The Seattle Monorail Project board, unsure how to save the Green Line, last night declined to write the ballot measure demanded by Mayor Greg Nickels.

Instead, nonvoting member Jeanne Kohl-Welles urged the group to make a "college try" today, by requesting more talks with the city about how to proceed with the line through the western half of Seattle. It was not clear whether that will happen, but Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis was to talk with SMP interim Director John Haley today.

Nickels last Friday told board members that if they didn't write a measure for the Nov. 8 ballot by yesterday, the city would do it for them. Last night, he held firm.

"Time is running out for the monorail board to act," the mayor said in a statement, citing tomorrow's deadline for submitting a ballot measure to King County Elections. "The board owes it to the voters to face up to the fundamental revenue shortfall that has plagued the agency for more than two years."

Citing the plan's financial troubles, Nickels, a longtime monorail supporter, last week announced he would deny street-use permits for the project.

The City Council is scheduled to meet this morning, and possibly tomorrow morning, to discuss whether to put an advisory measure on the ballot to halt the monorail.

The situation was a fog as of last night.

Six days ago, a majority of council members agreed with the mayor's request for them to write a ballot measure if SMP did not write a measure to raise taxes or shorten the line.

But now, council members appear to be leaning against writing any ballot language, pro-monorail Councilman Nick Licata and anti-monorail Councilman Richard Conlin said last night.

"An advisory vote doesn't bring sufficient closure," Licata said.

The crisis has been building since mid-2003, when SMP income from a car-tab tax turned out to be one-third less than expected, while agency costs and construction prices rose. Even after cutting three stations and several train cars from the plan, the agency released a finance package in June that required at least 50 years of taxes. A public outcry forced SMP to dump the plan and find a new director, Haley, to seek cost savings that would rescue the grass-roots monorail movement.

Finally, city Finance Director Dwight Dively determined last week that SMP's revenue forecast still looks inflated, and that the agency cannot afford the full $2.1 billion line. Based on that, Nickels said, he could no longer support the monorail.

Monorail board members have called Nickels' action "arbitrary" and worse, saying that given 90 more days, Haley can improve the project.

Christian Gloddy, founder of the new pro-monorail group 2045 Seattle, speaking at last night's meeting, called Nickels "Mayor Gridlock."

"Now that gas costs $3, now that our bay is polluted, now that asthma rates are up and traffic stuck in gridlock, the need for this project is even greater," Gloddy said.

Project skeptic Jon Magnusson, a civil engineer, told the board the biggest problem isn't money but poor capacity — small trains and no good way to link multiple lines together.

The board heard estimates of savings from a shorter line, but said it would be too early to make an informed decision.

Some considered delaying a revote until early 2006 — but that could be too late for the contractors.

Pat Flaherty, a vice president of lead monorail contractor Fluor Enterprises, said the project remains attractive but his team would probably have to raise the price after the current offer expires in December.

He is also looking for proof that the city will cooperate.

"The last thing we would want is to secure a project this big, with this amount of risk to implement it, without the support of SMP and the City Council. Without their support, it would be difficult to build the project successfully, and we would not want to be involved in it."

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com