This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 30, 2012 - Board members of the Missouri History Museum subdistrict of the Zoo-Museum District voted unanimously Tuesday to accept changes in its contract with the museum’s board.
Romondous Stover, head of the subdistrict board, called the changes "substantial and significant" and said efforts will continue to find ways to improve oversight of the museum's operations
The changes, negotiated earlier this month by former Sen. John C. Danforth, give the subdistrict a greater voice in budget and compensation matters – two areas that have been controversial in the light of the museum’s purchase of land that had been owned by former museum board member (and St. Louis mayor) Freeman Bosley Jr. The site had been designated for a community center that was never built.
Bosley’s relationship with museum director Robert Archibald – and Archibald’s compensation package – have prompted sharp criticism of the museum. After approving the contract changes last week, the museum board’s compensation committee voted to lop two years off of Archibald’s contract, which was set to take effect next year, so that it will be in effect only through 2013.
Members of the museum board – which is separate from the subdistrict board – praised Archibald’s tenure at the museum, where he became director in 1988. The museum continues to be privately owned but receives $10 million a year in tax money from the Zoo-Museum District, about 60 percent of its annual budget.
The contract changes, which the head of the museum board, Raymond Stranghoener, said were designed to create more of a partnership between the two boards, do not need to be approved by the broader board of the entire Zoo-Museum District. Membership of that board is separate from membership of the subdistrict board.
Specifically, the contract changes will:
- Create a joint budget committee with an equal number of members from the museum board and the subdistrict board, to oversee, review and approve the museum’s annual budget.
- Create a similar joint committee for executive compensation. Each year, a nationally recognized consultant on executive compensation will be retained to help set salaries.
- Require the subdistrict's approval of any unbudgeted expenditure of more than $300,000.
- Require that all real estate purchases be approved by the subdistrict whether or not public money is involved.
- Make sure that the subdistrict board receives a copy of the annual detailed audit report by the museum’s independent auditor.
- Provide the subdistrict with regular reports of attendance at traveling exhibits, regular admissions and online visits.
- Reaffirm that the board and the staff of the museum control its day-to-day operations.
The new agreement will be reviewed each December, with a committee of the subdistrict responsible for recommending possible changes. If disagreements arise that cannot be resolved during a six-month negotiating period, the agreement will terminate and tax revenue – currently $10 million a year of the museum $16 million annual budget – will end as of the end of the following year.
The museum subdistrict board voted to approve the changes after brief discussion. Member Mark Kuhlmann said he wanted to make sure the revisions do not put the subdistrict board in the role of operating the museum rather than overseeing the operations.
If subdistrict members became a majority on any of the joint committees that the changes establish, he added, "I think it would start confusing oversight and operations. ... I think we need to keep our two roles very distinct."
After the vote, Wayne Goode, who observed the meeting as a member of the museum's board of trustees said that if the changes had been in place previously, the questions that have recently come to light concerning the purchase of the property on Delmar and Archibald's compensation could have been avoided.
"I think we wouldn't be standing here today," said Goode, a former state senator who said he has been on the museum board for a dozen years.
He said he did not think that the changes would bring any problems regarding the line between operations and oversight. And, he added, he did not think public confidence in the museum is beyond repair.
"It will take a little time," he said. "This all blew out of one issue, the property purchase, and a major mistake, not getting an appraisal. People don't like to see that. But I think we're beyond that."
As far as Archibald's compensation package, Goode said:
"People in general don't realize how complicated these organizations are, and how it takes money to get the level of people you wan. That's the way the world is."
At a meeting of the full Zoo-Museum District board Monday, the contract changes received a mixed review. Some members said they were a solid step toward correcting some of the problems that have been pinpointed in recent weeks, primarily by reporting in the Post-Dispatch. But others said they did not give the subdistrict board the controlling power it should have, and the changes in Archibald’s contract did not go far enough.