The conflict was on full display at the end of the council's Monday, February 10, morning briefing, when testy exchanges ensued after City Council President Peter Steinbrueck announced he planned to bring an alternate, less specific version of the resolution to a vote that afternoon, despite the fact that Wills and Licata had not yet seen the new draft.
After the session, Steinbrueck released a draft of the stripped-down alternate version, which was written by Jim Compton, head of council's police committee, and which has the support of Council Member Margaret Pageler. By that afternoon, however, Steinbrueck had backed down and shelved the resolution issue until a Tuesday, February 18, council session.
Though that quieted the brouhaha, at least temporarily, Wills continued to strongly defend her original version, claiming that the proposed alternate was too watered down to have much value. "I'm concerned that the new resolution is repackaged with some of the strongest language taken out," she said, pointing to the original wording that specifically urged Seattle police to protect the civil rights of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, and which urged that any proposed changes to the intelligence ordinance be "narrowly tailored."
Despite earlier rumors to the contrary, the Steinbrueck/Compton alternative did affirm support for the core civilian auditor process of the intelligence ordinance. Still, Wills described her language as "a much stronger statement," and added that she would continue to press for approval of the original version.
Compton and Steinbrueck, however, asserted at the morning session that the alternate version was actually stronger, and argued that a quick vote on it was necessary because of the looming conflict with Iraq. Pageler joined Steinbrueck and Compton because she felt Wills and Licata were being unfair to the police.
Monday afternoon, Wills claimed "the votes weren't there for the [Steinbrueck/ Compton alternative]," despite the fact that two council supporters of the original Wills resolution, Judy Nicastro and Richard Conlin, were absent that day. Supporters of the alternative dismissed that claim and privately said they hoped to work out a consensus version of the resolution before it comes up again on the 18th.
Given that Steinbrueck's version wasn't as meek as civil libertarians predicted, it seems that ego rather than substance caused the council spat. Several council sources said that Steinbrueck and Compton felt they had been left out of the loop in drafting the original resolution, and so chose to work out their own version.
