Giving away the museum
Surprise plan to privatize the Randall Museum raises questions and concerns

By Sean McCourt

A stealthy proposal to privatize a popular public museum as a solution to San Francisco's short-term budget shortfalls has raised the hackles of museum users, who are demanding a full public airing of the agreement.

The Randall Museum, home to children's art and science programs in the city since 1951, would have its operations turned over to the Randall Museum Friends, a private, nonprofit organization with about 20 members whose stated mission is to "support the Randall Museum by providing strategic private-sector leadership, raising funds, and advocating for the museum."

The museum hosts events and activities that focus on the cultures and environments of the Bay Area, at which visitors can enjoy a great view of the city while expanding their minds.

The proposed license, a draft of which is available on a Web site the RMF has set up (www.savetherandall.org), is a lengthy document many museum patrons say has not had a proper public vetting. In fact, an April 15 Recreation and Park Commission meeting on the subject was postponed to May 5 in order to give concerned citizens a better chance to review and comment on the proposal.

"I did not receive any notice that there was any proposed license or any hearing, absolutely nothing," Nancy DeStefanis told the Bay Guardian after the meeting. "While I take no position on this license, because I have virtually no information, I object to the fact that the RMF and the Recreation and Park Department neglected to write any of the stakeholders – and they didn't post anything [at the museum] – I couldn't even get a copy of the list of who the directors are of the RMF."

DeStefanis, who is executive director of San Francisco Nature Education, a group that provides environmental education programs throughout the city, has been going to the Randall for more than 10 years, and in the past has helped organize events for kids at the museum. Yet proponents of the agreement argue they're just trying to help the city.

"We're not taking over the museum. We're entering into an agreement with the city to assist them," Amy Jean Boebel, Randall Museum Friends board president, told us. "Essentially it's because of the budget cuts and the decreasing of the staff at the Randall. The agreement allows us to raise more private funding to support the programming, and it allows us to engage the community in a bigger way. We're not trying to mislead anybody. We all love the Randall."

The budget cuts Boebel spoke of have recently cost the director of the Randall Museum her job. Amy Dawson, who has worked at the museum for the past 23 years, found out in February she was being laid off by the Recreation and Park Department effective April 23. An advertisement for her replacement (who would work for the RMF) went up on Craigslist March 31, two weeks before the Recreation and Park Commission was even going to meet about the proposed license, which has some people speculating that the issue has already been decided.

"It's being used so much, by so many people, and now they want to privatize it. They don't even say what they're going to do with it," Jim Elliot, who has been going to the museum since he was a child, told us. "It's a shame that they're going to let that thing get away from them. I'm against it."

One of the main concerns is the vagueness of the license; people are not really sure what, if any, changes will be brought about.

"We really want it to stay the same," Keith Ferris, who has been bringing his family to the Randall for 11 years, told us. "We don't want a commercial direction: charging admission, having a store, real commercial venues, we don't want to see that."

Get involved: The Recreation and Park Commission considers the Randall Museum's privatization May 5, 2 p.m., City Hall, Room 416, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl., S.F.