Deadline looms in Union Station dispute

? The city and Union Station officials face a Tuesday deadline to resolve a dispute that could threaten the station’s accreditation, but the two sides can’t even agree on a possible extension of that deadline.

An inability to resolve the disagreement over ownership of a historical collection could jeopardize the station’s ability to bring events such as the current Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit to Kansas City, station officials said.

The dispute is over whether the city or the station owns thousands of historical documents in the Kansas City museum. The argument has gone on for years, but the city has threatened to end its museum management contract with Union Station by Tuesday.

The May 1 date is important for other reasons. The station has to submit its case for renewing its accreditation by the first week of May, and the American Association of Museums wants the dispute with the city resolved.

Also, new Mayor Mark Funkhouser and many new council members, none of whom have been involved in the dispute, take office May 1.

Union Station officials are to meet today with City Manager Wayne Cauthen to attempt to reach a compromise.

Funkhouser said the looming deadline was “silly.”

“This is a dispute that’s been in the works for a long, long time so I don’t see why we can’t have a few months after the new mayor and council are in office,” he said. “I have no idea who’s right in this thing, but surely there can be some sort of temporary arrangement.”

The Kansas City Museum occupies the 1910 mansion of lumberman R.A. Long in northeast Kansas City. The city owns the building, but the collection inside is in dispute because the private Kansas City Museum Association, which had been steward of the museum collection for decades, merged in 2000 with Union Station Assistance Corp. and became Union Station Kansas City Inc.

Andi Udris, chief executive officer of Union Station, said deeds, contracts and old board minutes establish that the station owns the collection.

But City Councilwoman Deb Hermann and the city legal department disputes that. Hermann said residents never intended to give the collection away when the museum association merged with Union Station.

Both sides have proposed ways to delay the Tuesday deadline, but they can’t agree on the terms.

The city has proposed a six-month extension, with the conditions that Union Station drop its pending trademark applications for the name Kansas City Museum and relinquish all intellectual property rights. Station officials won’t accept those conditions.

Union Station proposed a two-month extension of the current contract while talks continue.

The two sides also don’t agree on what would happen if a compromise isn’t reached by Tuesday.

Udris said it’s likely the Kansas City Museum would have to close because it can’t operate without an agreement.

But Hermann said the city would put out a request for proposals for museum management and she hoped operations wouldn’t be interrupted.

Union Station’s professional accreditation is in danger because it inherited the Kansas City Museum’s last accreditation from 1998 and that is now up for renewal.

Without that accreditation, Udris said, Union Station might not be able to attract major attractions such as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Herman said she was concerned about the accreditation problem but contended that Union Station is trying to usurp the Kansas City Museum name.

“Union Station is not a museum and has never been a museum,” she said.