Danny Westneat / Times staff columnist
Monorail vote fault of judges

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Yet on Nov. 2, we lucky Seattleites get to vote — for the fourth time! — on whether to build a monorail.

We will also have yet another communitywide debate, in which we will ardently and earnestly discuss precisely the same issues we discussed the last time.

All of this would be endurable if somebody could guarantee that this would be the final vote, the end of the debate.

But they can't.

"I suspect this monorail project will be with us for at least another year, regardless of how this vote turns out," said Seattle City Councilman Nick Licata, after the council grudgingly put the recall on the ballot yesterday.

This time, there is someone to blame for this exercise in wheel-spinning.

It's not the monorail agency, which has been doing its job designing the system the voters approved in 2002. It is on schedule to break ground later this year — which, if true, means it will have accomplished in two years what took Sound Transit seven.

I only partially blame the people pushing the recall. Yes, it's lame the campaign is financed by a single downtown real-estate developer, Martin Selig. But 37,000 people signed petitions to cancel this project. Their concerns can't simply be cast aside.

No, the lion's share of the blame goes to a group of judges.

First, a three-judge Court of Appeals panel said the recall could go on the ballot. That would be fine, except the panel couldn't be bothered to decide the key legal issues: whether the recall complies with state law, and whether 10,000 challenged signatures are valid.
 
Next, the state Supreme Court said it wasn't up to the task. Not right now, anyway.

"There is insufficient time to engage in the deliberations that a case of this magnitude demands," the court said.

That's a fancy way of saying they've punted this complicated legal matter to you.

Because of these judges, we must suffer through another energy-sapping monorail election, after which it's likely the whole affair will be tossed out as illegal.

And then we'll probably have to do it all again next year.

This isn't some scare scenario conjured by monorail supporters. Four judges have reviewed the recall so far, and two have deemed it illegal. The other two made no decision. Those aren't very good odds on which to base an election.

The monorail has been approved three times, in 1997, 2000 and 2002. That's enough times for me. But I'd be OK with this fourth vote if it weren't for the legal cloud. People have legitimate questions about the monorail, from its financial health to shortcuts in the design. Bottom line: If people don't want it anymore, it shouldn't be built.

But can we please just make a decision and stick with it?

Apparently not. Those judges certainly couldn't. You can thank them for this pointless election.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.