Idaho State Historical Society hires new director

BOISE – The Idaho State Historical Society has hired a new executive director, replacing the one who quit last year after auditors found he’d accepted thousands in improper payments and travel reimbursements.

The money was later repaid.

Janet L. Gallimore, who has headed up fundraising and community outreach at the public- and privately funded Confluence Project in Vancouver, Wash., starts next month in Boise. She replaces Steve Guerber, who quit in November after a state audit showed he banked $5,467.77 in improper reimbursements over a five-year period.

At the Confluence Project, Gallimore worked with Vietnam War Memorial designer Maya Lin on seven art installations along the Columbia River – including one in Clarkston across the river from Lewiston. The sites are meant to highlight the Lewis and Clark expedition and its effect on the land and on the American Indians the explorers encountered.

Keith Petersen, the coordinator of the Idaho Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration since 1999, has been interim Historical Society director since Guerber’s exit. Board members of the state agency sought a new leader with both experience in history and administrative knowledge, Petersen said Monday.

“They were looking for that combination,” said Peterson, whose salary was $75,000 annually.

Gallimore won out over 34 other applicants in a national search, including 17 from within Idaho. Peterson, who didn’t apply for the job, will return to his former post in Moscow, Idaho.

Since he replaced Guerber, Petersen has overseen a slew of agency reforms including creating a new policy manual for staff. He also scheduled orientations to familiarize the roughly 50 full-time Historical Society employees with how to use state credit cards and file expense reports properly.

Gallimore couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. A Confluence Project staff member told the Associated Press she was in Chicago, where she worked for 22 years at the nearby Lake County Forest Preserve, including four as its cultural resources director.

Phone calls to Ted Blanchard, chairman of the state Historical Society’s board, weren’t immediately returned.

Ada County prosecutors earlier this year opted not to prosecute Guerber, also a city councilman from the Boise suburb of Eagle. Prosecutors said Idaho law allows felony misuse-of-public-funds charges to be filed only against those officials whose explicit duty it is to safeguard public money.

Guerber has said bookkeeping mistakes, not malfeasance, led to the improper reimbursements. He repaid the money.