Businessman Stephen Dulmage is the library board member who suggested closing 38 branches, warehousing books, eliminating computers, and other budget measures that baffled board colleagues of all political stripes.

Dulmage, described in one corporate biography as “a seasoned financial executive in the financial markets arena,” is a chartered accountant in his late 60s who was the chief financial officer of Dominion Securities in the 1980s.

He later held the same role at African Gold Group, a junior mining company, and has served on the boards of at least six companies, including at least three junior miners. He is now a principal at Gravitas Capital Corp., which invests in fledgling resources companies.

Dulmage, who donated $500 to Rocco Rossi’s mayoral campaign, did not respond to requests for comment. He left midway through a Tuesday meeting of the board’s budget committee at which his primary suggestions were rejected.

Board members were invited to make budget suggestions to library chief Jane Pyper as part of an effort to come up with alternatives to the Sunday closures and hours reductions Pyper said were necessary to meet Mayor Rob Ford’s demand for a 10 per cent budget cut.

Dulmage’s suggestion of closing more than a third of the system’s 98 branches was especially puzzling to other board members, though chair Councillor Paul Ainslie said Dulmage has told him he believes there are simply too many branches. Council explicitly rejected branch closures in September.

“It was in direct contravention of the parameters given to us by city council. It created unnecessary alarm, and, I think, significant confusion about our intentions,” said board member Ross Parry.

Dulmage had the misfortune of making the news in the early 1990s. In July 1992, police told him they believed he was the target of an active murder plot launched by two former business partners he was threatening to sue because he believed they might have misappropriated his $500,000 investment.

Detectives had a CBC makeup artist paint a fake bullet wound on Dulmage’s head and pour fake blood on his body, then had him play dead while an officer posing as a hitman cradled his head and someone else took photos. The officer showed the photos to the accused as supposed proof of a killing.