Fairbanks Daily News Miner - June 25, 2017
FAIRBANKS — A former Noel Wien Library employee allegedly stole more than $10,000 in donations intended for the Fairbanks Library Foundation.
Court summons were issued last week for Virginia Marie Sabol, 64, a former library purchasing clerk. She’s accused of taking money from library foundation fundraisers between January 2014 and September 2016. The money came from foundation fundraisers such as T-shirt sales, the golden library card program and a program that lets donors put their names on the book-shaped tiles in the lobby.
The Fairbanks Library Foundation is a nonprofit organization that raises money for special library projects such as artwork in the library, cellphone booths and reading programs.
In 2014, an especially big fundraising year, the foundation contributed $100,000 to help build the new North Pole library.
Sabol had worked for the library since 1983. Her employment with the borough ended in January. She is charged with second-degree felony theft.
Borough staff reported a suspected theft this winter, according to the criminal complaint against Sabol.
A borough employee reported financial irregularities while filling in for Sabol, who’d been out on sick leave since September. Some of the money that had been paid for Library Foundation fundraisers hadn’t been deposited in the foundation’s account.
After the borough conducted an audit, borough human resources director Sallie Stuvek confronted Sabol about the discrepancy. Sabol admitted she had some of the library foundation deposits at her home, and she returned $2,307, according to the case against her.
Stuvek said in a Daily News-Miner interview this week $9,774 of foundation deposits remains missing.
“That wasn’t a borough account because the foundation is a nonprofit. That was a failure of the internal control process. This would have been caught a lot sooner had it been (a borough account),” Stuvek said “It’s an unfortunate circumstance. It isn’t reflective of how most normal borough employees handle their responsibilities.”
The borough plans to seek restitution from Sabol, Stuvek said.
This year’s alleged theft was unprecedented in the foundations 40-year history, foundation president Kathy Alton said. The borough has reimbursed the foundation all the money that was supposed to have been given to the foundation.
Because of the case, the foundation has changed its practices so the library employees aren’t handling cash on behalf of the foundation. The foundation plans to formalize its relationship with the borough through a memorandum of agreement. The foundation is also considering phasing out its gold library cards, which let donors check out materials for longer at the library than ordinary library cards. People with lifetime gold cards will still be able to use theirs.
Court summons were sent for Sabol on June 19. Her first court date has not been set.
Contact Outdoors Editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMoutdoors.
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