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Voters Oust Pound Ridge Library Board Prez A Day After Director's Firing

POUND RIDGE, N.Y. -- Voters declined to re-elect Pound Ridge Library Board President Erin Trostle just one day after the board fired longtime Library Director Marilyn Tinter over disciplinary charges.

Pound Ridge Library

Pound Ridge Library

Photo Credit: Tom Auchterlonie
Marilyn Tinter, pictured at a meeting for her disciplinary hearing. The Pound Ridge Library Board voted on Monday to fire Tinter after receiving the recommendation to do so from an arbitration hearing officer.

Marilyn Tinter, pictured at a meeting for her disciplinary hearing. The Pound Ridge Library Board voted on Monday to fire Tinter after receiving the recommendation to do so from an arbitration hearing officer.

Photo Credit: Tom Auchterlonie

Five of the board's nine seats were up for re-election this year, according to the library, which means that the top-five vote getters were the winners. Trostle was the only incumbent running for re-election.

Results for Tuesday's election show that the winners were Michele Gage, with 382 votes; Ken Turner, with 327 votes; Pat Dauer with 324 votes; Carl Weinberg with 321 votes; and Miriam Schindel with 315 votes.

Trostle finished third from last with 291 votes. The other runners up finished with the following tallies: Kim Cosetti with 299 votes; Allen Peacock with 294 votes; Peter Clough with 286 votes; and Deann Grogan with 282 votes.

There were 10 candidates in total. Board members are term limited, as they are barred from serving more than two consecutive terms of three years each.

The candidates' views on handling Tinter's disciplinary matter resulted in them being grouped into two slates, according to The Record-Review, which described Gage, Schindel, Dauer, Weinberg and Turner as a "slate of five" who wanted a negotiated end to the process. The five defeated candidates, according to a profile from the paper, were not vocally critical of the proceeding.

Tinter, who worked at the library for four decades, was suspended last December. She was accused of multiple violations, including alleged inflation of the library's circulation count of materials. Multiple arbitration-hearing dates were held over the subsequent months.

The library board campaign season grew heated, according to the paper, which noted signs placed around town endorsing the latter five while presenting a quote from hearing officer Steven Kasarda stating that Tinter "lied and was untruthful." Trostle, when asked by the paper, denied that she was involved in the creation of the signs.

Kasarda ruled in favor of the Library Board on Monday and recommended firing Tinter, according to a statement posted on the library's website, with the board approving the director's ouster later that day.

Meanwhile, the library's proposed budget, which was overshadowed by the Tinter hearing, easily passed, with results showing 332 votes in favor to 280 against.

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