NASHVILLE -- The Tennessee State Museum Commission is initiating a search process to replace the museum's colorful and long-time executive director, Lois Riggins-Ezzell, who has held the post for some 34 years.
Commission members' move at their Memphis meeting on Monday comes as the state prepares to build a new museum with $160 million including $120 million in taxpayer dollars pushed by Gov. Bill Haslam, who also is personally spearheading a $40 million private fundraising campaign.
The chairman of the governing commission's Audit Committee, Tom Smith, told members his committee will meet on Oct. 27 to discuss the timing and funding of the search process and the hiring of a search firm, according members present or others listening in during the panel's telephone conference call.
The full commission took no formal vote but appeared to be in agreement. A search committee to select a new director would be named at the next meeting of the full commission in January.
Commission member Victor Ashe, a former Knoxville mayor who has been critical of Riggins-Ezzell and has openly called for her replacement, said in an interview later that "I'm cautiously optimistic that this will result in needed change."
But he added that "until I see it happening, it hasn't happened. I'm pleased the commission is moving in the right direction." He said a proper search could take six to eight months.
While officials had previously said they envisioned bringing on a successor to Riggins-Ezzell, who became executive director in 1981, as the new museum takes shape, Riggins-Ezzell said in July she saw herself continuing until the new museum's scheduled opening at the Bicentennial Mall location in December 2018 at the very least.
Lois Riggins-EzzellMonday's move comes amid a flurry of news coverage in recent months. That included an article last summer in the Times Free Press and The Commercial Appeal in Memphis in which some members of the Museum Foundation, which raises private funds to pay for the museum's historical and art acquisitions, accused Riggins-Ezzell of successfully maneuvering to deny renomination by the self-perpetuating board of two members.
The two members, Charles Cook and Henry Walker of Nashville had questioned whether museum officials followed acquisition policies on some art purchases. Riggins-Ezzell, 75, denied influencing the board members. But she defended their action, saying a "board needs to be an advocate for the agency" and Cook and Walker were "consistently critical."
"I had a board that believed in this museum, believed in its vision 100 percent," she added. "I had no dissenters on that board, I had no one that didn't believe in what we were doing and as some new people were added from time to time, there was some dissension. And that is not productive."
Bob Thomas, the Museum Foundation's chairman, on Monday applauded the move to begin finding a successor.
"I feel the commission moved forward in a positive way regarding the succession plan. I'm happy with what they decided."
Thomas also serves on Haslam's new seven-member steering committee which is charged with raising the $40 million in private funds.
Museum spokeswoman Mary Skinner did not respond to a Times Free Press email seeking Riggins-Ezzell's comment although meeting participants say she did not object to the plan.
In August, Riggins-Ezzell again defended herself from criticism in a Knoxville News Sentinel article, noting how she had built up the museum over decades.
"I am the museum," she declared.
Nashville television station WTVF-TV, meanwhile, recently reported Riggins-Ezzell had allowed a member of the State Museum Commission, Walter Knestrick, to store nearly 200 works of his art at the facility.
She defended the arrangement, saying, "there's no bad use of public money. There's no bad use of manipulating a system to help an old rich man."
Also on Monday, state Comptroller Justin Wilson released a long-awaited performance audit of the museum. It raised questions with critical findings in seven areas, ranging some hiring practices to not tracking alcoholic beverages kept at the museum.
"The Tennessee State Museum is empowered to preserve and exhibit some of Tennessee's most important historical artifacts," said Comptroller Justin P. Wilson in a news release. "It is vital that the museum correct problems and follow its procedures to ensure the integrity of its operations and collections."
Auditors noted they received "numerous allegations" about museum hiring practices. And they said they found one case where an employee was hired without meeting qualifications. The audit also faulted background checks on prospective employees, pointing to a previous special audit that found one former worker, hired despite a criminal record, is accused of stealing some $62,000 in museum funds through fabricated invoices for museum purchases.
Museum officials have said the worker initially came to work through a temp agency and was supposed to have been vetted.
While museum management instituted new controls over purchasing, the audit says "deficiencies remain."
Commission members didn't dwell long on the audit's findings.
In an email, spokeswoman Skinner sought to downplay the findings, saying they "point out strengths and weaknesses of the organization's paperwork, policies and procedures or protocols, all of which we believe to be helpful in providing additional checks and balances for operational implementation.
"We have addressed all of the audit's findings under which we have control," she pointed out.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com, 615-255-0550 or via twitter at AndySher1.