Report on Preferential Treatment Accusations Regarding Seattle Mayor
The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission has published its report on
the infamous Seattle snow scandal of last winter. There were numerous
accusations that the mayor and other top officials had asked for and
been given preferential treatment for their neighborhood when an unusual snowstorm hit Seattle.<br>
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Preferential treatment is one of the thorniest of all ethics issues, as
I explained in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/564" target="”_blank”">a recent blog
post</a>. It is especially thorny when the treatment goes not to the
individual, but to a group that includes the individual. And it becomes
even thornier when not only the politics of elected officials is
involved, but also the internal politics of a city department, in this
case public works.<br>
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<a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2009/06/18/2009356748.pdf" target="”_blank”">The
EC's report</a> is worth reading (it's only five pages). The conclusion
is that there is insufficient evidence to charge the mayor with a
violation. By the way, it was the mayor who requested the investigation,
according to <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009356464_webethics18m…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's Seattle </a><span><a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009356464_webethics18m…; target="”_blank”">Time</a>s.</span><br>
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