Doins a Transpiring at City Hall
Lost in the excitement over the Seattle City Council's big week was the Seahawks first trip to the Super Bowl. However, it's not like you can blame Seattleites for ignoring this triumph of footballity, not only have the candidates for Jim Compton's vacated seat been whittled down from twelve to six, but the race for council president took a surprising turn yesterday when Richard Conlin withdrew his name and Nick Licata was declared the winner.
The council, the body in charge of deciding which projects the city can't do, has been running without a president and ninth member for weeks now-- and no one in this city could talk about anything else.
Back in December, Conlin looked like he had the title of president all wrapped up with five votes to Jean Godden's four. He even had a press release…released. But lo and behold Compton decided that he didn't want to be on the council anymore and took off for Alaska to live with wolves, taking with him Conlin's fifth vote.
This left Conlin and Godden tied, with neither side budging. Meaning that the deciding vote would have fallen to who ever was appointed to Compton's seat. Could a vote to the council been exchanged for a council president vote (Dun-Dun-Dun)? We will never know because yesterday Conlin withdrew his name from consideration and right wing nut job Nick Licata emerged as a compromise candidate, winning the vote unanimously.
The council has also named their six finalists to the empty seat, and you won't find a wee-wee among them. Stella Chao, Sally Clark, Venerria Knox, Sharon Maeda, Dolores Sibonga, and Venus Velazquez will now be voted on by the council until someone reaches five votes.
Busy times at City Hall. Now maybe the city can get back to doing what it has been doing for years—caring about the Seahawks.
