Shine light on Seattle City Council budget talks

AW, come on, Jean Godden, chairwoman of the Seattle City Council budget committee, and former journalist. Forget the lousy idea of closed-door meetings regarding midyear cuts to the city budget.

You and your colleagues flatter yourselves if you think you will draw a huge crowd to such droll sessions. Open the door. Let fresh air flood in. If a few people who care deeply about budgets show up, deal with them. Look people affected by cuts in the eye. What exactly are you afraid of?

Godden argues that Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels asked for the closed-door meetings as a way to involve the council in early discussions about necessary budget slashing in the economic downturn. The city faces a $43 million shortfall this year.

Godden said the council is criticized when it does not get along with the mayor and lambasted when it does. Seems like the council and mayor could be big pals — even with a few citizen budget geeks watching.

Seattle residents are savvy. They understand the economic crunch has hit every part of government and Seattle is not immune to reasonable budget cuts.

If the discussion is about library hours, let library supporters hear how they will be affected before the budget comes to a vote. If the discussion is about park hours or frequency of cleaning, let people who use parks know early.

The council offered a legal, if sneaky, way to get around the rules of the state's Open Public Meetings Act, which says any meeting of a quorum of the council — five or more members — must be in public. So the council wants to meet with the mayor's staff in groups of four.

That may be meeting the letter of the law, but not its spirit. If four members take conclusions of the group and pass them onto a fifth member, that breaches the letter of law as well.

Meet in the open and do the best job possible sharing ideas for cutting the budget. Budget cuts should be discussed, voted on and dealt with in the bright light of day.