Tonight, the case for a potential conflict of interest was laid out re: Bellevue City Council member Grant Degginger and his law firm Lane/Powell by a Bellevue citizen during public comment. Lane/Powell apparently represents Sound Transit and Degginger admitted he has tried and won a case for them.

After Degginger’s comments re: his involvement, he called out his challenger by disparaging a group she belongs to.  That led to an escalation of conflicts between Council members.

See the streamed 09/27/10 City of Bellevue Council meeting on their website at: http://www.ci.bellevue.wa.us/bellevue_tv.htm

News organizations have been reporting that Sound Transit has a $3.9 Billion deficit from ST’s original budget projections due to the ongoing economic downturn.

Sound Transit admits it is altering its alignment choices due to this deficit, and is making statements that appear to be indicating that it is uninterested in lessening adverse impacts to Bellevue’s Downtown business district- essentially making the case that they don’t want to pay for a tunnel in the Downtown.

In addition to that, Sound Transit wants to run the alignment for ST2  through some of Bellevue’s founding neighborhoods, Enatai, Bellecrest, Bellefield and Surrey Downs, as well as the new Downtown neighborhoods (condos, apts), impacting thousands of people with adverse noise impacts and other blight, because they think that is the cheapest option.

Meanwhile, pedestrians continue to be hit by trains (click here) on the at-grade alignment in the Rainier Valley, and numerous car vs. train collisions have occured (click here, and here), because the choice of an at-grade alignment was thought to be cheaper.

It’s a miracle there have not been numerous  deaths yet.

But nowhere has it been stated yet by Sound Transit or the news organizations discussing these altered budgets that the downturn in the economy will necessitate a reduction in staff at Sound Transit.

If Sound Transit is intent on cutting all of the mitigation that they once purported to be possible on the East Link (ST2) project, and the scope of the projects are being altered (click here, here, and here), can staff reductions be far behind?

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It’s like trying to get a fair hearing with the Queen of Hearts. Or the Caterpillar. Or the Cheshire Cat.

Last night Sound Transit  held a public meeting at Bellevue High School that oh-so-quickly looked at some of the new segment ideas for ST2 in Bellevue. Sound Transit was quick to emphasize that they “listened” to the public, and straightened the alignment in the B section to avoid condemning (they like “acquiring”)more of the The Bellevue Club’s parking lot, which would adversely affect their business and future expansion plans. Fine.

But they completely omitted any information regarding condemnations of the homes and business properties affected by a Main Street alignment. Sound Transit’s Sue Comis just blithely passed over the section on the map showing how the north end of Surrey Downs would be cut off (condemned) by passing over it quietly with her laser pointer…HMMM…Nothing happening here, folks, move along….

Hands started going up as the public realized that Sound Transit was not going to allow questions regarding property takings that the whole group could hear. Sound Transit tried to get the questions coming in small groups around the photograph tables, so that separate neighborhoods wouldn’t know how their preferences would be affecting or impacting their neighbors.

However, they did have a nice table with a couple of guys present near the front door, ready to answer questions, with the title: “Real Estate“.

Yes, what a nice, pretty term for the guys in the department that condemns your property- I wonder how those guys sleep at night.

Welcome to Wonderland.

Sound Transit says it will build a bridge -- not an earthen berm  -- over the so-called B-Street Gulch within its project site to install commuter rail tracks through Tacoma's Dome District. The design change for that part of the project largely was spurred by community concerns about aesthetics and wildlife,  Jim Edwards, Sound Transit's director [...]

Seattle P-I Columnist Joel Connelly writes about concern over-taxing people to the point where they can’t afford to live in Seattle:

“Although devoured by the Seattle P-I computer when we switched e-mail systems, the message from an elderly Beacon Hill couple about their tax burdens remains embedded in my mind. They wrote about reaching a point where they can’t afford to stay in their modest home of 40 years, and how nobody in government seems the least bit interested in hearing about it.”

Glad to see that someone is figuring out that taxpayers from both major parties, Democrats & Republicans, as well as Independents,  have serious challenges in their efforts to save for retirement, pay for medical care, send their children to college, and take care of their parents, along with the relentless ASKS from local elected officials, cities, counties, and agencies. Joel’s response?

“In short, just say no.”

More and more people are figuring out that  elected officials, cities, & counties separate out what they think is palatable to the taxpayers- parks, libraries, fire and police services- so that they can happily spend on non-essentials in the general fund on items they know the public WOULD NOT vote to approve.

Then there is the question of: what are we paying for?

Crosscut’s Ted Van Dyk wrote October 21, 2008 about Sound Transit’s transfer of taxpayer funds for voter “education” services (click here):

“State Auditor Brian Sonntag is investigating payments of taxpayer funds by the City of Seattle (authorized by Mayor and Sound Transit Board Chair Greg Nickels) to the Sound Transit-supporting Transportation Choices Coalition, which is campaigning for the light rail proposal.”

Now, here’s the top story from King 5 news alleging: “Did Bellevue break the law in push to pass parks levy?”

“But one thing cities can’t do is use tax dollars to help convince voters to say yes. It’s against state law. Yet the KING 5 Investigators have uncovered evidence that Bellevue has done exactly that in its determination to get a new parks levy passed.”

See the King 5 story on the Bellevue parks bond at: http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_102008INV_bellevue_parks_levy_SW.13007a1d8.html

How does the cumulative number of tax proposals  relate to transportation planning in the Puget Sound region? Here are Joel’s thoughts:

“There’s one more reason for the natives to be restless — the current financial crisis. Could we not curb urban vision until financial markets are again stable, and we find out how bad the stable smells?

Since World War II ended the Great Depression, Seattle has been a middle-class city. We’ve avoided an affliction of the used-up portions of America, cities as domains of the very rich and the very poor.

The Beacon Hill couple’s message is somewhere in cyberspace. I would hate to see them ejected from a city they love.”

Click to see RTF’s previous posts on this subject HERE. And on future infrastructure ASKS: HERE.

 Read Ted Van Dyk’s scathing article outlining his votes on Initiative 985, Sound Transit’s Proposition 1, and Initiative 1000 at: http://crosscut.com/2008/10/21/2008-election/18580/

“Sound Transit, light rail’s prime- and sub-contractors, and the network of law firms, P.R. firms, consultants, and others profiting from light rail have mounted intense 2007 and 2008 campaigns for Prop. 1′s passage. Local newspapers have published essays by local attorneys, former public officials, and civic leaders which were, in fact, written by Sound Transit’s P.R. firm. The light rail network has channeled campaign contributions to public officials and has subsidized supposedly independent groups supporting light rail. State Auditor Brian Sonntag is investigating payments of taxpayer funds by the City of Seattle (authorized by Mayor and Sound Transit Board Chair Greg Nickels) to the Sound Transit-supporting Transportation Choices Coalition, which is campaigning for the light rail proposal. Sound Transit itself was created by a ballot measure which grossly misrepresented the costs, time of construction, and benefits to be derived from a light rail system.”

….”No independent, reputable transportation or public-finance analyst would tell you that light rail makes any transportation or financial/economic sense in the King, Snohomish, and Pierce county region.”

….”Special recognition should go, here in Seattle, to the critical analysis applied to the issue by King County Executive (and former Sound Transit Chair) Ron Sims, former WSDOT Director Doug MacDonald, former state Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge, Seattle Post-Intelligencer economic columnist Bill Virgin, Seattle Times columnists Joni Balter and Bruce Ramsey, and the Seattle Times editorial board. They took the time to understand the issue and refused light rail Kool-Aid.”

Attorney-client limits debated The Olympian, WA - Jul 9, 2008 Two narrowly decided state Supreme Court decisions since 2005 — involving Sound Transit and a Spokane School District child's death — opened the door to ...