Although the mayor's office did not respond to numerous requests for comment until after press time Tuesday, Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond acknowledged the discussions had taken place, adding that the city and Metro were "looking at a host of different ideas" to fund South Lake Union trolley operations, including poaching hours from the waterfront streetcar. Those discussions may have been trumped, however, by the Port's announcement last week of plans to save the "historic" waterfront trolley. (Historic? Seattle's beloved streetcars, lest we forget, were brought here from Australia in 1982--making them about as historic, as one skeptic pointed out, as Men at Work.)
Speaking of men at work: City council incumbent Richard Conlin, under fire from four challengers in his 2005 reelection bid, offset a couple of slow fundraising months by raising more than $18,000 in March alone, with another $5,000 reportedly on the way. (Conlin opponent Casey Corr, in contrast, has reported a March total of just $2,500, though last month's fundraising totals aren't complete.) Meanwhile, another potential council challenger, would-be Nick Licata opponent Elaine Spencer, has decided against taking on the formidable two-term incumbent.
While some council candidates (among them a certain former member of the mayor's staff) are doing backflips to demonstrate their allegiance to the Nickels agenda, others will likely balk at the mayor's latest grab for power: an obscure charter amendment that would increase the City Light contingency fund, used to pay for operations during emergencies, and make it harder for future city councils to access the cash. The new rules for accessing the fund, which would not allow the council to override a mayoral veto, represent a novel approach to mayor-council relations, one where the ordinary checks and balances of representative government don't apply. As one council staffer put it, the legislation "enshrines the absolute power of the mayor." The mayor's proposal, which would also require that voters approve an amendment to the city's charter, had not been assigned to a committee by Council President Jan Drago as of Tuesday.
The city's "temporary" moratorium on new strip-club licenses, currently up for its 17th consecutive council approval, received a much warmer reception last week, landing in Drago's government-affairs committee after land-use committee chair Peter Steinbrueck announced he would no longer take on the legally questionable legislation.
