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Seattle Events This Weekend – March 11, 2010

It’s going to be a big weekend in Seattle for events and activities.  Here are a few of the Seattle events scheduled:

The Snohomish Wine Festival
March 12 – 12pm @ The Snohomish Senior Center

Ballard Art Walk
March 12 – 6pm @ The Ballard District

Seattle Kennel Club Dog Show
March 12 & 13 – 8am to 6pm – Qwest Field Event Center

Irish Festival
March 12 & 13 – @ The Seattle Center (Downtown)

Girls Night Out – Irish Style!
March 13 – 4pm @ Paddy Coyne’s Irish Pub

Adam Carolla
March 13 – 7pm @ Moore Theatre

– Do you want your Seattle event published here next week?  Contact Us to get listed (Free).

Pay For The Port Chief

How much should Public Servants be paid? I think it should be capped at $100,000 to $120,000 except for the Gov. Chris Gregoire. She was paid $166,891 last year. She leads the state and should be paid the most(my opinion). We at least hear about her being on the go and know who she is. How many citizens would know who Tay Yoshitani is if you did a survey? His salary was $334, 300. He is the Port Chief. Evidently he could not squeak by on such a paltry sum and got a 9% raise. He now makes $366,825. The Port Commissioners gave themselves a 3.5% raise. The Port says it expects to get $73.5 million from our property taxes this year. Think of the gazillion dollars the Port handles and the pay checks they must hand out after taxing us out of our homes.

Most of the public service employees like us to believe they are slaving away (like slaves on a plantation) for us. That we should not hesitate to pay more tax and quit asking them what the heck they are really doing for us. There is no way the Port Chief can justify being paid $366,825 by taxpayers. If it were the private sector let them pay whatever they feel he is worth. There is not enough hours in a day for the Chief to do THAT MUCH GOOD FOR US.  There are a lot of really smart people looking for jobs that would gladly work for $100,000 or even $50,000. Why not hire 3 good ones at $100,000 each and one for $$66,825. or 6 good ones at $50,000 and one for $66,825. Let the chief retire on his $100,000 a year pension right now. Re do some contracts as you hire. The so called slaves are bankrupting the plantation at the moment. The state is broke and should almost be embarrasing for the Port.

Seattle’s South Park Bridge Construction & Final Bid

Future South Park Bridge - Seattle WA
Future South Park Bridge - Seattle WA
After accepting bids for the new South Park Bridge for several months, the lowest bidder was revealed yesterday as being Kiewit Massman for $96 million (plus some change). The county estimated the project would cost $98-108 million dollars. Stated as being an “excellent bid” by King County Executive Dow Donstantine – I’m not entirely convinced. We do have a history with the Massman Construction Company, however, they helped build the West Seattle Bridge.  That does give them some brownie points in my opinion since we have worked with them before.  Obviously their bid ($96 million) by Kiewit Massman should raise some flags. Are they really that good to have placed a bid just under our cost expectations or did someone secretely spill the beans. Will they just add on the extra 10 million or so later and call it cost over runs. We will see about that.

What you may not know is that this bridge has been closed for over a year now. The world is still turning and people are still going to work. Is the bridge really a critical pierce of transportation infrastruction that we need to build it now for 100 million? Maybe a better solution is just to give the 10 business next to the bridge (who probably suffered a little) 20K each and call it day.

On the evening of the announcement to the lowest bid, the county threw a “Thank You” party at the Machinist Union Hall.  In attendance was Dow Constantine and Joe McDermott.  Now that was a complete waste of money.

Gas Works Park Seattle

Gas Works Park, located in Seattle Washington, is a very popular destination for relaxation and 4th of July festivities.  The park is approx. 19 acres and spans from the north end of Lake Union to the south end of the Wallingford area.  The park is shared with a gasification plant that used to operate from 1906 – 1956.  The City of Seattle purchased it for park purposed back in 1962. 

Gas Works Park has been featured in several films including Singles and 10 things I hate about you.  The realty show The Amazing Race also featured it twice. 

Gas Works Park was originally named Myrtle Edwards Park.

Protected Class

 Is there such a thing as common sense anymore? I never was for giving protected class status to woman (I am one), minorities, gays or lesbians in jobs or housing. I think it should be entirely up to the landlord or boss as to who he wants to hire or rent to. Now they want to add convicted felons to the protected class. If I hadn’t read it in this mornings paper I would never have believed it. The paper describes a woman with a 20 year old rap sheet, theft, dealing meth, violating a restraining order. Just two years ago she pleaded guilty to multiple counts of identity theft and forgery. She now complains of having difficulty finding a place to live and a job, so she can take care of her daughter(must be entitled to a welfare check for that).

Why would the Office of Civil Rights(we taxpayers pay for that) try to push a law that actually wipes out the Rental Research business of checking renters past history of evictions, paying rent on time, or criminal history.

Washington State Department Of Transportation – Failure Analysis

With all the media attention on the Washington State Department of Transportation (tolls, ferries, traffic, road work) recently, I wanted to dive into the actual financial figures and “try to figure out the system”.  We are all constantly hearing about the ferries losing money or the new 520 tolls starting soon.   It’s on every news channel and it’s a constant reminder of how much we’re losing and how we are going to need to generate more money to make all this work.  The question is, however, do we really need to generate more money?  Are the money problems with management or the process at which communication takes place?  It’s about time we give it a quick analysis to see what is happening. 

First, I am not claiming to know the transportation system in Washington State.  I am just looking at one official financial report (most recent I could find) and giving my honest opinion.

The report is for November 2010 and is based on approx figures.  It states for November 2010 our total revenue was 4.06 billion dollars.  From the pie chart at the top you’ll notice 49% off that revenue is from tax generated from fuel. 

49% of the Washington State Department of Transportation revenue is generated from Gas/Fuel – lets discuss this first.

I am going to jump right to the long term problem with this revenue generating business model.  As a state/country we are pushing for greener operations.  We see it everyday on the TV and new laws are being created to force companies to participate.  New electric vehicles are being manufactured and sold everyday and it appears to be a positive change.   However, this change means that the more we push for green and embrace it the less revenue we are going to have.  Less money goes to must have road repairs and that means less jobs.  I am and I hope you are for a more greener planet.  It provides less pollution and gives us more control over oil but do you see the problem here?  The faster we embrace a change for better (green) the faster revenues will drop.  If this is our biggest transportation revenue source and the Washington State Department of Transportation cannot make the budget work now – how is going to work when this revenue source drops to 25% or less?  That’s a problem and huge transportation financial gap.

Ferry Revenue

From the November 2010 report, it says we generated 301.3 million in revenue from the ferry system (good).  It also says we spent 359.2 million to support the ferry system (bad).  My math says we lost over 50 million for the month of November.  I’m disappointed the report doesn’t provide more details as to where that money was spent exactly (gas/management/repairs etc).  The public needs to know the details so change can be made to support the ferries.  It generates a good amount of money and we need to figure out where that money truly is going.

Rental Car Tax & Vehicle Sales Tax (Revenue)

The rental car tax revenue came to 43.7 million and our total vehicle sales tax revenue came to 54 million.  I didn’t expect these figures to be almost the same since when you buy a car the sales tax is usually thousands of dollars and rental car tax is under $10 dollars. 

In our next report we’ll discuss where our revenue is going.

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Firing So Called Public Servants

The firing of Maria Goodloe-Johnson really brought things to light that I doubt taxpayers ever knew. First her salary was more than double what it should have been compared to the private sector.  This proves that saying  you have to pay a bloated salary to get good help does not work. She really screwed up by saying that the 1.8 million(that we know about) was so far down the line she knew nothing about it shows she was completely out of touch.

To rub salt in our wound they have to pay her full salary and benefits for a whole year. If a private sector worker is fired and is making $20,000 or so a year, someone will just come hand him/her a box and stand there until they pack their personal belongings and then walk them to the door.

She has not been at work(at the job I should say) for quite awhile and now will get a whole years vacation for doing a rotten job. In a real world she should have to pay back what she LOST FOR THE DISTRICT  and some penalties or go to jail. She should not be rewarded.

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Hardwood Flooring In Seattle

There is nothing better than a clean house and a clean floor. If you have carpet through out your house, you know after a while the carpet starts to wear down and maybe even starts to smell. We live in Seattle so I know what I am talking about. This weather, dirt, and animals can do some damage. Many families have pets and that animal smell just doesn’t go way. Hardwood flooring has been proven to stay cleaner and last longer than carpet. With hardwood flooring in Seattle, your condo or house gives you a better living environment. The hardwood flooring can be cleaned in just a few minutes with a broom where as it would take 15-20 min with carpet. Then you would also have to deal with the dirty vacuum bags after.

When selecting the right company to install your hardwood flooring in Seattle, make sure you ask the right questions and see some examples of wood flooring types. There are many types to consider like maple, oak, and even bamboo flooring. You’ll want to ask them what their experience is and how long the job is going to take. If using an independent hardwood flooring installer you may even want to get an Agreement in place to make sure you get things in writing.

They say carpet lasts about 7 years so it can be a heft price for home ownership. You can only clean it so much then it just continues to look dirty even after cleaning it. We are so happy with our new hardwood floors and they should last the lifetime of our home. We probably will have to treat them (sanding etc) at some point but that is going to be a long time down the road. I also have asthma so our home is just more sanitary/clean with the hardwood flooring which helps me personally.

Here are some of the top hardwood flooring cleaning companies in Seattle Washington.

Weaver Remodeling – Kirkland, WA

Marx Construction – Seattle, WA

The Problem With Maria Goodloe Johnson And Seattle Schools

Maria Goodloe Johnson Seattle

As you know, Maria Goodloe Johnson was recently fired as the Seattle Public Schools Superintendent.  She most likely will not apologize for her actions and didn’t even attempt to keep her job.  It turns out she was making approx. $264,000 per year and is entitled to an additional $264,000 after she was fired per her severance contract terms.  Don Kennedy, the school’s Chief Financial Officer, was also fired without cause.  Mr. Don Kennedy was making approx. $174,000 per year and is entitled to $87,000 (half) after he was terminated. As we all know, that is how government works.  They create contracts that none of us regular people would ever get if employed. We would be immediately terminated without notice but not when you have a leadership position with the city.  I guess that makes you better than everyone else.

After reading those facts several things come to my mind.  First, lets talk about skills and education.  There are many well-educated school officials available all over the USA.  We all know (if not – you should) that everyone is dispensable and a few job wanted ads in some of major publications will result in more qualified talent then we can handle.  They will come from every state far and wide to work in the Seattle School District.  No severance or contract would even be required.  Maria Goodloe Johnson and Don Kennedy are not “that special” when it comes to their skills and education.  I understand from a public relations aspect Seattle School Officials want the public to feel “confident” in their hiring decisions but their process and the “value” they place in these individuals is overrated.  If they really wanted to make a change, with would hire them just like everyone else.  We all should be equals when it comes to hiring and firing.

From a money perspective, they obviously are being way overpaid.  Seattle doesn’t care about their spending and will just make up another law to take more taxes from you. It’s the democrats way to spend more than they have then claim they are broke and require more. In regards to salaries, $120,000 should be the cap for upper management.  Like most positions – there should be no severance terms.  You get hired and fired just like everyone else.  It’s not needed and wouldn’t hinder the resumes from pouring in.  This of course is the problem, Seattle leadership has created a monster and are now stuck with their bad policies and procedures.  Changing these procedures would be a public relations nightmare and cast someone being a dictator or extremist. 

Scandal:

There was an Audit published on February 23 that disclosed that the district expended over $1.5 million on endeavors of dubious public value, and nearly $300,000 on services that were not received. They found it to have, “questionable public purpose”.

Update 2023: Despite her efforts to address the district’s academic achievement gap and to improve overall student performance, her tenure was marred by a financial scandal involving a district-run small-business contracting development program. Maria Goodloe-Johnson passed away in 2012. The exact cause of death is unknown but family members stated she was sick for a year prior. She was 55.

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