GAS Committee supports museum restructuring, begins car towing plan
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TweetA restructuring of the Haines Sheldon Museum is on the horizon if the board and the Haines Borough Assembly have their way.
At present, the museum is a quasi-governmental organization with attributes of both a borough department and nonprofit. Existing in this liminal space has created confusion about the museum’s relationship to the borough, hampering the organization’s ability to function efficiently, museum trustees said at the assembly’s Government Affairs and Services (GAS) Committee meeting on Tuesday.
Under borough code, the museum “is operated and administered in its entirety by a board of trustees.” However, museum staff are borough employees, and the land and building are owned by the borough. The museum receives a portion of its funding from the borough, traditionally the majority of payroll expenses, and augments the funding with revenue from entrance fees, gift shop sales, fundraising efforts and grants.
“Is this quasi-governmental model the appropriate template for our relationship?” board member Sue Chasen said. “We really think it’s time that either that (relationship) gets firmed up, or we look at a different way to be related to the borough.” She mentioned a memorandum of understanding as an option for delineating the responsibilities of each entity more clearly.
The board is planning to hire the Foraker Group, a nonprofit that specializes in consulting services for other nonprofits, to do an assessment of the museum’s structure and make recommendations for a new model. The assessment will be funded using money from a grant originally intended for a museum intern.
Assembly members on the GAS Committee said they supported the board’s restructuring effort.
“I think if they want to run their show that we should back off and say, ‘Yes,’” assembly member Jerry Lapp said.
The restructuring effort will need to address what happens if museum staff cease to be employed by the borough. Interim manager Alekka Fullerton said this could trigger a PERS termination study to determine how employee benefits will be impacted. Study conclusions have proven expensive for local governments in similar situations, she said.
Chasen said she expects the Foraker Group’s assessment will be completed in time for consideration at the GAS committee’s next meeting on Sept. 1. Recommendations will likely require accompanying borough code changes.
At the same GAS Committee meeting, members gave direction to borough staff related to vehicle towing. The borough lacks consistent policy for dealing with abandoned vehicles or those parked in hazardous places.
At the direction of the committee, Fullerton will meet with the public facilities director to come up with a plan for towed vehicle storage and report back to the full assembly. There are $30,000 capital funds available for the project this fiscal year. The committee said that towing should only occur at the direction of the police department or borough manager, and asked staff to research funding mechanisms for towing and storing vehicles.
