DORI MONSON

Why are Seattle city councilmembers jumping ship?

Jan 26, 2015, 1:12 PM | Updated: 2:27 pm

Longtime Seattle City Councilmembers Tom Rasmussen and Nick Licata have announced they won’t ...

Longtime Seattle City Councilmembers Tom Rasmussen and Nick Licata have announced they won't seek reelection. (Seattle City Council images)

(Seattle City Council images)

Taken from KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show.

We’ve got some turmoil on the Seattle City Council.
A couple of longtime members of the city council have announced they are not going to seek reelection.

Councilmember Nick Licata announced last week he will not be seeking another term.

“I’ll remain an active citizen, continuing to work with those – both outside and inside government to make Seattle, as always, a better place to live and work,” said Licata in a release about his announcement.

Licata was followed by Tom Rasmussen, who announced that after 25 years at City Hall, he also won’t be seeking reelection.

“This wasn’t an easy decision but, it is the right one,” said Rasmussen. “It is now time to direct my efforts toward the same causes I have always been most passionate about — in exciting new ways.”

Why are these Seattle city councilmembers walking away?

The word that I am getting from some of my insiders is: the Seattle tunnel.

A lot of these guys are getting away from the job because they know the tunnel is going to become even more disastrous and nobody wants to be associated with what is coming with billions in overruns and a disastrous project.

Related: WSDOT comes under fire for report warning of ‘catastrophic failure’ with Bertha repair pit

I think they are jumping ship to protect whatever they want to do down the road. The tunnel is going to bury a lot of politicians who’ve been associated with it, along with Bertha, when this thing doesn’t get done.

There’s also word another factor may be at play. I’ve heard these guys are distancing themselves from the disaster that is the Seattle tunnel project and also Socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant.

According to what I’ve heard, nobody can stand working with her. It sounds like it is just a disaster sitting in meetings with her. She is so much about self-promotion.

I don’t agree with Nick Licata politically, but I like the guy. I also believe that even though I think Licata is wrong on a lot of issues, I think he’s very sincere in his beliefs.

These people who are there to actually do the job, they have had it with Sawant, who is all about self-promotion and doesn’t really care about the issues that she’s out there promoting. She is just trying to grow her career.

Related: Is it OK for Kshama Sawant to deliver Socialist message on city dime?

Taken from KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show.

JS

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