Hundreds and Hundreds of City Hours

Morning Fizz March 12, 2010 at 7:15 am Morning Fizz

1. The ten-inch pile of papers pictured below is just the fifth in what could ultimately be more than a dozen installments of records responding to a request made by former assistant city attorneys Phil Brenneman and Ted Inkley, both fired by new city attorney Pete Holmes last year.

The two attorneys made a broad request for all records concerning personnel decisions by Holmes’ office. Most of the records so far range from mind-numbingly dull (long discussions of fonts on business cards) to catty asides (“I don’t think you should expect much from [former criminal division head Bob Hood] in terms of a transition memo”) to mildly amusing (Holmes’ spokeswoman Kathy Mulady’s explanation of why former deputy mayor Tim Ceis is known as “The Shark.”)

Holmes’ staff is getting back to us about how much staff time will be required to respond to the whole request (and how big the response will ultimately be); however, yesterday they estimated that several staffers have already spent “hundreds and hundreds” of city hours combing through the records.

2. Gov. Chris Gregoire has called for a special session (legislators were supposed to finish yesterday) to finalize the state budget. Josh’s report is here.

3. In response to Mayor Mike McGinn’s announcement earlier this year that he would cut 200 strategic advisor and management jobs, sources tell us that 141 City Light managers have filed an intent with the Public Employees Relation Commission (PERC) to unionize. The group, according to PubliCola’s source, intends to join the Washington State Council of County and City Employees, Council 2 AFSCME AFL-CIO; we’ll have more details later today.

4. Mayor Mike McGinn declined again yesterday to say whether he supports city council member Tim Burgess’ proposal to crack down on aggressive panhandling. However, yesterday, the city’s Office of Economic Development, which McGinn oversees, sent out an email to members of the business community encouraging them to attend an upcoming council meeting about the ordinance, strongly implying that OED, at least, supports the proposal.

The email, from OED’s public-relations specialist, called the meeting “a great opportunity to hear background and developments regarding Seattle’s public safety/aggressive solicitation laws and policies, which affect individuals as well as businesses, and to listen to and/or contribute to public comment on these issues.”

5. City council members said yesterday that they support Mayor Mike McGinn’s choice of Glen Lee to head up the city’s finance office. One likely reason: Council members had an unusually large say in Lee’s selection, after being mortified by the departure of veteran budget office director Dwight Dively, who left after McGinn took away his authority over the city budget.

Lee, a slight, red-haired city veteran who was a constant, silent presence at Dively’s side, has been with the city’s budget office for more than 15 years. According to city council member Tom Rasmussen, after Dively’s departure, “we really encouraged [McGinn] to appoint someone like Lee … [with] a really broad background in finance and budget.” Rasmussen said he expects Lee’s appointment to encounter “no bumps” at the council.

aggressive panhandling city budget City Light Glen Lee Mike McGinn Pete Holmes Phil Brenneman Ted Inkley Tim Burgess

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fount

I trust Human Services also sent that same OED email to Real Change, Share/Wheel, Nickelsville, and many other homeless advocacy groups, right? So they could make their voices heard just like the Downtown Seattle Association, right?
John Schochet

One quick correction to Item #1: Brenneman and Inkley were not fired; rather, their terms of office ended when Tom Carr left office on December 31, 2009, and Pete Holmes chose not to appoint them to new terms when he took office on January 1, 2010. The Washington Supreme Court has held that “the term of office for a deputy prosecutor ends when the term of the elected prosecutor ends,” and that “[o]nce hired, deputy prosecutors are not entitled to remain deputy prosecutors should a new prosecutor become elected.” Spokane County v. State, 136 Wn.2d 644, 966 P.2d 305 (1998). The Washington Court of Appeals applied this to the Seattle City Attorney’s Office. See City of Seattle v. Public Employment Relations Commission, 97 Wn. App. 1076 (1999). Although Holmes chose to hire the vast majority of the assistant city attorneys who had worked in the office under Carr, some, including Brenneman and Inkley, were not appointed to new terms.

-John Schochet
Seattle City Attorney’s Office
savethiscityfromitself

How much is John Schochet being paid by the taxpayers to surf the blogs?
Donolectic

Ugh about the unionization…. not to be down on the unions, but it's just One More Thing that makes me unhappy about how McGinn handled his incoming transition.

Mayor Mike, I voted for you in the general, but my lesson learned here has really been that I need to vote in the primaries. As much as he was an easy punching bag, I miss our former Mayor McCheese a lot and I feel guilty that I neglected to send in my primary ballot.
ghostinthemachine587

Schochet makes $112,503/year, is a personal friend of Holmes, and boasts just over 6 years of legal experience, while Inkley and Brenneman collectively had over 50 years of expertise between them. Schochet earns well over the starting pay range of a 6 year attorney at that office. Holmes' justification for firing Inkley and Brenneman was to save money. What John hasn't said is that when you fire older employees who earn higher salaries to save money, it's a prima facie case of age discrimination. Good luck with that John and Pete.
http://www.realchangenews.org/ Niko Simonson

Curious, I didnt get this email. Dont worry we'll be there anyway.

-Niko Simonson
Real Change
40-year Seattleite

A distinction but not a difference, John. Ted and Phil are both career prosecutors who served under multiple city attorneys. Their “non-renewal” amounted to a firing, whether you like the word or not.
J.R.

Deputy City Attorneys are at-will employees under the Seattle City Charter. Mr. Schochet has made a good case that they weren't fired, just not hired by the new city attorney. City Attorney Holmes doesn't legally need a justification for his actions, so it's hard to see why they would prevail in a lawsuit.
morning fizzy

Mr Inkley has a funny history to be so workers rights now.

http://www.perc.wa.gov/Databases/ULP/5391-B.htm

Bargaining unit employee Mari Trevino testified about a meeting that she and two other assistant supervisors had with their superior, Ted Inkley, in his office. Trevino testified, without contradiction, that Inkley said certain management responsibilities would be removed from the assistant supervisors if they were included in the bargaining unit. She further testified that, in response to her question at the same meeting, Inkley said the changes in responsibility would impact the pay of the assistant supervisors.
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By his assertions, Inkley conveyed to the affected employees that their exercise of rights under the collective bargaining statute could adversely affect them. Such threats could reasonably be expected to interfere with the exercise of employee rights guaranteed by statute, and therefore violated RCW 41.56.140(1).

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Those circumstances do not, however, excuse or exonerate Inkley for his comments. It has long been well established that supervisors are employees within the meaning and coverage of Chapter 41.56 RCW, and that supervisors have the same right to organize and bargain as do non-supervisory employees.

Viva La Cola!

Hundreds and Hundreds of City Hours