After Borough President Melinda Katz announced last week that a lawsuit filed against her by six former trustees of the Queens Library Board had been dismissed, those same trustees accused her of presenting misleading information about the case.
The trustees released a statement saying the Katz’s press release regarding the case dismissal was “disingenuous, if not outright misleading.”
According to the ousted trustees, they chose to “dismiss [the] action because it was no longer in their interest as volunteers to spend personal money on litigation.”
But the borough president’s release, they said, “suggests a decision by the court on the merits” of the case.
In her release, Katz wrote that the lawsuit was “a bitter attempt by the removed trustees at personal retaliation devoid of consideration for the public interest.”
“The court’s action underscores just how specious their claims were, and I am gratified this has finally been dismissed from official course of business,” her statement read.
Additionally, the trustees said, the press release credits the new board with a number of achievements “that in fact were conceived or implemented under the watch of the prior board.”
Included in those successes were a program that allows library customers to borrow mobile WiFi hotspots, the beginning of construction on the Peninsula Branch of the Queens Library in the Rockaways, the start of a National External Diploma Program, and the creation of two new Friends of the Library groups in Arverne and Briarwood.
The former trustees claim that they were a part of the development or implementation of all of those projects.
“The former trustees are proud of what they have done and wish the library well in finishing the job that they started,” they wrote in their response to Katz’s press release.
When asked about the former trustees’ accusations, Katz did not specifically address any of the claims.
“The lawsuit has been dismissed, the case is closed,” a spokesperson for Katz said.
[QE]