UPDATE: New City Library Trustees Petition For Special Meeting

Four members of the New City Library Board of Trustees are calling for a special meeting on Wednesday, May 8 at 7 p.m. to address unresolved issues.  The trustees are invoking a section of the library’s bylaws that permits more or trustees or the board president to petition with advance notice for a special session. Trustees Victor Berger, Edward Kallen, George Jacobson, and Jeffrey Greenberg distributed the petition by email on Tuesday afternoon to Board President Tom Ninan and the other four trustees.

Berger, who sent out the petition, said there are serious matters pending.

“It seems there are two different views of what can be done and what should be done,” he said.

The four topics listed on the petition include:

• Discuss needed steps to carry out a search for an executive director
• Review the additional Blend Air charges for boiler repair
• Consider and approve the three-year agreement between The New City Free Library and The New City Library Staff Association/NYSUT
• Assess the status of the architect’s work on the redesign of the A/V section

Trustee Joe Reiter said he had not checked his email as of late Wednesday afternoon but that he would wait for direction from Ninan.

“If I get notified by the president that we’re holding a meeting, I would attend,” said Reiter. 

Ninan did not return a call for comment. 

Kallen said the board members believe action must be taken and cannot be put off any longer. The April meeting was cancelled and Kallen said Ninan did not follow proper procedure by cancelling it outright. Kallen said the April 18th meeting should have been held with attendance taken and then cancelled if a quorum of members was not present and should have been promptly rescheduled.

“These are issues that cannot wait,” said Kallen. 

The next regularly scheduled board meeting is Thursday, May 16. 

The New City Library has been without a permanent director for almost an entire year since Chuck McMorran resigned after a majority of the board declined to renew his contract.  Head of Adult Services Marianne Silver served as interim director for seven months but stepped down from that post at the end of 2012.

The lack of a director could put the library’s charter at risk. Several board members alluded to the possibility that some type of resolution to the director vacancy was being discussed.

The library staff has been working without a new contract since their last one expired in June 2012. The new agreement would cover from June 2012 through June 2015.

“What we wanted was a statement from the attorney that the contract conformed with the memorandum of understanding,” said Kallen, adding once the trustees received that they could vote on the agreement. 

The board approved a $6,250 boiler repair bid with Blend Air in. Now, trustees said an additional charge of $9,000 was submitted and no one was clear on who authorized the extra work.  Building & Grounds Committee Chair Anthony Feliciano could not be reached for comment. Jacobson who serves on the Personnel & Finance Committee said he had been away and just found out about the situation on Tuesday but had no information.

As of mid Wednesday morning, Berger said he had not received any responses from the other five trustees.