Bye, Bye, Mario

After nine years of inept "management", highlighted by the misdeeds of his unsupervised deputy, convicted thief Inga Boudreau, and his own "dictatorial, controlling, and bullying" reign of terror over the rest of the employees, library director Mario Gonzalez has finally thrown in the towel. He and the library board have fought long and hard to try to prevent a recent consultant's report, which detailed the abysmal morale at the library and the reasons therefor, from ever seeing the light of day. But you can't fight that kind of rear-guard action against the truth for very long, and on Tuesday night Mario told the board he was jumping before he was pushed.

Well, perhaps not in those exact words, but that was clearly the general idea. He will be "pursuing other opportunities," the standard formula used to gloss over a forced resignation; what those oppotunities may be and just how, with his blemished reputation, he plans to pursue them is a matter for conjecture. Mario talks optimistically of "other opportunities that will come to my door," but if your scribe were he, he would not be holding his breath.

Meanwhile, the sigh of relief that has gone up from the library staff is clearly audible. Years of tyranny and mismanagement are now behind them, and while the library board has not been noted for its brilliant choices of directors since Nolan Lushington left, there is at least a fighting chance that the next director will not be as obnoxious and inept as Mario and his predecessor Beth Mainiero (whose deputy director also made off with tens of thousands of library dollars and was likewise convicted) have been.

And so, dear reader, bit by bit the Augean Stables in the Town of Greenwich are being cleansed. Whitby School has rid itself of the late unlamented Michele Monson; Greenwich Library has set Mario Gonzalez on the road of looking for "new opportunities"; and the unspeakable Betty Sternberg's contract is up next year. Maybe if she keeps her nose clean she, too, will have the chance to resign gracefully and "pursue other opportunities."

Or maybe the townspeople will simply tar and feather her and ride her out of Town on a rail. There was yet another demonstration at the Board of Ed headquarters yesterday - one would think that dear Betty might get the message. How many other towns, dear reader, have regular protest demonstrations outside their Boards of Ed? Can you name a single one?

So there's still some fecal matter left in the Town's stables, but the trend is clearly moving in the right direction. With luck, the day will soon dawn when we here in Greenwich can be proud of our senior administrators instead of spending our energies trying to put out the never-ending brushfires they cause. Wouldn't that be a nice turn of events?