Revere pays $25,000 to audit library director's misspending

REVERE - The city is spending up to $25,000 to have an outside auditor assess the scope of misspending by Library Director Robert Rice Jr., who resigned in January.

Private auditor John Sullivan will be paid from taxpayer money previously assigned to a library repair work account. Acting Librarian and library trustee Mark Ferrante said Sullivan has started sorting through receipts for purchases made by Rice dating back to 2006. Once that work is completed, Ferrante said Sullivan will begin making his way through items allegedly purchased by Rice, including a set of elephant tusks, now stored away in a library back room.

Sullivan is examining 200 purchases totaling at least $40,000, but not all of the items may have been purchased for Rice's personal use with library money.

Rice, a city worker employed by the library since his teenage years, resigned Jan. 13, hours before Mayor Thomas Ambrosino requested an emergency meeting with City Council members to describe what he termed spending by Rice on “things with no relevance to the function of the library.”

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