Seattle Dems protect transpo chief despite mismanagement, incompetency

The State Senate Republicans’ decision to fire State Department of Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson due to mismanagement and incompetency gave KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson an interesting idea. According to Monson, the same reasons that led to the dismissal of Peterson (she couldn’t properly manage the budget and she wasn’t properly prioritizing projects) could be applied to Seattle Department of Transportation Director Scott Kubly.

Monson suggested that the City of Seattle should follow Senate Republicans’ lead and sack Kubly. Monson stated,

“Ed Murray, it’s time for you to admit that you made an even more egregious selection when you picked Scott Kubly to head up Seattle’s DOT… He cannot manage a project or a budget, his prioritization on bicycle lanes is grid-locking the city even more so than it was when he took over, he wants to spend another $1.4 million on the absolutely failed Pronto bike share system. The difference between the state and the city, is the state has Republicans as a voice of dissent, the city of Seattle does not.

“But it’s time for Scott Kubly to be called out the same way that Lynn Peterson was because the man is incompetent at his job… All you have to do is look at the gridlock that has completely engulfed Seattle and you know the truth of what I’m talking about.”

Truly, it is shocking what Kubly has been able to get away with as head of SDOT. Only last November Kubly was exposed a liar when he claimed the city did not have enough money to follow through on a promise made to voters in 2006.

The city promised to “reduce the maintenance backlog, pave 360 miles, replace and rehab bridges, and make other improvements” if voters approved a $365 million property tax levy it named “Bridging the Gap.” Voter approved it. After paving 311 miles, Kubly claimed the city was out of money and could not deliver the full 360 miles it promised.

But, that wasn’t true. The city actually collected more money than it expected. Officials just chose not to do what they promised.

By the end of 2015, the city actually collected $25 million more than projected, for a grand total of $569 million. When pressed by KIRO 7, SDOT finally admitted that a lack of funds was not an issue. It merely prioritized other projects (like bike lanes of little use) over keeping its promise to voters.

Yet, despite all the broken promises, Kubly has retained his position because, after all, Seattle is a city run by Democrats. And, as we witnessed by their reaction to Peterson’s firing, Democrats don’t really care whether or not their people are mismanaging entire government agencies as long as their lefty agenda is being pushed.