Ceis, Bayne, & East—the public-affairs consulting firm started by former deputy mayor Tim Ceis, former Nickels liaison to the city council Emilie East, and former county executive Ron Sims staffer Ryan Bayne—is lobbying for the Yellow Pages Association, the lobbying group for the phone-book industry, against city legislation that would crack down on unwanted phone book deliveries.

City council member Mike O'Brien has raised the prospect of legislation that would require citizens who want free phone books to "opt in" by calling the phone-book company and requesting a copy. The current system works the opposite way: People who don't want phone books have to "opt out" by telling phone-book companies to stop delivering them—and that system doesn't always work the way it's supposed to.

The council's public utilities and neighborhoods committee, of which O'Brien is chair, will discuss O'Brien's opt-in proposal next week, when lobbyists for the phone-book companies will be in town to pressure council members to adopt a less stringent alternative to O'Brien's proposal.