On the Seattle Channel yesterday, Mayor Mike McGinn said that the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) had no right to $7 million from a land deal with the state—land that is owned by the city—because the city has never agreed to hand over that money. But city records show the city and MOHAI did sign a document in June to give the museum "40% but not to exceed $7 million" for the land.

(The city and MOHAI have been in negotiations with the state, which needs to condemn the museum and the surrounding park to expand the 520 bridge, to pay for the property it consumes. But McGinn contends that the museum would be getting too much money from the combined proceeds of the building ($40 million) and the land. More background here.)

"We never agreed to give them any money from the sale of the land," McGinn said on the Seattle Channel, referring to the city's past negotiations. "We reopened negotiations with MOHAI."

But after McGinn reopened negotiations, the city signed an agreement (.pdf) with MOHAI on June 22 that states clear intent to pay MOHAI:

moahi_city_agreement.jpg

MOHAI director Leonard Garfield says, under an agreement last year approved by the city council and two agreements this year, "MOHAI always received a share of what the City may eventually receive for the land."

But the mayor's office argues that the June 22 agreement means nothing.

"It's just a working agreement," says Senior Adviser to the Mayor Tim Killian. "Until that actually goes through council and the mayor, there isn't a contract." (The mayor transmitted legislation to the council on September 3 that omitted this "working agreement," but the council intends to put it back in.) "When we say 'agreement,' we can't call anything an agreement that hasn't been ratified," Killian says.

Killian also says that MOHAI "knew the $40 million was coming" but, in an attempt to get as much money as it could, "they did not reveal it until after they had reached this agreement with us for the land deal."

But MOHAI's Garfield shoots back, "We go to the bank on these kinds of agreements, especially when you are looking at bulldozers."