The former Business Manager of the Mamaroneck Public Library has been charged with stealing approximately $44,769 from the library between 2016 and 2023, a felony. Details of the shortfall became public after the story was broken by the Loop earlier this year.
It is alleged that between May 2016 and February 2023, Mary Soto, 62, stole the funds from the library’s bank accounts in the form of credit card and recurring debit transactions for personal expenses.
Soto resigned from the library in March after 27 years. She was charged Thursday by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office for Grand Larceny in the Third Degree. The defendant’s next court date is Jan. 25, 2024.
Village government leaders voted in May to approve an emergency financial arrangement to save the library from shutting down due to the alleged theft of funds.
The crisis alerted the independent library board and staff to internal mismanagement, exposing an additional shortfall in funds that threatened a Summer shutdown. The shutdown was avoided by a rescue plan that was ratified by the Village Board of Trustees after the Village insisted on additional fiscal oversight.
The library’s new budget includes a property tax increase passed in a Dec. 6 election, so it can pay the village back for guaranteed “Tax Anticipation Notes.”
District Attorney Mimi Rocah said: “We are committed to seeking accountability for the alleged betrayal of trust by a lifelong Mamaroneck resident who held a position of leadership in the community.”
That is what happens when an employee is grandfathered into a position for which the person is grossly unqualified. She did not even have a college degree.
There are others in the same situation.
The board should review every position and fire the director to begin with.
How was the Board so easily duped?
How did the Library Board allow this to continue all these years? Why hasn’t the Library Board resigned? This is beyond incompetence bordering on malfeasance. They should be ashamed.