Morning Fizz
As If There is Some Dark Secret
1. Last night's "town hall" meeting to discuss the firing of popular Cascade Bicycle Coalition director Chuck Ayers, held at the Mountaineers' headquarters in Magnuson Park, lacked the fireworks of Cascade's wild October board meeting at REI
in Eastlake, but it did reveal that members remain deeply unhappy with the board's decision to get rid of the popular director---even those who don't support a controversial move to recall the entire board.
Almost to a person, those who spoke last night criticized or questioned the board's decision to fire Ayers, a move that few of the group's 13,000 members anticipated. Ayers was reportedly fired in part because he refused to fire controversial Cascade lobbyist David Hiller, whose off-the-cuff remarks and sometimes-abrasive style have gotten him in trouble in the past.
"As members, we don't know why you did it," said Michael Snyder, a longtime Cascade member who helped found the web site Seattle Likes Bikes. "There's talk about [Ayers'] performance being a factor---can you at least tell us what criteria he was evaluated on?"
Board chair Chris Weiss responded that Ayers asked the board to keep the reasons he was fired private; however, Cascade finance director Cathy Mania read a letter from Ayers, who opted out of the meeting to attend his daughter's sports event, saying that Ayers "dislike[d] the way the board has constantly [portrayed his firing] as if there is some dark secret in the closet. I know of no gross impropriety or financial mismanagement that is itself a firing offense."
In response, board member Peter Morgan emphasized that Ayers wasn't fired because of financial impropriety. And board member Peter Morgan acknowledged that "in future iterations of the board and in evaluations of future executive directors, there are things we could do differently. … There's a lot of work to be done and I wish future boards much more success."
2. Transportation Choices Coalition, the premiere transit advocacy group in Olympia, has hired a new state policy director (i.e., lobbyist)—Carrie Dolwick. Most recently, Dolwick was the the legislative director at Seattle's lefty chapter of the Sierra Club and before that she was the Olympia lobbyist for the Northwest Energy Coalition, an environmental group that pushed alternative energy.
3. Yesterday, Fizz reported that U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell had hired a new state director (a sign that she's already gearing up for her reelection campaign in 2012.)
In a sign that the GOP is gearing up too, the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out an angry press release yesterday attacking Cantwell for "desperate political posturing" for voting against an "extreme, job killing" measure (an IRS filing requirement as part of the health care bill), which Cantwell had supported when she voted for the health care reform.
Cantwell's office had no response to the GOP attack.
President Obama and the Democrats were happy to tweak the IRS requirement that small businesses said was a pain in the ass, taking away an issue the GOP had glommed onto as a talking point for repealing the whole bill.
4. Gov. Chris Gregoire has called on R.J. Reynolds to yank images of Pike Place Market and Mt. Rainier from a new series of special edition Camel cigarettes that feature iconic shots of trendy cities like Seattle, Brooklyn, and Austin to snare young people.
Saying the images are being "coopted to sell a product that is responsible for killing about 7,500 people in our state every year" Gregoire, who rose to fame as the Attorney General who led the successful lawsuit against big tobacco, called on R.J. Reynolds, "to halt their cynical campaign and not use our local landmarks for their gain."
Almost to a person, those who spoke last night criticized or questioned the board's decision to fire Ayers, a move that few of the group's 13,000 members anticipated. Ayers was reportedly fired in part because he refused to fire controversial Cascade lobbyist David Hiller, whose off-the-cuff remarks and sometimes-abrasive style have gotten him in trouble in the past.
"As members, we don't know why you did it," said Michael Snyder, a longtime Cascade member who helped found the web site Seattle Likes Bikes. "There's talk about [Ayers'] performance being a factor---can you at least tell us what criteria he was evaluated on?"
Board chair Chris Weiss responded that Ayers asked the board to keep the reasons he was fired private; however, Cascade finance director Cathy Mania read a letter from Ayers, who opted out of the meeting to attend his daughter's sports event, saying that Ayers "dislike[d] the way the board has constantly [portrayed his firing] as if there is some dark secret in the closet. I know of no gross impropriety or financial mismanagement that is itself a firing offense."
In response, board member Peter Morgan emphasized that Ayers wasn't fired because of financial impropriety. And board member Peter Morgan acknowledged that "in future iterations of the board and in evaluations of future executive directors, there are things we could do differently. … There's a lot of work to be done and I wish future boards much more success."
2. Transportation Choices Coalition, the premiere transit advocacy group in Olympia, has hired a new state policy director (i.e., lobbyist)—Carrie Dolwick. Most recently, Dolwick was the the legislative director at Seattle's lefty chapter of the Sierra Club and before that she was the Olympia lobbyist for the Northwest Energy Coalition, an environmental group that pushed alternative energy.
3. Yesterday, Fizz reported that U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell had hired a new state director (a sign that she's already gearing up for her reelection campaign in 2012.)
In a sign that the GOP is gearing up too, the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out an angry press release yesterday attacking Cantwell for "desperate political posturing" for voting against an "extreme, job killing" measure (an IRS filing requirement as part of the health care bill), which Cantwell had supported when she voted for the health care reform.
Cantwell's office had no response to the GOP attack.
President Obama and the Democrats were happy to tweak the IRS requirement that small businesses said was a pain in the ass, taking away an issue the GOP had glommed onto as a talking point for repealing the whole bill.
4. Gov. Chris Gregoire has called on R.J. Reynolds to yank images of Pike Place Market and Mt. Rainier from a new series of special edition Camel cigarettes that feature iconic shots of trendy cities like Seattle, Brooklyn, and Austin to snare young people.
Saying the images are being "coopted to sell a product that is responsible for killing about 7,500 people in our state every year" Gregoire, who rose to fame as the Attorney General who led the successful lawsuit against big tobacco, called on R.J. Reynolds, "to halt their cynical campaign and not use our local landmarks for their gain."
