The Finkelstein Memorial Library Board voted at a special meeting Tuesday night to approve a 4.5% tax increase, drawing opposition from two trustees and raising concerns about how the budget was reviewed.
Trustees Esther Waldman and Yossi Rubinstein were the only members to vote against the increase.
During the meeting, trustees explained that the controversy began in the days leading up to the vote, when a special meeting was announced to address the library’s budget. As part of that process, the Finance Committee, tasked with reviewing and scrutinizing the budget in detail, attempted to convene a meeting to go through the proposal line by line.
However, as reported by trustees during the meeting the board president informed members that committee meetings were being suspended, resulting in the library’s director and business manager not attending. Despite this, members of the Finance Committee proceeded with a review alongside the treasurer, analyzing the budget to the best of their ability without administrative input.
During that review, several areas of concern were reportedly identified, and a formal report outlining those issues was submitted to the full board days before the vote.
An effort was made ahead of the meeting to amend the agenda to include the Finance Committee’s findings, but the request was not approved. A similar motion made during the meeting was also voted down, preventing the committee’s report from being presented prior to the budget vote.
The board proceeded to approve the 4.5% increase after hearing from the library director, without significant discussion of the concerns raised or a detailed line-by-line review.
The measure ultimately passed, with Waldman and Rubinstein casting the only dissenting votes.
It remains unclear if library officials will respond to the concerns raised regarding the process leading up to the vote.
Aren’t there other trustees from our community? Why did they vote for this, especially if there was no input from the board on this budget?
Not at the moment,
One resigned, and the other seems to be less interested in representing the community that voted them in.
Well done, library board and thank you👏👏
The board did an excellent job. They passed a 4.5% proposed tax levy.
This post is not correct. It has a lot of factual deficiencies.
The finance committee that was called was an illegal meeting. It was not notified to the public and there wasn’t three days notice. The quorum of the board voted for this budget to be passed based on the financial needs of the Libray The vote was four who passed and two who declined. This mis information is obviously coming from one of the people who voted no
Let’s be clear about what’s actually happening here.
Yes, if the finance committee meeting wasn’t noticed three days in advance, that’s a procedural issue — and it should be addressed. Rules about public notice exist for a reason. But focusing almost exclusively on that point feels like a convenient distraction from what the committee was actually doing: its job.
Because unlike the quorum, the committee appears to have taken its responsibility seriously. It met, it reviewed, and it engaged with the financial details instead of just waving them through. That’s the whole purpose of a finance committee — to provide scrutiny, ask questions, and ensure decisions are grounded in oversight, not assumption.
Meanwhile, the quorum is being praised for approving the budget “based on the financial needs of the Library,” as if that alone is enough. Since when is “they said they need it” an acceptable standard for approval? Oversight means verifying those needs, not just accepting them at face value.
So yes, talk about notice requirements — but don’t use that technicality to undermine the only group that was actually exercising due diligence. The irony here is hard to miss: the committee is criticized over process, while the quorum gets a pass for bypassing substance entirely.
If anything, this flips the narrative. The real concern isn’t that the committee met — it’s that the broader board seemed far more comfortable approving a budget than actually examining it.
You are so misinformed obviously you drank the Kool-Aid
Obviously, you drank the Kool-Aid
Unfortunately your post is simply untrue. These are the facts. The Finance Committee meeting was not “illegal.” It was called on Monday, for Friday, which is more than 3 days notice. Several attempts were made to have it publicly posted, but the Library Director, Board President, and Board Secretary all ignored those attempts in an effort to suppress the meeting. The meeting was called because the Handbook for Library Trustees which guides Boards of public libraries states that “During its development, the budget draft should be reviewed and scrutinized by the… Board’s Finance Committee… before it is
presented to the full Board…” (pg. 75). It is not the Finance Committee who acted illegally, but it is the director, president, secretary, and the rest of the board who, not only voted to approve a tax levy increase without appropriate review and scrutiny, but actively tried to prevent the Finance committee from performing their fiduciary duties as well. Before posting misinformation in the future, consider whether it may be libelous.