Greg Nickels: giving toughness a bad name
Real leaders are tough and use fear as a technique. The problem with Mayor Nickels is that he uses intimidation when it serves no purpose, and confuses disagreement with disloyalty. Here are some lessons from LBJ.
Former Seattle City Council President Peter Steinbrueck last weekend indicted Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels for what he termed a "Gestapo-like regime" which operated in "a threatening, punitive" fashion and with "a punishment/reward mentality — mostly punishment." Was that fair?
Many City Council members, senior city employees, public-interest and neighborhood advocates tell a story of a regime that gratuitously attempts to intimidate, even when intimidation serves no purpose. One city appointee, favorably disposed toward both Nickels and Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis, puts it this way: "I don't get it. They threaten and treat rudely people who ought to be on their side."
What happened to the Greg Nickels of eight years ago, the amiable homeboy from West Seattle who was expected to look after neighborhood interests? Some say Ceis is the heavy, that Nickels is the puppet and Ceis is the puppet master. ("Greg Nickels is the guy to see to see Tim Ceis," the gag goes). But I have yet to see a deputy who was not acting exactly as his boss wanted him to act.
No, I think these guys have simply seen too many movies, and read too many novels, about big-city bosses and think that is the way to act. They might be surprised to learn that real leaders don't act that way — even the toughest ones.
President Lyndon Johnson once told a meeting of White House staff that "a real leader is someone you would not cross, because you know something bad would happen to you if you did." All effective public and private-sector leaders must be able to generate at least a bit of fear as well as generating respect and loyalty. But when LBJ talked about "crossing" a leader he did not define "crossing" as disagreeing with his policies. He respected his critics in the Congress and private sector, and encouraged his Cabinet and staff to speak frankly to him. But he had no patience whatever with those who talked one way and acted another — for example, a Senator or Congressman who pledged his vote on a legislative issue and then broke his word and voted the other way.
His Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, argued strongly in White House meetings for escalations and increased troop levels in Vietnam. Yet, at Georgetown dinner parties, he painted himself as a dissenter trying to restrain LBJ. Johnson called McNamara into his office, told him he was done as Defense Secretary, and informed him he had been nominated as president of the World Bank.
No President in modern history, except for Richard Nixon, has set out from the beginning to attempt intimidation of the Congress, those with a policy disagreement, or his own appointees. Nixon's paranoia led him to the Watergate break-in, illegal wiretaps, and other excesses directed toward his imagined enemies. But he was too professional to treat everyone that way. As most professional politicians, he subscribed to the old rule that it was better to "make friends, not enemies."
The Seattle City Council has invited its own intimidation. It has the power of the purse. It can stop or revise any budget or other proposal coming from the mayor. If it finds that the mayor, as Nickels has done, has ordered city department heads to withhold information from the Council, it can bring his agenda to a dead stop until the information is supplied. Yet if the Nickels administration is the most clumsy, bullying administration I have observed at any level of government, the City Council is the most supine and ineffectual.
Only Council member Nick Licata, a frequent Nickels critic, and outgoing Coucil member Jan Drago, Nickels' prime Council ally, have demonstrated any consistent attempt at leadership. Other Council members have for the most part been well meaning but, mainly, weak followers. Nickels has exhibited consistent contempt for the Council; the Council, in turn, has earned it.
A Council presentation several months ago (billed as its exposition of priorities for the year ahead) was an empty show-and-tell in which each committee chair briefly mentioned one or two matters expected to be on that committee's agenda. No substantive opinions were expressed. I expected President Richard Conlin to sum things up by listing the Council's overall one-two-three priorities for the year. Nope, that was all there was.
After Nickels presented a several-hundred-million dollar Mercer Project proposal, the Council adopted Licata's proposal that no go-ahead be given until reliable cost estimates were submitted by a calendar deadline. When the deadline passed, and no estimates had been submitted, Drago proposed that a green light be given anyway. Except for Licata, Council members shifted and went with Nickels/Drago. Afterward a Council member, known to be critical of the project, said: "I would have voted no but I did not want to be in the minority." Pathetic.
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Comments:
Posted Fri, Jun 19, 6:31 a.m. inappropriate
Ted--
It's interesting, too, that Steinbrueck is saying this now. I would have more respect for him as a potential mayor if he'd had said this while in office. The group-think that goes on in city hall is the down fall of he Nickels era. He wanted to be mayor forever but ultimately didn't realize that the problems the city faces, not the city council, are the real challenge. There's a world of real people out there that Nickels has isolated himself from.
Posted Fri, Jun 19, 8:17 a.m. inappropriate
Peter was unfortunately short on examples, although I noticed a piece in the Weakly that speaks to the mayor's bullying, the revenge he took on Queen Anne after neighbors, with the council and especially Peter's leadership, rejected the mayor's plan for replacing Fire Station 20. Despite the public safety issue - a matter of life and death - an angry and embarrassed mayor told the community their station was being put on the back burner, so there! The Weakly reports it is so far on the back burner now that it is no longer funded and won't even be on the Fire Levy reconstruction schedule until next mid-decade - if then.
Posted Fri, Jun 19, 8:55 a.m. inappropriate
Perceptive comments above. Speaking of "short on examples" , I would be interested in one or two examples of
"dumb, hugely expensive, and largely in the interests of Nickels' principal financial and political backers."
I think anyone in the Mayor's position would have had his patience tried by the saga of Fire Station 20. I do not believe the absence of a replacement for Fire Station 20 is a matter of life and death. It's more like one of the thousands of "seismic upgrades" that await a proper bond issue window of opportunity.
Posted Fri, Jun 19, 9:11 a.m. inappropriate
The fine comments on LBJ need to be amended by the unfortunate truth that the fellow who had no problem picking a dog up by its long ears was afraid to be known as being a mr. softee on commies, which other-directedness, which cowardice, then ruined all his best laid plans. alas.
Posted Fri, Jun 19, 9:46 a.m. inappropriate
Kieth: Some of the examples.
. The hundreds of millions proposed for a Mercer Project, designed mainly to conform to Vulcan Inc.'s development plans for South Lake Union, which
would not ease one bit the traffic congestion of the so-called Mercer Mess.
The city transportation department reported that a much lesser expenditure could provide genuine congestion relief.
. The construction of the Allentown Trolley, between Westlake Center and
South Lake Union---again, principally to benefit Vulcan's development.
It carries few passengers and adds to the Mercer Mess. Citizens and area businesses were taxed to pay for it; bus service in outlying neighborhoods was reduced to make budget room.
. The Mayor's single-minded insistence, as Sound Transit chair and mayor,
on completing a regional light rail system which will carry far fewer passengers, from a few fixed-point stations, to fewer destinations than
comparable bus rapid transit and normal bus service would do for far less money. Studies indicate it will not relieve traffic congestion---although
it will provide billions to the contractors, sub-contractors, law firms,
p.r. firms, consultants and others who have a piece of the action (and support Nickels' campaigns financially). As former WSDOT Secretary Doug MacDonald put it the other day: "Light rail is not a transportation project; it is a construction project." The tax monies allocated to
regional light rail, via the initiative finally passed (after earlier rejection) last year, constitute the largest local-level tax increase in the history of the United States.
. The mayor's original tunnel proposal (for an Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement), which slowed the replacement process for many years.
His revised tunnel proposal now is backed by the state (Highway 99 is a state highway) but its cost estimates are shaky and now are coming
under increasing scrutiny.
. His sponsorship of tax levies for purposes which should have been paid for out of the regular city budget. For several years, Nickels
neglected regular road, highway and bridge maintenance--which had been
budgeted for---and spent the money on other purposes. Then he sponsored
an "emergency" levy to pay for repairs and maintenance he should have been doing year-to-year.
. His present suggestion of a larger street car system, to be added to the Allentown line, even though any respectable transportation or financial
analyst will attest that streetcars are a far less cost-effective transportation option than normal bus service. (Again, think of MacDonald's characterization of such projects as "construction projects, not transportation projects").
. A whole series of zoning, building-code and other decisions aimed at
maximizing development, even when such development would adversely
impact the character of city neighborhoods. Large-scale developers have been those most favored.
All of these things are entirely in accord with the old political golden rule: Namely, those with the gold rule.
But we elect our mayor to serve the interests of all our citizens---to provide public safety, basic services, public transportation, and amenities which will provide a better city at tax levels affordable both to citizens and local businesses. Nickels, instead, has pursued classic tax-and-spend strategies which have helped please his principal benefactors---especially with huge, costly projects and subsidies---but not served the ordinary people who would like to continue living and working here.
Posted Fri, Jun 19, 10:50 a.m. inappropriate
Thank you Ted for this concise argument against our current mayor. Let me just add that, if you judged merely by the City of Seattle’s various web pages, it would seem that he is a complete ego maniac. I would venture that there are as many pictures of him there as there are of the Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang. It’s a little strange.
In the dark recesses of my mind I can see, in the event of his re-election, a $200 million project ( officially an "eco friendly sundial") to erect a 250ft statue of our immortal leader on Alki (renamed Gregville) gazing steadily, expectantly, out over the waters of Puget Sound, hand outstretched as if one moment before receiving a campaign donation check, shoulders squared, and his back facing Seattle
Posted Fri, Jun 19, 12:12 p.m. inappropriate
To Keith: I reread the story and others about Station 20, and it truly is a serious situation - even the city admits that, saying it was one of the facilities most in need of replacement ("the station long ago reached the end of its useful building life"), and is way too small to serve the area's fire-danger needs...so small that a firefighter has to sleep in the kitchen!
Posted Fri, Jun 19, 1:04 p.m. inappropriate
This piece really hits the nail: an excellent analysis of what's wrong with Nickels as a mayor. On paper he looks like he should be widely popular and considered successful, but the social ineptitude of his leadership style undermines everything.
Talking about the mayor's race with friends, one friend succinctly said that "The way he acts, it just doesn't seem like Nickels is actually from Seattle."
Posted Fri, Jun 19, 6:11 p.m. inappropriate
I am not an enthusiastic defender of the Mayor but anyone who gets such uniformly negative coverage ( "...he may have crossed a picket line in RI..." wow!!) should get at least get credit for some obvious good moves.
One, housing prices are down, remember when housing cost was public enemy number one? this is because developers overbuilt; that's how price inflation has historically been controlled. It happened after World War II and after the Boeing bust and we can thank our Mayor for not getting (excessively) in developers way; those folks now have to unload a bunch of housing. Prices should and will go down. About half of the stuff built was and is high quality. Red tape and brainless regulations? yes, but blame the council; they love being "designers".
The 12 billion dollar tunnel was likely a necessary step on the way to what I hope is something better. The deep bore tunnel is a harsh compromise and I don't think anyone, back in 2004, would have cheerfully given up the Downtown and Ballard connections (they don't now). There probably has to be an initial "loaded" version of big public works where every goal is made part of the program. Then you look at what you can afford. Nickels was not the only player who ignored the deep bore tunnel (and in ten years we all may wish it had been ignored forever).
Encouraging Paul Allen in his South Lake Union investment is probably a good thing for Seattle. Allen is a patient investor; he must be taking a bath on those buildings but, over time that area could become an employment center of significant proportions. I am agnostic on the streetcar but I think the Mercer changes are a benefit to the entire city and not just Paul Allen. I think Nickels should get credit for not insisting that every change to city streets must increase traffic capacity and, it seems to me, that is the principal criticism of the project.
Tax levies for operating expenses? I think Nickels is less guilty of that than his predecessors but if you have a voting population that never turns down a levy the temptation must be great. By the way, which levies are you referring to? the Pike Market levy was the only one I saw as subsidizing operating expenses but I do not recall that Nickels was a big supporter of that.
The homely virtues of bus service? I am with you, buses are great but are you blaming Nickels for Sound Transit? that surprises me. I admit it is news to me that Greg Nickels had that much influence. Buses don't have the cachet of rail. Its not Nickels' fault. The electorate bought it.
I am sure Nickels would admit to admiring Mayor Daley more than Mayor Lindsay; it's his choice and he gets voted up or down. Seems fair. I think he's done well.
Respectfully,
Posted Fri, Jun 19, 8:35 p.m. inappropriate
Kieth,
I can buy your hick, mostly tongue in cheek style here, but on Sound Transit you sound dead serious:
"are you blaming Nickels for Sound Transit? that surprises me. I admit it is news to me that Greg Nickels had that much influence" -
where you been, off snoozing with Rip Van Winkle?
Posted Sat, Jun 20, 8:52 a.m. inappropriate
Today's story in the Times about the $500,000 spent on the Transportation Department investigation -- investigating things like personnel practices, discrimination, etc. -- is a good example of what's wrong here. Rather than facing up to the fact that the management here is abysmal ... well, the answer to that is to just study it, to the tune of about a half million dollars? And we wonder why the public is skeptical, especially of those high department head salaries. Sad, sad.
Posted Sat, Jun 20, 12:26 p.m. inappropriate
kieth,
Spending the $200 million (at least!) earmarked for what are largely cosmetic improvements to Mercer Street has very little citywide utility or value compared to the benefits that would accrue from unfunded and necessary maintenance projects such as the replacement of the Magnolia and 16th Avenue South bridges, the Lander Street overpass, or hundreds of neighborhood transportation projects.
Mercer will certainly be pedestrian-friendly when you combine peak hour and event traffic without the capacity offered by the current Mercer/Valley one-way couplets though. Well, assuming pedestrians don't mind a little vehicle exhaust from thousands of idling cars.
Posted Sat, Jun 20, 2:58 p.m. inappropriate
Bubbleator, thank you for your comments.
The present situation south of Lake union is a disgrace. Existing right-of-ways (Broad, Mercer Fairview, Westlake) have been sacrificed to the service of Interstate 5; it is a nest of exit and on-ramps. Rectifying this and going back to a system of two-way streets is more than cosmetic. It helps save the utility of a large, important part of the city that has been misused for about 30 years. It could help make South Lake Union a significant employment center for Seattle. It does at least contribute to the quest of making Fred Hutchinson, University of Washington and other nearby players in medical/research technology into a critical mass. Will it work? I sure don't know but at least it is part of a strategy, not just fixing things that might not meet current seismic standards or that have some contaminated soil to deal with. ("...necessary maintenance projects")
I personally doubt if replacing the Magnolia bridge will be done for $200 million but, even if so, where's the payoff in that? population of Magnolia is 20k? (that would be $10k each) how much bridge do they need? they seemed to get along OK when the bridge was shut down for about a year.
The 16th Avenue South bridge is a different matter but, again, is $200 M going to replace it (it's a lift bridge, right?) and, if so, does it do Seattle a lot of good? or just two or three trucking firms. If Boeing wants it we gotta do it but I have not heard anyone make that claim.
I don't think the South Lake Union plan will make the area pedestrian friendly (except when compared to what it is now) but since the Sonics departed event traffic (seems to me) to be less of an issue. I think the SLU project looks forward to the time when automobile transportation is less overwhelmingly dominant than it is now and I think that's the way they should be thinking.
Posted Sat, Jun 20, 7:33 p.m. inappropriate
The automobile is not going away Keith, oil is. Cars do not always equal oil.
None of these trolley/streetcars will ever reach the Haller Lake area, annexed more than 50 years ago on the promise of sidewalks yet to be delivered.
There is more of Haller Lake hood served by open ditches than it is by sidewalks/busses/trolleys/streatcars combined.
To Hell with the mayor of downtown, and his partner on the council Jan Drago.
Posted Sat, Jun 20, 8:56 p.m. inappropriate
By Kieth's rationale, I suppose we shouldn't have renovated the Jose Rizal Bridge or finish the impending work on the 45th Street Viaduct or the 15th Ave NE trestles, either.
As a Seattle resident, I feel a lot better served by a Mayor (and Council) that focuses on necessary maintenance projects (you know, things like
aging bridges which serve major city neighborhoods that make the Alaskan Way Viaduct look like the Rock of Gibraltar) throughout the City rather than on subsidizing discretionary Downtown economic development projects.
Put another way, I think that projects that meet basic needs of those who live and pay taxes in Seattle now (or improvements that were promised 50 years ago as a condition of being annexed to Seattle) ought to take priority over projects designed for people electeds hope might move here.
Posted Sun, Jun 21, 1:41 a.m. inappropriate
Oh, and Olaf - just to prove my dyed-in-the-wool liberal credentials, here's a funny true story.
Back in the early 1970's when my family lived in Montlake (so long ago that the combined effects of the Boeing Bust and the impending eminent domain threat posed by the RH Thompson freeway actually made a lot of that now upscale hood kinda sketchy and therefore affordable), my parents had an ancient (or so it seemed even when I was a wee tot) Volvo station wagon that they named - wait for it - Olaf.
One of my earliest memories of Seattle is the family heading down the 45th Street Viaduct in Olaf with the loose rear passenger door banging around a bit as I looked down on the old Darigold facility that has now been subsumed by U-Village. And, at the time, Olaf wore a "Don't blame me - I voted for McGOvern" bumper sticker.
This is all completely irrelevant, of course, but near as I can tell Crosscut is the only place where those kind of old Seattle anecdotes would be appreciated, so there it is....
Posted Sun, Jun 21, 8:13 a.m. inappropriate
DEBO,
That is just about the most hypocritcal statement I have ever heard coming from a member of the Washington State legislature. No wonder things are in the dumper at both the State and the City..Ok Ok the County too.
Posted Sun, Jun 21, 9:50 a.m. inappropriate
That Van Dyk attracts a handful of homogeneous minds may socially validate his ideas, but that does not make them reasonable observations. Nickels, and the cast of characters he's assembled, have proven incompetent in heading a large and complex social organization. All the charges Van Dyk levels against Nickels are equally markers of incompetence. That Van Dyk personalizes matters is a mark of the quality his character, not Nickels.
Further, Nickels incompetence does not confer competence on any challenger--particularly a has-been challenger that presumably weighed his own odds and found them poor; Van Dyk's insistence that Steinbrueck would defeat Nickels flies in the face of Steinbrueck's own assessment and speaks to a low quality of thought and analysis.
And there you have it: this is not political analysis. This is ax-grinding. Just start here: "No, I think these guys have simply seen too many movies, and read too many novels, about big-city bosses and think that is the way to act." Ridiculous. The tour of the addled memories of a aging man proved modestly interesting, but I fail to see how the detour informs Seattle's current mayoral race. Further, it would seem LBJ and Nixon proved paranoid--not tough--and in the end rather pathetic.
Posted Sun, Jun 21, 12:20 p.m. inappropriate
Thanks to all for your comments. A bit puzzled by the last ones, from Gregory Wade. I have no ax to grind regarding Greg Nickels or any other political figure. My motives are quite simple: As someone from this area, returned home 8 1/2 years ago, and who has spent a lifetime in policy/politics, I want my city and state governed responsibly and wisely.
My critique of the Nickels administration, both regarding form and substance, is laid out above---in the article itself and, in particular, in my responses to kieth, who asked for some concrete illustrative examples of misguided and/or destructive Nickels initiatives. I was tough on the Council too.
I may be aging---we all are---but I do not deal in addled memories. I prefer to focus on public issues and alternative ways to address them. The consideration of policy options, and their relative costs and benefits, is something commonly done at national level but almost entirely missing at state, county and city level here. The Nickels initiatives I cited, above, are illustrations of local practice...what I call the Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland style of governance ("I've got a great idea," Mickey says, "let's put on a show! "Yeh," Judy responds, "we could set up a stage in the old barn!" Next thing you know Mickey, Judy and a hundred friends are singing and dancing on a stage to an applauding audience). You could in these parts substitute a light rail system, monorail system, Allentown trolley, extended streetcar line, Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement, expensive Mercer Project, and many other matters for Mickey and Judy's barn show. No one, at the outset, asks: What are the various options for addressing a problem? What are the costs and benefits of each? Which would provide the greatest public benefit at least public cost? If such entry-level questions are not asked, then we will keep getting ad hoc answers, usually sponsored by those with a financial interest in them, which are costly and ineffective. The Nickels administration specializes in the latter. Ordinary voters and taxpayers pay the price.
You can call these observations what you will but they are based on long prior experience. If, in my judgment, Nickels and/or the Council had
performed constructively and professionally, I would be the first to say so.
Posted Sun, Jun 21, 1:18 p.m. inappropriate
To my way of thinking, the most accurate definition of Nickels is in the Random House Unabridged Dictionary: BULLY--"a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing peron who badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people; to act the bully towards; intimidate, domineer." Nickel even has his own 'gang' to enforce the intimidation.
We've all been around people like Nickels since childhood. If we can,we avoid them to protect ourselves. His administration is known for its controlling and 'my way or no way' attidude. McGinn has taken on Nickel's 'tunnel project'. Whereas Steinbrueck gives us the language, Licata, Bloom, Miller [and even Drago] give us the moral backbone.
Posted Sun, Jun 21, 4:08 p.m. inappropriate
Mr. Van D: speaking of addled memories; just which local politician argued against Sound Transit? I honestly do not remember...yes, I do remember that Ron Sims made some bleating noises on the last bond issue but I think you strain your argument to hang whatever is bad about ST on Greg Nickels. It cost too much, yes, but so is all the other stuff we are semi-obliged to do in the next ten years. I will agree with you that we could have bought some righteous bus service for that colossal amount of money but, to my recollection, no elected official, county or city stood up and tried to sell that. Private citizens, yes, but the elected guys all hid.
Posted Mon, Jun 22, 6:18 p.m. inappropriate
Seattle has always been a follower, but the Policy Analysts on Council's Central Staff were encouraged to think independently enough to regularly save us from one set of enthusiastic Kids in the Barn after another. Thanks to all of Ted's critics who prompted him to finally spit out what the difficulty is that has become a real problem.
One had to get deeply involved with some issue or other before even learning that the Policy Analysts exist. What amazed me when I did and does to this day is what kind of institutional memory it must take to keep such a wonderful idea going strong after some long ago genius dreamed it. I have never been able to uncover what the City's mayors use to analyze policy, and especially what Nickels did/does after severing the links between city departments and the Council and its Central Staff.
I haven't looked lately, but I doubt they stopped writing books and teaching classes on how to become a damn good Policy Analyst. But talk about unsung heros. When Bob Morgan retired a little while ago, the City lost a huge chunk of what little institutional memory it had left. I may be an old fuddy-duddy too, but I don't think that simply reporting on how many other cities are doing something, or calling planners analysts because they are the only ones who "understand" overly complex codes is what that long ago genius had in mind. Very distressing.
Posted Tue, Jun 23, 11:29 a.m. inappropriate
My first personal impression of Greg Nickels came in a December 2001 conference in San Francisco, where I happened to sit 3 empty seats away from him on the same row listening to someone talk about how that city's Embarcadero Freeway was dismantled after earthquake damage. At the question period, Greg raised his hand and asked, "How did (the speaker) get people to go along with removing the waterfront freeway." Greg wanted tips on leadership.
At the time, I had drawn a detailed cross-sectional view of Alaskan Way sans AWV. So, at the next convenient moment I presented a copy of the drawing to him saying, "Excuse me, would you have a look at this drawing of Seattle's waterfront?" Greg gave me a look like I was a leper and took the map daintily between thumb and forefinger like a soiled diaper and dropped it beside him with a look of annoyance and no verbal reply. How dare I, some nobody, bother hizzoner? Harrumph.
Eight years later, very little of Nickels' record in office to me indicates he's changed his ways.
Posted Wed, Jun 24, 5:30 p.m. inappropriate
Greg Nickels is George Bush. Tim Ceis is Carl Rove. It's as simple as that.
Posted Tue, Jun 30, 9:12 a.m. inappropriate
If Greg Nickels is George Bush, and Tim Ceis is Karl Rove, who is the Barack Obama?
Posted Wed, Jul 22, 12:09 a.m. inappropriate
"The construction of the Allentown Trolley, between Westlake Center and
South Lake Union---again, principally to benefit Vulcan's development.
It carries few passengers and adds to the Mercer Mess. Citizens and area businesses were taxed to pay for it; bus service in outlying neighborhoods was reduced to make budget room."
Are you taking into account that the Streetcar is an improvement to the neigborhood and improving property taxes and thus the local businesses should pay. Allentown as you call it shared its costs of the trolley based on its actual benefit, just like the condo and business owners in the area. The city had the streetcar investment was paid nearly without any city budget dollars. I think you could benefit from an interview with Richard Conlin about this.