City Hall
State Disputes McGinn's Version of Events on Tunnel Flap
At the end of today's press conference on a new poll about the deep-bore tunnel, Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) tunnel outreach director Ron Judd disputed Mayor Mike McGinn's claim that Judd had put pressure on city council president Richard Conlin to sign a supplemental draft environmental impact statement (SDEIS) for the deep-bore tunnel. (Conlin signed the document after Mayor Mike McGinn said he wanted an additional week, beyond WSDOT's deadline, to review the document).
"Absolutely not," Judd said, after pantomiming an arm-wrestling match between him and Conlin.
"I did have communication because Richard and I had a scheduled meeting at 9:00 that morning on a different issue and I knew he was going to ask me, was the mayor going to sign?" Judd said. "When I told Richard that Peter was talking to the mayor's office about [giving him] more time, he immediately said, 'I'll get back to you.'" But there was no coercion, he said.
Judd and viaduct project manager Ron Paananen also said that McGinn and other city officials had had months to review the environmental report, contrary to the mayor's contention that he hadn't had any time to review the document.
"The document did not magically appear at the city one day and we asked for a signature," Paananen said. "This document was produced over months and months. They knew what our schedule was, they knew when we wanted the document signed, and all indications were, until several days before the signature was due---"
"Until the night before," Judd interjected.
"I'm giving them a little leeway," Paananen continued. "There there was no surprise in terms of what our schedule was."
Judd said the city's department of transportation (SDOT) officially recommended that Hahn sign the document. "The recommendation, from the mayor's own technical team and SDOT, was, sign the document." Mayoral spokesman Aaron Pickus disputes this, saying, "There was no recommendation because we thought we had another week to review the document."
"Absolutely not," Judd said, after pantomiming an arm-wrestling match between him and Conlin.
"I did have communication because Richard and I had a scheduled meeting at 9:00 that morning on a different issue and I knew he was going to ask me, was the mayor going to sign?" Judd said. "When I told Richard that Peter was talking to the mayor's office about [giving him] more time, he immediately said, 'I'll get back to you.'" But there was no coercion, he said.
Judd and viaduct project manager Ron Paananen also said that McGinn and other city officials had had months to review the environmental report, contrary to the mayor's contention that he hadn't had any time to review the document.
"The document did not magically appear at the city one day and we asked for a signature," Paananen said. "This document was produced over months and months. They knew what our schedule was, they knew when we wanted the document signed, and all indications were, until several days before the signature was due---"
"Until the night before," Judd interjected.
"I'm giving them a little leeway," Paananen continued. "There there was no surprise in terms of what our schedule was."
Judd said the city's department of transportation (SDOT) officially recommended that Hahn sign the document. "The recommendation, from the mayor's own technical team and SDOT, was, sign the document." Mayoral spokesman Aaron Pickus disputes this, saying, "There was no recommendation because we thought we had another week to review the document."
