Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn says ‘no back room deals’ for him

It’s common for politicians to cut backroom deals over
leisurely lunches with the rich and powerful, but Seattle
Mayor Mike McGinn says he’s not “a backroom guy.”

“In fact, some of those people that make backroom deals
don’t like me so much because I actually don’t sit down
and cut those deals,” McGinn says in an interview with
97.3 KIRO FM’s Dave Ross and guest host and restauranteur
Tom Douglas.

Douglas was wondering why he doesn’t see the mayor holding
long meetings during a meal in local restaurants like many
of his predecessors. But the mayor says along with style,
he simply doesn’t have time.

“My schedule tends to go so far that the opportunity for
that long discussion doesn’t happen. It tends to happen
in snippets.”

McGinn says his schedule is usually full from early
morning until late at night. He admits it makes it
challenging to build quality relationships.

“I actually had a lot more time for that before I was
mayor and I built relationships with a number of city
councilmembers then,” he says.

McGinn says being somewhat of an outsider also makes
it a challenge at time.

“One of the challenges for me is I kind of jumped the
line. I wasn’t a politician that spent a long time in the
system.” But he says he’s working hard to change that.

While he rarely has time to enjoy a lengthy lunch or
dinner with the powerbrokers, he says that’s actually a
good thing.

“There were a lot of things that are decided that way and
what happens is you end up with millions or hundreds of
millions of dollars going to causes that are decided by
kind of the big powerful people in town. And those people
that aren’t so big and powerful, they’re just trying to
figure out where can they get a little money for their
cause. That’s why people are marching in the streets.”