The top candidate dropped out. Is he supposed to keep the position open indefinitely through search after search until they finally find a top candidate actually willing to take the job?

Dude. He picked the guy he thinks he can control best. Period.

@ 2) And I thought I was being cynical. You win.

Sorry, known him way too long.

Whatever. I've moved on and I'm all about the Washington Bus thing about how to De-Sign the Costco Alcohol or Eyman initiatives if they tricked you into signing that and thinking it was the Legalize Marijuana initiative that sensiblewashington.org had in this week's Stranger.

If they looked different, you got duped. Sign the correct one and de-sign the other one.

Oh people, it's Mayor McCheese II's first decision..what did you expect? A good one?

The notion that McGinn made the pick as a "a bone to city institutions" is completely absurd. The only institution that might have been pleased is the Seattle Police Guild, which has little credibility with any of Seattle's other "institutions." If McGinn chose Diaz because he's afraid of the Guild, it just underscores what a single-issue mayor he is.

In other news, the mayor shows his support for the gay community by declining to attend the first ever raising of the rainbow flag at the Space Needle.

Look, I'm not real happy that Diaz is the new chief. But the political reality is that had McGinn picked the candidate from East Palo Alto over Diaz, the rank and file would be on a slow simmer and McGinn would have burned an important bridge. Liz Ali and Wanda Saunders come off as petulant, whiny little douchenozzles. They vetted the candidates, McGinn chose one, end of discussion for them. They both need a warm cuppa STFU.

I think it is fair to argue whether or not Diaz was a good choice... for everyone NOT on the search committee.

If the disgruntled members of the search committee are disappointed with McGinn's choice, why the fuck did they put Diaz in the top 3 of their recommendations in the first place?!? If he is such a shitty candidate, they had their chance to drop him before. Or at least put him lower on the list than the top 3. It's a little late now to be bitching about what a shitty choice he is.

Dominic,

Please cease your tired, contrarian diatribes about a topic you have no knowledge of. You are not an authority on anything other than being a bucktoothed, ex-stoner high school drop out.

Davis would have been a disaster. He was completely unqualified to run the department. It's like taking the manager at a McDonalds and promoting them to corporate CEO. You work your way up. You don't go from a force of fifty to a department of 1400.

The learning curve would've been too steep.

Now please stop. All your tantrum-throwing accomplishes nothing, and just makes you look foolish and uninformed. Not that it takes much.

@10, you are never not an asshole, are you?

@10 - u mad bro

@11 - Doesn't look like it. This dude has a hardon of hate going for the Stranger staff.

Don't be so hard on @10, you guys. He knows from first-hand experience that I'm "a bucktoothed, ex-stoner high school drop out." He's just leaving out the bad stuff.

@14 -

Dominic,

Please cease your tired, contrarian diatribes about a topic you have no knowledge of.

;)

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

Hi Dommy,
So sorry to hear you and Mike have broken up!
OMG, he dumped for you another man!! Asshole!!
Go out and get drunk tonight!!
Don't worry, you will find another chubby to love - we hope (jk!!).

@7 - you can see it from all around the fricking city ... how can you "not attend" it if you're in Seattle?

I mean, from his place you can see it.

Kind of obvious, it's a giant rainbow flag ...

McGinn's mistake was creating a 26 member search committee representing every single special interest he could think of. This decision is just fallout from that mistake.

The 3 finalists were not the 3 best candidates. They were a way of stretching as far as possible and coming up with 3 faces that represent as large a cross-section of the rainbow as possible. Which might have almost worked if the collective 26-part-brain of the committee had been smart enough to detect who was going to withdraw once they got a little raise back home.

@18: slight correction: the original committee was formed by Nickels and at 24 members was almost as large and unwieldy.

@17 If that's your idea of attending then I'd like to thank the mayor, you, and everyone else in the city for their unique and distinct, and unusual leadership in honoring the LGBT community.

OK, fine it was dumb of McGinn to go along with Nickels' 24 member committee and really dumb to make it even larger.

@21 .... wow.

What was he supposed to do, reset the clock again?