MAMARONECK, NY — A betrayal of trust and a lack of oversight, could mean a Westchester community's most treasured institution will soon be shuttered indefinitely.
A probe into financial irregularities has found that the Mamaroneck Public Library will be forced to close its doors by June, library leaders say, unless a solution to an unexpected $1.4 million shortfall can be found in the coming weeks.
In a somber meeting at village hall, library leaders told elected officials that the library is in dire straits, because of a "misappropriation of funds and a number, a many number of questionable expenditures."
"At the end of January, we felt the entire community was betrayed," Mamaroneck Public Library Board President Ellen Freeman told trustees at a special meeting on Monday. "Our finances were built on false information received from our business manager who worked at the library for 27 years."
SEE ALSO: 'Financial Irregularities' At The Mamaroneck Library
At the public meeting, Freeman detailed the initial findings of a financial forensic audit and pointed the finger squarely at the library's former business manager. As the library leader explained the depths of the institution's financial crisis, there were audible sighs from elected officials at the brazen and unchecked actions that led to this point.
"Our audited statements and actual fund balances did not match the numbers the board received each month," Freeman said. "Checks for services we thought were cashed were stashed in a drawer. The board built our next year’s budget on bad information. We were told we had a lot more money in our accounts than we actually did."
Last month, Mamaroneck Public Library Business Manager Mary Soto resigned, but the financial forensic audit into the library records is continuing. Library officials said the organization will take "any and all measures necessary to address whatever issues are raised during that investigation."
In the meantime, the library's ability to keep its doors open is very much in doubt.
"The library needs $300,000 before June 1, 2023," Freeman told village officials. "The library will need another $850,000 by September 1, 2023. The library will need another $261,000 by January 1, 2024. The total ask is $1,412,000."
At last night's meeting, the library asked the village for emergency help.
"We are asking the village to help secure a short-term loan so we don’t run out of money for expenditures before June 1 and before we receive our next check from the village," Freeman said.
Mayor Tom Murphy indicated that Mamaroneck officials want to help with the crisis, but warned that there may be limits to how the village is legally permitted to offer support and the tight timeframe further complicates the municipality's possible role.
"The question now, as I see it, is what can be done to help our residents who depend upon the Library’s many important programs and functions to maintain a functioning Library," Murphy said in a statement released following the meeting. "The Village government seems to be the only governmental entity that can help the Library and the many residents it serves navigate through this tempest. The Village CAN NOT give the Library the shortfall in funding that they face. We don’t have the legal authority, nor is that a prudent fiscal solution."
Murphy said that the village may be legally permitted to lend credit to the library. He said this would require the approval of Tax Anticipation Notes (TAN) that the library would then have to repay to the village out of future library tax revenues.
The library itself has no statutory authority to borrow money, according to Murphy, and so the village would need to step in.
"This will keep the Library open and running until they create a structure that will put their fiscal house in order and ensure that this will never happen again," Murphy said. "They will have to come up with a plan that shows the community how the needed changes will be implemented in the future."
The mayor indicated that those reforms would need to be put in place sooner rather than later.
"The Library had one person, the Business Officer, overseeing all financial transactions and records for many years (Not an optimal arrangement for a number of reasons)," Murphy said. "This person has been accused of inappropriately using a position of trust to use library funds for personal purposes. This matter is now in the hands of the Westchester County District Attorney to investigate and decide on what charges to file."
Mamaroneck Public Library Executive Director Jennifer O'Neill told village trustees that, in some ways, the best of intentions are to blame for the current predicament.
"We thought we had between $3 and $5 million, depending on the year, in that fund," O'Neill said. "People have thought that existed for years and we didn't want to burden the taxpayer so we passed a budget of 6 percent, thinking that we would take money out of that reserve because we had it there and we felt that it should be used and not just sitting there. And that money just did not exist. And so, you ask if we have a contingency plan. Our cash reserves was our contingency plan. So, at this point, no, we don't have one."
O'Neill told elected officials that belt-tightening won't solve the problem at this point.
"Our budget wasn't necessarily the issue," O'Neill explained. "We have salaries and the bond which are our primary expenditures, about 90 percent of our budget. In addition to that, we have things like fuel, building repairs, supplies, printing, telephone, postage, taxes, election expenses, building insurance, contracts, technology, trustee insurance, New York State retirement, payroll, workers comp, disability, health insurance. The things that we have a little bit of wiggle room on, we've already cut which are books and periodicals, professional training. We've really squeezed as much as we can. It was one line in the budget which was the cash reserves that we counted on and that would have been our contingency plan for an emergency situation."
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