Nicole Brodeur / Times staff columnist
The mover behind city's big projects

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How's work been going for Mary Jean Ryan? Go out and see for yourself, because she won't tell you.

You'll find her fingerprints on Seattle's retail business core, and down by Pier 88, where she lobbied like a Kennedy to get Amgen to build a $625 million biotech campus.

And when the Northgate Mall gets an extreme makeover, Ryan will be at the unveiling. She shook her City Hall cohorts out of a coma to start putting the place on par with Bellevue Square.

Ryan is director of Seattle's Office of Policy and Management. Translated, she is the shadow power behind many of the city's big projects, the one who brings people to the table and doesn't let them leave.

The results can be controversial. Which is what might happen today, when Mayor Greg Nickels announces the Families and Education Levy.

Similar levies passed in 1990 and 1997. But this time, the city wants to control how the tax money is spent — taking that discretion away from the school district — to help low-income and minority kids.

Lots of school officials may balk at such a blatant power grab. But let's not forget that the district lost $36 million two years back.

"The status quo for kids in the Seattle school system is not acceptable," Ryan said. "We're not preparing our kids so they can take advantage of the opportunities in the city."

Ryan, 45, knows them well.

A Chicago native, she came to Seattle in 1985 with her future husband, John Bollen. She ran a nonprofit that made small-business loans, and she was hired by then-Mayor Norm Rice to manage a city loan program, then build an Office of Economic Development.
 
In 1994, she moved to Washington, D.C., with the Small Business Administration. When her husband died of a heart attack, Rice lured her back to Seattle to resume her old job under Mayor Paul Schell. Nickels kept her on.

"Not everything we do every day is perfect, but it's disciplined," Ryan said. "The crazy world comes at you every day. If you don't have that discipline, all you do is react."

That's no way to govern when the viaduct's not getting any younger, South Lake Union is up for grabs and Northgate looks like retail decoupage.

But Ryan weaves solutions into everyday thinking. She walked Northgate with 12-year-old daughter Rachel, who suggested new stores and inspired add-ons like a library branch and community center.

Ryan starts meetings with a legal pad filled with ideas, and leaves with a list of to-dos. She has what one city staffer called an "iron butt" for enduring marathon meetings.

When she's not in her office, she's coaching Rachel's basketball games or cheering the Storm or Mariners.

She wishes she had more time to read, and cooks only "for survival," but did make a stellar batch of Irish soda bread for St. Patrick's Day — from an elderly aunt's recipe. The mayor of Galway, Seattle's sister city, told Ryan it was the best she ever had.

"I don't know if she said it just because she's a politician," Ryan said. "But I'm taking the compliment."

It's one of the few Ryan will.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.

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