Democracy Dies In Darkness

Signs on the Peninsula Public Library’s elevator, saying it is out of service

The Hebrew books section on the second floor of the library. The Jewish books that are in English are with each book’s genre and section.

Next month, the members of School District #15—covering Atlantic Beach, Inwood, Lawrence, Cedarhurst, and parts of Woodmere—will be voting on the budget for the Peninsula Public Library, and on at least one seat on the board of trustees.

Last week, the present board of trustees, headed by President Akiva Lubin, released its proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. Every item that appeared on last year’s budget is there again, unchanged. The only update for this year is a new $112,484 item for “Outside Services.”

This budget was released in advance of a meeting of the board of trustees this past Thursday. Members of the public, in addition to the library staff, came down to discuss it but found that the board was completely unprepared and were unable to answer basic questions about it.

Peri Caponi, the library’s head of technical service, started the meeting by asking the board why the budget is virtually the same as last year’s. “I don’t know what information you used to compile this budget,” she started. Lubin interrupted with, “What budget?”

After she clarified that she was referring to the budget that they had supplied and was in front of them, Caponi pointed out that the new budget doesn’t account for contractual salary increases, health care increases, and so on. Without getting into any specifics, Lubin responded that they had shown the budget to their accountant and the budget was good. He would not answer any questions about who the accountant is, or how this could possibly be true.

There are other obvious shortfalls. The building is falling apart, and the elevator has been broken since October, yet the board hasn’t allocated any additional funds for repairs. According to Caponi, the grant that former director Carolynn Matulewicz procured to fix the staff’s bathroom and kitchen—which she thinks are probably original to the building—is being used to fix the elevator instead.

For a time, Lubin professed not to know what the new “outside services” expense was. Eventually another trustee explained that it was for security services.

After a few other people stood up with questions about the budget and to express that the board was not meeting their fiduciary responsibilities, labor lawyer Chris Kurtz—who was present at the meeting on behalf of the board—said that the board will be holding an additional meeting to address the budget. The clock is ticking but, as of press time, no date has been set.

When members of the public spoke, the board chatted amongst themselves or looked at their phones. At other times, the board interrupted their questions to speak about something else, which prompted other members of the audience to call out “let [them] speak!” On numerous occasions, Lubin asked members of the public questions as a way of attacking them.

I have personally had three interactions with Lubin (once for the previous article and in questions I asked at two out of the three meetings that I attended), and every single time, he aggressively asked me how many meetings I’ve attended, as if my concerns were invalid if the number weren’t high enough.

When former director Carolynn Matulewicz, who held the position for 10 years, spoke up at the meeting in order to bring context to how budgets are normally created, Lubin pretended not to know her. “What was your role?” he asked. “Have you ever worked in this library?” This is a breach of basic derech eretz.

Caponi told me that Lubin uses this as an intimidation method a lot. “He does this to belittle people. He’ll ask you what your name is, where you’re from.”

The meeting on Thursday was chaotic and loud because the board doesn’t know how to run a meeting. After the meeting Sean O’Neill from the library staff’s union, the Civil Service Employees Association, told me that this was the most unprofessional meeting he has ever been to. “[Lubin] should be holding decorum.”

Instead, Kurtz basically ran the meeting. Each time Lubin brought up a new resolution, he asked the board to vote on it, and Kurtz had to remind them that someone else had to second it. Only after it was seconded could the board vote on it.

The board seems equally unequipped to handle the rest of its job. Despite five months’ notice, the library has not had a director since the end of January. The Handbook for Library Trustees of New York State, a work all board members are given upon their appointment, notes, “In the event the Board finds itself without a Library Director during the search process, it is important to appoint a qualified interim/acting Director as soon as possible. If no one on staff is available, the Board is strongly advised to contact their public library system for assistance.” The board has not accomplished this. Due to this and other decisions, there is currently nobody on staff who can hire employees. As a result, five positions and counting are now unfilled.

This may be part of the plan. As I reported in February, Lubin told me that he views his role as a chesedthat he’s doing for the community and his main goal is to save taxpayers’ money. But this is an improper priority for someone in his position.

The handbook cautions in bold print: “Always remember that your primary job is to provide the highest quality library service possible for your community, not the cheapest.” The board instead lowered the salary offered for a new director to less than other library employees, and less than the same position at other libraries.

Peninsula has the highest circulation of any library in Nassau County, which requires a robust staff to run smoothly. Under past administrations, the staff—which, full disclosure, includes my sister Henna—has been stellar. But this is unlikely to continue if the trustees put their emphasis on keeping costs down instead of hiring the best people and paying them what they deserve.

Under the rules that were in place through March 11, four out of five seats on the board of trustees would be up for election in May. Until this point, the bylaws stated that when a trustee resigned a seat, the board could appoint a new person to the seat. The new trustee would keep that seat until the following election, at which point the public votes on whether they should keep the seat or if they would rather someone new.

Rochelle Genack was elected last year and was the one person who didn’t face election. Akiva Lubin’s term was set to expire this year, and the other members were appointed in the last year.

On March 12, the board held what was effectively a secret meeting. They announced that it would take place approximately half an hour before the meeting took place, which meant that no one had time to be there. At the meeting, the board changed the bylaws to change how trustee seats and elections would be handled. The new bylaws say that an appointed trustee will keep that seat until the original term is up, and only then will it go to election.

After passing the new bylaws, Lubin resigned his seat. The board then reappointed him to Reva Oliner’s seat, which she resigned in February. Oliner’s seat was not scheduled to be up for reelection until May 2029—three years from now.

If this is allowed to stand—at press time, the district clerk was awaiting “proper direction from Albany”—by changing the bylaws and seats, Lubin and the rest of the board will be circumventing the democratic electoral process. Three out of the five seats will be filled without an election. They are essentially trying to stay in power without having to hear from the public.

In addition, at Thursday’s meeting, Lubin appointed Sarah Isaacson to his former seat, even though there is an election a month from now. Isaacson could not make it to Thursday’s meeting, so it is unclear whether she was officially appointed. There is no time for her to really serve on the board, so why is he insisting that she have the seat?

The board lacks the transparency needed. They are constantly raising resolutions that have not been listed in the meetings’ agendas and then immediately voting on them before they discuss them in an open session or give the public an opportunity to respond.

Previously, other boards would work with the director and the administration to ensure that the ideas they wanted to raise fit with the culture of the library, followed the law, and were good for the community, but now the board is doing whatever they want without caring about anyone else.

In particular, it is clear that the board wishes that the library was more Jewish. Accordingly, they raised and passed a resolution on Thursday to form a committee to decide what books are bought for the library. They did not have answers about how the committee would be run.

Assistant Director Rhonda Todtman noted, “You hired people at this library who went to school to learn about proper library acquisitions and development of a collection. Maybe you’re overriding the educational merit of a librarian you hired.” “Yes,” responded a board member.

Every library has a Selection and Acquisition of Titles policy that lays out the rules for the library. The Peninsula Public Library’s policy can be found on their website. The board is not supposed to decide what books are in the collection.

The board also raised a resolution that the library should be open the entire day on Sundays. Currently, the library is open 9 a.m.–1 p.m. on both Saturdays and Sundays. This gives people a chance to decide which day works best for them to visit. Furthermore, the Hewlett library is open 1–5 p.m., so between the two libraries, the community can go to a library at any time.

The board would like to close the library entirely on Saturday, because they feel that there aren’t enough people using the library that day. However, as mentioned before, the library is not only for the Jewish community. It’s for the entire community and there are people who visit the library on Saturdays.

In addition, unlike Saturday, Sunday is a premium pay day. If the board would like to keep the library open the entire day, they will have to increase the budget in order to staff the library during those hours. How do they intend to do that when they have not increased the budget for the staff?

One of the things that keeps coming up in all the interviews I’ve conducted is the concern about the chillul Hashem the board is causing in the way they are interacting with the staff and public, the way that they are not allowing the democratic process to proceed, and the way they are treating this library as an “us vs. them” issue.

Everyone I interviewed stressed that the library is a public library. It needs to serve the entire community. Our community spans five villages with diverse populations. There are some people who would like to see more Jewish books. Some would like to see more LGBTQ books. Some of the people in both groups are the same people. People in the area have many perspectives and interests. A public library has to serve everybody.