The March Field Air Museum has hired Michael D. Ellzey as its new executive director, filling a leadership vacancy that has lasted since February amid a community dispute over the museum's direction.
The museum's Board of Directors voted unanimously to approve Ellzey's appointment, according to a Nov. 21 press release from Board Secretary Richard Lemire.
Ellzey most recently served as director of development at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage. Before that, he led the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda from 2015 until moving to Sunnylands.
His appointment comes as the museum works to move past the October departure of five staff members. Board President Jamil Dada eliminated three staff members on Oct. 9, prompting two resignations.
Board President Jamil Dada and Board Secretary Richard Lemire said the decision would free up budget for a higher executive director salary. The museum operates on a $1.3 million annual budget with no government funding.
On Nov. 15, the Gazette requested meeting minutes documenting whether the full Board of Directors formally delegated staff termination authority to the five-member Executive Committee, as required under the museum's bylaws.
The museum's most recent IRS Form 990 filing shows the Executive Committee has delegated authority only to review and approve compensation, not to hire or terminate employees.
The museum provided September 18 board meeting minutes late Tuesday. The minutes authorize the Executive Committee to search for and hire an executive director, but contain no mention of staff terminations or broader personnel authority.
Lemire argued in an accompanying email that the bylaws don't prohibit the Executive Committee from dismissing employees. He said the committee considered the October layoffs "consistent with the mandate of the board" given budgetary pressures and "the absence of an executive director for the past several months, resulting in the lack of personnel to perform administrative duties."
The museum's bylaws state the board has power to "remove" employees but "does not state or suggest that this power is exclusive to the Board," according to Lemire. He argued that "placing this authority solely with the Board would be onerous and poor practice."
Attorney Bethany Everson Na has raised concerns about possible bylaw violations. Multiple board members have also questioned whether proper procedures were followed.
Ellzey's tenure leading Irvine's Orange County Great Park from 2008 to 2015 drew scrutiny during a forensic audit examining more than $200 million in spending, according to news reports at the time.
In 2014 depositions, Ellzey described dysfunction at the Great Park, saying consultants rather than staff were effectively running operations. "I began to figure out that, at best, Yehudi Gaffen was my counterpart, and at worst, I was, de facto, working for him," Ellzey told auditors.
The audit questioned some of Ellzey's decisions, including bringing in contractors he had worked with previously without competitive bidding and approving payments for substandard work, according to the audit findings. The city of Irvine spent more than $1 million on the audit, which the Orange County District Attorney's office reviewed.
Ellzey left the Great Park in early 2015 for the Nixon Library position, where he served for nearly a decade before moving to Sunnylands.
Ellzey inherits an institution with 122 aircraft and 60,000 artifacts housed at March Air Reserve Base.
The museum has paused accepting artifact donations and suspended archival research "until these activities can be reviewed and brought into alignment with the Museum's mission," according to the board's November statement.
