Free Library cracking down on crews

The Free Library is tightening management of its maintenance crews after Fox29 showed workers doing outside jobs on library time.

Investigations by Fox29's Jeff Cole caught maintenance workers on the clock but off the job, and City Controller Alan Butkovitz released a report Wednesday showing lax oversight.

On Wednesday, Mayor Nutter's spokesman Mark McDonald said the library had already established new sign-in logs and a new overtime form, and would implement a better system to track projects, including increased visits by supervisors. These actions were in response to the Fox29 report. The city is also looking at Butkovitz's finding that library maintenance workers had been paid $17,500 in standby pay for being on-call when those workers do not qualify for such pay.

No one on the library's maintenance staff has been terminated. McDonald said Nutter was awaiting a report from the city's Inspector General before taking any action. - Inquirer staff