Members of the Seattle City Council’s transportation committee are split on whether or not the city should proceed in buying out Pronto, the failed bike share company, for a whopping $1.4 million. At a recent meeting, the proposal (courtesy of Councilmember Mike O’Brien) to buy Pronto deadlocked at a 3-3 vote.
But, just in case you (for some reason) imagine that councilmember are in any way, shape, or form, rational… think again. Via liberal blog Publicola,
“In a little good news for SDOT, two other adversarial proposals—one by council member Lisa Herbold to deny the acquisition and one by council member Tim Burgess for a public/private hybrid model that would have effectively delayed SDOT’s plan and put Pronto out of service for now—lost outright. Herbold’s proposal didn’t get a single vote other than her own.”
The deadlock vote was enough to move the proposal out of committee to the full council. However, it goes without that recommendation of the committee.
So, the Seattle City Council still has the opportunity to spend taxpayer dollars on a failed bike share company that has already been bailed out (without permission) by the Seattle Department of Transportation.
