Letter: Operations of the Friends of the Jones Library Should Be Publicly Disclosed
Photo: Blue Diamond Gallery (CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED)
Here is a link to the 2023, 2022 and 2021 Annual Reports of the Friends of the Jones Library, required by law to be filed by corporations with the Secretary of the Commonwealth in Boston. As you can see, the last report where the Friends complied with their legal obligation to list their Board of Trustees was 2021.
As a matter of fairness to the residents of Amherst who must fight for basic educational services to the town’s school children while so many millions are being spent on this library project, the Friends need to publicly disclose their operations in the same manner as any public agency. In effect they are an arm of the public library. Their meetings and records should be public in the same manner.
If they refuse to do so, the question is what are they trying to hide from public scrutiny?
Michael Pill
Michael Pill is a former resident of Amherst, and a current resident of Shutesbury. His law practice is based in Northampton.
Thank you for speaking up, Michael!
Michael and Rob, You are right to call attention to the failure of the Friends of the Jones leadership to keep its community fully informed, but in this particular case the Friends of the Jones have met their legal obligation. The latest Form 990 annual report, that Michael cites (and has the year “2021” in the upper right corner), was actually dated 11-4-2023 by the accounting firm that prepared it and was apparently filed in November 2023. Another one will not be required until later this calendar year.