Behind that vestibule, locked away from public view, is another, unfinished chamber (the aforementioned space "for lease") that council members want to turn into an arts and culture center known colloquially as a "cultural cafe." Nearly two years after the new City Hall opened, the space remains vacant and unfinished, lacking requisite plumbing, electricity, and emergency sprinklers. Last week, the council put $250,000 from an unrelated real-estate sale toward finishing the space; but even that leaves the project some $350,000 in the hole. Complicating matters, the mayor's office says plans for City Hall never included any "cultural cafe"; according to Fleets and Facilities Head Brenda Bauer, that term is, "contrary to what you might have heard, a relatively new description of the space." Council Budget Chair Richard McIver says that while he's "not opposed" to funding the cultural center, "I just don't know where we're going to get the money."
McIver was the only city council member present during a public hearing last week on the proposed renewal of the city's "temporary" strip-club moratorium, which has been extended 15 times since it was first enacted. From gavel to gavel, the hearing lasted just two minutes and 52 seconds: less time than a $20 lap dance.
But despite the pro forma nature of last week's proceedings, the moratorium may be in trouble. On Monday, April 25, aspiring strip-club owner Bob Davis told me he's ready to upgrade his $5 million claim against the city into a full-blown lawsuit: the first legal challenge to a law that has penalized a single, legal industry for nearly two decades. At least one council member, Tom Rasmussen, told The Stranger he would vote against the moratorium ["Election Endorsements," Oct 23, 2003]. We'll see if Rasmussen (and avowed moratorium foe Peter Steinbrueck) will back up their political rhetoric by voting "no" on the prissy, paternalistic ban.
Rumor has it that political consultant Cathy Allen, under fire from the Service Employees International Union for disparaging comments she made about the union last year, was fired from her job as King County Council Member Carolyn Edmonds' consultant because she worked for SEIU nemesis Helen Sommers, a state house incumbent the union spent $250,000 trying, unsuccessfully, to defeat. Allen, who acknowledges she was "fired," wouldn't confirm the Edmonds rumor, and Edmonds would say only that her "personal relationship" with Allen was "getting in the way" of Allen's work on her campaign. SEIU rep Adam Glickman says the union "has bigger things to worry about" than who uses which consultants, although Edmonds' new consultant, John Wyble (who also worked on last year's anti-Sommers campaign) acknowledges that the union "was really angry" about statements Allen made about the SEIU last year. Sommers, no fan of SEIU herself, calls the Allen rumor "accurate"--which verifies only the murkiness of the circumstances surrounding Allen's dismissal.
