Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Politics / City Seven McGinn Volunteers Get Jobs on the Transition
Posted by Christopher Frizzelle on Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 5:17 PM
(From left to right: Mike McGinn, Jen Nance, Elliott Day, Derek Farmer, and April Thomas.)
Seven of the people who worked more than 40 hours a week on the McGinn for Mayor campaign without pay—the core volunteer staff—now have paying jobs. They are Ainsley Close, Aaron Pickus, Elliott Day, Liz Birkholz, Jen Nance, April Thomas, and Derek Farmer. And instead of working out of campaign headquarters on Aurora Avenue North, they now work out of the transition office on the 60th floor of the Seattle Municipal Tower on Fifth Avenue. Instead of views of traffic screaming past, they now have views of south Seattle, Beacon Hill, Seward Park, Mercer Island, Lake Washington, the Bellevue skyline, etc.
A few minutes ago, McGinn gave me the tour. A small room with a few cubicles, another room that used to have cubicles that the staff decided to dismantle ("We work best when we're sitting in the same room and talking to each other," said Pickus), a corner office for the mayor-elect, and a conference room with many windows. "Oh, I'm locked out," McGinn said, trying the handle to his office. "I locked myself out of my office. I'm going to have to get a key." The new staffers were all sitting in the conference room, beaming, along with Becky Stanley (who's volunteering for the transition), and an employee of the Mercury Group.
The volunteer staff had a sense they were getting jobs as early as the weekend, assuming all went well, and after the pizza party on Monday night in McGinn's southeast Seattle office, they were told they'd be meeting at transition offices Tuesday morning. Rodney and Phil, two officers from SPD's Executive Protection Unit, were at that pizza party too; now they keep watch at the entrance to the transition office. "Pretty exciting--pretty exciting. I mean, all-volunteer effort," Phil said, gesturing down the hall toward the staffers. "That's pretty unheard of." Meanwhile, movers were bringing in furniture: a black leather couch and a gray recliner.
Job titles haven't been given out yet ("We're not big on titles," McGinn says), and in at least some cases paperwork hasn't been signed, but staffers have a rough sense of their roles on the transition staff. Ainsley Close is McGinn's right-hand person and works in his office ("Ainsley central role is just getting stuff done"); Aaron Pickus is coordinating media requests and the like; Jen Nance and April Thomas are handling McGinn's schedule and office-management tasks; Elliott Day, Derek Farmer, and Liz Birkholz are assisting with tasks related to public outreach. Birkholz was the project manager for all the policy papers the campaign produced and is an urban planner and landscape architect. Asked how it feels to go from volunteering for the campaign to having a paying job, Birkholz said, "It's life-changing. I've worn a lot of hats. This is a hat that takes me and the team that I've worked with for so long to an incredible new level."
"There are a lot of projects so everyone's going to be doing a lot," McGinn said, sitting in the conference room. We'd walked in on everyone else meeting, apparently—after a minute they all got up and left the conference room so they could continue meeting. "The pace of the transition is going to be intense. We're getting a little bit of a breather as we get the office set up, but the pace of the transition will be about the same as the pace of the campaign... so we can hit January 4 with an effective team." McGinn went on, "I expect we'll be adding to the transition staff as we go, but just as we get off the ground, I needed some people to take care of the immediate needs of things coming at me and be in a position to begin executing the transition."
As we were talking, Close walked in with two Subway sandwiches—one for her and one for her boss. Asked how she feels that she's now going to get paid for the sort of work she has been donating to McGinn for months and months, she said, "It feels pretty good. I haven't bought anything for a really long time. For a really long time. Except for food."
"Even that, right?" McGinn said.
"Even that!" she said.
"People were bringing food to the phone banks," McGinn said.
"I really think that's the only way Aaron survived," Close said, and then vanished to go work on something.
Asked about the new digs, two or three times the size of campaign headquarters during the general election, which were themselves orders of magnitude larger than campaign headquarters during the primary, McGinn said, "It's nice—it's really nice to have a central location and a conference room. There's a lot of people coming in and out—a lot of people from city government coming in an out, a lot of people from outside government coming in and out. You have to remember, even at Great City I was operating out of borrowed space and coffeeshops for several years. And the campaign office was so jampacked full of people--it's nice to have a nice functioning office space for the transition." He looked out the window. "It's beautiful."
"Mercer Island looks tiny from here," said Becky Stanley.
"That's not Mercer Island," McGinn said. "You're looking at Seward Park. That small thing with all the trees on it-- that's Seward Park." As we walked out of the conference room, we passed his office door, which was open. Close's back was visible. "Oh look, someone got into my office," McGinn said.
Asked about how it feels to have a job, Farmer said, "I haven't signed papers yet, but I feel really good. It's gonna be a great place to work." Day said, "I'm just psyched to be helping Mike." Thomas said, "It feels excellent. I was getting kind of close to the edge there." Pickus said, "Working on the campaign was the best experience I've ever had and being a staff member during the transition—it was an honor to be asked. It's been a day and a half and I love doing it."
Share via
1
2
Working downtown?
Wow, pretty soon those employees will be demanding a tunnel to help them get to work.
And a Mercer facelift...those precious seconds at the office could be saving taxpayers millions...right ?!
Oh, wait, I was going to post that link to the McGinn website where he absolutely says that the tunnel is the biggest tax increase in decades.
But guess what -- Suddenly it's gone!!
Go figure.
Welcome to the Incrowd, Staffers...
3
4
But you are right about how long it takes to get hired. I was able to wait it out because I was back home in Iowa, taking care of Mother Vel-DuRay, who was having a bit of the cancer (she's all remissed now, knock on wood) and I had a good severance from my old job. Otherwise, I would probably be back at the Olympic Hotel, writing menus and soothing mothers of the bride.
I wish these folks luck: The city budget outlook sucks, we're facing furloughs and layoffs next year, and there just doesn't seem to be any money. Hopefully, they'll bring a breath of fresh air to the city, and some new ways of doing things.
Just as long as those new ways of doing things don't involve getting rid of slightly portly, middle-aged utility workers who enjoy commenting on the Slog. I don't want to go back to being just another Beacon Hill Housewife, and my bank account would hate me for it.
5
Enjoy the afterglow...the whiners and haters are lurking just around the corner...some of them here in the comments...
10
Good for them! They deserve it!
11
I'm sure this whole squad is golly-gee super talented. But I can't picture any of them, McGinn included, as having honed skills in playing hardball.
Dan Savage, this is why you really should have just run for mayor yourself. Seriously.
15
I really do believe that these volunteers are great, smart, capable people (the won the election, after all) and hope that McGinn does well for our city. If he pulls it together and doesn't devote his term to stalling the tunnel, I agree (with the majority of voters) that he is probably marginally better for Seattle. Stuff like this article and the general delight at this kind of bare bones bumbling made me worry about his ability to be effective, though.
19
some of them did - and quit. some of them deferred other life goals. one, for example, is a former Navy officer who deferred his start date at UW law school. another put completing her masters degree on hold. they are a remarkable group of people.
Sam Adams hired former Stranger/Mercury writer Amy Jenniges when he was elected mayor of Portland. Who wants to bet McGinn hires Dominic or ECB to his
permanent staff?
StrangerCorp officially owns the Pacific Northwest. Dan Savage for governor.
25
28
The operations of the city go on, only the letterhead changes. That's the good thing about us bureaucrats.
Tomorrow morning, I'll go to work, uncover my Selectric, put my sweater on the back of my chair, and start my workday as a Traveling Electrical Hostess. Later, I’ll get into a city Prius, and go to the field, advising people on their electrical services, and having well-modulated, genteel discussions about things like heat pumps, kilowatt hours, and handholes (which isn’t nearly as dirty as it sounds).
It's what we do, until we retire.
The view from that floor is just as spectacular after dark.
Because I'm currently out of the country, I couldn't work on this campaign, but I did vote for Mike in both the primary and the general election. I'm very glad he won and he won me over by being able to talk for himself and tell me what he believed rather than make me listen to his paid mouthpiece or be completely unable to express himself. Sometimes not being able to see the candidates and just having to depend on them explaining themselves is the better way to go.
34
FACT: The total amount of these seven people's salaries is probably less than Robert Mak got under Comrade Nickels.
35
I don't think Greg Nickels was perfect, but for the most part he was a *more* than competent & very progressive mayor.
I personally don't like the seemingly inexorable trend toward building poorly-constructed, uninteresting, cookie-cutter condos ...but I don't think Nickels is entirely (or at all) to blame for this.
And don't even get me going on snowpocalypse! So what if cars & even some buses were off the grid for a week. I call bullshit on the shrill calls for the city to run out & buy 100 more snowplows, or to salt the roads. Having grown up in the Midwest, I see what salt does to roads, bridges & cars, not to mention clothes & shoes. Could the storm response have been better managed? Sure...but this was blown way out of proportion, for an event that happens here about once in two decades (the last storm with snow that stuck around as long was in '92).
I voted for McGinn, and am hoping he will do well...then we all benefit. I also hope he keeps his word on the tunnel, and doesn't waste time & energy being an obstructionist. Virtually every great city has similar tunnels...our main problem is that the federal gov't isn't paying for ours as it did Boston's Big Dig. I've been to San Francisco recently, and drove & walked the Embarcadero. What works brilliantly in SF would absolutely NOT work here. We don't have the real estate on the waterfront to create as wide a boulevard with transit in the median. And the city's plan to turn Western Ave into essentially a northbound expressway would be incredibly unfortunate. The tunnel just makes sense here.
Also, to anyone who says that the Stranger didn't report on Mercury: actually, yes, they did.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…
Can you blame them for not repeating it? If you were running for mayor and your respectable consulting firm had the same name as a scummy PR firm with a better website, wouldn't you try to keep the name out of the press? It's the same reason that Obama doesn't go around asking everyone to call him Hussein. Neither Obama or McGinn have anything to hide; they're just being prudent.
It does not matter what all the big plans are for the future - NO money. CAN'T pay the bill.
In legal jargon it would be called prior restraint and the only issue will be who is out - hence - who is in the budget.
There is no one better than kids with their first good job, cult like loyalty to the boss, and just charming innocent, "it is not personal", tag lines.- they - can best explain the dirty facts of life to all the service projects who close down, the food banks out of food, and the homeless who will now hone in on the new mayor.
And then there is the legislature who will eat Seattle alive. Gregoire backed Mahallan. You all think the idea now is for Olympia to make Mc Ginn look good?
By the way, sheer energetic team chants about winning - in an election where you opponent was a boob - that confers no administrative skills.
City hall civil service will eat the mayors office alive as well ...
And don't expect the truth from the Stranger who is now the official propaganda rag for their guy. Mc Ginn owes them big time. Yuk.
Me, I've known McGinn for decades, twit and nag him mercilessly, and voted for him twice.
I love me some Stranger. I've been reading it since before the internets were invented. It always gave us readers a wink and a nod when it strongarmed our opinions. We felt we were in on the secret.
I don't mind the kids having an agenda, but it was always their own agenda, not some candidate's PR company's. Things change, people get entrenched and scared for their own survival and self-coopt. Doesn't have to happen to my favorite paper. Unless it already did.
45
@44 - none of YOU are qualified. that's why you're not going to be in power any more. News flash - they are the grown ups.
Good job dogging it on the campaign.
BTW, @ #40 Quiznos is in the SMT buliding, and there are two other good places across the courtyard that have much better food. These kids (and they still are, in their naivete), better learn about proper nutrition if they want their boss and themselves around and fully engaged for the long haul. They can all afford to eat better now, and they should. Not everyone can become a Subway's Jared ya know.
Most Commented on Slog
-
Life and Death in a Recliner in South Carolina by Dan Savage
-
Pit Bulls! by Dan Savage
-
Health at Every Size by Dan Savage
-
"Let his days be few... Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow." by Dan Savage
-
Becoming a Man by Dan Savage
-
$2,600,000,000 by Dan Savage
-
All The Best Men Are Taken by Dan Savage
-
SL Letter of the Day: Hot & Drunk by Dan Savage
-
I Hate You, Garrison Keillor by Jen Graves
-
Unreal Americans by Dan Savage
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (46) RSS