Narva Mayor Jaan Toots (Center/Narva group) described how the city-appointed members are dissatisfied with the current voting process within the supervisory board, finding it unfair.

"Since there are currently three city-appointed and three state-appointed members on Narva Museum's supervisory board, and the founding members had once agreed that if there three votes in favor and three against, then the vote of the chairperson, who represents the state, would be [the deciding one]," he said.

The mayor acknowledged that it was very shameful that the three city-appointed members did not attend the museum's most recent supervisory board meeting.

"I recommended that they go, and, if necessary, vote against and write down exactly why they're against something," he recalled. "They feel it's pointless. My proposal to the minister is whether it's possible to review the regulation, so that four in favor and two against would be a vote – that that would make it democratic, because then more than 50 percent would be either for or against [something]."

Purga, however, says that what Toots is asking of her is unclear.

"Mr. Jaan Toots did indeed come to see me, and presented his two proposals," she confirmed. "One of them concerned the shares of votes among members of the supervisory board. The other concerned the City of Narva's proposal to withdraw from the Narva Museum Foundation. But our discussion mainly centered on the supervisory board members' work and decision-making, and the mayor of Narva demanded veto rights."

According to the minister, Toots' request is deeply puzzling, because the museum's current supervisory board chair has yet to face a single situation where they have had to utilize their tiebreaker vote.

"With the exception of one time, when it was necessary to summarize the budget and submit it to the Finance Ministry," she admitted.

"The City of Narva-appointed supervisory board members have not provided a single justified, well-argued and substantive proposal when explaining their opposition [to something]," Purga said. "They're simply opposed to the supervisory board's decisions. For example, they're opposed to the annual financial report, but why they're opposed is neither justified nor recorded in the supervisory board's decision."

Narva Museum's supervisory board is currently chaired by Krista Nelson, who is also director of the Ministry of Culture's Internal Audit Department.

The minister also called Toot's second proposal, regarding the City of Narva's withdrawal from the foundation if its supervisory board members aren't granted veto rights, extremely unfortunate.

"Right now, the state is very satisfied with the work of the Narva Museum Foundation," she highlighted. "It has an excellent director, and we very much support them. The state has contributed more than €600,000 annually to cover Narva Museum's operating costs. The City of Narva has provided €400,000. And investments from EU funding on top of that."

The minister confirmed that the Estonian state has a strong interest and need to maintain a presence in Narva.

"We'll see what happens next," she said. "I'm waiting for proposals from the mayor of Narva. Once we receive those, we'll analyze them and provide our responses."

Long-simmering tensions flaring

Late last month, ERR reported that local government and state representatives on the supervisory board of Narva Museum have once again ended up butting heads. Critics of the city administration see the dispute as a conflict of values – one in which no concessions can be made to Narva.

Long-simmering tensions flared with the installation of the 1944 March bombing exhibition early this spring. Comparing the March bombing to Russia's aggression in Ukraine reopened old wounds. City representatives saw it as a research institution meddling in politics and propaganda, and of course, everyone immediately recalled the bloody-faced Putin poster hung from a castle wall last year.

The state viewed this as a conflict of values, and demanded the removal of the City of Narva's representatives from the museum's supervisory board. At the time, the situation culminated in a labor peace, however that wouldn't last for long.

Early last week, Narva City Council members announced that they had had enough, and would no longer be attending museum supervisory board meetings.

Narva Museum's supervisory board include state representatives Krista Nelson, Gert Schultz and Jaanus Villiko together with city representatives Jan Saan, Aleksei Mägi and Vadim Orlov. Maria Smorževskihh-Smirnova is the director of the museum itself.

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