Last week, Five to Four pointed out that mayoral wannabe Mark Sidran's current monorail leanings contradict City Attorney Mark Sidran's monorail record, where he led the legal battle against the popular citizen initiative.

Here's chapter two on this season's transportation charlatan. On the campaign trail, Sidran has taken to bashing Sound Transit. "A train to nowhere," Sidran calls the project. Given that Sidran's main opponent, Greg Nickels, is finance chair of the suspect agency, it's a wise campaign move. However, that's all it is: a campaign move. As city attorney, Sidran sat by while the Seattle City Council passed a slew of ordinances giving the green light to Sound Transit's screwy project. If Sidran was really as knowing about the light rail debacle as he claims (and as opposed to it as he now says), he certainly had the power, as the council's legal advisor, to obstruct the project. As city attorney, it's Sidran's job to shore up and sign off on council legislation. Lord knows he's weighed in on council work before, using his office to derail things like efforts to reform the Parks Exclusion Ordinance and to repeal the Teen Dance Ordinance.

But in regard to Sound Transit, City Attorney Sidran has been silent. For example, the council passed a parade of ordinances on July 30, 2001, essentially approving Sound Transit's light rail route. While bona fide Sound Transit critics like Nick Licata, Judy Nicastro, and Peter Steinbrueck had the courage to vote "nay," Sidran's office didn't make a peep about the legislation. Given that the set of ordinances involved complex land-use rules, Sidran could have found plenty of legal hand grenades to foil the legislation.

Likewise on City Ordinance 119949. The key light rail ordinance, pushed by Sound Transit board member and City Council Member Richard McIver, authorized transferring the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel to Sound Transit. Again, while actual Sound Transit critics like King County Council Member Rob McKenna pointed out serious policy flaws in the legislation, Sidran's office kept mum. To be fair, McKenna points to policy flaws rather than legal ones, but Sidran could have used his clout to impact the legislation. For example, Sidran weighed in heavily on the policy plusses of the impound ordinance when opposition to that ordinance started brewing on the council; but when it came to Sound Transit, Sidran was nowhere to be found.

So, before you cast a Sidran vote based on his politically trendy transportation rhetoric, please look at his actual transportation record.

Quote of the Week

"I--will--tear--SeaTran--apart--and put it back together again, so that it works.... I'm going to be replacing a significant number of department heads."--Mayoral candidate Greg Nickels at the Eastlake Community Council candidates' forum.