Grim budget looms for next mayor

The winner of the Seattle mayor's race will enter office midrecession with a bare-bones budget and an almost-empty savings account.

Political newcomers Mike McGinn and Joe Mallahan say they are prepared to make even bigger cuts than Mayor Greg Nickels has proposed for 2010.

He has proposed spending $25.4 million from the city's $30 million rainy-day fund to help balance the budget. If the council accepts the plan, the new mayor will come in to a very tight situation.

T-Mobile executive Mallahan says he would take a red pen to the budget line by line, canceling contracts with consultants and saying farewell to many of the city's highest-paid employees.

Nonprofit founder McGinn says the budget is really about achieving a vision for the future. He would cut positions he thinks distance elected leaders from city residents. To fill gaps, he wants to cooperate more with local nonprofits and community groups.

Each has put out a plan for the budget. Here's a look at their ideas for cutting costs:

As a longtime business executive and former performance consultant, Mallahan is quick to cite his own résumé as proof he knows what he's talking about when it comes to the budget.

His first target if elected: high-paid executives. Mallahan says there are 300 directors and assistant-directors in city government. He says that's too many.

"My experience is that in large organizations, new roles get created, but rarely do leaders take a hard look at whether certain roles should be combined or eliminated," Mallahan said. "I have also witnessed in many different organizations that too many bosses causes havoc for the front line. Employees getting directions from more than one person leads to all kinds of inefficiencies."

Next, Mallahan says he would trim consulting contracts by about 20 percent. Since the city spends somewhere in the neighborhood of $125 million each year on consultants, according to a recent city report, that would save nearly $25 million in the city's $4 billion budget.

The city contracts for all kinds of things, but Mallahan said he would focus on performance consultants and people doing work that could be done by city employees.

"It doesn't take a high-paid consultant to drive performance improvements," he said. "In fact, I've seen such consultants get in the way."

Mallahan accuses McGinn of having "zero financial and zero management experience," but McGinn says his experience has better prepared him to run a city.

"The government isn't a business and citizens aren't customers," he said. "There's something in government and public life — you don't get to fire people you disagree with."

McGinn notes that he managed teams of lawyers at his former law firm, Stokes Lawrence, and headed the Sierra Club and his nonprofit, Great City. And his years of community work gave him experience working with people. Being mayor isn't about budgets as much as it's about "leadership and vision for the future," he said.

"I think what city government is about is ... determining, what do we really care about? What do we really want to achieve? And putting together in a political environment, in an oftentimes contentious political environment, finding the path to achieve it."

While Mallahan has hired professionals to run his campaign at an overhead of about $24,100 a month, McGinn's is run with volunteers. He has spent much less money than Mallahan. McGinn says his frugal approach would carry over into his leadership as mayor.

Like Mallahan, McGinn put out a plan for finding efficiencies in the budget.

He wants to eliminate 200 employees in various city departments who carry the title "strategic adviser."

When Mayor Greg Nickels took office in 2002, there were 127 strategic advisers, according to the city. Now there are 285. McGinn says removing the advisers would "roll back the politicization of city government."

Strategic advisers are nonunion employees who have special skills. Some are advisers to the mayor who have political roles. Others work in information technology or distribute levy money.

In another big personnel change, McGinn says he'd get rid of "duplicated functions." For example, the city has a human-resources department, but individual departments also have in-house human-resources staff.

Finally, McGinn wants to change the way the city makes contracts by limiting contract amendments and making all contracts open to public bids.

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com