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SALT LAKE CITY — The Leonardo owes Salt Lake City hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid utility bills dating back years, according to a notice of default sent from the mayor’s office last month and brought to light by media this week.
But the science and art museum says that letter doesn’t tell the whole story.
The Oct. 1 notice of default outlines the city’s grievances with the nonprofit museum, including a list of safety-related maintenance issues that they say the museum has failed to address. The Leonardo currently owes $398,717.16 in unpaid utilities, with the majority of that balance more than six months past due, according to the letter.
Combined with already-defaulted loan payments, the museum owes the city roughly $600,000, according to Matthew Rojas, spokesman for the mayor’s office.
Rojas said the city does not want to “push out” The Leonardo, and hopes instead to “find a financially sustainable model for them to stay within that building.”
“This is the first step of a longer action which we hope doesn’t end in eviction, but we do need to keep our options open,” Rojas told KSL. “We’ve been doing this for several years and need to get this resolved.”
The museum says it had already begun working on the listed maintenance issues by the time the mayor’s office sent out the notice, and is now asking the city to accept a proposed repayment plan for the unpaid utility bills. That repayment plan, the museum argues, is the best way to resolve the situation.
“There absolutely is a win-win” outcome possible, said Lisa Davis, who serves on the board of directors for The Leonardo. “Take us up on our proposal to repay utilities. Do that right now.”
Salt Lake City and The Leonardo established a repayment plan for the museum to pay back past-due utility bills in October 2017, agreeing that The Leonardo would keep current on its utility bills while paying back the past-due bills in monthly $1,000 installments, according to the letter. But the museum did not honor either part of the agreement, the city says, only sending in a handful of checks.
The city pushed back collection of the overdue bills to December 2018, according to the notice, but those bills have still not been paid.
The notice also accuses the museum of failing to perform various maintenance obligations, such as fixing a broken glass window above a children’s play area, servicing the building’s elevators, and making sure the fire sprinkler system is up to standards.
“The city remains ready to discuss an equitable resolution of Leonardo’s defaults and will work with The Leonardo to schedule a mutually agreed upon time to meet before the expiration of the default period,” the letter states. However, it adds, “please do not construe our willingness to meet as a waiver of this notice, or any default, whether or not such default is listed above.”
The letter was reported by the media this week after the Salt Lake Tribune submitted a records request to the city regarding The Leonardo and received the notice in return.
In a statement released Tuesday, The Leonardo described the statements from the mayor’s office as “both disappointing and disingenuous.”
Throughout negotiations, The Leonardo said, the museum has proposed a repayment plan, “answered every question,” provided “extensive documentation,” and “even hand-delivered a check, which was never cashed.” A spokeswoman for The Leonardo clarified to KSL that the museum had in fact delivered two uncashed checks to the city.
We continue to get more and more healthy. We’re profitable. We’re on budget. We’re in a stronger financial position than we’ve been in years. And we really just want the opportunity to be The Leonardo and execute our mission.
–Lisa Davis, member of board of directors for The Leonardo
Rojas said he was not immediately aware of any uncashed checks, but said the city was looking into the matter. He said he knew of three checks — two for $1,000 and one for $5,000 — from the museum, but did not know their status.
“Our bigger issue here is those were the first checks in several years,” Rojas said.
The new repayment plan proposed by The Leonardo would escalate, with payments starting at about $2,000, according to Davis. Under the proposed plan, she said, the museum would be fully up to date on payments within five years. The city has not yet agreed to the plan.
“We would love to just get started on that,” Davis said, adding that she would like the conversation about utilities to be separate from other conversations between the city and the museum. “Let’s just get on with repaying the utilities and get that out of the way so we can focus on some of those other obligations that are important.”
In mid-October, after the city sent the notice of default, The Leonardo responded with a notice of default to the city claiming more than $1 million in damages due to a leaking roof, according to the museum. The roof, among other structural issues, is the city’s responsibility.
Rojas said the city has attempted to fix the roof this past year, but that those efforts were impeded when the museum halted some of the work. Davis called that response “absurd,” but noted that the museum made “reasonable” requests that workers rearrange the work schedule around some special events, such as weddings.
This isn’t the first time The Leonardo found itself in a tough spot financially. Last year, the museum was forced to act fast to dig its way out of a $3.6 million hole.
Davis acknowledged that The Leonardo has struggled in the past. But the museum has made “tremendous progress ... in defining our business and operational plan to be sustainable and healthy” since then, she said.
“We continue to get more and more healthy,” Davis said. “We’re profitable. We’re on budget. We’re in a stronger financial position than we’ve been in years. And we really just want the opportunity to be The Leonardo and execute our mission.”
