This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 13, 2012 - The new head of the Missouri History Museum board of trustees says he supports museum President Robert Archibald but doesn’t feel his backing will compromise an investigation into allegations brought by commissioners of the Zoo-Museum District.
John Roberts spoke to the Beacon Thursday after the budget committee of the history museum subdistrict approved the museum’s $14 million budget for 2013. The full subdistrict board meets on Tuesday for final approval of the budget.
Roberts and others had expressed their support for Archibald at a meeting of the museum’s board of trustees late Wednesday, defending him against recent criticism for the museum’s purchase of land on Delmar that was never developed and for Archibald’s compensation, including payment for unused vacation days.
Members of the audit committee of the commissioners of the Zoo-Museum District have been among the most vocal critics of Archibald. On Wednesday, the committee authorized a request that a committee of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen investigate a number of allegations involving Archibald, including the inability to find records about his vacation days and alleged shredding of documents.
Their request comes despite the fact that the museum’s board of trustees has hired former U.S. Attorney Edward Dowd to look into similar allegations.
In an interview after the budget committee met at the museum, Roberts repeated his support for the museum’s president and said that his opinion of the job that Archibald has done as head of the museum should not prejudice the Dowd investigation.
“One is my personal support,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the investigation. I don’t see how it prejudices Mr. Dowd and his work. He has carte blanche to do whatever he wants. It’s his report.”
Roberts did criticize the district commissioners who have questioned Archibald’s records, calling them “people with an ax to grind. Do they have any authority to do this? Why would they want to do something that is already being done independently?”
And he questioned how much money an investigation of the allegations would cost.
“It takes away from what we do for the citizens of this community,” Roberts said. “It doesn’t add. It takes away.”
Roberts said he is looking forward to implementation of new rules to give commissioners of the Zoo-Museum district more voice in compensation and budget matters for the history museum.
“It brings more smart people to the table,” he said.
And he acknowledged that the museum has a selling task ahead of it in rebuilding public confidence.
“We’ve probably lost the PR war, if that’s what you want to call it,” Roberts said. “We’ve got a job to do.”
The request for an aldermanic investigation was sent to Joe Roddy, the head of the parks committee, in a letter signed by Gloria Wessels, chair of the Zoo-Museum board’s audit committee. Her husband, Fred Wessels, is a member of the Board of Aldermen but is not a member of the parks committee.
In an interview with reporters on Thursday, Roddy said that he had introduced a resolution that would lay the groundwork for his committee to launch an investigation. He said such an inquiry could realistically start in January or February.
“From what I read in the press, it sounds like it’s a ‘he said, she said’ sort of thing,” Roddy said. “We ought to get to the bottom of it relatively easily. And we need to get that off the front page … The public is really concerned about a dedicated tax of over $10 million a year going on indefinitely. When people want information, they don’t seem to be able get information.
“My hope would be we go ahead and clarify it,” he added. “They either have a great explanation or they don’t have an explanation.”
Asked if the investigation was being driven by the fact that Gloria Wessels is married to an alderman, Roddy said “not at all.” He noted he’s been monitoring the compensation issue since 2010.
And he also said if the investigation goes forward, he would inquire how Archibald could accumulate roughly 400 days of vacation and not have corresponding documentation accounting for such a designation.
“They either can account for the vacation, or they can’t account for it,” he said. “There’s a number of questions the audit committee has raised. And it seems somebody ought to say, ‘this is how we account for vacation time.’ Is it 'use it or lose it'? Or can you carry it over forever? I’m curious to how somebody goes 10 years and (doesn't) take a vacation day.”
In discussing the museum’s budget proposal before it passed unanimously, budget committee member F. Mark Kuhlmann pointed to a 14.4 percent decrease in the money designated for communications.
Noting the negative publicity the museum has had in recent months, he questioned whether it was a good time to cut back on communicating with the public, saying:
“It may cost you more than you save.”
But Archibald said the money will be spent in a more targeted way, using less mass mailings, so he did not see a problem.
