Monday, March 2, 2009

Is The Museum In Trouble Again?

A couple of weeks ago, I had heard a rumor that the Milwaukee Public Museum was having financial problems again, and were looking for either more pay concessions from the workers and/or more layoffs. I never wrote on it until now, because I could not find any other sources to verify what I had heard.

Interestingly, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had an article towards the end of last week stating that the museum's donations were down by 19%, or more than $400,000 short of their budget, which somewhat confirms part of the rumor, anyway. Although the number I heard was much higher than that reported by the paper.

But putting whether the museum asked the workers to allow more concessions to the side, one has to wonder about something. Given that the current economic crisis has been going on for quite a while now, well into last year, one has to wonder the wisdom of the museum giving their top officers rather healthy raises:

Milwaukee Public Museum President Dan Finley has been given a nearly 4% pay raise, to $196,000 a year, while the museum's chief financial officer, Michael Bernatz, got an 18.5% pay raise, to $160,000, museum officials said Tuesday.

Finley's increase paralleled raises given to union employees at the museum. Bernatz's increase came with an added title - senior vice president - and in recognition of added responsibilities for museum operations, Finley said.

Karen Spahn, the museum's vice president for development, got a 3.9% raise, to $175,000. The raises followed a year in which attendance increased by 93%, largely on the strength of the popular "Body Worlds" exhibit. Also, as part of financial restructuring, the museum paid off a loan guaranteed by Milwaukee County five years early.

The museum's new vice president for museum programs, Ellen Censky, is being paid $160,000.

This is even more disconcerting considering that the museum only recently paid off a $10 million loan, have already received $2 million in concessions from the union and receives $3.5 million per year from the taxpayers, via Milwaukee County. Is there a need for another audit, just to protect the taxpayers investments, if nothing else?

2 comments:

  1. my question is this, did the admistration receive extra duties so that their pay increase is justified?
    Seems that if they increased the traffic by 93%, they are doing a pretty good job. And no, i don't think the entire increase can be attributed to "Bodies". We had "Bodies" in Vegas and it really wasn't a big deal.

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  2. did the admistration receive extra duties so that their pay increase is justified?

    Nope, they just gave it to themselves for paying off their debt early. BTW, that included the lenders forgiving $2 million.

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