Look at it this way: The Washington State Department of Transportation and its attorneys got exactly what they wanted when the city agreed last month to take $2 million in exchange for settling the legal issue between the two bureaucracies that had existed for 36 years regarding waterfront property on Eagle Harbor.

What was painful was watching the debt-ridden city toy with its citizens – what do you want, to lease land for a boatyard or money for an new city dock? – for several months when it was obvious that both eventually would settle for exactly want they wanted in the first place.

It took three months before the state removed the water-related contingency clause on the cash for “no strings attached,’ likely because the boatyard proposal was reasonable and the state didn’t want to take a chance that the council might actually go in that direction.

And the city? One could argue that the council as a whole was undecided on which door to open since both of the final proposals had merit. But after the state upped the ante and the deadline approached, the clear winner would be money it could stash in the general fund for a multitude of projects and needs.

The council says it has a lot of discussion ahead before it can decide exactly what to do with the money, but for now it represents reserves at a time that the city needs that kind of money tucked away so it can get a good credit rating in order to do what it desperately needs to do right now. That’s paying off some of the nearly $5 million in debt, keeping reserves for emergencies such as natural and legal disasters, and doing what all cities love to do when possible – borrow more.

Unfortunately, the city also gave up all legal rights to the covenants that it had inherited from a group of islanders who had fought long and hard to keep some of the harbor for the people. It’s a shame, but an “all or nothing” fight with a bully is often unfair and the city is in no position financially to wage one.