Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
OK, so it was ordered eight years too late and after more than $1 million was already spent.
But at least the Missouri History Museum finally has a proper snapshot of the value of a vacant property that it purchased on Delmar Boulevard in 2006. That would be $260,000, or $615,000 less than it paid in its scandalously appraisal-free purchase way back then.
That’s not counting $101,000 in related costs and another $155,000 in unused architectural plans that bring the total wasted funds to more than $1 million. Today, according to Hottle Appraisal Co., the property is valued at $214,970.
The appraisal was commissioned by the Zoo-Museum District (ZMD), whose audit last year had uncovered the troubling details of the purchase, a story that broke in September and led to the resignation of museum President Robert Archibald three months later. The deal remains the subject of investigations by the the city’s circuit attorney and Board of Aldermen.
The property had been owned by former Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr., who had served on the museum’s board of trustees, and a business partner. Bosley contests the appraisal and defended Archibald as “one of the greatest men to come to this community. And they ran him off,” in today’s Post-Dispatch.
Archibald’s legacy is a fair subject for historians to debate. For today, however, the real question is whether this scandal and equally appalling conduct related to Archibald’s excessive compensation will lead to serious, permanent change regarding public accountability at the museum.
Roughly 70 percent of the museum’s operating budget comes from the annual $10 million in city-county property tax dollars provided from the ZMD. That is supposed to be overseen by a ZMD sub-district commission (as is the case for the four other ZMD institutions), but the commission ceded its role to the private and not-formally-accountable board of trustees.
That needs to change. The sub-district commission needs to oversee the finances of the museum, not the private trustees, who should instead play an important role as the custodian (and owner) of the museum's extensive collections, along with providing insight, fundraising, and community support to the museum.
At the moment, that isn’t the case. After the scandals broke, former Sen. Jack Danforth was brought in to broker a compromise, but the narrow result did little to assure a structure of public accountability reflective of the fact that the lion’s share of museum funds come from taxpayers.
It will comfort some that a real-estate purchase like the one in question—an unlikely occurrence at best— has been addressed for the future. Under the “Danforth Plan,” it is now agreed that any future land purchases be subject to an appraisal (duh) and that the two boards must give their approval.
The commission with public accountability wasn’t even notified of the Delmar purchase until months after it was completed. When this became known, Archibald infamously—and tellingly—responded, “I don’t report to the commission.”
That was the beginning of the end for him.
John Roberts, head of the board of trustees, noted this in a statement Tuesday, in which he acknowledged that “we of course are troubled by the information which suggests...a significant disparity between the purchase price and [the appraiser’s] estimation of the market value of the property.”
That’s news. Just two months ago, in a December 12 public statement that was distributed to, among others, History Museum employees, Roberts sang quite a different tune in defending the transparency and substance of the $20-per-square-foot purchase:
“A qualified real estate professional was engaged and advice was obtained by a well-known real estate professional on the Board. Other properties in the area were investigated at the time and two commercial properties in the general area were sold in 2004 and 2005 for amounts in excess of the price MHM paid on a square foot basis.”
Roberts’ statement was consistent with the trustees’ defensive position since the audit report criticizing the purchase first made news on September 16. At that time, trustee Elizabeth Robb, a real-estate broker, proclaimed confidence that the museum wouldn’t lose money on the deal.
"I think it's worth in the mid-($800,000)" range, Robb said. "I don't think we are upside down on this one at all."
Now the appraisal that should have been commissioned in 2005 is saying the museum is way upside down. And now Roberts is saying, “Hindsight suggests, and we agree, that our process should have been much more thorough.”
Was the appraisal released Tuesday really a big surprise to the members of the Board of Trustees? If so, they were the only ones in town who didn't see this coming.
This is more a matter of common sense than hindsight.
Just like it's not really hindsight to say that the president of the museum shouldn’t have been paid double or more of what his counterparts make nationally, that he really didn’t need a $35,000 house allowance, that he shouldn’t have been given a $566,000 lump-sum golden parachute (“vacation pay”) or an even more egregious six-month, parting-gift “consulting contract.”
So next up is replacing Archibald. With the board of trustees at least a little chastened on the real-estate front, it will be interesting to see what it has learned from its own recent history.
SLM co-owner Ray Hartmann is a panelist on KETC Channel 9’s Donnybrook, which airs Thursdays at 7 p.m.
Commentary by Ray Hartmann
