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Down To Earth

Chris Gregoire vs. Mike McGinn

I find it ironic Gov. Chris Gregoire doesn’t speak to Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn because he “demeaned the office of Mayor.” The Seattle PI reported she hasn’t spoken to McGinn in nearly two months and that when she has to discuss Seattle issues, she contacts City Council President Richard Conlin. This all started because he said he couldn’t trust Olympia or Gregoire when it came to the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

(Still from freaky WSDOT simulation. Watch video here.)

"It's too bad that he demeaned the office of the mayor. I don't think that's mayoral. This isn't personal with me. I respect anybody who disagrees with the tunnel. I can understand, and I can respect it, but you don't personalize it. And those of us in elected office don't personalize. I will not lower the office of the governor and personalize anything like that," Gregoire told seattlepi.com.

"I don't have any more meetings scheduled," she said. And then added that she now speaks to Conlin. "How do you work with someone who said they can't trust you?"

Not necessarily the Governor.

In December 2009, I posted about a fiery video simulation WSDOT released of the viaduct collapsing in an earthquake timed along with the mayor's race because there was a public records request - all this, even after the state didn’t release it to the citizen who filed the public records request. Simply put, the state didn’t want McGinn and an ethics complaint followed.

Coupled with Gregoire saying the state would allow $190 million in funding for bus service along with the tunnel but then vetoed the bus funding and when WSDOT told the City Of Seattle all three bidders were on board but one had backed out. At the time, McGinn commented "It is not a good sign for a productive partnership. WSDOT was not been straight with us on this issue."

So...whose office is demeaned?



Down To Earth

The DTE blog is committed to reporting and sharing environmental news and sustainability information from across the Inland Northwest.