ASTORIA — The former head of Queens Library and his executive staff spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on things like meals, booze and concert tickets while simultaneously slashing library hours, according to an audit released Wednesday by City Comptroller Scott Stringer.
The audit chronicles rampant financial mismanagement at Queens Library — namely by former President and CEO Thomas Galante, who was fired from the post in December — including $310,000 charged to library credit cards over three years for "prohibited" purchases like airplane seat upgrades, office furniture and Maroon 5 concert tickets.
"For years, the former CEO of Queens Library Tom Galante and his executive team used the library as their personal piggy bank," Stringer said Wednesday, calling the former library boss' spending record "shameful."
Scrutiny over Galante's spending first surfaced in 2014 after the New York Daily News published a number of articles about his hefty salary and expensive renovations to his office.
Stringer says the audit offers "a cautionary tale of what happens when no one is providing oversight and accountability."
According to the comptroller, only some of Queens Library's financial accounts were publicly available for auditing — accounts that contained city money and reported deficits for several years — despite also having "hidden" funds that were running millions of dollars in surpluses.
"It enabled Galante and company to go to the City Council and plead poverty, demanding more and more money. Meanwhile he and his team actually had funds in other library accounts, some hidden from oversight," Stringer said.
Over a five-year period, as Queens Library cut hours at its branches and slashed staffers' salaries by nearly 3 percent, the library's executives got a raise, with their salaries growing nearly 7 percent over the same time frame, according to the report.
Stringer also took aim at Galante's side work as a "consultant" for a school district on Long Island at the same time he served as head of Queens Library, collecting between $150,000 and $200,000 a year for the extra gig.
The audit finds it "questionable" whether Galante actually worked the number of hours he claimed, according to a press release that outlined the audit's findings.
In a statement, a lawyer for Galante said there are "factual errors and omissions" in the audit report. He said that Queens Library had previously been audited more than 30 times during Galante's time there, and "not once has an allegation been made of any impropriety."
"Mr. Galante has not violated the law or been involved in any improprieties with respect to any matter throughout his career," attorney Joseph Martini said. "Not once did the City Comptroller even seek information from Mr. Galante throughout his 17-month audit."
Martini added that Galante could not comment further because of a confidentiality clause in his employment agreement with the library.
Stringer's report also examined spending by former Chief Operating Officer Bridget Quinn-Carey — now the library's interim CEO — which found that she'd also used a library-issued credit card to cover prohibited and personal expenses, including $11,500 in food and drinks.
"Her financial conduct raises serious questions as to whether she should remain in a leadership position" with the library, Stringer said.
In a statement, the library's Board of Trustees Chairman Carl Koerner said the audit "confirms many disturbing practices of the Library's prior director and its complacent former trustees," several of whom were removed and replaced last year.
"The current Board takes its duty to the public very seriously, and expects management to do the same," Koerner said.
"Together we've launched sweeping reforms to address concerns raised by the Comptroller and other public officials: we've opened the library's books to stricter outside scrutiny, we've enforced greater internal accountability and we've ended excessive, unquestioned over-expenditures by management and staff."
