A12 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
M 2 • SUNDAY • 10.28.2012
LOCAL
WORLD
MUSEUM
•
Iraq bombings, raids on homes leave 40 dead
FROM A1
History Museum trustees approve preliminary deal to reshape how finances are overseen
new governing structure. The arrangements, museum leaders said, are part of an effort to restore public confidence. Raymond Stranghoener, chair of the museum’s board of trustees, pointed out that Archibald is giving up about $800,000 in base salary with two fewer contract years. Asked if the moves signal that Archibald might leave the museum in the coming year, Stranghoener said: “I hope not.” He added that Archibald’s presence is vital to raising donations, and that several prospective donors have said their gifts are contingent on the president remaining at the institution. Archibald, head of the museum since 1988, had signed a three-year contract in July. The board of trustees at that time also agreed to pay him for 410 unused vacation days, due as a lump sum when he retired. Archibald used to receive eight weeks of vacation. He now is entitled to four weeks, but also gets six weeks for “historical researching and writing.” Archibald and his attorney in recent days worked out the details of his new contract terms with the board of trustees. The museum said Friday that Archibald was not available for comment. Stranghoener said the $580,000 vacation payout will come from the museum’s reserves or endowment. He added that one reason the payment will be made soon is because it was too much to ask the newly forming governing team to sort through the issue. The museum has come under fire in recent weeks from board members of the St. Louis Zoo-Museum District, which oversees tax money distributed to five local cultural institutions. One of the critics, district board member Gloria Wessels, had a positive reaction to the contract change. “So they changed it to one year? That’s good,” she said. “I don’t mean I agree with it. But I think it’s a step in the right direction.” But another district board member, Charles Valier, was critical of the vacation payout to be made this year. “It suggests they can’t justify it,” he said. “They are doing it before the process is opened up.” The Zoo-Museum District distributes $70 million in property tax money collected from St. Louis and St. Louis County residents to five local cultural institutions. The History Museum receives about $10 million of the tax money. For more than a month, museum officials have come under heavy criticism for a 2006 land deal involving former Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. The chief of staff to Mayor Francis Slay has even called it a “nonsensical land deal.” Critics have questioned whether politicalandpersonalconnectionsbetween
Coordinated attacks primarily target nation’s Shiites during holiday. BY ADAM SCHRECK • Associated Press
BAGHDAD • Iraqi insurgents unleashed a string
STEPHEN DEERE • sdeere@post-dispatch.com
The Missouri History Museum paid former Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. $875,000 in 2006 for this lot at 5863 Delmar Boulevard, which was then home to a closed barbecue restaurant. The city now values the property at $232,300.
“It is going to be a whole new type of working relationship,” Stranghoener said. The new agreement, which is to be reviewed each December, requires that the museum: • Retain a nationally recognized compensation consultant to assist with the setting of executive pay and benefits. • Share annual audit reports with the publicly appointed commissioners. • Obtain commissioner approval for expenditures over $300,000. • Establish a joint committee of trustees and commissioners to approve the museum’s budget each year. Slay and County Executive Charlie A. Dooley released a joint statement late Friday praising the agreement. “The citizens are right to be upset by past events,” the statement said. “The History Museum … has work to do to restore taxpayer confidence, and this is a strong first step.” But Valier, of the Zoo-Museum District, accused Danforth and museum leaders of crafting the agreement in secret. “This whole thing was conceived in the dark,” Valier said. Wessels, who once served on the publicly appointed History Museum commission, was also critical of the agreement. “For that to be effective, they need all new commissioners, who come in with no history,” she said.“I compared myself to a puppet when I was a commissioner, and I think that’s what you become. They’re just kind of ‘yes’ people.” The district board is scheduled to meet on Monday and is expected to debate a report written by some members that is highly critical of the History Museum and lists a series of recommendations. Stranghoener denied that Friday’s moves were an attempt to head off any action by the Zoo-Museum District.
SAVING ON HISTORY
Kevin Horrigan says the Missouri History Museum might find a better deal on a director by doing a little comparison shopping. Column, A21
Bosley and Archibald were a factor. In 2006, the museum bought a oneacre property on Delmar Boulevard for $875,000 from Bosley, who had opened a restaurant on the site and owed thousands of dollars in back taxes. The museum made the deal without getting an appraisal. Moreover, when the museum began talks with Bosley about his land, he was a member of the institution’s board of trustees. And the museum did not try to negotiate a lower price when environmental studies showed the land was contaminated. The museum said it wanted to use the land for a community center but couldn’t raise construction money once the recession hit. Today the parcel sits vacant, and the city values it at $232,300. Critics have also questioned Archibald’s compensation, especially since his museum relies more heavily on tax money than the other four and raises less private money. And they have pointed to problems in the museum’s governance. Museum management reports to a nonprofit boardoftrusteeswith50-plusmembers. But a separate, 10-member commission appointed by the city and county is supposed to oversee tax money the museum spends. That commission ceded power to the board of trustees years ago. City and county leaders recently called on former Sen. John C. Danforth to help negotiate a new power-sharing agreement between the trustees and the publicly appointed commission. The trustees approved a preliminary version on Friday, and the commission is scheduled to meet Tuesday to vote on it.
of bombings and other attacks primarily targeting the country’s Shiites on Saturday, leaving at least 40 dead in a challenge to government efforts to promote a sense of stability by preventing attacks during a major Muslim holiday. The bloodshed appeared to be the worst in Iraq since Sept. 9, when insurgents launched a wave of bombings and other attacks that left at least 92 dead in one of the country’s bloodiest days this year. The attacks underscored the difficulties facing the country’s leadership as it struggles to keep its citizens safe. Authorities had increased security in hopes of preventing attacks during the four-day Eid alAdha celebrations, when people are off work and families gather in public places. The deadliest attacks struck in the evening in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. Police said a car packed with explosives blew up near a market, killing 12 people and wounding 27. Half an hour later, a second car bomb went off in one of Sadr City’s bus stations, killing 10 and injuring 31. Earlier in the day, a bomb exploded near playground equipment that had been set up for the holiday in a market on the capital’s outskirts in the eastern neighborhood of Bawiya. Police officials said eight people, including four children, were killed. An additional 24 people, including children, were wounded, they added. “Nobody expected this explosion because our neighborhood has been living in peace, away from the violence hitting the rest of the capital,” said Bassem Mohammed, 35, a father of three in the neighborhood who was startled by the blast. “We feel sad for the children who thought that they would spend a happy time during Eid, but instead ended up getting killed or hurt.” Elsewhere, a bomb attached to a bus carrying Iranian Shiite pilgrims killed five people and wounded nine, according to police. The bomb, hidden on the underside of the bus, detonated as the pilgrims were heading to a Shiite shrine in Baghdad to mark the holiday. Authorities have said they planned to increase the number of checkpoints, shut some roads and deploy extra personnel during the holiday period. They are also relying more on undercover intelligence agents, said Lt. Col. Saad Maan Ibrahim, a spokesman for the interior ministry. He emphasized that both bombings took place on the edge of the capital rather than in densely populated areas. “The terrorists apparently weren’t able to get to the heart of the city. So they chose to attack soft targets on the outskirts,” he said. In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen broke into the houses of two Shabak families, killing a boy and his parents in one and a mother and daughter in the other, according to police.
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