Sims' Last Stand
King County Executive Ron Sims' anti-monorail campaigning is bordering on hysteria. The Stranger has learned that Sims--who correctly sees the monorail plan as a direct threat to his pet light rail project--demanded last week that his allies at the King County Labor Council yank their monorail endorsement. Sims' ploy backfired.
Let me start this embarrassing tale by reminding you just how dedicated Sims is to taking down the monorail. Last week, Sims tripped ethics meters by peddling the "findings" of an inaccurate county report to the press ["Wrong Sims," Josh Feit, Oct 24]. It wasn't so much that the anti-monorail report was inaccurate (which it was), but worse: Sims seemed to be using his position as King County exec to commission anti-monorail campaign research from county agencies like Metro. That's a serious no-no.
Sims' shenanigans also tripped the duplicity meter. It turns out that while Sims was slipping his inaccurate findings to a P-I reporter with the hope of landing some anti-monorail headlines--Sims falsely claimed the Elevated Transportation Company (ETC) had miscalculated its monorail budget by hundreds of millions--he was also sending a "courteous" letter by post to ETC executive director Harold Robertson, asking the ETC if Metro's analysis was accurate. Sims outlined the county's "findings" and stated, disingenuously, "We appreciate your assistance in helping clarify this issue for the public." What a two-faced politician! If Sims actually wanted the ETC to help "clarify" the matter for the public, he wouldn't have pitched his "findings" to a reporter beforehand.
I wouldn't bother harping on Sims this way if his anti-monorail campaigning hadn't gotten so hysterical as of late. According to several sources, Sims set up an urgent meeting with King County Labor Council leader Steve Williamson and Building and Trades Council leader Peter Coates on Wednesday, October 23. In the meeting, Sims trotted out Metro's anti-monorail "findings" (like the whopper about the budget shortfall, which Sims later had to recant), and asked the labor guys to rescind their monorail endorsement.
Williamson (a big Sims fan, but also a strong monorail supporter) left Sims' office alarmed at the county exec's monorail antagonism, and quickly called a meeting with monorail leader Tom Weeks. Weeks handily debunked Sims' trash talk. Williamson then tried to coordinate a meeting between Sims and Weeks to get to the bottom of the dispute. No luck so far. Meanwhile, the labor council gladly kept its monorail endorsement intact. "That's the position we've taken," Williamson says. "That position isn't going to change. We support the monorail."
In fact, the very next day, the monorail campaign got about $7,500 from organized labor, including a check from the King County Labor Council. That's a real slap in Sims' face.
A monorail victory on Election Day will be as well.
