Morning Fizz
"The Best Hearing Ever"
Caffeinated News & Gossip. Your daily Morning Fizz
1. John Wyble, the consultant who had been working for candidate Nick Cail in the crowded race for the Seattle state house seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-36, Ballard) confirms he plans to work for 36th District candidate Sahar Fathi, a legislative aide to Mike O'Brien. (Cail announced yesterday afternoon that he's dropping out of the race.)
Wyble, who Fizz noted yesterday morning may be signing on with Fathi, says he will help Fathi "in some supporting role that's still being worked out." Fathi also has hired a consultant, Chase Gallagher.
2. First Congressional District Democratic candidate Suzan DelBene, the techie entrepreneur (and recent former director of the Washington State Department of Revenue), says her first quarter fundraising report (due in mid-April) shows she raised $341,000 since jumping into the race in mid January. (She also has $318,000 cash on hand, which includes money from her 2010 Congressional run against Republican incumbent US Rep. Dave Reichert). The $341,000, though, her campaign says, does not include any money raised last time. Nor does her recent take include any of her own money, they say. DelBene downloaded $2.3 million of her own money into her unsuccessful 2010 bid.
Here's our roundup of the fundraising in the crowded race as it stood after the last reports (DelBene had not joined the fray yet): Former Democratic state rep Laura Ruderman was out in front having raised $260,000 with $187,000 cash on hand. Darcy Burner, the best-known Democrat in the race, reported $127,000 with $89,000 cash on hand at the time.
As of the last report, the lone Republican in the race, Snohomish County Council member John Koster, had raised $248,00 with $113,000 cash on hand.[pullquote]Democrat Suzan DelBene has raised $341,000 since jumping into the 1st Congressional District race in mid January, her campaign says.[/pullquote]
3. In what city council member Richard Conlin called "the best hearing ever," dozens of Seattle residents lined up at two city council podiums to encourage the council to put a $123 million, seven-year library levy on the August ballot. Over the past few years, the city has cut library hours drastically, reduced the number of reference staff, cut funding for collections, reduced funding to keep its technology and computers current, and cut thousands of hours of free Internet service.
Residents who spoke in favor of the levy ranged in age from very young (Ben St. John, a sweater-vested, tousle-headed boy who looked about five and said he "loves" the library) to the very old (self-proclaimed nonagenarian Daniel Blum, who said access to the library "gives us the opportunity, at our advanced age, to keep morst of our marbles."
One woman read a reworked version of "See Dick Run," in which Jane encouraged Dick to lobby the city council to pass the library levy. Another woman, who was blind, emphasized the importance of the library's accessibility resources for the disabled. The only (mildly) negative remarks had to do with issues like accountability (longtime local gadfly Chris Leman said the city should put more controls in place to make sure the levy funds are well spent) and the length of the levy (one speaker argued that the city should try to phase it out over time as the economy improves).
As he left to go to another meeting around 6:40, council member Tim Burgess remarked, "I wish all of our public hearings were like this. ... I don't think we'll have any trouble with our decision, but you all need to go talk to your friends and your neighbors to make sure they do the right thing in August.
Among other improvements, the levy would allow the city to restore Sunday hours at all 26 library branches (currently, 15 branches operate just 35 hours, and five days, a week); eliminate the annual weeklong shutdown of the entire library system; restore on-site reference staff at the eight branches that lost it two years ago; restore 1,600 hours of weekly Internet access systemwide; and upgrade the library's computers and other technology.
Without the levy, the city will have to cut another $5 million next year from the library system's $49 million budget. On top of a potential citywide bonding measure to fund the downtown seawall, voters in Seattle could be asked to vote on a $200 million levy to replace the crumbling King County Youth Services Center in November.
The council's library committee is expected to vote on the levy on April 9.
4. Meanwhile, the Arena Review Panel that's evaluating the $500 million NBA/NHL stadium proposal, is meeting this afternoon in the wake of the news that the Seattle Mariners and the Port of Seattle don't like the plan because of traffic concerns.
Erica raised these same question at the first press conference on the deal in mid-February, asking King County Executive Dow Constantine about traffic and mitigation concerns.
It looks like the Mariners and the Port researched these questions themselves and aren't as sanguine as Constantine. The Seattle Times reports:
5. The city pilot project that has provided free wi-fi to residents of Columbia City and the University District and visitors to downtown parks will end after five years at the end of April, city chief technology officer Bill Schrier confirms.
Schrier says the wi-fi equipment has reached the end of its useful life and would need to be replaced at a cost of about $100,000, and that, given the still-tenuous state of Seattle's budget, "this was not deemed a prudent expenditure."
The city does provide free wi-fi at libraries and community centers, Schrier said. The free service will shut down April 29.
1. John Wyble, the consultant who had been working for candidate Nick Cail in the crowded race for the Seattle state house seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-36, Ballard) confirms he plans to work for 36th District candidate Sahar Fathi, a legislative aide to Mike O'Brien. (Cail announced yesterday afternoon that he's dropping out of the race.)
Wyble, who Fizz noted yesterday morning may be signing on with Fathi, says he will help Fathi "in some supporting role that's still being worked out." Fathi also has hired a consultant, Chase Gallagher.
2. First Congressional District Democratic candidate Suzan DelBene, the techie entrepreneur (and recent former director of the Washington State Department of Revenue), says her first quarter fundraising report (due in mid-April) shows she raised $341,000 since jumping into the race in mid January. (She also has $318,000 cash on hand, which includes money from her 2010 Congressional run against Republican incumbent US Rep. Dave Reichert). The $341,000, though, her campaign says, does not include any money raised last time. Nor does her recent take include any of her own money, they say. DelBene downloaded $2.3 million of her own money into her unsuccessful 2010 bid.
Here's our roundup of the fundraising in the crowded race as it stood after the last reports (DelBene had not joined the fray yet): Former Democratic state rep Laura Ruderman was out in front having raised $260,000 with $187,000 cash on hand. Darcy Burner, the best-known Democrat in the race, reported $127,000 with $89,000 cash on hand at the time.
As of the last report, the lone Republican in the race, Snohomish County Council member John Koster, had raised $248,00 with $113,000 cash on hand.[pullquote]Democrat Suzan DelBene has raised $341,000 since jumping into the 1st Congressional District race in mid January, her campaign says.[/pullquote]
3. In what city council member Richard Conlin called "the best hearing ever," dozens of Seattle residents lined up at two city council podiums to encourage the council to put a $123 million, seven-year library levy on the August ballot. Over the past few years, the city has cut library hours drastically, reduced the number of reference staff, cut funding for collections, reduced funding to keep its technology and computers current, and cut thousands of hours of free Internet service.
Residents who spoke in favor of the levy ranged in age from very young (Ben St. John, a sweater-vested, tousle-headed boy who looked about five and said he "loves" the library) to the very old (self-proclaimed nonagenarian Daniel Blum, who said access to the library "gives us the opportunity, at our advanced age, to keep morst of our marbles."
One woman read a reworked version of "See Dick Run," in which Jane encouraged Dick to lobby the city council to pass the library levy. Another woman, who was blind, emphasized the importance of the library's accessibility resources for the disabled. The only (mildly) negative remarks had to do with issues like accountability (longtime local gadfly Chris Leman said the city should put more controls in place to make sure the levy funds are well spent) and the length of the levy (one speaker argued that the city should try to phase it out over time as the economy improves).
As he left to go to another meeting around 6:40, council member Tim Burgess remarked, "I wish all of our public hearings were like this. ... I don't think we'll have any trouble with our decision, but you all need to go talk to your friends and your neighbors to make sure they do the right thing in August.
Among other improvements, the levy would allow the city to restore Sunday hours at all 26 library branches (currently, 15 branches operate just 35 hours, and five days, a week); eliminate the annual weeklong shutdown of the entire library system; restore on-site reference staff at the eight branches that lost it two years ago; restore 1,600 hours of weekly Internet access systemwide; and upgrade the library's computers and other technology.
Without the levy, the city will have to cut another $5 million next year from the library system's $49 million budget. On top of a potential citywide bonding measure to fund the downtown seawall, voters in Seattle could be asked to vote on a $200 million levy to replace the crumbling King County Youth Services Center in November.
The council's library committee is expected to vote on the levy on April 9.
4. Meanwhile, the Arena Review Panel that's evaluating the $500 million NBA/NHL stadium proposal, is meeting this afternoon in the wake of the news that the Seattle Mariners and the Port of Seattle don't like the plan because of traffic concerns.
Erica raised these same question at the first press conference on the deal in mid-February, asking King County Executive Dow Constantine about traffic and mitigation concerns.
Asked what impact stadium construction would have on industrial uses in SoDo and on traffic in the area while tunnel construction is also going on nearby, Constantine said King County Metro already plans to add transit service, as well as a new overpass, to mitigate construction impacts.
It looks like the Mariners and the Port researched these questions themselves and aren't as sanguine as Constantine. The Seattle Times reports:
"The proposed Sodo location, in our view, simply does not work," wrote team Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard Lincoln, in a letter Tuesday to Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, King County Executive Dow Constantine and members of the Seattle and King County councils. "It would bring scheduling, traffic and parking challenges that would likely require hundreds of millions of dollars to mitigate."
The letter comes a day after the Port of Seattle wrote a similar letter to the city's Arena Advisory Panel studying the proposal. In that letter, Seaport Managing Director Linda Styrk warned of negative impacts on Port operations, potentially jeopardizing thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in maritime business revenue.
"Based on the information provided so far, this project may put those jobs and economic benefits at serious risk without significant mitigation," she wrote.
Lincoln says the Mariners in general support bringing in NBA and NHL teams, but he suggests that city and county officials look at alternate locations in Bellevue, Renton, Seattle Center and South Lake Union. He said a single investor should not be allowed to determine the site.
5. The city pilot project that has provided free wi-fi to residents of Columbia City and the University District and visitors to downtown parks will end after five years at the end of April, city chief technology officer Bill Schrier confirms.
Schrier says the wi-fi equipment has reached the end of its useful life and would need to be replaced at a cost of about $100,000, and that, given the still-tenuous state of Seattle's budget, "this was not deemed a prudent expenditure."
The city does provide free wi-fi at libraries and community centers, Schrier said. The free service will shut down April 29.
