Socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant is concerned over the “lack of transparency” in Seattle city government, this time regarding the city being over budget on a project to update billing systems for two agencies.
And, rather than accepting any responsibility as a committee chairperson who oversaw City Light, she’s blaming Mayor Ed Murray for it.
Sawant told KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz, “There’s a trend here of a lack of transparency and I think members of the public should think about this and I think really what is warranted is an audit of the entire budget.”
The new billing system being created for Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities is “$34 million over budget and likely to be about a year late” and that has Sawant upset. According to Sawant, the problem “passed through without notice because the mayor’s office failed to highlight the matter during the budgeting process late last year.” Via MyNorthwest.com:
“‘There are many different parts of the budget where the mayor’s office could have, and should have if they were doing their due diligence, indicated that this project is running $20 million over budget,’ she said.
“‘They should have shouted it off the rooftops. That’s what transparency and accountability mean. But they didn’t do that,’ she said. ‘Now the project has gone another $20 million over budget, which they would need the council to approve this year…
“‘It’s a private contractor that’s doing this, (PricewaterhouseCoopers),’ she added. ‘They are not directly accountable to the public in any way but the mayor is accountable, the city council members are accountable.’”
Sawant is correct (never thought we’d use those words) in being upset about the fact that the new billing system is over budget and on time. But, it is also typical – a fact that makes Sawant’s reaction to the latest debacle very hypocritical.
You see, it’s interesting that Sawant isn’t equally as upset with the fact that the City of Seattle decided to purchase a failed bike share company without even look at all the details (she, in fact, voted for the purchase). As Shift reported, the city failed to properly vet Pronto before spending a whopping $1.4 million of taxpayer dollars (not including the millions more it is expected to pump into the company to keep it alive).
We don’t recall hearing Sawant’s criticism when news concerning Pronto broke. But, that’s because a government purchase of a bike share company (even a failed one) fits the far-Left “green” narrative.
It’s all very hypocritical… but that’s not something that has ever bothered socialist Sawant.
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