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At the intersection of Buchanan and Jackson Streets, just past the crest of Pacific Heights, sits a hulking, fossil-gray mansion owned by the California Academy of Sciences. Valued by real estate agents at up to $8 million, the home has four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a downstairs apartment, three outdoor patios, and, according to more than a dozen academy employees, no primary resident.

But employees say Sampson never lived there full time — and he has admitted as much in staff meetings and to colleagues. Cars owned by Sampson and his wife are registered to an ocean-view home in Muir Beach. Employees report that Sampson used the home as a pied-à-terre, only spending a portion of his time there. Despite this, the academy has allegedly taken staffers away from their primary responsibilities at the museum to work on maintaining the house, as well as spending tens of thousands of dollars on upgrades that include electric car chargers, new furniture, fresh paint, and manicured landscaping.

Even before Sampson took over as director, the house was a symbol of questionable management by the leadership of Northern California’s largest museum, which is overseen by a sprawling board of 45 well-heeled individuals and scientists whose decisions over the past two decades, critics say, have plunged the institution into chaos.

After a controversial exit in 2019 by the previous director, Jonathan Foley — marked by a divorce settlement that gave his ex-wife the right to continue living in the academy-owned home in Pacific Heights — Sampson was hired by the board of directors to develop a new global vision for the museum. This included a three-pronged initiative to boost research and conservation of island ecosystems, global reefs, and native habitats in California

Some of that vision came to pass during Sampson’s time in charge, which saw the launch of several major initiatives, including Reimagining San Francisco, a coalition of more than 60 organizations collaborating to improve green spaces, and One Galápagos, aimed at restoring ecological health throughout the Galápagos Islands.

But employees say many of his most far-reaching goals were never realized, as pandemic-related revenue losses hobbled the museum’s growth plans. In spite of these declining fortunes, the board awarded eye-popping bonuses and salaries to Sampson and the rest of the museum’s executive staff over the last several years.

“When I saw in the Chronicle the quote(opens in new tab) about blaming the pandemic for the financial woes, I just about lost my lunch,” said one former employee who served in a leadership role. “To still be blaming the pandemic for revenue loss at the academy just seems bonkers.”

Founded in 1853, the California Academy of Sciences has spent the better part of two centuries accumulating things: 40 million specimens, 40,000 live animals, a planetarium, an indoor rainforest, an aquarium, and a reputation as one of the country’s great scientific institutions. Its $488 million home in Golden Gate Park, a sinuous, 410,000-square-foot building that seems to have grown organically from the earth beneath it, is the kind of place that makes children press their faces against the glass and adults briefly forget their phones.

But among those millions of carefully cataloged creatures, the academy has buried more than a few metaphorical skeletons, according to interviews with 16 current and former employees, including executives, department directors, and staff in facilities, payroll, programming, exhibitions, and science departments — all of whom were granted anonymity in order to speak freely about their experiences.

Staffers and representatives of SEIU 1021, the union that represents approximately 350 museum workers, have raised concerns over what they call unnecessary spending at the academy, pointing to rising salaries on the executive team; costs associated with the house on Jackson Street; first-class airfare for the executive director; the hiring of Sampson associates for projects that went over-budget; and a board of directors that has mismanaged the museum’s debt.

All of this comes against the backdrop of falling revenue, slashed programs, lost jobs, and a prolonged budget deficit that threatens to bury alive one of San Francisco’s most beloved institutions…. (more)