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Investigators probe finances, bookkeeping at Mount Vernon Public Library

Jonathan Bandler
Rockland/Westchester Journal News

The Westchester District Attorney's Office is investigating the finances of the Mount Vernon Public Library following years of shoddy bookkeeping and questions about $50,000 in debit card purchases.

The probe is believed to have begun after an interim report last month by an accounting firm hired by the library board revealed more than 1,400 transactions totaling $4.9 million that were not properly logged over the past seven years. Among those were nearly 600 with the debit card from 2014 to 2017.

The firm, DSJCPA, did not provide any details but reported finding “some questionable transactions that are not consistent with a library’s normal course of business.”

Mount Vernon Public Library on Oct. 5, 2021. One of the signs on the door alerts visitors that computer services are not available.

Members of the group Save Mount Vernon pushed for prosecutors to investigate. Jesse Van Lew, the group's co-founder and a former library employee, said on Wednesday  that he doesn't know for certain whether any crimes were committed during seven years of financial mismanagement and poor oversight but that is why an investigation is needed.

"We haven't put a bull's-eye target on any individual's back," said Van Lew, who was also sending information about the library's finances to the state attorney general and comptroller. "But we're not going to let this get swept under the rug. Investigate and see where this goes."

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Jess Vecchiarelli, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Mimi Rocah, said the office is looking into the matter but would not comment on an ongoing investigation. She urged anyone with information to call the office's hotline at 914-995-TIPS.

The New York State Board of Regents, which oversees libraries, is also reviewing the library's finances.

DSJCPA was hired this summer to serve as the library’s treasurer and reconcile the finances. Another accounting firm had been unable over several years to complete an audit because of the incomplete records. The audit is necessary, in part, so that the library can regain its tax-exempt status that had been stripped in recent years because reports had not been filed with the IRS.

The report also indicated that it was impossible to determine if the current year's $4.77 million budget is reasonable considering the incomplete information. 

The library had no treasurer in recent years but hired City Council President Marcus Griffith as its accountant clerk in March 2020 at an annual salary of $65,000.

Marcus Griffith

According to the firm’s report, Griffith gave DSJCPA considerable “pushback” in its efforts. He was criticized for not completing tasks in a timely manner and for refusing to give them login access to third-party vendors that handle insurance, health coverage, pensions and other areas.

“Mr. Griffith has displayed complete disrespect towards DSJ and me as the Trustee appointed Treasurer,” Michael Williams, of DSJCPA, wrote in his report. “He refuses to work with us and take direction from us. He lets us know that he does not recognize my appointment as Treasurer and that we should be working under him to get the books and records organized.”

Griffith, who ran unsuccessfully for city comptroller this year, did not respond to phone and text messages.

The president of the library board for four of the seven years was Oscar Davis Jr., though the board this summer selected its newest member, Vivien Salmon, as president. 

She did not respond to emails.

Asked to comment on the library's finances, Davis declined to discuss specifics, citing the ongoing work of DSJCPA.

Campaign literature for Oscar Davis Jr. from his 2014 run for the Mount Vernon Public Library Board of Trustees.

"We await their completed report to make final determination as to our plan of action," Davis wrote in an email. "As fiduciaries of public funds, the Board reserves the right to pursue all appropriate legal action."

Davis has come under fire from library staff for a hands-on approach to management of the library they say is inappropriate for elected board members. And a pending lawsuit accuses him of sexually harassing three men who Davis helped get jobs at the library when they were teenagers.

Specific details of the debit card purchases were not included in the report. Staff members said that the card was always kept in the business office and they would have access to it to purchase snacks and supplies for various programs as the need arose. 

That access seemed to stop around the end of 2016, they suggested. Most of the transactions flagged by DSJCPA had occurred by then, although some continued until June 2017.

Although union leaders have said that a debit card was in Davis' name at one point, he insisted that "there were no cards issued in my name for the period in question."

He did not respond to a follow-up question asking him to clarify if he meant 2014 to 2017 or any of the past seven years.

The accounting firm's report echoed concerns the union representing library workers  has had about the financial management, said the CSEA president, Christopher Williams, a principle clerk who has worked at the library for 34 years. 

"The library hasn't had a financial team in place to know what to do," Williams said. "The Board of Trustees, while trying to remain frugal, are not spending the taxpayers' money the way it should be."

Doris Hackett, a library supervisor who is vice president of the union, has posted on Facebook pictures of peeling paint and stained carpets and expressed anger that the physical appearance of Westchester's central library was not improved during the many months the building was closed during the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, she said, they spent money to install security cameras that the staff complains are invasive.

The library may have reopened this year but union leaders say staffing cuts have precluded some programming and forced the closure of the computer lab, a major draw for library users.

Part-time workers were laid off last year but the board has said the positions would be refilled in December.

"We know they saved money by cutting the staff so what are they using the money for,' Hackett said. "OK, you opened the doors again but we're not providing the services that the community has come to expect."

Twitter: @jonbandler