Referendum 1 pitts Mayor Against City Council

There is something very odd going on with the tunnel process. There must be a steadfast rule of who can sign contracts. In other words if it’s the Mayors job and he refuses to sign the agreement, then common sense would make one believe that there was something wrong with the agreement that the Mayor wanted cleare up. Instead of getting with the Mayor to work it out legally, City Council president Richard Conlin signed it. Then a petition to recall him was thrown out by a judge who said there was not sufficient evidence that he broke the law. Us peons need to be educated on how a City Council member can sign an environment impact statement and colluding with City Attorney Pete Homes to bring a lawsuit to block a tunnel referendum, and delaying placing initiative 101 on the ballot is legal. It appears Conlin exceeded his authority under the city charter by signing the draft of the environmental impact statement. The public now gets to vote on a referendum which really means nothing. The anti-tunnel statement urges Seattleites to “stand up to the politicians” who in 2009 cut risky and expensive back room deals to pursue the tunnel project. The pro-tunnel statement says the debate is over and will only be prolonged by the Mayors, “delay and obstruction”. He has stood up for the wishes of the people, and knows there will be cost overruns and the city property owners will have to pay them. City Council member Tim Burgess say a no vote will just make the city council pass another ordinance to go forward with the tunnel construction. If that were challenged it would take a year to reach the ballot and “BY THEN CONSTRUCTION OF THE TUNNEL WILL BE WELL UNDERWAY”. That should not happen. It is all being done for big business and the labor community that writes big checks for their campaigns. Its all done against the will of the people paying for it. Referendum 1 should stop the whole project until they come up with the answers to these questions. Do the majority of the people want a tunnel? How is it going to be paid for? Who pays for the cost overruns? What tolls will they charge. They already know it will not help traffic. People will avoid the thing even if there were no tolls. Can you imagine anything more stupid than a tunnel thru an earthquake zone right by a decaying sea wall? If we challenge anything the city does, Pete Holmes takes it upon himself to file a lawsuit and gets a judge he probably plays golf with to rubber stamp it. Mayor McGinn is looked on as a trouble maker for the council members but he is trying to follow the wishes of the people who elected him. As the anti tunnel people keep chipping away more shady stuff comes to the surface. For a judge to say there is not sufficient evidence he broke the law. geez, what more evidence did he need. Either Conlin can sign agreements when the Mayor refuses to sign them. It’s a simple yes he can, or no he cant. But he did, and they say our vote on the referendum will mean nothing. Why are we voting?