State Reaches Accord With Cny Art Museum

Attorney General Spitzer today announced an agreement that will strengthen oversight at a prominent Central New York art museum.

The agreement resolves a five-month investigation by Spitzer's office of contributions to political campaigns made by the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse in 2002 in violation of state charities law.

"The Everson Museum is one of New York's leading cultural institutions," Spitzer said. "This agreement will help ensure it remains an institution in which the public can and should invest its trust."

The museum has agreed to the following reforms:

• No museum contributions will be made in the future to any political campaigns, and any board members violating this ban will be removed from the board of directors;
  
  
• All non-operating museum expenses will be approved in advance by the museum's board of directors and reflected in the board's minutes;
  
  
• All present and future board members and all members of the museum's senior professional staff will participate in an annual training program on the fiduciary duties of directors and officers of New York not-for-profit corporations; and
  
  
• The board will evaluate the museum' s operating procedures to ensure that the museum's methods of keeping, distributing and signing minutes of directors' meetings conform with new standards proposed by the Attorney General.

These reforms are contained in an agreement with the Attorney General's office and in an accompanying resolution signed by all but three of the museum's 29 directors.

Spitzer's office – which regulates not-for-profit corporations in New York – began its investigation into the museum's practices after it was reported that the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors had authorized contributions to various political campaigns in 2002. The museum subsequently sought and obtained the return of those contributions.

In settling the investigation, Spitzer commended many of Everson's board members for their efforts to resolve this matter.

This case was handled by Assistant Attorneys General Christopher Wiles and Winthrop H. Thurlow of the Attorney General's Syracuse Regional Office in consultation with Assistant Attorney General Robert Pigott of the Attorney General's Charities Bureau.