By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
For more than 45 years, the dimes and dollars paid in late fines to the Hillsborough Public Library made their way into the treasury of the Public Library Advisory Board, which returned money to the local library in the form of payment for an improvement, like furniture, carpeting or programs.
Last year, the advisory group gained just over $23,000 a year from fines.
In mid-February, the Township Committee decided the money from fines are public dollars, and should be accountable to a responsible entity — like the elected members of the Township Committee — and not the private citizens who organize and lead the advisory board.
The Township Committee took over the money and created a separate account to hold it.
On April 12, the Township Committee established its own advisory body to “report and make recommendations” on “policies, programs, services, maintenance and other matters” pertaining to the library. Presumably it would suggest how to spend money from fines for library improvements.
The body has been likened to the Open Space Advisory Board — no real control over money, but having the ear of the governing body, which would have the ultimate say on spending.
The township’s unpaid Public Library Advisory will have seven members through this year. Members weren’t appointed, but may be as early as next Tuesday’s public meeting.
The citizen group will continue to exist, and will have the ability to hold fundraisers and seek tax-deductible donations, but its treasury won’t be supplemented by the library materials fines money.
Mayor Frank DelCore said the action was necessary to assure the public that its money was handled properly.
Committeeman Doug Tomson, the body’s liaison to the advisory board, said that “no one is ever suggesting anything unethical, illegal or anything of the sort” has happened with the money under the advisory board’s control.
Theoretically, if the public didn’t like the advisory board’s decision to use the money, there was nothing it could do about it, said Mr. Tomson. Under the township government umbrella, dissatisfied people could vote against Township Committee members, who would be the ultimate people in charge.
The Township Committee’s actions concur with a request from the Somerset County Library Commission, the group that operates the 10 library branches in the county system. Hillsborough, which is one of the municipalities with a county library branch in its borders, was the only county municipality that didn’t have elected officials appointing the leaders of an advisory board, Mr. Tomson said in February.
Advisory board members said they feared the use of the money and appointment of members would become politicized under the Township Committee.
Mr. Tomson said the township’s record was that it appointed members of all political parties to town boards.
The PLAB was organized into a 501c3 organization in 1968, according to board member Judith Haas, and has been receiving local fine money since its organization. The arrangement continued after Hillsborough joined the county system in 1975, she said.
