As The Stranger reported last week, Steinbrueck proposed a bill to yank $100,000 from the city's Department of Planning and Development (DPD). Given that the city departments are little more than the mayor's foot soldiers, Steinbrueck's legislation is an affront to Nickels' authority at city hall. "When it's necessary to have our priorities advanced," Steinbrueck says, "we need to use our legislative power more effectively. That's why I took the drastic approach of [threatening to] reappropriate this money."
While the budget battle between Steinbrueck and Nickels is wrapped up in wonked-out specifics--the tug of war involves a scrap over land-use regulations and budget "provisos"--the real story here cuts to a fundamental issue at city hall: Can anyone--including the nine elected city council members--effectively challenge Nickels?
Steinbrueck thinks so. "The only way to enforce [the council's agenda] is through our budget authority." Steinbrueck's fight over the $100,000 stems from his longstanding frustration with the DPD for ignoring his yearlong call to look into tweaking Seattle land-use code in ways that encourage green or "sustainable" building practices. Steinbrueck says he spent all of 2004 waiting for DPD to move on his green-buildings agenda. "For at least the past year, I've asked DPD to begin studying new regulation that would incentivize green-building practices, such as green roofs," he says. "DPD has not gone down that path in any way."
Last year, as a last resort during the November 2004 budgeting season, Steinbrueck allocated $100,000 to DPD, giving DPD cash as an incentive--and as a legally binding mandate, by the way--to do the overdue work. But last week, DPD director Diane Sugimura told Steinbrueck the mayor and DPD were taking a "different approach" (i.e., they were not going to fulfill Steinbrueck's work request). So, he decided to take the money back. After Steinbrueck threatened to pull the money, DPD promptly sent him their list of to dos, and for the first time, it mentioned his agenda. "That only came after I forced the issue and threatened to take the money away," he says.
While DPD may have tweaked their agenda, Team Nickels did not take kindly to Steinbrueck's offensive. First, they told Steinbrueck that if he didn't table his bill, a DPD staffer would be fired. ["Nickels' Hostage Crisis," by Josh Feit, Feb 2.] "If Steinbrueck steals $100,000 from DPD, of course the department would have to lay someone off. What he does is eliminate [work toward] sustainable building practices," Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis told The Stranger, adding that "Mr. Steinbrueck is not the DPD director."
Sugimura adds: "If [Steinbrueck] wants to focus on his approach, he can do that with council money." Sugimura says the DPD does have a green-buildings agenda. "It's just a broader approach," than Steinbrueck's, she says. The approach includes: "demonstrate the business case for green building," "partner with local media to increase coverage of green building," "present an urban-sustainability speaker series," and, perhaps more substantively "develop urban sustainability guidelines" and "develop regulatory and/or permit-process incentives."
"It's not what I wanted," says Steinbrueck. "I want a stronger commitment to revise our land-use code. They're doing advocacy, but I want lasting, permanent regulatory incentives."
Steinbrueck says that judging from the downtown building-heights legislation the mayor sent to council, DPD is still ignoring his agenda. "We're talking about millions of square feet, but nothing promises there will be incentives to develop these new buildings with green principles."
Steinbrueck argues he's using the budget legislation as a hammer for accountability. "It's not a matter of my stealing money, it's a matter of honoring what they're legally obligated to do," Steinbrueck says. If green-building research would cease simply because he yanked $100,000 out of a $50 million budget, Steinbrueck points out, "that says there's a lack of commitment for this in the first place."
"Peter is saying, 'I control the budget and you're going to do this,'" Sugimura complains.
Steinbrueck smiles at that. Maybe she gets it. Under Steinbrueck's leadership, maybe the council will finally start to get it as well.
