Budget Director to Leave City

It's a tremendous loss for the city, and the mayor, who needs as many experienced hands on the bridge as possible – especially during this time of financial crisis.

Not that this is one, but this was shaping up to be a relatively scandal-free week, what with Haugen-Bushnell no longer pulling the strings.

Sad.

I'm continually impressed by how Constantine is operating, as he forms his new administration and goes about attending to the county's business. He's putting together a team comprised of excellent, experienced people — the same people who have been unceremoniously crapped on by McGinn and his posse.

The contrast in styles and policies between the county and city executives could not be starker.

Kudos to Dow for rewarding excellence and showing that he cares about the county's citizens.

Glad to be able to start this off. Just followed a link this 11/12/09 Crosscut article by Kent Kammerer:
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“One exception to the normal political tides is Dwight Dively, head of the Department of Finance and therefore the budget czar at City Hall. Dively has survived a number of mayors, since he is considered by many the best and the brightest director of finance in the whole country. Mayor McGinn, very new to the ways of City Hall, would be a flaming idiot to send him packing. While Dively can only advise the mayor and City Council on fiscal matters, he can’t prevent them from making stupid decisions. But his advice has kept Seattle from some of the more horrendous financial collapses experienced by other cities. The truth is they can’t get along without him.”
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Thanks to Douglas Tooley for linking to this article on his blog.

this is very bad news for the City. Dwight is smart as hell and no nonsense.

Seriously. When I watched him slaughter the evil Hutchison in the election, I just wished he was running for Mayor, instead of the two hacks.

Another brilliant move by Dow. Another boneheaded move by McGinn.

This is an incredible loss for the City. Dwight Dively is widely respected as one of the very brightest finance/budget Directors in the country. The loss of his institutional knowledge and brainpower at the City will be felt for many years to come. This is a real coup for the County…Dow is certainly proving to be a savy leader.

Dont' forget, Sung Yang decamped to the County, too.

Lucky KC. McGinn's pushing out Dively is a similar ego-driven move to Nickels' pushing out Diers in his first days. A big loss to the city.

Wow – huge loss. Dively for Goldberg is Bavasi on the McGinn team?

much bigger issue than firing the department of neighborhoods director. The Budget Director oversees the entire city budget, not just a department of 50. He is accountable to the mayor for the financial well-being of the city and holds the fate of the city's bond rating in his hands. Just a tad different.

This is really scary. I think the city is actually going to slide into Elliott Bay now or crumble or catch on fire. yikes! Dwight has been holding the city's finances together for a long time.

Let's see — County budget under Goldberg is in shambles. City budget under Dively is in relatively good shape given the national and regional economic situation. Wow, Mayor McGinn, great trade.

Dow should just take over being Mayor too. Really.

Dwight is a brilliant Budget Director. He is also, by the way a fabulous professor – has anyone ever taken one of his classes at the UW? He is smart, engaging, funny, fabulous, and he is a great human being. This is a terrible loss for the city.

THANKS, CHRIS BUSHNELL!!! This will be the legacy of your short and controversial tenure in city government – trading Dively for Goldberg.
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Inexcusable, McGinn, to be such a poor judge of character. Your first order of business is to surround yourself with good people.

This is absolutely great news for King County. Dwight was going to be ignored in the new City regime regardless.

This is incredibly poor management on McGinn's part. Dwight Dively was probably the most knowledgeable, important (22 years of citywide budget/financial management knowledge!), and talented executive at the City of Seattle. Not only is this a huge loss of institutional knowledge and talent but it's just another sign of Mayor McGinn's poor management capabilities. First, you say you are going to fire or lay off your 200 most experienced and skilled workers … because of a classification scale. Then you change your mind. In the process you damage employee morale (see article about strategic advisors holding meetings in SMT early this week) and you don't actually get anything tangible accomplished. Mr. Mayor – we don't want political games, we want leadership and effective management. Second, you lose Dwight Dively who is considered by many to be one of the most talented budget directors in the country. Regardless of whether you agree with that perspective (the city has a triple A bond rating so I'm not sure how you could argue otherwise), the man has a load of knowledge and experience that this administration should be holding on to.

It's the economy, stupid! McGinn's administration will be judged, first and foremost, based on how well he deals w/the current budget deficit. And we'll also get to judge how well Constantine and Dively can make lemonade with the County budget, which has a woefully inadequate tax base.

Couldn't have said it better. Dark days ahead for the City!

Erica, Dwight is the Finance Director and Beth was appointed by McGinn to be the Budget Director so his resignation was as Finance Director. Semantics.

He's also not going to be the finance director at KC. KC has a finance director. He is going to be the budget director.

Do you hear that giant sucking sound? That's King County sucking up all the best talent from the City. Major bummer for us but Dow sure could use the amazing and talented Mr. Dively.

I want my vote back

This is a continuation of a startling trend for the McGinn administration. There are only 3 possibilities here:
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1) Ignorance – McGinn doesn't know about his employees' perception that he doesn't know what he's doing and doesn't value the knowledge that many in the City have
2) Indifference – He actually does know what he's doing and values his employees, but doesn' feel that it's necessary to correct their perception that he doesn't
3) Arrogance – The perception that he doesn't know what he's doing and doesn't value existing employees (outside of his cabinet) is actually true.
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I've spent time debating whether #2 or #3 is true, but I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't even matter. Either way, he's alienating talent and cutting himself off from knowledge that would help him solve Seattle's budget crisis, and using up all of the political capital that he would need to lead the City through the upcoming tough decisions on the budget, staff cuts, and project prioritization.
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The City looks headed towards gridlock, unnecessary litigation, and confusion unless McGinn adopts a smarter strategy or the City Council steps in and provides the leadership and instills the confidence that the City desperately needs right now.

YOU'RE FUCKED, SEATTLE!!!! You wanted McGinn, you got him!

How any rational person would let a name-changing, degree-fabricating, lying felon chase away Dwight Dively is beyond me. You couldn't make this stuff up.

Kudos to Dow Constantine and Fred Jarrett for seizing this opportunity.

You can't pass your agenda if you don't have any money

Crap, that sucks! (I say as someone who works for the City)

Exactly! Budget first, agenda second.

wow – wake up Seattle, this is a huge loss to the City. As someone who recently moved from Seattle proper to unincorporated King County, this is good news. But it's amazing to see how much havoc one person's administration has been able to wreak in one month.

I like to think that an administration deserves a good three months in office prior to passing full judgment. I am finding this to be continually more difficult with every step that the current administration takes.

On the one hand, I absolutely love the decision to allow park and ride lots, and allow the issue to be studied further. The promised ear being kept open to the public is also nice to hear.

However, that ear has been taken a step too far with endless town hall meetings for every subject. The whole seawall fiasco, the 200 employees to be let go in order to save the general fund (with many of these 200 not even being funded by the general fund), then not being let go, the assertion that 520 can't start on the Eastside until we decide what we want on the west side, Grace Crunican, Dr. Bushnell, and now Dively…

Of course, no major damage has actually been done. No legislation has been passed. No major policy changes have been enacted. While some of the department head changes are…troubling…the career staff aren't idiots, and regardless of their morale, I can't see any of them turning on the citizens. Career staff care about their city, regardless of who is at the helm.

As for budgetary issues and other policy changes that come from these department heads – we have a very attentive City Council as of late. I don't see them sitting back and letting McGinn mess things up too badly. Hell, some of them may very well want the job next, and major cleanup is a bitch (look at the Obama White House).

Re your “Of course, no major damage has actually been done…. While some of the department head changes are…troubling…the career staff aren't idiots, and regardless of their morale, I can't see any of them turning on the citizens. Career staff care about their city, regardless of who is at the helm.”

Well said, but savvy career people, the Best and the Brightest if you will, will soon be bailing out on their own, not wanting to be associated with what they perceive to be the coming chaos. Look for the other Divelys and Painters to voluntarily and quietly (very quietly) move on to greener pastures, or at the very least calmer pastures.

Mark My Words.

All I'm saying is that they haven't all migrated to the county (or any other local government, or private sector, or nonprofit)…yet.

This is the biggest possible loss to the City of Seattle and its future. Big congratulations to the County Executive and King County. They need Mr. Dively. The problem is I have a hard time seeing how the city is going to do well without him. He IS the best and the brightest. How does an uneducated, newcomer mayor get through the maze that is the city's budget without the master behind the curtain?
Unfortunately, we will find out…

Will Constantine and McGinn swap their positions – please? Watching how our Mayor operates make me ill (and fear for the future of Seattle) and I'm kicking myself everyday for having voted for him.

He is my professor right now at UW. I sat in his class last night, which he showed up for despite being sick, and was amazed again at his ability to make the most mundane details of the budget absolutely fascinating. Go Dow! Go Dwight!

Since it appears that the Nickels “in crowd” is being banished to the county, and the Tripplet “in crowd” is going to the city, why not just combine forces.
Since there is never any new blood in either staff, why not just go for a transfusion!

I guess having Ross Hunter on Dow's transition team, then Hunter moving those bills through his committee on Tuesday, might help with that issue.

1 & 3, with that it just looks like #2

The popup window to link my google id to this site kept closing before I could enter data using my iPhone.

I wonder if that is slowing down the staff apollogist from commenting.

Hey, mayoral staff, you have to make sure the window is not magnified, so the popup does not get cut off on the endges, or it will close, and you can't login and comment, assuming you think this is a good thing.
You're welcome.

The exodus of deputy directors has already begun and will continue.

Oh, such a loss for the city, and such shabby treatment of a brilliant, dedicated, nationally respected public servant. But nobody better to help the county solve its considerably worse budget problem. I took public finance from him at the UW ages ago, and he was amazing – knowledgeable, able to explain why things work the way they do in government, able to make it engaging, and just a damn decent guy. I have a good friend who has worked with both Dively and Goldberg, and has…well, hundredfold greater respect for Dwight. This was not a good trade for McGinn, but we will all benefit from having Dively at the county.

No. It's Dively for Goldberg , a player to be named later, and a 13th round draft pick.

Who's the budget relief pitcher to be named later? Maybe they made a three way deal and GM formally GSM will throw in a bookkeeper. Maybe Bushnell/Haugen will find his CPA certificate.

The venom against McGinn is interesting. What people here don't really understand is that this is really insider politics. Here's a fact – most people in Seattle didn't think the Mayor and his staff were doing a great job. Many people at best thought he was mediocre.

As far as real people are concerned, McGinn can make all the changes he wants, as long as at the end of the day the City works, and at the margins he makes it a better and funner place to live.

Sounds like Dively is a great, smart dude. But at some point he replaced someone. Right? As long as the budget gets done, and gets done decently, McGinn is cool with the populous.

I think McGinn has a long time to prove himself. Maybe not to political insiders, but then the political insiders backed Carr, Nickels, Phillips, and the like. Fortunately, in this last election, the political insiders lost.

I personally am excited about the changes and am hopeful they will change how this city operates, because for the last 20 years it has sucked.

A lot of this sounds like the insider whining that went on around Holmes getting ride of some dinosaurs.

Let me know when McGinn actually does something that directly effects me negatively, and I'll give a fuck.

Meinert – what did you have in mind as indicator of something negatively affecting you ? Maybe something as big as your trash not getting picked up ?

the overwhelming majority of people care more about their garbage pick up than they do who writes the budget. And last time I checked, my garage is still getting picked up.

Next.

“because for the last 20 years it has sucked.”

– Well, that's quite the statement considering the City of Seattle has a triple A bond rating and is considered one of the best managed cities in the country (in terms of financial management). It's fine if you have a different opinion but let's not going around making completely inflammatory statements that are unsupported by facts (within the context that we are discussing… finance and budget management).

well, if the bond ratings drop, you wont be happy with the increase in your utility rates and tax rates. And yes, they will drop as a result of a single personnel change (not to mention all the other kooky things going on). So, there. It will impact you.

Calling the County's budget crisis Goldberg's fault is totally inaccurate. The County has more difficult financial constraints than the City. I hate to see the sadness over Dively leaving turn into ugly commentary on Beth Goldberg. Just because Dively was great doesn't mean that Goldberg is or will be terrible.

So why do you bother to comment, then? First of all, public ignorance is not a virtue. Second of all, the comments here show that many people are having really strong gut-level reactions to McGinn's actions. Third, Dively is the ONE guy everyone loves and McGinn/Bushnell chased him out.
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So you want to see the personal impact of this? Just watch how these clowns deal with the budget deficit. You'll find out exactly why people are upset.

Meinert – You obviously don't understand the role Dively played in the past. Please read the other posts that compare Seattle finances to other cities around the country. We are in the condition we are in due to some very wise Seattle City Council members and Dwight.

Alan – you forgot to end your post with “next”

When Mayor McSandbag wants to borrow money to build West Side lite rail that AAA bond rating means we get a better rate, we can do more with our money, or tax ourselves less to buy the same infrastructure.

If the new director fucks that up by poor management then we pay more.
Plenty of people understand what a higher interest rate means.

People will notice, it the very least it would be a campaign issue.

Next.

The “new” head of the budget process is an experienced economist that came from King County, who also has a AAA bond rating. I don't think that will change. You're all whining about a worst case scenario.

And doesn't the City have a $40 million budget shortfall? As it did in 2008, and actually most of the last decade. And the head of department that handles the budget should be rewarded for this in some world? And the City is going to fall apart without him?

@soapboxin – worrying about basic services is possibly only “ignorant” if you're a bureaucrat. What I'm talking about is political reality – or have you forgotten the debacle Nickels caused by miscalculating the importance of plowing the streets last winter? And I agree, let's watch how these guys deal with the budget deficit. You're assuming they're going to fuck it up. I'm assuming that on top of the totally competent staff that worked for Dively and is still at the City, the Mayor's staff, and some great City Councilmembers will make it ok. Your assumption otherwise sounds more like sour grapes and fear mongering to hurt McGinn's rep than true criticism.

The difference between me and you whiners – I'm willing to put my opinion out there under my real name. You're all too chickenshit to do that. You hide behind your keyboards tossing grenades at a guy who's been in office for all of 6 weeks, making it out to seem like we're in some unfathomable crisis and he's already destroyed the city. I think McGinn's moving the City forward and no one has yet to show me any actual policy that proves different.

And my garbage is still getting picked up, the street lights still work, and my lights still turn on. Get a grip.

You have the gall to call me a whiner, and then bring up the snowstorm! It's not sour grapes. A lot of us think McGinn – in the name of mavericky change – is going about things completely ass-backwards. And this is the pushback. In the case of Bushnell, it worked.
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Pushing out Dively was unnecessary and inexcusable.

For the record – I have never had any problem throwing bombs under my own name. As one of my favorite people from the 34th likes to point out, I lack a filter. And dammit, if I'm going to lack a filter, I want full credit for the shenanigans involved!!! SHAZAAM mothafucka.

On a separate note – email me back.

McGinn is a Idiot with a capital (I) this guy takes back every statement he makes so we should boot his butt out of Seattle as Mayor and put him back on his bicycle with no seat and let him ride off in the sunset on Seattle's bumpy roads so he can enjoy the seat post up his you know what. McGinn sucks!

mcginn administration + recession =
the lost years of seattle recovery

He'll kill this city off yet, wait & see