But for the 500 of us in Seattle who watch the Seattle Channel like it's Bravo, I share with you today's formal announcements. I'll put them after the jump, because I'd hate to take up valuable space on Slog that could be used for typographically challenged tweets from the SPD, inane chatter in the office, or online polls about nonsense with this soporific update on a parliamentary square dance.

Economic Resiliency and Regional Relations
Chair: Sally Clark
Vice-Chair: Tom Rasmussen
Member: Richard Conlin
Alternate: Jean Godden

Energy and Environment
Chair: Mike O’Brien
Vice-Chair: Sally Clark
Member: Tim Burgess
Alternate: Nick Licata

Labor Relations Policy Committee
Chair: Tim Burgess
Member: Sally Clark
Member: Nick Licata
Member: Bruce Harrell
Member: Mike O’Brien

Government Performance and Finance
Chair: Tim Burgess
Vice-Chair: Nick Licata
Member: Sally Clark
Alternate: Mike O’Brien

Housing, Human Services, Health, and Culture
Chair: Nick Licata
Vice-Chair: Sally Bagshaw
Member: Bruce Harrell
Alternate: Tom Rasmussen

Library, Utilities, and Center
Chair: Jean Godden
Vice-Chair: Richard Conlin
Member: Sally Bagshaw
Alternate: Bruce Harrell

Parks and Neighborhoods
Chair: Sally Bagshaw
Vice-Chair: Jean Godden
Member: Tom Rasmussen
Alternate: Richard Conlin

Planning, Land Use, and Sustainability
Chair: Richard Conlin
Vice-Chair: Tim Burgess
Member: Mike O’Brien
Alternate: Sally Clark

Public Safety, Civil Rights, and Technology
Chair: Bruce Harrell
Vice-Chair: Mike O’Brien
Member: Nick Licata
Alternate: Sally Bagshaw

Transportation
Chair: Tom Rasmussen
Vice-Chair: Bruce Harrell
Member: Jean Godden
Alternate: Tim Burgess

A few thoughts: Tim Burgess, who looks like an eagle, has been removed from the public safety committee that will next year be headed by Bruce Harrell. For Harrell, this is a nice pulpit to advocate body cameras for Seattle Police. For Burgess, who already has the reputation of being strong on public safety issues, the budget committee appointment allows him to sharpen his budget-crafting axe while he also sharpens his knives for a mayoral run in 2013. As a result, Jean Godden is no longer chair of the budget committee and has been relegated to the Library, Utilities, and Center Committee, which is the council's equivalent of being put in a nursing home or a daycare facility.

Tom Rasmussen is remaining in the driver's seat of the council's transportation committee, which is sweet justice. In that position for the past biennium, Rasmussen pushed for the deep-bore tunnel as a replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct even though the tunnel fails to replace nearly two-thirds of the viaduct's capacity and likely requires hundreds of millions of dollars in road and transit improvements in the downtown grid to accommodate more than 50,000 additional trips per day. Rasmussen is still saddled, at least in part, with solving that expensive mess.

After four years as council president, Richard Conlin will step down to handle land use (hold on, status quo, your fearless advocate is on the way!).

Finally, while the announcement from the council says the president will be elected on January 9, the council has known for months that it will elect Seattle City Council member Sally Clark as the next president. To that I say: Hurrah! Clark has finally shown some chutzpah this fall in backing taller buildings in the Roosevelt neighborhood—despite whines of NIMBYs—and taking a losing 1-8 vote against a silly crusade for vending machines to stop selling delicious candy bars.