The former chief executive of Queens Library in New York City sued the library in federal court, saying it fired him for cause to deny him more than $2 million in severance.
"The library had no valid cause," attorneys for Thomas Galante said in the suit, filed Nov. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn. Thomas Rohback and Jarod Taylor of Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP are representing Galante.
The library's board of trustees last Dec. 17 voted unanimously to fire Galante, of Wilton, Conn., whose annual salary had been $392,000. He worked for the library for 27 years and became its CEO in 2005.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, city Comptroller Scott Stringer, borough President Melinda Katz and the City Council had pressured the library management and board for about nine months after the Daily News reported that Galante had built a $27,000 private smoking deck next to his executive office and held a consulting job for a Long Island school district that paid him more than $100,000 a year. Throughout 2014, de Blasio, Stringer and Katz replaced board members favorable to Galante.
According to court papers, the library would have had to pay Galante severance exceeding $2 million if it terminated him for any reason other than for cause.
"The newly stacked board had manufactured grounds for 'cause' so as to avoid paying Galante his contractually owned severance," his attorneys said.
According to Rohback and Taylor, library revenues under Galante's watch spiked from $94.4 million to $128.1 million.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Attorney's Office are investigating Galante, whose annual salary had been $392,000. Stringer's office has also asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Galante's finances.
Queens' library operates separately, as does Brooklyn's, from the New York Public Library, which covers Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island.
