Mayor Jenny Durkan should start doing her job for Seattle

Seattle’s Jenny Durkan is a failed mayor.

She failed when she appointed a corrupt, illegal lobbyist with zero experience in governing anything. The same person who ran the Transportation Choices Coalition — which launders political donations for the criminal conspiracy called Sound Transit. Durkan hired this lobbyist to be her “junior” deputy mayor.

Jenny Durkan failed when she hired a man who oversaw the degradation of King County operations and infrastructure as her deputy mayor. The same man who was in charge during the largest spillage of raw sewage into Puget Sound in recent memory.

“Mayor Jenny” — as she prefers to be called on Twitter — failed when, having accomplished nothing as mayor, she sprinted to MSNBC to kiss-up to fellow sexist, Rachael Maddow.

But, Mayor Jenny pretends she is in a position to tell Donald Trump to “Do his job.” Here’s Mayor Jenny’s tweet:

.@realDonaldTrump Do. Your. Job. Target real threats, not those who disagree with you. https://t.co/WijXMlGfmW

— Mayor Jenny Durkan (@MayorJenny) January 17, 2018

Mayor Jenny isn’t being brave. There is no risk to her mouthing off when she has done literally nothing to help Seattle. Mayor Jenny is being a coward. She cannot face her job, so she distracts.

Mayor Durkan can do something in five minutes

Here’s the good news for Jenny Durkan: in five minutes she can do more in her job as mayor then she has done in weeks. Danny Westneat gives her the perfect opportunity. He tells the story of a Seattle resident who is going through hell because of a bureaucracy. Mayor Jenny can reign in that bureaucracy right now and another — WSDOT — she can influence.

You should read Westneat’s column. Here is a taste: a man named Phillip Corsano had his Jaguar taken against his will. Now, the city and state refuse to stop charging him money with tickets even though they know and acknowledge he does not own the car.

It all started last summer, when Corsano, a ship’s mate who contracts with the Navy, got word when he was working in Wales that his Jag had been towed from the street outside his Seattle home. It had been tagged for parking for more than 72 hours.

Long story short: Because he was out of the country, he couldn’t get the car back. He says he signed power-of-attorney to a relative who went to the tow yard, but the towing company refused to release the car. The company, Lincoln Towing, has told the Attorney General’s Office that Corsano called from Wales and explained his predicament, but nobody ever came.

But here’s where it really gets weird. When Corsano got back to the states, his lost car began communicating to him. First it was in the form of toll bills, for crossing the 520 bridge. Then, a parking ticket. When he called the state’s tolling office and Seattle’s municipal court to tell them it wasn’t his car anymore, their answer was, effectively, “tough.”

Jenny Durkan: Do. Your. Job

You are the Mayor, not the Trump-criticizer. Pick up a phone, call the city parking department and tell them to withdraw all charges against Corsano. Do it now. Then, call your contacts as WSDOT and fix this. Do it now. This is called being mayor, Jenny. That’s what is on your business card. Not mouther-offer. Not queen of the resistance. Not TV talking head. It’s mayor. So do some “mayoring.”

In other words, Mayor Jenny, treat this employed, taxpaying man who contracts with the Navy with 1 percent of the so-called compassion you treat the sex trafficking meth cookers living in derelict RVs throughout Seattle who park for years at a time without a ticket.