Former Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson.
Nearly 18 months before Mayor Eric Papenfuse asked the Dauphin County commissioners to suspend payments to the National Civil War Museum, his predecessor, Linda Thompson, took up the issue herself.
In a letter dated Feb. 4, 2013, Thompson asked museum officials to renegotiate the museum’s $1 annual rent payment for the building and artifacts it leases from the city.
The letter was recently made available to TheBurg in response to a right-to-know request.
Thompson’s letter, addressed to museum CEO Wayne Motts, notes that the city “extends its sincerest appreciation and respect to the National Civil War Museum for keeping the history of the Civil War alive in Harrisburg.”
It goes on to explain that, under the terms of the museum’s lease, it was expected the museum would eventually negotiate the payment of “more than a nominal rent” to the city. The letter then cites a section of the lease in which the museum consents to renegotiate rent upon request from the city or City Council after five years, “but only based on its ability to pay.”
The lease was originally signed by former Mayor Steve Reed in April 2001. It is not indicated in Thompson’s letter whether the city tried to initiate rent negotiations on a prior occasion.
The letter ends with a request that the museum contact a senior assistant to the mayor to set up a meeting. “Please be prepared with the necessary financial records, so that the City may assess your ‘ability to pay’ an appropriate rental payment,” it concludes. Thompson’s signature follows.
In its response to TheBurg’s right-to-know request, the city also provided the museum’s reply to Thompson, in a letter from Motts dated March 28, 2013.
“Unfortunately, the Museum is not in a position to pay any additional rent for the foreseeable future,” Motts writes in his reply. He refers to an enclosed audited financial statement for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012, which he says “clearly reveals the inability of the Museum to pay additional rent at this time.”
Motts apologizes for the late reply, explaining that museum officials were waiting for the 2012 financial statement to be completed.
Motts then goes on to request a payment from the city for capital expenses totaling $106,652, which he claims the city is obligated to pay under the lease. “Accordingly, and considering the Museum’s financial condition, we ask that you please expedite the approval and payment of these items as promptly as possible,” he writes.
Thompson, who was elected mayor in 2009, was defeated by Papenfuse in the 2013 Democratic mayoral primary. She is currently running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives against incumbent Scott Perry.
The dispute between Mayor Papenfuse and museum officials over the museum’s rent payments and ongoing tax subsidies were the subject of a September feature in TheBurg. Copies of the exchange between Thompson and Motts can be downloaded here.
