3 BPL WORKERS ON LEAVE AMID PROBE
Library won’t ID them, or say what happened
Three Boston Public Library facilities managers are on unpaid leave as BPL investigates their actions — but the library, only a few years removed from major controversy, is remaining a closed book on what happened.
BPL spokeswoman Lisa Pollack confirmed the library system placed the three people on administrative leave as of July 18, and they remain off the job.
Pollack declined to release the people’s identities, their official job titles or any information about what led to the move. She said the investigation is ongoing and no further information would be available until the internal investigation wraps up.
Robert Gallery, the chairman of the BPL’s board of trustees, declined comment when reached by phone.
“I have complete confidence in the way the library is going,” Gallery told the Herald.
In response to further questions, Gallery said, “I think I was pretty clear — I don’t have any comment.”
Other city officials were even more tight-lipped about the move.
Laura Oggeri, a spokeswoman for Mayor Martin J. Walsh, deferred comment to the library officials.
BPL President David Leonard did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Several city councilors, including President Andrea Campbell, declined to comment, saying the call from the Herald was the first they’d heard of the library’s investigation into the three people.
The current fiscal year’s budget allocates $72 million for the library system. The BPL is a city department that’s governed by its board of trustees, who are appointed by Walsh.
Leonard took the reins of the library system two years ago after previous president Amy Ryan resigned after the mysterious disappearance of two pieces of art at the Copley Square library.
The FBI and other law enforcement agencies joined the search for the missing 1504 engraving by Albrecht Durer, worth $600,000, and a 1634 Rembrandt etching, worth up to $30,000, as both were feared stolen. But just one day after Ryan said she was quitting, the valuable art turned up, tucked away just 80 feet from where they were supposed to be filed.
That followed on the heels of a $130,000 outside audit of the BPL that blasted the way the library manages its special collections.
At the time, Walsh slammed the library’s then-leadership, as his office called the library’s actions “absolutely unacceptable” and put pressure on Ryan to leave.
Oggeri yesterday said Walsh has full confidence in Leonard’s leadership.