A green slate for Seattle City Council?

Many know Michael O'Brien as the face of the Sierra Club and its crushing opposition to the Roads and Transit package, an initiative that — thanks in part to his efforts — went down in defeat in 2007. Now, fresh off helping to pass the Sound Transit ballot measure last year, O'Brien's running for Seattle City Council in 2009. And he insists he's a pragmatist.

Not surprisingly, the issues he's most interested in are the environment and transportation. "Especially as it relates to global warming,” O'Brien, who isn't a coffee drinker, says over an apple at Fremont's Caffe Vita. “We have to stop making short-term trade-offs to the detriment of our long-term health....Elected officials, with few examples, are reluctant to lead, make the hard decisions."

O'Brien spent a decade as the chief financial officer at Seattle law firm Stokes Lawrence before becoming chairman of Sierra Club's Cascade Chapter, a post he left last weekend. He insists that the way to lead isn't to pit one vision of Seattle against another, but to bridge that divide. "It's not the environment versus the economy," he explains. "We need to reach a shared vision, and work on all angles to get there."

O'Brien, though, is still steamed over an issue that's long divided many in these parts: the Alaskan Way Viaduct. As a member of the stakeholder committee monitoring the past year's efforts to find a resolution, he says he was shocked by the last-minute, end-run plan that proposes to both improve surface streets and dig a deep-bore tunnel. Though this idea — blessed by Gov. Chris Gregoire, Mayor Greg Nickels, and King County Executive Ron Sims — is now up for consideration in Olympia, O'Brien is not joining the tunnel party. He says the discussion “is not over.”

“People are still concerned,” he says. “Many felt the governor, the mayor, and Sims pulled the rug out from under us.” But O'Brien admits he's not sure how to actively fight the plan now, and he worries that an initiative to block the idea, now seeking signatures, could further delay a solution. “I'm not sure that's the best way to solve the problem,” he says.

Still, as he launches his campaign, O'Brien acknowledges that the viaduct issue may be part of his platform. And if elected, he says he'll use his seat on city council to potentially challenge pieces of the construction that Seattle may ultimately be responsible for, like moving the utilities and rebuilding the seawall. “Right now, I don't see where the path is to get what I want for the waterfront, but I see [the viaduct] as a way to talk about some of these choices,” he says.

Council candidates should be cautious about keeping up that years-long fight, warns Cary Moon, founder of the People's Waterfront Coalition and a vocal supporter of the surface/transit option for replacing the viaduct. “There's idealism and there's political reality,” she says. “While there's still a lot of concern, it's probably not the right time to attack it.”

With the emergence of O'Brien and other council candidates like King County Parks' Jesse Israel, Maple Leaf Community Council's David Miller, and political consultant and People's Waterfront Coalition member Tim Killian, there's growing talk about the potential for an informal “environmental slate.”

O'Brien says he's been in touch with some of his fellow competitors including: Israel, Miller, former Allied Arts co-chair and former King County chief civil deputy Sally Bagshaw, and the twice-before council candidate Robert Rosencrantz. “I've talked with them about policy and experience and our thinking is similar,” O'Brien says, adding with a smile that he and Rosencrantz don't always agree on the specifics. “We've all talked about the willingness to make change by taking bold steps.” But O'Brien says he's not scheming to put together a green slate, at least not now. “If it turns out that people who get similar endorsements end up sitting next to me on the council, that would be great. But that's not what this is about.”

Slates, at least overt ones, are usually political liabilities in Seattle politics, where they can seem like cabals. Moon says a green slate might not be such a good idea. “The environmental community has been branded as anti-business and anti-reality,” she explains. “We have to build a business/environment coalition... figure this thing out together." She thinks O'Brien's at least one of the people for this job. “I think he's got a clear vision, respecting what's great about Seattle, but he also understands what changes need to be made to have a green economy,” Moon says.

He also receives praise from the Washington Conservation Voters. Spokesperson Sudha Nandagopal says O'Brien has “built up a lot of respect and a great relationship in the environmental community.” “It's great to see a list of candidates like Mike and Jesse Israel who come from a tradition of working in the environmental community and believe in these issues,” she adds. Though she stressed it's much too soon to talk endorsements, Nandagopal says WCV's picks will be one way for voters to determine the so-called green slate.