Readers Write: Great Neck residents deserve transparency from the trustees of their library

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Readers Write: Great Neck residents deserve transparency from the trustees of their library

We have all heard the news by now of the alleged “win” by Mimi Hu, Rory Lancman, and Kim Schader.

What we haven’t heard much talk of is the incredibly slim margin by which each candidate established their victory, specifically Mimi Hu, whose victory was gained by a mere 7 votes.

And that is astounding considering the number of “bullet” ballots she received – otherwise known as undervotes where she was the only candidate voted for among any of the three races. That’s right – Mimi somehow obtained 87% of the 333 absentee ballots, and at least 20% of these ballots were undervotes. Sound questionable to anyone else?

Now that these three are in “office” what can we expect from our library board and nominating committee?

Kim Shader has consistently voiced her opinion that the nominating committee should be dismantled so it will be interesting to see how she embraces her newly elected role.

More interestingly, Mimi commenced litigation against the only two standing members of the nominating committee seeking judicial approval of the committee’s removal. In an even more aggressive manner, she recently spearheaded a board resolution that will now allow the board members to fill a midterm vacancy by a vote of only 4 standing members, instead of the originally required majority vote of 6 members.

This might not sound like such a big deal until you recognize two things: first, Mimi has created a voting block on the board by aligning herself with Josephine Mairzadeh, Kathleen Gold, and Scott Sontag.

Look back at the meeting minutes during Mimi’s last term, and those years that overlapped with these three puppets, and you will see that not once have any of them voted separately from or differently than Mimi.

Mimi calls the shots and these three then vote in her favor. That is all she needs to obtain those four votes to fill a vacancy with anyone she wants on the board.

What about the nominating committee’s impartial role? What about the community’s voice in having an independent election to determine the appropriate candidate to fill that vacancy? What about checks and balances?

Clearly, Mimi does not care one iota about democracy, the community, or impartiality.

But all of this gerrymandering and politicking only highlights the second issue: Rory Lancman’s tenuous (at best) interest in our community. It is no secret that Rory is a failed politician who couldn’t hack it in NYC politics and got pushed out of his prior elected position.

Why move to Great Neck? Why seek a seat on the local library’s board? To rebuild his resume in an attempt to social climb the political landscape of Long Island.

I would take a safe bet that Rory Lancman will not come close to finishing his first year, let alone a full term at the library, in the hopes of landing a bigger, more lucrative political role elsewhere in Great Neck or nearby. And his vacant seat will now become a social and political trading card for Mimi to play to her advantage.

But in the end, while this all makes for a good story, some might ask why would Mimi, or indeed anyone fight this hard for a non-paying community volunteer position.

Her current role gives her access to manipulate $9.6MM of our taxpayer dollars. Taxpayer dollars that are going towards funding her private litigation against another board member and the nominating committee.

Her mismanagement of the library board has led to her paying over $100,000 in legal fees to an overpriced NYC law firm to further her personal agenda. She has increased the library’s legal liability and risk due to her litigious nature.

This ultimately caused the library’s insurance carrier to deny continuing coverage under the existing Directors and Officers Liability insurance policy due to “too many claims,” as reported in the recent board meeting minutes.

Now more of our taxpayer dollars will pay for a higher insurance premium because Mimi doesn’t know how to manage a board or her emotions. And this is who our town re-elected to office? It’s a disgrace.

Where are the so-called local journalists who flood Next Door and Facebook mom-and-dad groups with false praise for Mimi? Why aren’t they reporting this abuse of discretion and power? Because they also stand to benefit, indirectly and directly, from Mimi’s corruption.

We can choose to stand down and be defeated, or we can rise against Mimi Hu, Rory Lancman, and Kim Schader and the secret political machine that supports their agendas.

Attend board meetings. Speak out and question the board on policy changes. Demand transparency. Demand fiscal responsibility. Demand that Mimi starts to pay her own legal fees out of her pocketbook and not ours.

Our taxpayer dollars are at stake. We saw how this election was stolen from qualified candidates who fought hard, and we saw a community that rallied in support of them.

Scott Sontag’s seat is up for re-election next year. How will that election be handled?

Has the board learned anything, or will they allow Scott and Mimi to make another end run in that race? Will this town allow them to manipulate another “victory”? Not if we have anything to say about it.

This is only my opinion on the Great Neck Library.

Irina Amir

Great Neck

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