Panicked at the prospect of protesters disrupting the annual meeting of the Key West Art & Historical Society (KWAHS) last Tuesday evening, officials closed the meeting to all but dues-paying members. That meeting has traditionally been open to all. What the elites who run that organization feared was that some riffraff might dare to publicly ask the question: "Why did you fire Assistant Director Joe Pais last December?
But the formal post-meeting press release faxed out Wednesday did not have a single mention of the Pais firing scandal, although this bizarre incident has overshadowed all of the Society's activities for almost four months.
At the meeting, seven new board members were named. We hope these new directors will move quickly to rescind the firing of Pais, a dedicated employee who made invaluable contributions to the Society during his 13-year tenure. He did not deserve the treatment he received at the hands of Director Kevin O'Brien. And it continues to boggle the mind how the board members could have allowed themselves to be manipulated to support O'Brien's thoughtless action.
Unless you've been living on the moon, you probably know the story. Last Dec. 3, Pais' regular column appeared in Key West The Newspaper. Pais, a former Key West City Commissioner and mayoral candidate, usually wrote about politics. But he also often wrote about history and historic preservation, appropriate as the longtime assistant director of the Key West Art & Historical Society. One of his favorite topics was the US Battleship Maine. He had spearheaded the US Maine Centennial Commission for the KWAHS and had just returned from Valley Forge where he had accepted the George Washington Medal of Honor for the Commission.
But on that fateful Friday morning last December, Pais' topic was more mundane: brightly-lighted soft drink vending machines in the Historic District. He recommended that they be banned and he was critical of the management of the local soft drink companies who were pushing for the proliferation of the machines in Old Town. Few Key Westers concerned about historic preservation would argue with that message. Even Ed Swift, our local king of tourism marketing, has banned soda vending machines in his historic Mallory Square complex. They just don't fit in.
But the rub, boys and girls, is that a former KWAHS board member and major Society contributor, Donn Vecchie-Campbell, is a principal in the local Pepsi-Cola franchise. She was reportedly infuriated by Pais' column. And she may or may not have called O'Brien and demanded that Pais be fired. There are conflicting reports here. O'Brien reportedly told Pais that he had gotten pressure from Vecchie-Campbell. And board member Vera Schiff has confirmed that. But Vecchie-Campbell denies it.
In any event, O'Brien fired Pais on the spot— even though Pais had already resigned to accept a prestigious job in Tallahassee with the State Division of Historic Resources. And we know that O'Brien did that without Board approval.
New KWAHS directors are Attorney Robert Feldman, a former two-term president of the Society; Thomas Tukey, currently president of the Truman Annex Property Owners Association; businessman George Fernandez, an owner of Wings of Imagination; Lee Garrison, a past Society Board member; David Harrison Wright, an artist and interior designer; Phil Hogue, president of Key West Bank, and Michael Lannon, superintendent of Monroe County Schools.
They are outnumbered by the eight remaining members who, at least tacitly, either supported or tolerated O'Brien's firing of Pais: Donald Bennet, Campbell Cawood, Herbert Schimmel. Vera Schiff, Carrie Babich, Mickey Gorman, Jim Salem and Fred Tillman. But we know that at least several of these incumbent members would vote in an instant to rescind the Pais firing, to reverse a wrong, to put that unfortunate incident in the past.
So, with the new board members, who have no ego riding on any vote of recension, there may now be a majority who would support reversing O'Brien's firing of Pais. All it may take is for somebody to put it on the agenda for the next board meeting.
We hope that happens. It's the right thing to do.