This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 12, 2012 - The audit committee of the Zoo-Museum District voted Wednesday to ask the St. Louis Board of Aldermen to look into the unavailability of vacation records for Robert Archibald, head of the Missouri History Museum, as well as reports of documents being improperly shredded and other issues.
The vote – the latest in a series of moves by the committee in the wake of news about Archibald’s compensation and the museum’s purchase of land on Delmar that was never developed – came in a brief but intense meeting where ZMD commissioners traded sharp criticism.
Later Wednesday, the museum’s board of trustees met and approved the museum’s proposed budget of $14,072,000 for 2013, up from a projected $13,905,000 this year. Of that total, about $10 million was public money from the subdistrict tax.
A meeting of the museum subdistrict’s commissioners is scheduled for Thursday.
At one point during Wednesday’s meeting, Gloria Wessels, chair of the audit committee, used her gavel to try to silence commissioner Thomas Campbell, who is not a member of the committee but was one of four commissioners at the meeting. Campbell has been a persistent critic of the committee, saying it was acting on matters far beyond its scope.
“This committee is out of control,” Campbell said after the committee’s brief meeting at the ZMD headquarters in Clayton had been adjourned by Wessels. He added:
“This far exceeds the bounds of common decency.”
Wessels responded:
“I didn’t come here for you to shout at me.”
Wessels and Jerome Glick were the only members of the three-member audit committee present at the meeting; commissioner Thelma Cook, the third member was absent.
Wessels and Glick voted to approve Wessels’ motion that she send a letter to Alderman Joe Roddy, chair of the aldermanic parks and environment committee, asking that it look into a variety of issues concerning the history museum, including:
- The inability to find records confirming that Archibald had unused vacation days for which he will be paid $566,000.
- The apparent inequality in retirement benefits between Archibald and other museum employees.
- The alleged shredding of documents related to Archibald’s employment history.
- Alleged intimidation of museum employees, including settlements and dismissals.
- Evidence of what the letter called “a hostile work place and the use of retaliation to suppress employee participation.”
Wessels’ letter concluded:
“We are requesting this in response to the trustees of the museum initiation of their own investigation into alleged shredding of documents. We feel their investigation is tainted as evidence by their public statement that their investigation ‘will vindicate the museum and its leadership.’ Further, we understand that employees are being intimidated as part of that investigation, despite the existence of a whistle blower policy.”
Wessels’ husband, Fred Wessels, is a member of the Board of Aldermen but not a member of Roddy’s committee.
Part of the brief meeting concerned the hiring by the museum’s trustees of former U.S. Attorney Edward Dowd to conduct an inquiry into the allegations that documents were improperly removed and destroyed by museum staff.
A statement Nov. 30 by Raymond Stranghoener, chair of the museum’s board of trustees, that announced the hiring of Dowd also said that the board feels “these allegations are unsubstantiated, baseless and contrary to the museum’s policies and operations.”
His statement added that the inquiry was being conducted “out of frustration with the individuals who continue to conduct a campaign of false, misleading and unfounded allegations against the museum and its leadership.”
In general, Stranghoener told the Beacon after the Dowd investigation had been announced, Archibald has the full support of the board of trustees.
"We don't think there's been any substantiated evidence of wrongdoing on Dr. Archibald's part," he said.
That view has not sat well with commissioners who have been persistent critics of the museum, including Wessels, Glick, Charles Valier and Robert Lowery Sr. They feel that Stranghoener’s comments show that he has prejudged the outcome of Dowd’s investigation before it has even begun.
“Ed Dowd is a fine guy,” Glick said after Wednesday’s meeting. “I think his appointment is prejudicial.”
Ben Uchitelle, chair of the board of commissioners of the ZMD, said at the meeting that Dowd has a “stellar reputation” and needs an opportunity to look into the allegations in question.
“I think it’s unfair to prejudge the outcome of his report,” Uchitelle said.
Campbell said there has been no evidence so far that anything improper was done by museum staff, so he has no problem with the assertions made by Stranghoener.
He went on to say that he feels the audit committee has gone much too far in its report on the museum – a report on which ZMD commissioners deadlocked 4-4 on whether or not to approve.
“That report was very inflammatory,” he said. “It had innuendo and character assassination throughout.”
At that point, Wessels used her gavel in an attempt to silence Campbell, but it didn’t work.
“You had no authority to send that letter” to Roddy, he said.
She responded: “I think I do.”