Frank J. Sciame, chairman of the Seaport Museum of New York, and Mary Ellen Pelzer, the museum's president, failed for the second month in a row to show up for last month's meeting of the Seaport/Civic Center committee meeting of Community Board 1, according to an article by Terese Loeb Kreuzer in this week's edition of the Downtown Express.

"All of the 40-year-old museum's galleries are currently closed and most of the staff has been dismissed. Bowne & Co. Stationers, the museum's historic print shop, is also closed. From Thursday through Sunday, the public can board the Ambrose lightship and the barque Peking. Except for the gift shop, nothing else is open," the article said.

"Instead of putting in an appearance, Sciame and Pelzer sent a letter, expressing their regrets," the article said: 'Our conversations with the City about the Museum's future are ongoing,' the letter said. 'As we are still actively working to resolve various fiscal issues and determine the best strategy for a smooth transition to new leadership, a presentation by the museum would be premature. We look forward to providing a complete update at a later date. We understand and appreciate that both Community Board 1 and the community at large are anxious to know more about the future of the museum and its programs and collections. Please be assured that we are working to put the museum on a better course. Our objective is for the museum to continue to serve as a valuable cultural, historic and educational resource for New Yorkers and visitors.'"

The article said that "One man in the audience expressed the sentiment of many when he said, 'As long as negotiations are going on with the people who let the museum decline, how can anybody expect that there'll be a positive result?'" "Many people, both on the committee and in the audience, said that they feared that by the time the negotiations became public, irrevocable decisions would have been made that would effectively cripple the museum and its holdings."

Without an opportunity to question the museum's management, the Seaport/Civic Center Committee devoted itself to framing a resolution to be placed in front of Community Board 1's full board, demanding accountability and enumerating concerns, the article said.

"The linchpin to this is the Mayor's Office," said committee member Paul Hovitz, the article continued. "The museum is treading water...and whether they get changed is all up to the Mayor's Office and the funding is up to the Mayor's Office and taking action. So our resolution needs to be aimed at the Mayor's Office to create a dialogue with the community....We're asking [them to let us know what's going on and not to sell off anything else while [they're making this decision."

The committee finally voted in favor of a resolution stating its concern with the deterioration of the museum's historic vessels, and asking, among other things, for a "transparent" process and for regular updates to the Community Board and the public. The article said that the resolution also asked that representatives from the City of New York, the Mayor's Office and the museum appear before the committee in July.