No free lunch on McIver's ethics fines

Seattle taxpayers have every right to be outraged about the stealth city ordinance that uses public money to pay the fines of city officials and employees snagged for ethics violations.

Wake up, City Hall. Undo the law, or suffer the consequences.

The too-familiar fumblings of Councilmember Richard McIver pointed a bright light on the sliver of Seattle Municipal Code that indemnifies city employees facing financial penalties for misconduct.

The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission nicked McIver for his role in awarding and expanding the size of a no-bid city contract. He was fined $1,000 for two violations.

Payment intended to cover McIver's penalty did not come from the councilman, but was instead a transfer of city funds to the commission's account. Wayne Barnett, commission executive director, bounced the money back and filed a protest with the City Attorney's Office.

Barnett told Times reporter Bob Young he was not aware of the law until a city attorney brought it to his attention. Nor does Barnett know how much taxpayers have paid over the years to cover such fines.

This episode is offensive on a couple of levels, and more volatile than City Hall denizens might imagine.

McIver is getting way too interesting to read about, and for all the wrong reasons. He is back in the news with another ethics beef, and he is trying to finesse the penalty back on taxpayers. Worse yet, he is trying to have it both ways. If the public is paying the tab, he is willing to put it all behind him. Otherwise, he sees the effort to make him pay as a waste of taxpayer dollars!

More fundamentally, the stash of funds smacks of extraordinary arrogance in the upper echelons of City Hall. A veneer of oversight exists, but, hey, if you get caught, no problem.

Remember the outrage a few years back over car tabs. Motorists paid those stiff fees for years, and they even tolerated license charges being a, well, vehicle for other civic fundraising. Voters went ballistic when they learned greedy lawmakers in Olympia were quietly charging them a tax based on the sticker price of a car, not the purchase price.

City Hall's access to a penalty slush fund is in the same category: The taxpayers as chumps.

McIver needs to write a check and quit whining. The Seattle City Council ought to ditch this sweetheart deal, which is an insult to the idea of ethical government and personal accountability.