Margolis Not Going Down Without A Fight
Nobody likes being “let go”, especially when the news is published in the newspaper. But Boston Public Library president Bernard Margolis really doesn’t like getting fired. Instead of going quietly into that good night as so many other former members of Mayor Tom Menino’s administration have, Margolis is trying to take Menino down a few notches on his way out.
Margolis’ dismissal originally sounded like a routine, albeit Menino-ish, political maneuver by the mayor. Things got interesting when the Globe interviewed Margolis after it became official that his contract wouldn’t be renewed by the library’s trustees, most of whom were appointed by Menino.
[Margolis] lashed back at Mayor Thomas M. Menino, accusing him of an “anti-intellectual” bent. . .
He accused the mayor of starving the city’s 27 branch libraries of adequate funding and interfering with library operations. He said Menino runs the city as if it were an authoritarian state.
“I didn’t think this was Venezuela,” Margolis said.
Man, we love Margolis when he’s angry.
Aside from the great digs he gets on Menino, Margolis also told the Globe that the mayor asked him to “hire certain people, ostensibly for political favors.” This claim got the attention of the State Ethics Commission, which has launched a probe into the charges.
If true, that kind of pressure could be deemed by the State Ethics Commission to be in violation of Massachusetts’ conflict of interest law, which prohibits public officials from using their positions to secure “unwarranted privileges” for themselves or others that are “not properly available to similarly situated individuals,” according to commission guidelines.
Mayor Menino’s office covers all the bases.
“The mayor never had any conversations with Bernie regarding jobs at the library, and if anyone else did he had no knowledge of it,” [Menino spokeswoman Dot] Joyce said.
Margolis hasn’t commented on the investigation yet, but he has asked library trustees for legal representation if the investigation continues. Stay tuned, kids—this could get very interesting.
November 28th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Menino forgot one critical rule when it comes to politicians wielding big sticks: don’t use it against someone with as many powerful and influential friends as you have, especially when that man is the head of the city’s famous library.
I will predict here and now that the Margolis firing will be tied to Menino’s eventual downfall. Bernie Margolis is much too popular and beloved by the city’s Beacon Hill/Back Bay/socialite crowd to just be dumped to the side.
November 28th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Screw you Tom!
November 29th, 2007 at 3:35 am
We should find an even better role in Massachusetts for BPL’s Margolis. For example, Bernie Margolis would be a great leader in developing a university information policy and library studies curriculum. Affordable graduate information policy curricula with excellent student financial scholarships at Northeastern University or at University of Massachusetts would meet a higher standard than the out of date and overpriced Simmons College school with its poor student financial programs and old school minded faculty. Our public librarians deserve better educational opportunities that fit public librarians’ budgets.
November 29th, 2007 at 9:54 am
No one knows who the head Librarian is and his whining is unbecoming. Not a big issue to the average working Bostonian.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Media Watch-this *should* be a big issue to average, working Bostonians-corruption and cronyisim at city hall is a concern for all of us. Menino has run this city like a personal fifedom for too long, and now some of his machinations are coming back to bite him in his well-fed posterior. Good for Margolis for not being afraid to speak truth to the man.