Is there “Freedom of Speech” in Vancouver, Washington, guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States of America? Hmmm…

Vancouver City Council member Jeanne Harris goes absolutely postal on this YouTube post from a Vancouver City Council meeting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_8HgrM4LcE.

Here are a few quotes from a Council meeting in Vancouver where discussion re: light rail and tolls elicited overly heated comments from Council member Jeanne Harris:

To the Mayor of Vancouver re: a citizen: “Gavel Him Down! Gavel Down!”.

To the citizens: “Out!… You’ve Been Dismissed! Leave! You’re Done!“…”This is Our Meeting, and we’ll have it the way we want it, and you will not address separate Council members”.

To a fellow Vancouver Council member: “You do not talk about me when I’m not here” (after Harris left in a huff). “You do not behave that way” (after Harris returned). “You do not chastise people” that way. “Shut Up!”

Which is more concerning?:

1. Censorship of citizen public comment.

2. Exclusion of Subject Matter-One Council member’s opinion that considerations about light rail or tolls are “not appropriate subjects” for  a comment by a private citizen when speaking to the Council that should be representing them about major projects in their own city.

3. Some Vancouver City Council members’ viewpoints that the Council does not have Standing, or any role to play re: determining how an important issue such as light rail or tolls impacts their own city.

4. Accusations- One Council member making unsubstantiated aspersions against another member at a Council meeting, and

5. Procedural- One member overriding the Mayor, and/or demanding that the Mayor shut down and/or limit public comment on a particular subject.

6. Passing the Buck: Certain members absolving themselves of responsiblility for their citizens or city, by saying that local governance has no role to play in a major city project led by a regional governance entity (for which their citizens are taxed- can anyone say: “Taxation Without Representation?”).

Beyond Harris’s extremely poor public behavior, there are much broader, serious questions here that have to do with:

1. Local, regional, state and federal governance,

2. Who can influence a project and for what period of time during a process, and

3. Who makes funding decisions…

These questions echo here in the Puget Sound region, with entities like:

1. The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC)

2. Sound Transit

3. The Port of Seattle

More on this story later…

Postscript: Fellow Vancouver City Council members have requested an ethics review. Click here: http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/sep/15/2-city-councilors-seek-ethics-probe-of-harris/

Washington is going where no highway tolls have gone before, a transportation consultant told state legislators Tuesday.

In today's SeattlePI.com, Aubrey Cohen asks, Will more Washington roads take their toll on drivers? The story focused on widespread tolling and its impact on consumers: Individual drivers would shrug off tolls "as the cost of living in modern society, similar to an increase in gas prices," but businesses would pass the cost on to customers, Ennis wrote. "The overall effect of extensive tolling will be to depress total economic growth - it would be like handing everyone in the economy a ten-pound weight to carry around; it is not enough to stop anyone in their tracks, ...

In an article today in the Seattle Times titled: “State budget cuts could hit I-90 light rail”, Mike Lindblom reports:

“As they look for budget cuts, state lawmakers are backing out of their earlier $29 million commitment to help Sound Transit build light rail across the Interstate 90 Floating Bridge.”

Here’s an interesting bit, pointing out the financial relationship (and possibly implied bias) between Transportation Choices Coalition (TCC)  & Sound Transit:

” I think it is a betrayal to the voters, especially Eastside voters who are counting on the commitment to get rail,” said Bill LaBorde, state policy director for the Transportation Choices Coalition. (Sound Transit is a contributor to the coalition’s education fund.)

This looks like a negotiation to see who will pay for the project:

“State Sen. Fred Jarrett, D-Mercer Island, said Sound Transit will have to pay for access to I-90 anyway and the $29 million car-pool-lane cost would become part of that discussion.”…

Interesting point re: the history of what Sound Transit previously promised…

….”Michael Ennis, transportation analyst for the conservative Washington Policy Center, said Sound Transit should bear the full cost, because the agency promised two-way car-pool and bus lanes as part of the 1996 Sound Move ballot measure. “

Wide use of tolls could unclog roads, Seattle study says 4/24/08 By Eric Pryne The Seattle Times Copyright 2008 Widespread tolls could make chronic traffic congestion in Seattle and other cities "a thing of the past," a pioneering study says. Tolls could cut the average late-afternoon commute time from downtown Seattle to Tacoma by perhaps 40 percent. A typical rush-hour drive from Bellevue to Lynnwood could be trimmed by more than one-third, the Puget Sound Regional Council's "Traffic Choic

Suppose electricity was free, even at hours of peak usage. Think your power supply would be reliable, then? Exactly. Now apply the same common-sense approach to highway capacity. Or consider the Environmental Defense Fund's Transportation Director Michael Replogle, who writes in the Washington Post:

Congestion pricing may be controversial to some people, but it's inevitable. Using tolls simply to build more roads is a costly way to end up with even more traffic and pollution....Done right, congestion pricing can boost the efficiency of our existing roads, raise revenue to invest in transit, and reduce pollution that causes ...

The Seattle Times has an overview of the long-awaited results of the federally funded, multi-million "Traffic Choices" study conducted by the Puget Sound Region Council (PSRC) to look at the viability of widespread road tolling throughout Greater Seattle. The PSRC describes the research as "the most comprehensive study of demand response to network tolling in existence." A summary of the study can be found here (pdf).

The failure of an ambitious tolling plan there holds lessons for metro Puget Sound.

Mary Peters, U.S. secretary of transportation, was in the Seattle-area Friday.

Okay, classify this as a pet peeve, but it bugs me when politicians, including Christine Gregoire, wave the bloody shirt of the Minnesota bridge collapse as an all-purpose rationale to boost infrastructure spending. Gregoire has done this often. She raised the specter of the Minnesota disaster as an argument in favor of Proposition 1 last fall; she raised it again to argue for a new toll bridge across the Columbia River, and yet again at a national governor's meeting in February. I have no quarrel with repairing or inspecting roads and bridges--please, let's do that. But the ...