After 10 years as general director of the Toledo Opera Association, Renay Conlin is taking a job as president and chief executive officer of the Napa Valley Museum in Yountville, Calif.

She will begin the job in the "next month," she said in a phone interview Tuesday from the museum's offices.

The museum tracks the culture and history of California's Napa Valley, a region north of San Francisco known for its abundant vineyards. Yountville is in the heart of the region, southeast of Sacramento and north of Oakland.

Conlin said she would be willing to stay on as artistic director of the Toledo Opera, but she no longer wants to oversee the business operations.

"I would be happy to stay because I love Toledo Opera as the artistic director..., but after 10 years I'm tired [of the general director job], to be honest," she said.

The artistic director oversees production of the operas, scouts for talent, and selects each season's repertory, among other things.

"I can do it from anywhere, but I would maintain a residence in Toledo," she said.

The board will have to decide whether she stays on in that position and they were to be informed of her Napa Valley job Tuesday night. Moving from running an opera to a museum is not a huge leap for Conlin, who was commissioner of West Virginia's Division of Culture and History for three years before coming to Toledo.

Her resignation from the general director job with the opera comes amid criticism from some former opera board members that the organization's finances are in shambles. The six-person finance committee recently resigned en masse, saying in a joint resignation letter that the opera is "following an untenable business model and cannot pay its obligations to various vendors."

Conlin disputed that characterization although she cited the "discord" in her resignation letter to board president Andy Stuart.

"While I greatly appreciate the support of so many members of the board and executive committee, given the discord that has occurred these last several months, I no longer feel able to continue in this dual capacity," she wrote.

Tuesday she said the finance committee was "completely wrong and misguided in their statement."

Mike Sordyl, an opera board member for four years who was one of the Finance Committee members who stepped down, said he stands by the group's position on the organization's fiscal standing.

"Our financial statements are from financial reports from the opera and information that Renay supplied us, and if in fact she's saying it's not true, then why didn't she give us different information?" he said. "And secondly, if things are so rosy with the opera why did she seek employment elsewhere?"

Current board member Valerie Garforth disagreed with Sordyl's characterization and said that Conlin and her husband, Tom, who served as the opera's principal conductor, helped Toledo go through a "renaissance" in opera.

"I think Toledo is extremely lucky to have her and Tom here. You don't need to go to the Met, you have excellent opera right here on the doorstep. I would not support her if I didn't believe that. I wouldn't support it if it were not excellent," she said.

Another board member, Ann Sanford, said that Renay Conlin was "probably underpaid" at about $100,000 a year and said the finance committee was off base in its concerns.

"My whole take on this thing is it was miscommunication -- members of the financial committee who didn't understand how the opera works. They made a bigger deal out of it than was warranted," she said.

Board president Andy Stuart could not be reached for comment.

Contact Rod Lockwood at rlockwood@theblade.com or 419-724-6159.

First Published March 2, 2011, 4:41 a.m.