Viva La Cola!

Founded in January 2009, PubliCola is a blog about Seattle written by journalists who are dedicated to non-partisan, original daily reporting that prioritizes a balanced approach to news. Started by longtime local editor and award-winning reporter Josh Feit, PubliCola is the first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol.

PubliCola was off and running. In June 2009, PubliCola hired another award-winning journalist, super-sourced Seattle city hall reporter Erica C. Barnett.

People were afraid that blogging would change journalism. Instead, we believe journalism can change blogging. Twenty-first century journalism may look and feel different, and yes Erica isn't afraid to get cranky, but we're committed to making sure online news still delivers independent, reliable, even-keeled coverage. And most of all, we're committed to making sure the coverage sparks honest civic debate.

Bringing you cola for the people, PubliCola is named after Publius Valerius PubliCola, the alias for the authors of the Federalist Papers—the original bloggers.

x close
The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

McGinn to Meet With Advocates about Future of Housing Office

City Hall, News, Politics   February 8, 2010 at 5:14 pm Erica C. Barnett

In a letter earlier this month, City Council members Sally Clark and Nick Licata asked Mayor Mike McGinn to set up a formal selection committee to choose the replacements for the outgoing directors of the city’s Office of Housing, Adrienne Quinn, and Human Services Department, Alan Painter. (Painter was shown the door in December; Quinn announced her resignation last month.)

McGinn has announced several high-level appointments without doing any formal public process, including his transportation director,  budget director, chief of staff, and Office of Intergovernmental Relations director.

McGinn spokesman Mark Matassa wouldn’t say whether the mayor planned to convene a formal search committee, saying only that McGinn would be “meeting with housing advocates and providers and council members to talk about the larger question of how we provide housing.”

Nor would Matassa confirm or deny a persistent story among housing advocates that the mayor planned to consolidate the Office of Housing into another city department, such as Human Services, saying only that the upcoming meetings would provide a “10,000-foot flyover [view] of how we provide housing in the city.” Anna Markee, Seattle outreach director for the Housing Development Consortium, says McGinn’s office hasn’t talked to her organization about the future of OH, adding, “obviously, it’s a perennial concern.”


  • sunday

    Not to digress, but what about the superintendent of City Light? No word on that yet, huh?

  • sunday

    Not to digress, but what about the superintendent of City Light? No word on that yet, huh?

  • http://manywordsforrain.blogspot.com/ Mr. Baker

    No direct quote from the accessable mayor.

  • http://manywordsforrain.blogspot.com/ Mr. Baker

    No direct quote from the accessable mayor.

  • Cosmopolis

    So, Erica, did Matassa say when this meeting will happen?
    -
    It is my understanding that housing advocates fought long and hard to separate housing into its own department/office. And can anyone (other than John Fox) say that OH is dysfunctional or in need of restructuring? Seems that it is relatively bare bones as it is, yet with highly skilled, passionate people who have worked on affordable housing issues in many capacities (public and private) for years…would moving those functions into another department (and likely losing staff in the process) do more harm than good? Particularly when OH is now responsible for administering even more money with the renewed housing levy?

  • Cosmopolis

    So, Erica, did Matassa say when this meeting will happen?
    -
    It is my understanding that housing advocates fought long and hard to separate housing into its own department/office. And can anyone (other than John Fox) say that OH is dysfunctional or in need of restructuring? Seems that it is relatively bare bones as it is, yet with highly skilled, passionate people who have worked on affordable housing issues in many capacities (public and private) for years…would moving those functions into another department (and likely losing staff in the process) do more harm than good? Particularly when OH is now responsible for administering even more money with the renewed housing levy?

  • Queen City

    Given that the Office of Sustainability was not able to survive, the Future of Housing Office will no doubt remain vacant.

  • Queen City

    Given that the Office of Sustainability was not able to survive, the Future of Housing Office will no doubt remain vacant.

  • Michael W.

    I hope that McGinn & Co. don’t follow what’s becoming their standard playbook here and really listen to housing advocates. Not listening to the people who do the work in the trenches is never a good idea. I know he’s meeting with them. Let’s see if he listens…

  • Michael W.

    I hope that McGinn & Co. don’t follow what’s becoming their standard playbook here and really listen to housing advocates. Not listening to the people who do the work in the trenches is never a good idea. I know he’s meeting with them. Let’s see if he listens…

  • ella

    So when and where is the meeting?

  • giffy

    Did he run out of friends and cronies to hire?

  • mergers not acquisitions

    I expect that Office of Economic Development, Office of Housing, Human Services Department and Office of Sustainability and Environment will all be merged into other departments or into one of those listed here. All have lost their director or have an acting director.

  • LH

    mergers not acquisitions: i suspect you are right that this will be the proposal. Doing so will require a vote of the Council to amend the Seattle Municipal Code (SMC).

    SMC on OH:
    http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~scripts/nph-brs….
    SMC on HSD:
    http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~public/toc/3-20.htm

    SMC on OED:
    http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~scripts/nph-brs…..

    SMC on OSE:
    http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~scripts/nph-brs….

  • Adam

    McGinn has the right to appoint any director without consulting city council or anybody else. He was kind enough to oppoint search committee for the Health & human Service Director and the Police Cheif.
    We hope he will also appoint a search committee for the Office of Housing..
    In my opinion, This mayor has been fair and transparent up to now.

  • Brent

    Take all the cheap shots you want at the mayor. He's the first mayor I've seen in my lifetime who let a bad hire go when that bad hire proved to be unacceptably unsavory. The Nickels administration was full of unsavory hires who were allowed to stay.

    McGinn's the first mayor I've seen who has gone after management ahead of rank-and-file workers.

    He's the first mayor who has pointed out that the seawall is a dire public safety emergency. (So, the pot-shotters seem to have taken the position that, no, it isn't.)

    He is the first mayor who has made the rounds at the council offices with regularity. So, they are mad that they don't always get a heads up to pre-empt whatever he is going to say in public. As well they shouldn't. They haven't exactly behaved in a trustworthy manner of late.

    Who is protecting the public treasure? Mayor McGinn.

    Who is thumbing their noses at the public, and its will? The city council.