March 21, 2012

Sources Say

Seattle's Hottest Gossip Column About Utility Bills

Tools

• According to a reliable source, Snohomish County executive Aaron Reardon—currently under investigation by the Washington State Patrol for allegedly misusing public money to fund trips with his alleged mistress—reportedly has a network of hidden tattoos on his body, including spiders on one shoulder and a blue web around his belly button.

• Capitol Hill resident Cassandra Trimble called us fuming about Puget Sound Energy's practice of slapping a $4.95 fee on all credit-card payments, while the publicly owned Seattle Public Utilities charges no such fee. "If you buy shoes, they don't charge you five bucks to use your credit card. I would be happy to announce myself as their sworn enemy," Trimble said. Reached by phone, PSE spokeswoman Dorothy Bracken said the charge comes from BillMatrix, the card-processing service. Five percent of all PSE payments are done by credit card, said Bracken, adding that those payments—and the accompanying fee—are "usually paid by people needing to make an emergency payment" to avoid having their gas shut off.

Stranger Personals

• Some have wondered if there was bad blood between state representative Gerry Pollet (D-46, position 1) and his challenger, Sylvester Cann. Even though there's another seat open in the same district (for position 2), Cann declined to run for it. But it's not bad blood. Insiders say Cann would rather lose to Pollet than lose his consultant, Christian Sinderman, who already has a candidate running for position 2.

• On March 16, at a meeting of Washington State libertarians held at Ivar's Salmon House, former state supreme court justice Richard B. Sanders made it official: "I'm going to run again." King County Superior Court judge Bruce Hilyer, who's also running for the open state supreme court seat that Sanders now wants to use for his high court comeback, immediately pounced. "The voters of Washington already rejected Sanders's ethical problems, extreme ideology, and lack of respect for rules and laws he personally dislikes," Hilyer said in a statement. Where's that popcorn .gif when we need it?

FacebookShare

Comments (3) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

The credit card companies don't process for free. So Trimble wants those of us who pay with check or EFT to subsidize credit card payers?

Posted by some other guy who is different than the first two on March 21, 2012 at 1:17 PM · Report

Nobody charges for credit card processing. And almost $5? That's gouging. It's especially an outrage that the people who need to use their credit cards the most - those desperate to keep their gas on - are getting screwed by the bill processor. Shame on you, Dorothy Bracken, for making your policy sound like it's okay to do it because it's only the poor people who get hit by the fee. And shame on you Stranger, for not being your usual muckraking selves and calling on PSE to drop the fee.

Posted by magdaddy on March 23, 2012 at 10:48 PM · Report