Unfair Fight

The plastic-industry-funded Coalition to Stop the Seattle Bag Tax—which paid a California consulting firm more than $180,000 to gather signatures to repeal the 20-cent fee on disposable grocery bags—has successfully bought its way onto the ballot. On September 15, the anti-bag-fee campaign announced it had collected more than 15,000 valid signatures, enough to put the measure on the ballot. (For perspective, that's about $12 per valid signature.) The "coalition" is funded exclusively by the Arlington, Virginia–based American Chemistry Council, which is funding an almost identical campaign against a proposed 25-cent bag fee in California. Because the repeal is headed to the ballot, the bag fee won't go into effect next year as planned; instead, the plastic industry's referendum will go on the ballot in August, or earlier if the city council decides to hold a special election. ERICA C. BARNETT

Fighting Words

Scott White, one of two Democrats seeking the state house seat from North Seattle's 46th legislative district, has listed the $6,250 he spent in attorney fees fighting off a challenge by his opponent, Gerry Pollet, to remove him from the ballot as an official campaign expenditure on his disclosure reports with the state Public Disclosure Commission. White says his advisers "felt that it was the most appropriate way to make sure that we were being fully transparent" in disclosing campaign expenses.

Pollet, in contrast, has not filed his own attorney fees as a campaign expense or as an in-kind contribution to his own campaign—even though a successful case would have benefited his campaign tremendously by removing his main opponent from the ballot. Pollet says he didn't see the lawsuit against White as "a campaign activity," adding that White "chose to involve himself in [the lawsuit], and to do so [using] his campaign contributions." PDC spokeswoman Lori Anderson says it's up to candidates to decide if they want to list legal fees as a campaign expense. ERICA C. BARNETT

Frivolous Fight

A lawsuit by longtime light-rail foe Will Knedlik against Sound Transit, in which Knedlik claimed that the title and explanatory statement for this year's mass-transit expansion measure misrepresented the true cost of the proposal and should include language calling the measure a "permanent tax," was dismissed with prejudice by King County Superior Court judge John Erlick last week. Erlick said, "There is neither a factual nor a legal basis for [Knedlik's] proposed redrafting of the ballot title" or explanatory statement, meaning that the ballot title and statement will appear as written on ballots and voter guides in the three-county Sound Transit region. ERICA C. BARNETT

Fighting the Power

City Council Members Nick Licata and Tim Burgess are pushing legislation that could require the city to hold public hearings on police accountability before the Seattle Police Officers Guild renegotiates its next contract in 2010.

While the legislation wouldn't necessarily have any direct effect on contract negotiations, it would give victims of police misconduct a very public way to air their grievances directly to the council, as well as the Office of Professional Accountability Review Board, which monitors the department's internal investigations unit.

The bill could go to full council for a vote on Monday, September 22. JONAH SPANGENTHAL-LEE