Okay, so we had our election for mayor last November and we elected the guy who rides his bike to work, is against building the bus tunnel to replace the crumbling Alaskan Way Viaduct, and like all politicians, is going to fix the budget shortfall - Mayor Mike McGinn.
*UPDATE*
I just heard (from somebody who knows) that it seems that the Mayor, in his knowledge of what department does what, has decided to take the department of Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) and make it responsible for city-wide internet service, a campaign promise that he ran on. But SPU is the city's water, sewage, and recycling department. Why would you give that responsibility to SPU? Wouldn't you think that would be assigned to another department? Say, City Light? A department who would probably have some knowledge about these things?
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In the primary election we narrowly voted Mayor McCheese Nickles out of the general - it seems mostly because of the hell that he took due to the giant snow storm: the "One In Every Hundred Years Snow Storm." (As if it was his fault.) And then there was a small sliver of people who voted against him because of his cave in on fighting for keeping the Seattle Sonics in town leading to a $30 million loss for the city. (Which I admit pissed me off. The monetary loss is more complicated than I'm letting on, but that's a topic for another time.)
But everybody seemed to have been enamored with Mayor McGinn with his liberal stance on many issues. I'm enamored with liberal issues, but there is a difference between espousing them and actually governing; from being able to talk a good game and working with the city government and and departments to get things done.
One of the first things Mayor Magoo McGinn spoke of was cutting the city budget since there is a $72 million shortfall. How did he propose to take care of part of it? Eliminate or reclassify in order to reach the 200 senior-level positions he wants to cut.
But, as one of the people that commented on this blog (from Publicola) this guy has it all bass-ackwards. It seems that he just went willy-nilly and said 'we'll cut x number from this department, and y from this department.' Of all the people I know working for the city - and that's quite a few ( a few of whom voted for McGinn) - they are all confused. They can't comprehend where his numbers come from.
Anyone with half a brain knows that a) you find those projects you feel can be eliminated or put on hold, work on that and that will automatically lead to b) the release of those management positions that are not needed.
Then Magoo McGinn goes and hires Chris Bushnell as a policy advisor, starting at $110,000 a year.
Bushnell has a somewhat controversial history. In 1995, he was convicted of bank fraud and possession and utterance of counterfeit securities after he and a friend forged nearly $38,000 in money orders between 1992 and 1994; acting alone, Bushnell circulated another $55,000 in counterfeit money orders.
As a chief economic forecaster for King County, he spent one week a month for about a year and a half telecommuting to his county job from Hawaii, where his wife was in school. After leaving that position in 2008, Bushnell presented a controversial report asserting that [King] county’s budget shortfall was the result of overspending. That report made him numerous enemies at the county, where conventional wisdom has held structural problems for the shortfall.
And you'd think you'd want to involve the city council in some of the main decisions he puts forth. Like the seawall proposal?
Cary Moon, head of the anti-tunnel People’s Waterfront Coalition and one of Mayor Mike McGinn’s “ambassadors” (informal citizen advisors) after last year’s election, says she’s disappointed in his decision to move forward quickly with a measure to replace the seawall without involving the city council or coming up with a comprehensive plan for the downtown waterfront.
“I think he didn’t do enough research before proposing it,” Moon says. “You can’t just say, ‘trust me,’ you have to show them.”
It's not wonderful thing to think about. But Mayor McGinn has shown that he has no idea what he's doing. I tried to give him a bit of a head start but he's already proved himself incompetent.
People figured that voting for the novice would prove better than voting for the vice-president of T-Mobile (also a political novice, somewhat liberal, but with some sort of knowledge of managerial experience).
Liberalism is a wonderful thing. But even the most liberal in politics, who are worth their weight in salt, know how to manage things. (read Barney Frank, Dennis Kucinich)
Sometimes managers and bus tunnels trump bike riders.
Sometimes we here in Seattle are too liberal for our own good.