On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to see either of those run by the Mayor or the City Council. And I like that elections for school board revolve around questions of education and vision for the schools, and not other topics…

OK, you don’t like the general direction of Sound Transit. I find that perplexing, but OK.

But why are you separating out transit as a function that should have this special accountability? Why not vote against Nickels (if you live in Seattle), who after all is the board chair? If I don’t like law enforcement in this city, I can either vote against the mayor or decide other things are more important.

There are a few cases where specific responsibility is separately elected — school board and the Port of Seattle — and those aren’t encouraging examples.

Martin, I’m not saying that directly-elected positions magically solve all problems. I’m simply pointing out how ridiculous the counter-argument from opponents is.

I support governance reform because we have a leadership problem, not because I think a new board would automatically solve our funding problem.

I think we should do only small steps first, however, to avoid even more delay on some of our projects. I think we should merge the three (plus Everett?) county bus agencies into Sound Transit.

How is it a problem if ST is by all accounts a well-run agency? The point is to fix governance, but there’s no evidence that governance is a problem.

Are you suggesting that all public positions should be directly elected to create “direct accountability?”

Should I elect my beat cop? Social worker? My kid’s schoolteacher? After all, they’re not “directly” accountable to me if I happen to like some other things the mayor or school board are doing.

The proposal may or may not be a good one, but of course it is a proposal to solve a problem!

I haven’t heard folks suggest that a directly-elected board would solve our lack of funding, ridiculous tax structure, or cost overruns. Some voters are simply asking for a way to hold ST Board members directly accountable for their decisions and the vision that they lay out for the agency.

Whether or not a directly-elected board, or appointed members like the directors of City Light or KC Election, would help improve that is an unknown… but it is certainly a fact that it is hard to hold politicians accountable for their performance on ST’s Board when voters are reluctant to throw them out of their day jobs.