Gala Dinners On The Taxpayer’s Dime

What the board approved

At their March 25, 2026 meeting, the Mount Vernon Public Library Board of Trustees approved two separate resolutions to buy event tickets with library funds.

Watch the video here

Resolution #025-26 authorized four tickets to the Mount Vernon Boys & Girls Club gala at $300 each, for a total of $1,200. Resolution #026-25 authorized five tickets to the Mount Vernon PTA Council Edith Kaplan Scholarship Dinner Dance at $140 each, for a total of $700.

The language in both resolutions tries to dress this up as “community engagement,” “visibility,” and “partnerships.” But a gala ticket is still a gala ticket. A dinner dance ticket is still a dinner dance ticket. These are social events, not books, programs, literacy services, building repairs, or patron services.

Why this is more than bad optics

This is not just tone-deaf. It may cross a legal line.

Four trustees voted yes on the Boys & Girls Club resolution (Trustee Loretta Thomas abstained), and those same trustees then appeared at the gala the next evening. A social media photo shows Board President Hope Marable, Vice President Kim Harper, Secretary Cynthia Dickerson, Trustee Cynthia Crenshaw, and Library Director Timur Davis in attendance.

If public library money was used to buy tickets for the very people who voted to approve the spending, that looks like classic self-benefit. Public officials and nonprofit fiduciaries are not supposed to vote themselves perks and then call it outreach.

The public-purpose problem

Public library funds are not a discretionary slush fund. They are supposed to be spent on lawful library purposes. The core question is simple: what concrete library service did taxpayers get in return for these tickets?

Not a vague answer. Not a slogan. Not a “community visibility” talking point. A real answer.

Because when a building has real needs, when resources are limited, and when residents depend on the library for basic public services, buying seats at formal social events is not a neutral choice. It is a statement about priorities, and it is the wrong one.

The self-dealing problem

The governance issue may be even more serious than the spending itself. Trustees owe a duty of loyalty. That means they are supposed to protect the institution’s assets, not convert those assets into personal social benefits.

If trustees voted on resolutions that provided tickets for themselves, without real recusal and without independent review, that is not routine governance. It is self-dealing.

And the fact that the resolutions are padded with public-purpose language only makes the problem more obvious. You do not need to write paragraphs justifying a plainly legitimate expense. You write paragraphs like that when you know the expense will not survive plain English.

This library has bigger needs

Mount Vernon residents do not fund the library so trustees can enjoy catered evenings on the public dime. They fund it for books, programming, literacy, safe and functional facilities, access to information, and public service.

Every dollar spent on trustee gala attendance is a dollar not spent on the actual mission. That matters anywhere. It matters even more in a city where public trust is already badly frayed and where residents are constantly being told there is not enough money for the basics.

Enough with the euphemisms

Let’s stop pretending this is about representation. Plenty of public officials, board members, and community leaders receive invitations to nonprofit and civic events. An invitation is not a taxpayer-funded entitlement. Being asked to attend does not mean the public has to buy your plate.

What happened here appears to be exactly what it looks like: insiders used public library money to pay for social event tickets for insiders.