The Thunder Bay Public Library is being asked to be more open with City Council.
Last night, Council voted to ask the Board for explanations about topics like a January budget protest by Library staff.
It was put forward by Councillor Trevor Giertuga, who says he’s not happy to put the Library Board in the hot seat.
Giertuga said while he supports workers’ rights to protest, he wants to know if they were paid while attending the demonstration, and if their actions were approved by the Library CEO or Board.
Giertuga said at Monday night’s meeting the matter shouldn’t have had to come to Council. He claims he reached out previously to Board Chair Carol Grieve and Library CEO John Pateman, but got only a few answers.
“It’s not something I want to do, but I want answers,” Giertuga noted, “And my constituents, they deserve answers to their publicly-funded dollars.”
“The Board Chair has said she’s prepared to answer questions in a public forum to be set up, and I don’t think that we need to do that,” Giertuga said.
Giertuga retracted two of his questions, including whether city funding was used for the Library CEO’s trip to his hometown of the borough of Bromley, England. He said the Library Board confirmed the city paid $1,200.
The At-Large Councillor is still asking for the rationale behind Pateman going on the trip. City staff commented last night the CEO was invited to go with the Sister Cities committee because of his connection to Bromley.
Giertuga also added a handful of additional questions:
Does the Thunder Bay Public Library have a nepotism policy?
How was cultural sensitivity training that was removed from the Library’s 2019 budget funded?
How many calls from EMS and Thunder Bay Police came from the Library in 2019?
Are there fully-catered meals for programs at the Thunder Bay Public Library?
What is the total book collection currently, compared to when the current CEO was hired?
Councillor Mark Bentz was in favour of the motion, saying the Library Board needs to be transparent.
“We have to give the Chair of the Board credit for answering some of the questions, but we also have to, on our citizens’ behalf, let the Library Board know that they are accountable to the citizens of Thunder Bay,” Bentz noted.
City Staff pointed out the Library Board is not obligated to answer.
