County Councilmember Lambert: "I was upstairs" with Commenters During Metro Meeting

Kathy Lambert is very nice and helpful. And was present at Tuesday's meeting.

Last night, I received an email from Kathy Lambert, one of the King County Councilmembers who I had initially labeled as "Missing in Action" from the public commentary regarding the $20 congestion reduction charge. It turns out, she was there. She just wasn't in the Council Chambers.

I was surprised to see that Kathy was not in the room at the meeting, as she has a fairly lengthy track record on transit issues, and tends to be fairly involved. Here is the email she sent, which clarifies a few important matters. Bolds are mine:

I was upstairs with the people there and also listening on the speaker in my office as well as down on the dias during part of the testimony. There were people all over the 12th floor, and viewing on various televisions.

In addition this is a committee meeting NOT a council meeting. So only members of the committee attend usually. Then the issue comes from each committee to the council as a whole. So there were several marked as Missing in Action who were not committee members and one (me) who was there that is also not on the committee. I do attend most of the TREE meetings as the topics impact my district greatly. But it is not a committee I am assigned to.

...I did get several angry calls today but then some people were gracious enough to call back later when they saw the paper or heard from others who saw me there that I was indeed there.

This is a very important topic, and we have all had lots of input. These are all difficult decisions and we appreciate all who testified in person, in writing, by email or by phone.

I very much appreciate Kathy taking the time to clear this up--to be honest, it's the exact response I was hoping for from the members who were not in chambers during the meeting. Thanks, Kathy. You've immediately endeared yourself to me and, surely, to many voters.

Where were the rest of the members of council? Did they just not anticipate the number of attendees to the downtown meeting?

We await their responses, and will continue to press them on the importance of the issue.