9 laid off at Facing continued financial pressure and the economic uncertainties of wartime, Bishop Museum laid off nine employees Thursday, including the manager of the Hawaii Maritime Center at Pier 7.
Bishop Museum
The war and financial pressure
are blamed by the chief executiveBy Sally Apgar
sapgar@starbulletin.com"This is not a crisis," said William Brown, president and chief executive of the museum in an interview yesterday in which he confirmed the layoffs.
"The museum could go forward at its current level (without layoffs), but we would soon be faced with genuine reductions," he said. "I decided we need to streamline and reduce expenses now, so that we wouldn't run a deficit and would still be in position to pursue new revenue sources rather than just deal with shortfalls."
Brown said that the museum's annual operating budget has slipped this year to $11 million from about $12 million with cuts from various funding sources. A memo Brown sent yesterday to the museum's board of directors said the layoffs would reduce personnel expenses by about $500,000 beginning in July.
Brown's memo said, "This action was taken to address ... fiscal challenges in a thoughtful and strategic manner and not find ourselves in an emergency in the future."
Several employees who were laid off declined to talk to the Star-Bulletin. Some had yet to negotiate their severance packages. Several also said the museum was insisting that they sign confidentiality agreements and not discuss the situation publicly.
Still several of the laid-off employees, who asked not to be identified, said the decision was more motivated by political in-fighting than by economics.
Brown dismissed that suggestion.
The Bishop Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop, the husband of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop and is not owned by Kamehameha Schools, formerly known as the Bishop Estate. The princess founded Kamehameha in 1884.
Brown also confirmed the layoffs were mostly at the mid-management level and across a variety of departments from education and the library to public relations, the Maritime Museum and anthropology department.
"There is no padding in the staff," said Brown. "I tried to do cuts that would cause the least harm overall to services, assets and the museum's immediate future."
Since 1995, the museum has faced financial pressure as the state and other funding sources have shrunk or disappeared. Between 1995 and 1999, the museum cut about 59 positions.
But Brown said he is optimistic he can eventually boost the museum's funding from $11 million to $20 million by tapping untried federal sources and various foundations.
However, with war and economic uncertainty, he said he feels it will be a year or more before he can tap these sources. He said he is trying to position the museum so that it avoids shortfalls and can use any new sources of funding to build museum programs.
For now, the museum is coping with cuts in funding on which it has traditionally relied. The state once contributed more than $2 million a year but this year provided only $550,000. Brown hopes to get $550,000 from the state for next year.
Another key source, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, once funded at least $1 million annually to educational programs. NASA paid for creating exhibits that were shown not only at the Bishop Museum's planetarium but at other facilities across the country. With NASA funding dropping to half beginning July 1 and to zero next year, Brown laid off two people in that program.
"NASA supported a great program," said Brown, "But we can't do work (on exhibits) that we don't have money for."
Asked about laying off Robert Moore, the manager of the Maritime Center, Brown said "we are in no way walking away from the Maritime Center. We just need to make some cuts to make sure we have funds to keep it and the rest of the museum viable."
Moore could not be reached for comment.
Brown said the layoffs would not halt the construction of a $16 million science center that will feature elaborate volcano exhibits and is expected to open in Spring 2005. Funding is already secured with $5 million from federal sources, $8 million in state money and $3 million from private contributions.
Brown also said he is asking the state Legislature to appropriate $2 million this year and another $2 million next year to overhaul the historic Hawaiian Hall which has not been renovated in 50 years.
My feeling is that this is a temporary thing," he said. "For a year or two, during this time of war and economic uncertainty, we need to retrench so that we can preserve our assets while we seek new sources of more stable funding."
Bishop Museum