Calling “illegal” the decision to close and sell the National Archives at Seattle, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has told federal officials that his office is prepared to sue if the move is not “reconsidered and reversed.”
Ferguson sent a letter dated Feb. 25 to Russell Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, and to all members of the Public Buildings Reform Board, which is a relatively-unknown group charged with examining ways to trim federal properties deemed excess.
OMB announced Jan. 24 that the 73-year-old archives at Sand Point would be shuttered and the building and 10-acre site sold for real estate development. The board said the building had a “deferred maintenance backlog of $2.5 million,” and it was better to sell it to housing developers to “generate the highest and best value.”
The decision came as a shock to local historians, tribal leaders and state congressional representatives.
In the letter, Ferguson said the decision violated Executive Order 13175 to “establish regular and meaningful consultation and collaboration with tribal officials in the development of Federal policies that have tribal implications.”
That order was issued in 2000 by then-President Bill Clinton.
In an email, Adam Bodner, executive director of the buildings board, said Wednesday that “because of the threat of pending litigation, I don’t want to comment on the letter.”
The Seattle archives is the repository for all federal records in the Pacific Northwest. It includes important treaty documents relating to the 272 federally recognized tribes in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
The nearly 1 million boxes and numerous other records are to be moved to Kansas City and Riverside, Calif.
Ferguson also wrote the decision did not satisfy even the “most basic statutory obligations” under Section 11 of the Federal Asset Sales and Transfer Act of 2016. The section Ferguson cites says standards should be developed in evaluating potential properties for sale. He said no such standards were ever developed.
