1. Bill LaBorde—former lobbyist for the Transportation Choices Coalition and, more recently, aide extroardinare to city council member Tom Rasmussen—is leaving the city council for a policy job at the Seattle Department of Transportation.

The timing is potentially fortuitous, since the council is about to be carved up into geographic districts, and Rasmussen, if he runs again, is sure to be challenged from his base in West Seattle. Although congratulations are certainly in order, we're bummed to see Bill leave the second floor of city hall, as he's long been a smart, thoughtful voice (in the background, of course) on transportation and many other issues.

2. As the council adjusts to the brave new world of district elections (all nine council members will have to run for reelection or retire in 2015), it's possible that Rasmussen, along with several of his colleagues, will lose or step down. (Rasmussen represents West Seattle, where a new group has already formed to decide who should run in two years). 

Rasmussen reportedly wants to keep his current gig as head of the transportation committee, which his colleague Mike O'Brien is reportedly itching to chair. Conlin's departure, if it happens, will leave a vacancy at the head of the land use committee. It seems unlikely Sawant will be given such a high-profile assignment in her first term in office; more likely, she'll end up heading either the Seattle Public Utilities committee (a common assignment for first-year council members) or the City Light committee; either way, it would be interesting to see Seattle's first socialist council member in charge of what amounts to one of the city's largest corporations. 

No votes were counted yesterday because of the Veterans Day holiday; the next vote drop is today at 4:30. 

3. The woman who contributed so much to the district elections campaign that the city required her to include her own name in the campaign name itself, Faye Garneau, gave another $32,965 last week, bringing the North Seattle businesswoman's total contribution to more than $265,000 (so far). Garneau's lavish spending paid for mailers that blanketed the city as well as print and online ads. 

4. Another implication of districts could be that districted council members have to open district offices. Another question about districts is whether council office budgets should stay the same, given that districted council members will be representing one-seventh of their former constituencies. 

5. In other city hall staffing news, up on the seventh floor, mayor-elect Ed Murray has appointed longtime state Senate Democratic Caucus deputy chief of staff Jeff Reading as the spokesman for his transition team; in an email announcement, Reading said he would be going half-time at the state to assist his former boss (Murray was head of the senate Democrats), but didn't indicate whether he planned to come to the city full-time in the future.

Murray also unveiled his transition web site yesterday.