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Resident urges Board of Finance to require library donations flow through town accounts
Summary
A longtime resident told the Simsbury Board of Finance that nearly $100,000 in annual Friends donations are being paid from a private account rather than routed through the town ledger, calling for changes to protect taxpayers and comply with state accounting rules.
Laurie Boyko, a Simsbury resident, told the Board of Finance she found through public-record requests that the Friends of the Simsbury Public Library pay nearly $100,000 a year in goods and services from a private account rather than routing those vendor payments through the town's accounts.
"This is strictly an issue of total financial transparency and municipal legal and accounting compliance," Boyko said, urging the board to instruct the library to stop direct third-party vendor payments and instead use a library special-revenue fund so donations and expenditures appear in municipal records. She said her review of FOIA documents showed invoices with missing or duplicate receipts and recommended the town require itemized municipal accounting for donations that fund municipal services.
Chair (speaker 1) responded that the town will look at the matter during the audit and noted the library board follows a separate statutory framework. Finance director Amy (speaker 2) confirmed the library board has different authorizing statutes and said auditors will consider the topic as part of annual work. The board did not take formal action at the meeting but asked staff to review the matter for compliance and bring clarifying language and procedures to a future meeting.
