To be fair, Nickels deserves some praise. Nickels' 48-hour pothole response team has filled an estimated 1,153 potholes. He also extended hours at neighborhood service centers, ran a safe Mardi Gras celebration, synchronized traffic lights, and sent legislation to the city council to repeal the Teen Dance Ordinance.
So putting aside our squeamishness with Nickels' contrived media hook ("My First 100 Days!"), we decided we'd be a nice newspaper and play along. We looked at Nickels' first 100 days in office and concluded that they were a success--not because he filled some potholes, though. The truly noteworthy thing Nickels accomplished was his successful power grab.
Despite Nickels' campaign emphasis on the namby-pamby "Seattle Way" of playing well with others, our November prediction that Nickels meant business (I believe we said things like "indomitable," "ability to stare down," and "horsepower") has come true with abandon. A pugnacious Nickels has shattered business as usual at city hall, consolidating power in the executive branch and forcing the council to reevaluate its role. It's the best thing to happen at city hall in years. By staging a successful coup, Nickels has shown that the council has no power base--and needs to get one. Basically, Nickels' rough play underscores the wisdom of revamping the council. I've got two words: district elections.
One legislative aide I know told me that she wondered "why the hell the council even exists." Her lament came in the days following Nickels' mid-February announcement that he was going to trash the council's budget requests. Indeed, Nickels ignored a unanimous February 19 council vote for funding social-service contracts, simultaneously restoring some transportation projects he liked--despite the fact that the council had pulled those from the budget.
More ballsy, however, was Nickels' infamous directive issued in early January, mandating that city departments serve the mayor--not the council. Basically, any work that council members request from departments has to fit the mayor's agenda or meet his approval.
"Under weak executives it's a lot of fun to be able to cross the line and essentially run the departments, but it doesn't work very well," Nickels told The Stranger on Day 98. "Because you can't have 10 bosses. You can't get direction from 10 different directions and make it work. You've got to have one head of the government who is running the departments. And I felt that line had been crossed and that we need to make it clear that era was gone."
Nickels' "power grab" raises a fundamental question about the nine city council members, which could help change our system for the better: If Nickels is the top dog, drawing legitimacy from his control of the citywide departments, where does council legitimacy come from? We don't need nine mayors when we've got one mayor who directs the city departments.
In order to have an effective government of checks and balances, though, the council members need a new source of legitimacy and power. That power can only come from a clearly defined constituency--namely, the neighborhoods.
Sure, Council Member Nick Licata "represents" activists; Council Member Judy Nicastro "represents" renters; Council Member Heidi Wills "represents" tree huggers; and Council Member Richard McIver seems to "represent" the black community; but with the exception of Licata and his lefty crew, these phantom constituencies go largely unattended. They are random, de facto, and informal at best, and so don't truly provide the accountability or legitimacy a geographic base could.
For example, "enviro" Council Member Wills can waffle on water conservation (as she did during Yes For Seattle's 2001 I-63 campaign), with no repercussions. This lack of repercussions might seem like a good thing to the council members, but it's a false sense of security. It ultimately works against them because it's proof that they represent no one. Why do you think Nickels had no trouble consolidating his power? The council had no troops to call in; it had no constituency giving it legitimacy to argue for a say in city department planning.
In order to have an effective city council--a council that can check the executive branch--it needs troops. Those troops are in the neighborhoods.
Nickels' "First 100 Days" say more about the council's days than about the mayor's. The message is clear: The days of the current council--a council elected citywide--are numbered.
My first 100 daysby College Senior Amy Baranski
In the past 100 days I have completed tasks that will help enhance my current term at Seattle University. In addition to successfully executing homework assignments in a timely manner and managing the publication of our school periodical, I administered all aspects of promoting and running a successful Friday-night gathering at my apartment featuring Bud Light. I collaborated with an official from QFC who recommended that I purchase gourmet confetti sprinkles for my colleague's birthday cake, which was also featured at the event.
After checking these items off my Student Action List, I enhanced my bookshelf by making several additions, including Cruel Sacrifice, a true crime novel by recognized writer Aphrodite Jones.
