The Queens Library, home to one of the largest public circulations in the world, has had to shed nearly 130 employees over the past 5 years. Its main library branch in Jamaica is constantly undergoing construction, and remains, in parts, decrepit. During this time however, the president of the non-profit library, Thomas Galante, received $390,000 in annual salary, while also spending thousands of dollars renovating his office, creating his own personal smoking deck, and using (mostly) taxpayer money to buy a late-model sports car.
“They haven’t hired a new full-time person to serve the public since 2008, yet they find money for all this stuff?” John Hyslop, president of the Queens Library Guild, told the Daily News.
Besides his egregious salary (which nets him more money than the mayor and the MTA chairman) Galante has had a 250-square-foot rooftop deck installed adjacent to his office, two new executive conference rooms decked out with leather sofas and completely had his private bathroom and shower redone.
The library counters that the renovations were part of the "master plan" for improvements to the main branch in Jamaica, which has been outclassed for several years by the newer branch in Flushing.
The spokeswoman for the library insisted that Galante's smoking area was open to all library employees, but conceded that "“It would require a staff person to walk through two conference areas, probably with meetings going on, to get to the outdoor space. That would not be a welcome interruption to their colleagues.”
The Queens Library, a vital institution in a borough that relies on free access to computers and literature, seems to be spending a considerable amount of its money and time on a president who lives in Connecticut.
