Gary Farmer, the cultural affairs program manager for the city of Miami Beach, took over the helm of the Bass Museum last week. As interim director, Farmer will help the museum’s board of trustees choose a search firm to find a permanent replacement for outgoing Director Diane Camber.

After 26 years as director of the Bass Museum, Camber’s retirement comes as the museum finds itself forced by its accrediting body to answer questions of impropriety surrounding its recent exhibit The Private Jade Collection of Her Imperial Highness Princess Thi-Nga of Vietnam, which ran from Feb. 8 through April 29. The Bass also has been forced to open its records and board meetings to the public, a transparency they apparently have been reluctant to allow in the past. Camber’s last day was June 29.

Farmer was introduced to members of the Friends of the Bass Board at their June 28 meeting. He will temporarily oversee the museum’s operations while still being responsible for his job at City Hall. He moved into Camber’s office at the Bass on July 2.

“I’m totally devoted to the cultural scene in Miami Beach,” Farmer told the Friends, while surrounded by Asian art in the museum’s Room 115.

Farmer said his main goal while at the Bass is to quickly find a suitable permanent director. Symbolic of his temporary role, Farmer said he wants to be called interim administrator, as opposed to interim director. His first priority is to find search firms, one of which will be chosen by the Bass Board of Trustees, to find Camber’s permanent replacement. The search process itself is expected to take four to six months. Farmer hopes to present the trustees with a list of search firms at a meeting to be held sometime this month. A single search firm will eventually be hired, tasked with advertising nationally, performing background checks and conducting initial interviews to compile a list of finalists for a special committee.

Farmer said he doesn’t know how much the Bass is willing to pay its next director. Camber was earning $134,063 per year.

One topic that was on the June 28 agenda of the Friends of the Bass meeting was how Sunshine Law pertains to the Friends board members, as well as trustees. It was to be presented by the city of Miami Beach, but had to be postponed because of a scheduling conflict. Deputy City Attorney Jean Olin told the SunPost the city will give a presentation of Sunshine Law to board members at the Bass’ July trustees meeting. As of press time, the museum had yet to schedule that meeting.

Why the sudden interest in Sunshine Law? It was recently opined that because the Bass Museum receives public funding, its trustees and Friends must abide by the Sunshine rules, Miami Beach City Attorney Jose Smith told the SunPost.

The total 2007 budget for the Bass is about $2.7 million, according to Farmer. The Friends of the Bass supply about $1.2 million of that through government grants, private support and earned income from admissions, the museum shop and renting out the museum for special events, he said. The taxpayers of the city of Miami Beach supply the other approximately $1.5 million.

To comply with Sunshine Law, all Bass Museum board meetings must be advertised and open to the public, and all related documentation is public record. Just like with city commissioners, board members can only discuss Bass business in public. Mary Heaton, the Bass’ executive assistant, told the SunPost that from now on trustee and Friends meetings will be advertised on the city of Miami Beach Web site and in the Miami Herald, something not usually done in the past.

Farmer, who after only a little more than a week in the museum is still trying to learn how the place ran under Camber, said he doesn’t believe the Friends were intentionally acting outside the Sunshine.

“Because the Friends of the Bass have been using museum staff, they do have to come into the Sunshine,” Farmer said. “If they were acting with their own staff like most Friends [type] groups, they wouldn’t have to act in the Sunshine.”

Farmer said he believes the Friends will eventually choose to stop using museum staff, something he sees as necessary to be an effective fundraising organization. He theorized that being forced to reveal the names of all the private citizens the museum solicits for money will hurt fundraising efforts. But for now he doesn’t believe there is enough money to justify the Friends having its own staff, said Farmer. The trustees’ meetings, he said, will always have to be noticed.

Though no one would confirm it on the record, City Attorney Smith said he assumed the sudden interest in Sunshine Law at the Bass was sparked by media attention on questionable ethics surrounding The Princess Jade Collection. Justo Sanchez, a local freelance journalist and art historian, investigated the collection for more than four months before filing a list of complaints to the American Association of Museums (AAM), of which the Bass is an accredited member. He was forced to involve both the Florida Attorney General and the City Attorney’s Office to get board minutes from the Bass related to the approval of the Jade Collection exhibit.

In late March, Sanchez received a written response from Camber to a public records request he’d made. She informed him that Bass board meeting minutes were not public record. Sanchez contacted Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum’s office for assistance. In early April, representatives from McCollum’s office mediated on Sanchez’s behalf.

“We sent a letter to the executive director [Camber] and asked if the museum wanted to participate in our public records mediation program,” spokesperson for the Florida Attorney General Sandi Copes told the SunPost. Camber opted not to participate and instead gave Sanchez the documents he’d requested.

Sanchez maintains that showing the collection created conflicts of interest because of Princess Thi-Nga’s governing influence over the museum. Besides her role as president of the Friends of the Bass Museum, she is the chairperson of the Bass’ Board of Trustees. Sanchez also questions the provenance of the collection, and goes so far as to claim Thi-Nga’s title of princess is a fraud. The SunPost broke the story of Sanchez and the AAM’s examination of the Bass in a June 21 feature titled: “Accreditation at Risk.”

Despite all the current focus on transparency, one staff member still attempted to hold back public records from the SunPost. On June 29 the SunPost sent an e-mail request to Lee Ortega, director of marketing and public relations at the Bass, for a copy of the Bass’ response to the AAM’s examination of the museum.

Later that same day Ortega replied, “Correspondence between the Bass Museum and American Association of Museums is not public information.”

The City Attorney’s Office, however, quickly intervened on the newspaper’s behalf.

When the SunPost forwarded Ortega’s reply to Deputy City Attorney Olin, she responded within minutes. “The document you requested is a public record,” wrote Olin. “I just spoke with Max Sklar and he will e-mail you a copy of the Bass’ response immediately.”

Sklar is the director of tourism and cultural development for the city of Miami Beach. Within an hour of Olin’s e-mail, he e-mailed the SunPost everything it had requested, including a letter attributed to Camber that attempts to address the AAM inquiry. A portion of the letter refers to improper record-keeping relating to discussions of the Jade Collection exhibit.

“In retrospect, the Director/Chief Curator misjudged the situation and now realizes she should have ensured that there was a record of all discussion of this exhibition,” wrote Camber, referring to herself.

Now it’s up to the AAM to judge whether or not the Bass Museum broke any internal rules or standards regarding its accreditation.

Jason Hall, director of government and media relations at the AAM, told the SunPost he could not comment on whether the Bass’ response had been received. He also could not give a time frame, other than as quickly as possible, as to when the AAM would make a determination on the complaint. If the AAM does determine the Bass broke any rules of accreditation, there are many actions it could take.

“There are a range of things, from, for example, suggesting the museum correct x, to the very most serious of cases of pulling their accreditation,” Hall said.

Comments? E-mail ben@miamisunpost.com.