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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

City / Media The Seattle Times Gets the Memo on Budget Cuts. Sort Of.

Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 2:21 PM

Emily Heffter—the Seattle Times reporter who earlier raised a stink about closed-door budget briefings in city council members' offices (telling city hall staffers, "My editor sent me down here to get kicked out), then gleefully reported that the council had decided to no longer hold briefings, period—has apparently discovered the most pertinent fact about this year's midyear budget cuts: They're up to the mayor, not the council. That means, as I pointed out a week ago, that the council isn't obligated to hold any public meetings at all, and any public meetings they do hold are just for show.

Today, the Times finally got that memo. Sort of.

The public can talk, but the council says it's powerless to respond. In fact, Budget Committee Chairwoman Jean Godden has been making it a point to say the council can't do anything about the cuts, which Mayor Greg Nickels announced Friday.

"The council does not determine these midyear cuts," she said Monday. "These decisions rest with the mayor."

But Godden's disclaimer makes program advocates wonder if they're wasting their time.

Hmm, where in the world might program advocates have gotten the idea that they wouldn't be wasting their time? Certainly not from a credulous series of outraged stories in the Seattle Times.

Comments (9) RSS

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Besides, the City Council is gutless.

Posted by Will in Seattle on April 22, 2009 at 2:40 PM

Emily Hefter's very first story on the closed budget briefings said that the mayor could make the budget decisions on his own, and that the briefings were a way to "keep the council in the loop." The issue was whether it was also a good idea to keep the public in the loop. Quit making stuff up Erica.

Posted by seadog on April 22, 2009 at 3:22 PM

Yeah, quit stealing too!

Posted by Consumer on April 22, 2009 at 3:43 PM

Erica: Didn't you just go on vacation? LET IT REST.

Posted by Trevor on April 22, 2009 at 4:15 PM

ECB, for whom did you perform community service?

Posted by What organization? on April 22, 2009 at 5:51 PM

You should put a close-quote on your latest unattributed insider quote.

I understand reporters need to rely on insider relationships to gather precious drops of City Hall scoop. Still, it's hard not to like Heffter's choice to behave as an outsider for the sake of showing an interesting part of the story. Readers can identify with that, since a lot of us figure City Hall sees us as outsiders anyway.

Posted by gloomy gus on April 22, 2009 at 6:29 PM

What's the term for reporters who are all chummy with the insiders on their beats and reprint all the gossipy stuff they like to share?

Oh yeah. Stupid fucking credulous hack!

Posted by rjh on April 22, 2009 at 7:50 PM

Erica,
You truly are a credulous hack because you swallowed Godden's assertion without checking the city charter.

The council controls the purse strings. True, they can't force the mayor to spend every appropriated dime but they could do a new budget that drains what they don't like and force the mayor to handle an impossible choice: accept a surplus or fund the projects they want. The mayor can veto the budget but a veto override is another topic of learning for ECB, council mouthpiece.

the problem with the council and gullible hacks is they don"t understand the power the council has.

You'd be better off asking questions about that than attacking a reporter trying to do her job -- letting the public know what's going on at City Hall.

Oh, never mind, it's back to Metro schedules. Or better yet, Hump!

Posted by Whose side is Erica on? on April 22, 2009 at 8:16 PM

@2 written by: Emily Heffter and intentionally misspelled?

Posted by I surmise on April 22, 2009 at 9:21 PM