By Norman Oder

• Director Anne Marie Gold says she won't resign
• Board chair acknowledges "serious" allegations
• Report recommends library to be headed by CEO

Responding to numerous complaints about the Sacramento Public Library (SPL) aired publicly and privately, notably SPL’s hiring of a maintenance company that inflated invoices for more than three years and was co-owned by the wife of a library staffer, the 2007–08 Sacramento County Grand Jury on Wednesday issued a 28-page report slamming the library on multiple counts. The report recommended consideration of the removal of library director Anne Marie Gold and also a revised SPL management structure that would put a Chief Executive Officer, “with proven business expertise and credentials,” in charge of the library.

Gold, director of the 27-branch system since 2002, told LJ that SPL would provide a response, as required by state law, within 90 days, to “substantiate, clarify, and correct” the allegations but that she would not resign. “Obviously, the grand jury chose to focus on one element that’s happening at the library,” she said. “The other picture is of a library that’s thriving and expanding and our community is using it more and more.”

She pointed out that, a day before the grand jury report was issued, SPL won a judgment worth some $2.4 million from those associated with two companies that bilked the library. (The defendants did not contest the civil lawsuit; now SPL must collect restitution via liens on their property. The overbilling was $650,000.)

Robbie Waters, chairman of the library board and a member for 13 years, told the Sacramento Bee that, while he was not ready to ask Gold to resign, "I've never seen anything this in-depth and this serious." Waters and fellow board members were also criticized for lax oversight.

The report said the board has no standing committees overseeing library operations and the Finance Advisory Committee, which is comprised of staff from participating entities in the Library Authority (Sacramento County, Sacramento City, and four other cities), never met with board members. Waters was unwilling to meet with the grand jury for a second interview.

The grand jury's investigation
The grand jury receives complaints regarding all levels of local government; in this case, the report states, “A library employee contacted the grand jury regarding over-billing, improper use of funds, improper record keeping, and mismanagement by senior management of the Library.” The six-month investigation included interviews with over 40 people, analyses of over 1500 documents, and the issuance of over 70 subpoenas.

The report said that, in the investigation, “several other discoveries were made which illuminated larger, more serious and systemic problems” at SPL. For example, staffers sent a copy of a petition of no confidence in library management and also complained that the board “summarily dismissed their petition.”

Poor oversight
The Director of Human Resources, the grand jury found, “believed that there was no policy on employee evaluations,” which meant that most library staffers had not been evaluated in more than three years. A “well- qualified interim Fiscal Officer,” who worked at SPL in 2003, “often disagreed with the Library Director” so thus was “disinvited” from further executive staff meetings, the report stated. Gold, according to the report, allowed the processing of unsigned pay invoices and the writing of checks without supporting documentation.

Also, the library took financial controls, including purchasing, credit card receipts, and travel requests, from the Finance Department, which led to several “abuses,” the report said, including multiple late reimbursements to SPL for personal purchases. One $800 reimbursement was made by Gold two years and nine months late, the day before her second grand jury appearance in February. Senior managers “routinely disregarded” procedures regarding travel.

Since November 2003, the Library has spent over $2.2 million for consultant services, the report said: “a number of the contracts were either undated, unsigned by the respective parties, or were missing pages.” Also, in September 2003, “a comprehensive road map” for professional financial management was provided to the board and senior managers, but it “was subsequently ignored or inadequately implemented by the Library’s senior management.”

The report also suggested that SPL “has a major problem with uncollected fines,” with about $2.5 million owed, and that SPL has inconsistent policies regarding the handling of money at the branches. For example, not all branches have safes and some safes are not secure, as one had the combination written on the side of the safe.

Recommendations
The report concluded that Gold’s removal should be considered for several reasons, including fiscal mismanagement, weak oversight of subordinates, abuses of credit card and travel policies by executives, and chronic morale problems.

The report recommended that the board define specific measurable guidelines, including criteria for the safeguard and proper use of public funds, management accountability and reporting systems, and efforts to recoup outstanding balances owed to the library.