In a startling shake-up yesterday at the Bishop Museum, Timothy E. Johns, president and CEO, said that 6 percent of the institution's staff — 14 positions — had been cut, including management and nonmanagement personnel.

Two of the museum's top executives — its chief financial officer and its general counsel — also tendered their resignations, although it's not known if those departures were related to the layoffs.

Johns, who took over the top job in August, said the staff cuts were made because of the challenging economic climate facing the state and the community.

Nonprofit organizations, such as the museum, have been especially hard hit, Johns said. He called it "a difficult time" for the 119-year-old museum, which is recognized around the world as the primary repository of Polynesian artifacts and the premier Hawaiian research institution.

"This was a very difficult decision to make, and before reducing staff, we also implemented numerous other cost-cutting measures, including reduction in programs, hours of operation in some areas and other nonpersonnel costs," Johns said in a written statement.

"Unfortunately, these measures still did not generate the necessary cost savings, and we had to implement the staff reductions."

Although Johns' statement didn't touch on the specifics of the cuts, museum employees reached by The Advertiser, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the layoffs covered a number of departments and pay scales, and that there was frustration in the ranks over who was laid off.

Johns said the museum is committed to assisting its employees and would provide severance packages to the 14 people whose positions have been cut. He said the facility would be offering counseling and job placement services to them as well.

Johns said the museum will still have a staff of more than 200, and that the museum expects to be able to serve the public as it has in the past.

"The restructuring will not affect our ability to continue to serve the community and provide world-class programs, research and exhibits," he said. "And although the economic climate creates many uncertainties, we will be better positioned to respond to these difficult times."

In addition to the announced changes were the resignations just over a week ago of the museum's chief financial officer and general counsel, Mike Chinaka and Jodi Yamamoto. In an e-mail message to colleagues, CFO Chinaka said he would be leaving the museum as of July 10 with great sadness, and that he would be accepting a position with the YMCA of Honolulu as its senior vice president and CFO.

Similarly, Yamamoto e-mailed colleagues, saying that she had thoroughly enjoyed working with them, and that she was looking forward to spending time with her family after her last day at the museum on July 8.

Neither Chinaka nor Yamamoto elaborated on their reasons for leaving.

Johns' announcement comes just a year and a half after the museum's former president and CEO, Bill Brown, left the position to head the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Brown's five-year tenure was marked by program and project expansions.

Then, the future seemed bright for the museum, which had struggled under a cloud of infighting, controversy, mistrust and staff upheavals during the 1980s and '90s. Brown said his legacy would be that he had brought stability to the venerable institution.

The museum then enjoyed the largest number of annual visitors in its history, and an endowment that had doubled in a few short years. The museum's Hawai'i Maritime Center at Ho-nolulu Harbor said it had been debt free since 2005.

The museum had recently opened a $17 million Science and Adventure Center and launched a bold, $20 million renovation of the museum's 116-year-old iconic centerpiece, Hawaiian Hall.

More ambitious plans were in the works. How those projects will be affected by yesterday's announcement and the resignations of two top executives remains to be seen.

And this week, the maritime center announced that its own icon — the 130-year-old four-masted sailing ship Falls of Clyde — had become a financial burden beyond its limits.