Last week, lauded New Orleans jazz trumpeter Irvin Mayfield and former president of the New Orleans Public Library Foundation was revealed to have steered some $900,000 to arm the nonprofit New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. It's now stated that the Library will be fully reimbursed by the organization.
Coming soon after WWL-TV exposed the questionable payments of public library donations to Irvin Mayfield's NOJO, the board of directors at the company agreed Tuesday to pay back the entire amount it received. However, this is not as easy as it may seem.
It's been stated that the chairman of the board, Ron Forman, the powerful head of the Audubon Institute, must now raise private donations in order to reimburse the Library Foundation fully for its contributions. The funds were used to contribute to the new $10 million New Orlans Jazz Markey building that opened last month in Central City.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu also called on the organization to return the money that did not go to the public library system when it was discovered that at least $863,000 went to NOJO while Mayfield and Ronal served the Library's board.
Markham has since resigned from his position but will remain president of NOJO. Mayfield, the founder and artistic director and face of the musical group he led to a 2009 Grammy award, also remains a NOJO board member.
As WWL-TV writes:
"NOJO's last public audit showed it had a $246,000 deficit on June 30, 2014, so board members — including Forman, Mayfield, TV journalist Soledad O'Brien, political consultant Mary Matalin and others — will have to scrounge up close to $1 million more before the money can be paid back."
A most unruly decision, indeed.
For now, here's the Grammy winner below.
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