New Arts Director Has Quite A Flair For The, Uh, Creative
Taxpayers got an unexpected bonus hiring Carolyn Frances Lair as Spokane’s new $41,000-a-year arts director.
She’s not only well-versed in the arts, but also artful at writing fiction - at least on the academic portion of the resume Lair submitted to win the job.
Much of it runs counterclockwise from the truth.
“Are there inconsistencies? Yes,” Lair concedes. “Are there over-glorifications? Yes.”
Are there bald-faced lies? You decide.
RESUME: Topping her list of educational credentials, Lair claims that in 1991 she was in the fourth year of obtaining two master’s degrees at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. B.C.
THE TRUTH: She says she was never formally enrolled in a master’s program at Simon Fraser.
RESUME: Lair claims a 1984 associate of fine arts degree at Vancouver’s prestigious Emily Carr School of Art and Design.
THE TRUTH: “She didn’t get it here,” says a transcripts office worker. The school began giving degrees in 1995 and never has offered an “associate of fine arts.” Lair took some courses at the art school but not enough for a degree.
RESUME: Lair claims a 1982 bachelor of arts degree at Simon Fraser.
TRUTH: She actually finished her BA in 1992. She cited the earlier date, she says, because being over 40 and just getting a degree would look illogical to anyone examining her resume.
“In retrospect,” she says of her academic padding, “I wouldn’t do this again.”
This controversy percolated to life in a bizarre way.
The search committee should have discovered the problems had it not done such a veneer-thin job of checking her out. The discrepancies were uncovered by a detective hired recently by Ralph Busch, the man passed over for the art directorship.
Busch made the short list of 85 candidates. He served as interim department head after the previous art director accepted another job. Busch took the rebuff hard.
Tensions between Lair and Busch grew not long after she arrived last June. Busch describes Lair as dogmatic and dictatorial. Lair tried to soothe the man’s bruised ego, she says, but found him unreliable and uncooperative.
Fearing for his job, Busch sought out Spokane attorney Paul Mack. On a hunch, the former prosecutor put a private eye snooping into Lair’s academic past.
“I feel like somebody violated me and went into my underwear drawer,” says Lair.
Busch may be fueled by sour grapes. But by concocting a dubious resume, Lair agrees she gave her unhappy worker a hammer to wield against her.
Acting City Manager Bill Pupo is reviewing all this. Falsifying a resume, he adds, “would certainly be grounds for termination.”
Not to Arts Commission president Jack Phillips and other members of the volunteer board. They are enamored by Lair’s enthusiasm and energy. To them, Busch is the villain and Lair the victim.
Forget the bogus academics, they argue. Lair’s BA and solid work experience still over-qualify her for the job. Now that he has seen Lair’s superb work, board member Jack Lindberg says he flatly “doesn’t care” if she did lie on her resume.
Lair is an engaging woman who seems excited about Spokane’s artistic potential. “It wasn’t the money,” she says of what brought her. “I took a cut in pay to come here.”
That may be another one of those little white Lairs.
She did take a pay cut, says Richard DeSantis, president of the La Quinta (Calif.) Arts Foundation, but it wasn’t by choice.
Citing philosophical differences, DeSantis explained why Lair left the privately funded organization and looked for work elsewhere: “The board voted not to renew her contract.”
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