The former chief accountant for the Detroit Public Library has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the library, alleging violations of state financial compliance laws. David Gates, who was fired in June for undisclosed reasons, accuses the library of terminating him after he discovered that $4.2 million in endowment and gift money had been recorded separately from the general fund and kept in other bank accounts.
Library Director Maurice Wheeler denied the dismissal was related to Gates’s charges. “The issues really haven’t changed,” he said in the August 23 Detroit News. “His termination was a personnel issue.”
Attorney Al Posner, who is representing Gates, told reporters, “Somebody is padding something somewhere. He was met with resistance and reluctance. That’s why he’s using the only forum left to him.”
Posted August 27, 2001.