Expanding on a point from Martin’s post yesterday, the state auditor had a lot of nice things to say about Sound Transit. Here’s the press release.
Check out the video of the auditor’s presentation, especially around 7:38 and 12:45. At the first point, the auditor mentions how good the audit was and that good the performance audit was also good. Then he “steps outside (his) boundaries” and compares and contrasts the Port’s audit against the Sound Transit. At 12:45, the auditor does another backhanded compare and contrast, idenifying ST as an agency in “the good camp” when it comes to full cooperation, as opposed to other un-named agencies (ie, the port) which view audits as a “negative thing” and are unreceptive and unresponsive.
So let’s sum up, according to the auditor, Sound Transit is “definitely” in the “good camp” when it comes to audits, and is doing a “good job” when it comes to accountability. The elected agency Rice-Stanton wants to use to model the Sound Transit replacment? $100 million dollars in waste, criminal investigations, art projects that cost four times their promised cost and the taxpayers can’t even see, and denials from the elected officials that are supposedly more accountable?
Accountable to whom? Definitely not to the taxpayers or the state auditor’s office. If there’s any question whether governance “reform” is about destroying light rail before it’s even born, we can ask anti-rail billionaire Kemper Freeman or anti-rail writer Ted Van Dyk.
That video is extremely boring btw.
What were you expecting? The fanciful Monorail Board circus?
Delivering basic transportation solutions isn’t supposed to be exciting. For some reason, stunted Seattle has decided to spend all their waking hours trying to make it a blood sport.
I am still waiting to see how the goons at the Discovery Institute explain this little conundrum since they are basically trying to re-create the Port Commission with this new Regional Transportation Commission concept.
They claim an elected mega-agency will be more “accountable” but they also want this entity to “make the tough decisions.” As such, they propose 6 year terms for the elected members, ensuring members won’t be too accountable.
What a joke.
For the record, John Stanton is the billionaire. Kemper Freeman may act like he’s a billionaire, but he’s just a run-of-the-mill bullying millionaire.
The one thing both have in common: they think Democracy and public policy are things they should be able to buy.