Less Ethics

On September 7, a city council committee voted 3—0 to pass Mayor Nickels's proposal to weaken the city's ethics code. The issue at hand concerns ethics guidelines for members of citizen advisory committees: How should they deal with real and apparent conflicts of interest? The ethics code, as it stands now, states that if an advisory committee member has either a real or apparent conflict of interest, and he doesn't recuse himself, he could be fined up to $5,000.

The mayor's proposal lowers the standards. If the member has an apparent conflict of interest, he simply has to disclose the conflict (rather than recuse himself). And if he doesn't disclose the apparent conflict, there is no fine. If an advisory committee member has a real conflict, he still has to recuse himself, but if he doesn't, the fine has been lowered to $1,000.

The issue will go before the full council for a vote on September 18. LENA BAISDEN

More Money

A report from the auditor of the Office of Professional Accountability (the department housed in the Seattle Police Department that investigates complaints about police misconduct), and a concurring report from the OPA director, found investigations are taking far too long to complete (119 days on average). So, City Council Members Peter Steinbrueck and Nick Licata have proposed legislation asking OPA to come up with a standard on timeliness for investigating complaints. The proposed legislation passed out of committee unanimously on September 8 and is headed to full council on September 18.

One factor in the prolonged investigations—

119 days is a 25 percent uptick over the average of the last five years—is an increased number of complaints. The Steinbrueck/Licata legislation is obviously a warning shot from the lefty duo (as the council enters budget season) that they're going to be asking for more money to fund the OPA. Over the past two budgeting cycles, the OPA budget has remained static at $1.3 million, while the overall SPD budget has jumped about 7 percent from $178 million to $190 million. JOSH FEIT

No Rebuild

Using the Washington State Department of Transportation's own data, supporters of the no-rebuild option for the viaduct released a report this week that challenges a few myths about the need to replace the viaduct.

The study, written by a transit group called Smart Mobility, says:

Myth #1: Most Alaskan Way Viaduct trips are long-distance trips through the city. Nope—58 percent of the trips are under five miles.

Myth #2: AWV is critical for freight. Nope—only 4,000 "medium and heavy duty trucks" per day on the AWV, out of total traffic of 103,000.

Myth #3: The downtown street grid lacks the capacity to move additional traffic. Nope—the local street grid is about twice the capacity of AWV.

Myth #4: "Demand" for AWV capacity dictates its necessity. Nope—WSDOT's own toll-feasibility study shows that nearly 20 percent of Alaskan Way Viaduct trips would be diverted to other routes. NANCY DREW