The Board of Trustees immediately hired a CPA and began researching the nature of these differences.
The due diligence process showed that at the end of our 2010/2011 fiscal year, we were in line with our budgeted expenses and slightly under our projected revenue.
Our research suggests that accounting irregularities leading to the misstatement of our fund balance were likely occurring over a number years resulting in an over-reporting of the existing cash balance in the range of $300,000. The fund balance reflects the difference in financial performance from one year to
the next. Every year some of the cash from the fund balance is allocated to the next year’s budget thereby reducing the tax burden on the public. The fund balance, bond funding and capital expenditure funding should be segregated for accounting purposes on the Library’s books. They were not. The result was confusion regarding how much cash was available for the general fund of the Library.
To address this issue going forward, the New Rochelle Public Library Board of Trustees has taken the following actions:
1) Hired an outside CPA firm to help identify and reconcile our accounting records.
2) Reorganized internal staff to incorporate the internal controls necessary to prevent such a problem in the future.
3) Augmented the Board of Trustees with members with additional professional financial and accounting experience.
4) Engaged with the School District Treasurer, to ensure better communication and coordination.
5) Approached an outside auditor to examine our books and review our internal control procedures.
The New Rochelle Public Library has received the TAN funding for this fiscal year and does not anticipate additional cash flow issues. In order to ensure that the public is not burdened with any undue increased taxes, the Library is enacting some budget adjustments to reduce expenses in this fiscal year.
Stop blaming the School District!
I’m sorry but does that read like a bunch of avoidance and pass the buck to anyone else but me? Our hard earned tax dollars hire a library director to Run the Library (which includes its finances) and we trust a board to make sure he does his damn job. $300,000 is not penny change. Out with the bums! They have all already proven they cannot handle our money!
That’s mismanagement but will heads roll? Heck no, this New Ro!
I honestly think the city should re-take over the library. Why do we need this extra layer of government? How does it help us? The budget’s gone from $2.7 million to $4.2 (or somewhere around there) in a mere 10 years. That’s a whopping 55% increase & I’m not really sure the board is up to the task. Whose salary has gone up that much over the last 10 years? Unfortunately not many yet we’re asked to pay these ever escalating expenses.
These guys are a bunch of elected officials spending millions of dollars ever year, but do they have the expertise? I doubt it as the JN is now reporting the library lost $300k & remeber it’s only been 10 years or so that they’ve been running the show. That’s called mismanagement, but will heads roll? Heck no, this is New Rochelle, they’ll probably get a raise!
Does Freedom of Information Apply to Library?
I recollect Freeman saying you can not schedule exectuive sessions in advance. Can anyone clarify this advanced notice?
Peggy Godfrey-executive session
To close a meeting for executive session, the law requires that a public body take several procedural steps. First, a motion must be made during an open meeting to enter into executive session; second, the motion must identify “the general area or areas of the subject or subjects to be considered;” and third, the motion must be carried by a majority vote of the total membership of a public body.
Open Meeting Law
Deep Throatis correct. The only problem with the Open Meeting Law is that it is not enforced by the State. It relies on the good will of the entity as well as the ability for bob freeman and his small staff to convince the entity in question to adhere to the law. Otherwise a citizen or citizen’s group has to retain legal assistance and bring the matter to Supreme Court and thatis unfortunate, expensive and time consuming.
I am in agreement with the fact that it is difficult to effectivel manage taxpayer money when major entities like the school district and library are not subject to council or city control. I, too, believe this is a mistake and that we will never get full accountability unless and until that day comes.
I don’t think it is unreasonable to wait for the Library’s full statement. They have employed some action steps that appear to make sense. Yet, the nature of the accounting error and the first action step lead me to believe that they do not employ an independent auditor to examine the books annually and catch these sorts of things. If they do, it is not clear by the presence of the first action step.
If I understand what happended, it is quite avoidable. Yet it points out a basic truth — both the school district and the library are subject essentially to oversight and policy conducted by non business based board members. These are largely fine public minded citizens, but few organizations place attorneys in significant problem solving or management positions for good reason and certainly, it is not a role for even the finest community advocates when you are dealing with multi-million dollar budgets.
I continue to urge the City Council (which includes by City Code definition our ceremonial mayor) to come up with a solution to a basic citizen tax issue. If you haven’t read the City Code, you should and every citizen via Channel 75, a Council Meeting or even TOTS, should be made aware of the roles, relationships, and responsibilities of the Ceremonial Mayor, City Council, and City Manager. I have been called “theoretical” or “naive” when I bring up the simple point that the council is not doing its job and is empowered by the Code to deal with many of the issues brought forward by TOTS and other sources. St Paul will not be different from Noam Bramson, he is a politician, worse an attorney, and has his own “old boys network”. I suppoort Noam on potential more than performance because like him or not, he is very bright and sufficiently connected bo make a difference.
Yet, neither he or any Council Member to my knowledge and review of past Council meetings has done anything meaningful about looking at the two major issues facing taxpayers… (1) control and monintoring of the school district and (2) growing a substantial commercial retail base with all necessary city protection, support, and input from current residents. Kevin Barrett, who I do not know, seems to want to make a difference here and I really don’t care at this point about whether I agree wtih his ideas or not, I care about that fact.
If you are open minded, you will review City Council meetings with a fresh set of eyes. They are a joke. I don’t know whether it is a moot court practice for law students, a Jesuit conference on small points on docrine, or an equivalent Jewish theological seminar on Talmudic interpretation. I say this because it has become a dog’s breakfast of minimal and largely meaningless lawyer points, much like the junk we see every day in national politics. It is a pity, worse an insult to your wallets and pocketbooks.
I am hoping that citizens can get tired of this in a non-political way, point out what the City Code obligates or insist that it be changed to reflect what is going on.
As for me, I am making this point on open mike at the first available September Council meeting meaning I am going to ask the City Attorney to present to the pubic what the specific roles, relationships and responsibilities of all the major components of City government are. I am follwoing that with direct questions at each council member as to why they ar fixated on politics and not on te job in front of them. After that, I will do what I can to be helpful to the faith community, Jim Killoran, or whatever might be useful. I am sick of politics and the rants that follow.
I am also sick of the “pillars of the community” such as O’Shaughnessy who mouth platitudes about “positive community” but I see little evidence that WVOX does much in this area. Bob Cox does a great deal. I have strong disagreements on how some of this is done, or how he draws conclusions from data, etc.. but absolutely no disagreement that he is a strong and viable voice for the community and as he has just said, he runs an open blog and I can personally attest to that given my past experiences.
In closing, I notice quite a growth in people who respond to the blog and have no reason to think that each alias represents a different individual. I am pleased that many voicss are being heard and frankly, care much more about that fact than I do about what someone believes or doesn’t believe. Just don’t be mislead by politicians — each one will disapooint you because after all, it is a job ad most people like to keep their jobs and love the power that goes along with these kinds of jobs.
Kudos
Very well said Warren. I would love to see this on the front page as opposed to a reply.
I am willing to explain how to POST…
…rather than COMMENT.
Posts can be promoted to the front page, comments cannot.
bob, please do
I think the explanation would be useful…
your offer
thank you deep throat and thank you bob cox. although i am basically extraordinarily technologically challenged, I would be pleased to post this on the front page as suggested if Bob so informs me how this is done. Might have to wait for my wife to return home, but it is worth it seeing clearly that this site is clearly an open voice and how I wish those who are afraid to admit they read it would step up and engage in open dialogue. thank you both once again.
quick explanation
In the FAQ is an explanation of how to “post” an article (as opposed to add a comment) on Talk of the Sound.
http://www.newrochelletalk.com/node/2028
Just click the button “create content” as described in the linked article and filled out the form like you would an email. At the bottom is a yellow button reading “publish”. Press that just like you would press “send” on an email.
Call me if you get stuck.
Once you have been through it once you will see that posting an article is virtually the same motions as sending an email.