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Sep 23, 2010 at 6:31 pm
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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
Did Holmes get his law degree from a crackerjack box?
And the charter seems to direct the relevant department heads (in this case, SDOT and the Mayor) to execute and negotiate contracts (with the EIS process being a part of that!):
But, yanno, not a lawyer so let's see what happens!
The MOHAI debacle this month was painful to witness.
Now, our mayor is proving he can't work with the city council, state government nor the governor.
Perhaps he should consider stepping down.
/snark
2. Where is the public vote of the Citizens of Seattle?
3. Where is the legally required sufficient bonding capacity - we KNOW it has already been exceeded.
4. Having fun yet? There's still the WTO filing coming down the pike.
The worst news, actually, is that Peter Hahn didn't have the courage to buck the political grandstanding of his boss and fulfill the job he is paid to do. Instead of being a Richardson or Ruskelshaus, Hahn shows himself to be McGinn's easy Bork. If Hahn as SDOT head sort out political interference and do his job of signing important documents for the city he should resign. Instead Conlin showed himself as the only adult in the room and signed in order to keep Seattle from looking like a City of Fools. McGinn's protests show he is outflanked and irrelevant.
I agree with McGinn's position on the signing; I don't know how Conlin can legally sign any document on behalf of the City. However, I also agree that McGinn is being stupid by trying to delay. If he is truly against this tunnel, then own up and say so in no uncertain terms, and be willing to face the consequences.
For example, you claim that federal officials (who were they?) said that delaying an environmental impact statement was unprecedented. Here's what I found, for example, within a few minutes:
It can't be a federal source telling you that a delay of a few days would be problematic, can it? Because, as we can see, the federal government has no problems with delaying environmental impact studies of the by months or years, even the more important and final versions.
You also made the unusually risky move of doing this through your own legal team -- essentially, you aren't acting on behalf of the city's legal counsel, you're acting of your own accord. A fairly calculated risk.
We can talk about McGinn's obstruction or how you were afraid we'd lose out on the contract, but face these facts, Conlin: you jumped outside of your own voter-mandated position, used legal counsel retained for your own personal use, and made a decision pertinent to departments that aren't under your control.
Your sycophants may applaud you nonstop for stickin' it to McGinn, but you also jumped out of bounds and have shown a rather characteristic trend toward reckless behavior in what you've done. The anti-urbanist crowd (hi!) may cheer you on for defeating the new seattle crowd by pushing forward on this, but your questionable actions (let's let the legal beagles get in on this!) aren't going to do you and WSDOT any favors.
City of Bell Residents Cheer Arrests Of Officials As Children Punch, Spit On Image Of Ex-City Manager Robert Rizzo
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/bell/…
Gloomby Glus,
Youvve ver said.
Pokey de hole in me.
Ouch...u wit so hard.
Sounds fair to me.
It's only $10,000 per year for the next 20 years.
His deposit is a mere $25,000.
Sounds pretty similar to here. Their population is the same size as our city - we should ask the visiting Icelandic guest of Decibel how they did it.
Unfortunately I feel this mayor is in way over his head and being supported mainly by a bunch of posers.
The argument can be made that we need the jobs and this will be a massive stimulus program for union wage jobs. This mayor often claims he's for working families. He position on the tunnel would seem to show he's out of touch with that claim.
From what I hear from my old contacts in city government this mayor is not the same bill of goods that the Stranger successfully sold the people who voted for him when he was elected. His narrow minded ideologue approach to problem solving makes him rather ineffective at solving the city's big problems.
Which part of Democracy is it that you don't GET?
While Richard Conlin obviously disagrees with Mayor McGinn's position on the tunnel, Conlin has made his own position that much more tenuous and wobbly by going over the mayor's head in this fashion. I am betting that the city's legal dept will pull Conlin's signature off the document and the resulting catfight around this specific issue will drown out any substantial arguments Conlin could bring to the tunnel discussion.
Conlin needs to retire.
When asked by the press afterwards, Holmes says, "I couldn't find any law explicitly forbidding a member of City Council from evicting the mayor. I'm sure we'll get a definitive answer one way or another from the courts. I mean, that's why we have judges."
But that being said, all of this is happening because McGinn is a fucking joke. The WSDOT didn't collude with the council so much as decide that the mayor, due to his dogmatic opposition to all things automotive, is a man the state cannot do business with. But it's a good soap opera.
And @31, that's hilarious.
Stadiums, Benroya Hall, Key Arena, Paul Allens Toy Train, and the list goes on........
If McGinn honestly wants to block the tunnel then just stand up and say that you will not sign the document. Claiming you didn't have time to review one of the most important documents related to the tunnel is just plain incompetence by either him or his office. He should have had someone from his office reviewing the document through all of it's drafts. The moment it became official he should have been aware of the contents.
Perhaps Conlin over stepped his authority, but a good part of that it the lack of leadership by McGinn.
I understand people don't like the tunnel, or surface street, or another viaduct... but come on! The viaduct will not survive another good shaking. It's a hazard. It needs to be replaced with something. Somebody stand up and provide some leadership! Otherwise you can't complain when someone else does.
WA and Seattle are next if we persist in this deep bore tunnel which increases both particulate emissions and carbon emissions over the county EPA regulations.
Which it does.
As we all know.
And the original EIS has both the rebuilt viaduct and the surface plus transit as preferred alternatives if the primary (not chosen by voters) deep bore tunnel is found unworkable.