Last July, however, after the city council approved the Heidi Wills/Richard Conlin amendment, repealing I-41 and disbanding the voter-created Elevated Transportation Company (ETC) ["Wills Kills Monorail," Josh Feit and Dan Savage, Aug 3], angry activists gathered enough signatures to force a second monorail initiative, I-53, onto the ballot. And guess what? More people voted for that initiative than voted for Paul Schell. I-53 passed in November with 148,629 votes--40 percent more votes than Schell received. In fact, more people voted for I-53 than voted for any mayor in the history of Seattle. In fact, I-53 got more votes--by almost 20,000-- than anyone who sits or ever sat on our city council.
Looks like the monorail has a mandate, doesn't it?
By approving I-53, Seattle voters repealed the Wills/Conlin amendment, reviving the ETC. Voters also ordered the city to give the restored ETC $6 million to draft a plan for a monorail system serving all four corners of the city, from Ballard to West Seattle, Lake City to Rainier Valley. The ETC has 24 months to draft its monorail proposal, which will be automatically re-submitted to the voters. But perhaps the most important new power that voters gave the ETC was the ability to appoint its own members. Under the original language of I-41, the mayor, the governor, and the city council president appointed ETC members. Unfortunately, all three were so slow about filling vacancies that the ETC was in constant danger of not being able to conduct business for lack of a quorum. I-53 solves that problem.
"Vacancies on the ETC board shall be filled by a majority vote of the remaining board members," I-53 says. "The City Council may only confirm or reject the choice of the ETC board, and, further, may only reject such choice for good cause."
After the bruising the mayor and city council took last spring and summer, thanks to their efforts to ignore and then repeal I-41 (a local attorney named Christopher Beer successfully sued them), you'd think the city would take one look at the overwhelming mandate that voters handed the Elevated Transportation Company, and, to be blunt, stop fucking with the monorail. But actions taken by the city in the last two weeks indicate the city just doesn't get it.
The mayor's office has drafted a new charter for the ETC ostensibly to reconcile I-41 and I-53. The ETC is a public development agency, and drafting a charter is something PDAs are supposed to do for themselves. But on the advice of the city attorney's office, the mayor and city council have drafted one themselves. This charter gives the city council the power to appoint new members to the ETC. Not only that, but the city insists the original ETC doesn't exist, because the Wills/Conlin amendment disbanded it. The city also asserts that current ETC members have to be re-appointed by the city council.
Both of these stands conflict with the language of I-53, which is now law, and these arguments don't sit well with the current members of the ETC, who have already begun meeting and conducting business.
"The mayor and council seem to think initiatives have asterisks on them," says Dick Falkenbury, author of the original monorail initiative and a sitting member of the ETC. "They don't. It's law, a real law, and they don't have a right to change a law passed by Seattle voters through administrative fiat."
One of the ETC's first acts of business last week, when the group began meeting again, was hiring legal counsel. As if to send a message to the mayor and city council about how seriously the ETC takes this conflict over who will appoint new board members, the group hired Christopher Beer as their attorney--the guy who sued the city over its treatment of I-41.
Why does the city council, in conflict with I-53, want to reserve the right to appoint members to the ETC?
"The city council has tried, at every step along the way, to stonewall or shut down the ETC," says I-53 ringleader Peter Sherwin. "So it isn't hard to imagine the city council packing the ETC with new members opposed to the monorail concept. To do that, though, the mayor has to amend I-53, which by law he can't do. So, they're trying to treat this thing like a law coming out of committee, a law they can tweak."
"At best, it means they feel we haven't done our job," says Falkenbury. "At worst, they want to appoint people who will run this into the ground."
And while the mayor's office has reassured the current members of the ETC that they will all be re-appointed by the city council, the past successful efforts on the part of the city council and the mayor to de-fund and ultimately disband the ETC haven't engendered a lot of trust on the part of the group's members.
"Considering the history here," says monorail supporter and City Council Member Nick Licata, "one could surely be forgiven for reaching the conclusion that there is a conscious effort to de-fang the ETC or pack it with monorail haters." Licata doesn't think that's the case, though, and he believes that even the monorail's most ardent foes on the city council have resigned themselves to the project.
Let's hope so: One provision of voter- approved I-53 requires the city to assist the ETC in every possible way. If the city doesn't, the ETC and Beer are prepared to drag Seattle back into court. The city already lost two expensive, counterproductive court battles to Beer this year. Judging from their recent behavior, city officials seem anxious to lose a third.
"Based on my previous experience in having to sue the city to get funding for I-41," says Beer, "and having to sue them again in order to get the signatures validated for I-53, I [have] a jaded view of any obstacle the city puts in our path." But Beer doesn't see the ETC hiring him as a provocation. "I've had a lot of experience dealing with the city on this issue. All that hiring me says to the city is, 'Hey, this person has beaten you before, and we feel strongly that if it comes down to litigation, this person will be able to represent us.'"
