Former Detroit Public Library (DPL) chief administrative and technology officer Timothy Cromer was sentenced on September 16 to ten years in federal prison. He had been charged with taking more than $1.4 million in bribes and kickbacks from library contractors. Cromer first came under scrutiny in October 2010, when DPL commissioners terminated an $835,000 contract for network upgrades and staff IT support with Cubemation LLC, due to budget concerns. Although project funds had been depleted in the course of the contract’s eight months without the work being completed, Cubemation sued DPL in May 2011 for more than $184,000, and Cromer admitted to having advanced the company $125,000 that had not been deducted from the contract amount. The board requested an audit in May 2012, and then, in a November raid, FBI agents removed papers from offices of the DPL main branch and Cromer’s West Bloomfield home. It was revealed that in 2008 Cromer had authorized a no-bid technology contract with Cubemation for nearly $3 million without DPL board approval, and from 2008 to 2010 signed off on IT services and website work without the board’s oversight. Cubemation’s owner, Ricardo Hearn, would eventually bill the library $2.8 million while kicking back approximately $800,000 to Cromer; as a bonus, Cubemation also created a website for Cromer’s ex-wife’s fashion design company. In addition, in 2007 Cromer helped technology contractor James Henley create a business, Core Consulting and Professional Services, in order to bid on an upgrade of DPL’s computer network infrastructure. Cromer secured a $712,000 contract for Core Consulting, with costs eventually increasing to $1.8 million due to various change orders and extensions—$625,000 of which Henley kicked back to Cromer in a series of payments during 2007 and 2008. Cromer terminated the contract in 2008, but continued to approve Henley’s invoices and received another $125,000 in kickbacks. According to the Detroit News, technology experts claimed the work, contracted at nearly $5 million, could have been done for less than $150,000. Cromer, who was placed on a paid leave of absence at the end of 2012, was fired in February 2013; at the time he was earning a salary of $145,323. He appeared before U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade the following May, and was charged in a 21-count indictment with accepting more than $1.4 million in bribes and kickbacks. In April 2014 he admitted to receiving a bribe from Henley and conspiring to commit bribery with Hearn. Henley and Hearn had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, and in January 2013 Henley was indicted on six counts of bribery and failure to file taxes.

HARD TIMES FOR DPL

While such an abuse of funds would have been difficult for any library to sustain, DPL was already suffering from budget problems. In 2011, due to an $11 million shortfall from a drop in property taxes, the system was forced to close four of its 23 branches and hours were reduced across the system. At the same time, the renovation of the South Wing of DPL’s Main Library was under investigation for excessive spending, including $1,100 trash cans and lounge chairs that were priced at more than $1,000 apiece. Juliet Machie, former DPL deputy director and leader of the South Wing expansion project between 2007–2009—which began as a $300,000 furniture upgrade and ended up as a $2.3 million renovation—claims she never authorized their purchase. Machie was fired in September 2014, after suing the library over perceived prejudice that she believed blocked her bid to become library director in 2009. In a statement from the District Attorney’s office, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office Paul Abbate said that Cromer’s misuse of library funds “amounts to stealing directly from the community.” According to Detroit’s Local 4 News, at his sentencing Cromer told U.S. District Court Judge Judge George Caram Steeh that “A part of me is deeply flawed and I don’t know why I did it. I know I regret it. I know it’s something that I’m going to deal with for the rest of my life.” Although Cromer earned a bachelor’s degree in Management from Wayne State University Business School in 2013, when began working at DPL as director of information systems in 2003 he only had a GED. Local 4 News quotes him as admitting that he wasn't ready for the job, and doesn’t understand how he got it in the first place. DPL has not yet responded to requests for comment.