The Secretary Vanishes: Smithsonian's Lawrence Small Resigns

Lawrence Small, chief officer of the Smithsonian Institution, has resigned effective immediately. He had been under fire for unauthorized expenses (here and here).

Today's Smithsonian press release that announced the resignation reports:

Cristián Samper (sam-PAIR), director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, will be Acting Secretary while the Regents conduct a nationwide search for a permanent replacement....

"My priority in the coming months will be to strengthen the public trust in the Smithsonian Institution and ensure that our priority projects and activities continue on track," Samper said.

The last straw may have been the Senate's passage last week of a budgetary amendment to freeze the planned increase in the Smithsonian's allocation until it complied with a detailed list of strictures regarding employee compensation and ethics.

Small will not get a severance package, the AP reports.

At the recent museum law conference that I attended recently in Philadelphia, John Huerta, the Smithsonian's general counsel, shared with attendees the importance of instituting a "strategic communications plan" for "deliver[ing] a consistent positive message," and developing a "crisis management team and plan" to deal with "firestorms" as they erupt.

Time to activate those plans. For starters, maybe they should study the IRS's "Suggested Governance Guidelines for Tax-Exempt Organizations" (here and here), reproduced on the website of the Association of Art Museum Directors and released by the IRS on Feb. 2:

A successful charity pays no more than reasonable compensation for services rendered....Director compensation should be allowed only when determined appropriate by a committee composed of persons who are not compensated by the charity and have no financial interest in the determination. Charities may pay reasonable compensation for services provided by officers and staff. In determining reasonable compensation, a charity may wish to rely on the rebuttable presumption test of section 4958 of the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulation section of 53.4958-6.

I'll let Huerta look that up.