The Silent Pause

There is an election for Library Trustee and Donald O’Brien is running again. His performance at the Budget Hearing makes me question his interest in providing open fiscal affairs of the library. His silent pause in response to financial requests spoke loudly about his attitude towards transparency.
I attended the April 1 annual library Budget Hearing because I wanted to get a better understanding of the budget that has been proposed. I found the budget to be uninformative and difficult to understand. Library Treasurer Donald O’Brien was presiding. I thought that he was quite resistant to giving information. When four Manhasset taxpayers expressed that they were interested in seeing the library balance sheet and P & L statements, O’Brien stared blankly, did not speak, continued not to speak, and then said, “alright.” Then, rudely, O’Brien changed the subject and did not offer to get the information which presumably is readily available to him as treasurer.
Wasn’t this supposed to be a budget hearing? Why were these public documents not produced? They are critical to an understanding of where the taxpayers’ money is actually going. Comparing last year’s proposed budget to this year’s does not provide any assistance to that understanding. Years ago these documents were available at the Librarian’s Reference Desk in a book for anyone interested to review. These public documents are no longer in the public book. Why doesn’t O’Brien want to share?
Maddy Cloes