King County executive candidate Fred Jarrett, releasing his plan for putting the county's financial house in order, said he would put the new ferry district on hold while focusing attention on Metro's "more productive" bus routes.

Jarrett, a Republican-turned-Democratic state senator from Mercer Island, scheduled a news conference this morning at the Washington Street boat landing on Seattle's Elliott Bay to question the wisdom of taxing residents for a ferry district when the general fund and Metro budget are are in deep trouble.

Making the ferry district a focus of the waterside news conference was a slap at Metropolitan King County Councilmembers Dow Constantine and Larry Phillips -- both executive candidates -- who enthusiastically supported the 2007 creation of the ferry district and the the property tax that supports it.

In a four-page, single-spaced white paper that reinforces his reputation as a policy wonk, Jarrett said he wouldn't hire any more ferry-district employees, including a $135,000-a-year manager.

He also said he would reduce the county's "bloated overhead," insisting there are more middle managers than needed and too many employees making over $100,000 a year (1,100 of them, he calculates). And he said he would benchmark employee salaries and benefits to those of other public and private employers.

Jarrett has fallen far behind opponents Constantine, Phillips, state Rep. Ross Hunter and former KIRO-TV news anchor Susan Hutchison in raising campaign dollars. He is relying more than those candidates on volunteers to plan and organize his campaign.

Phillips, who released an environmental "greenprint" two weeks ago, plans to outline his plan for creating jobs today.

The 34th District Democrats finished a late meeting Wednesday night in West Seattle at about midnight.

Incumbent Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, who has been an elected official from that part of town for more than 20 years, ended the night with a dual endorsement. He was shy of the two-thirds-vote necessary for a sole endorsement.

He shared the endorsement with Mike McGinn, a former chairman of the local Sierra Club, who lives in the Greenwood neighborhood.

Until now, the mayor has been largely shut out by the Democrats, who seem to be looking for an outsider to support. (Nickels did win a sole endorsement from the 11th District Democrats, of south Seattle, Renton and Tukwila.)

It's worth remembering that Nickels also got plenty of snubs from Democratic districts back in 2005 - yet went on to easily win reelection. But that year, Nickels faced weak opposition candidates, led by former UW professor Al Runte. His rivals this year are much better known and organized.

Seattle City Councilmember Jan Drago hasn't picked up any Democratic endorsements. Self-funded business-executive candidate Joe Mallahan has done well with the districts. (He and McGinn were co-endorsed by the Metropolitan Democratic Club Wednesday afternoon, as well).

The Democratic districts tend to be loyal to their own, which explains how underdog Seattle City Council candidate Dorsol Plants got a dual endorsement with Sally Bagshaw (for Position 4) and David Ginsberg (for Position 2) earned a dual endorsement with incumbent Richard Conlin. Both Plants and Ginsberg have been active in the 34th.

The loyalty question put Position 4 candidate Bagshaw on the defensive at one point Wednesday night. Although she identifies herself as a Democrat, she has worked for several Republicans, including the late King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, and State Attorney General Rob McKenna.

Bagshaw said her experience proves she can work with all kinds of people. She told the crowd: "I believe in Barack Obama and not in George Bush."

She barely got the dual endorsement, in a revote.

The final Democratic district endorsement is tonight, when the 36th District Democrats, of have their meeting.

Seattle Mayor Nickels failed to nab the sole endorsement tonight from Democrats on his West Seattle home turf.

At a long, long endorsement meeting, 34th District Democrats packed The Hall at Fauntleroy to review the races.

In the mayor's race, Nickels was the top vote-getter for the group's endorsement, but didn't win the two-thirds necessary for the official nod. Mayoral candidate Mike McGinn -- a former chairman of the local Sierra Club -- came in second. So, late into the night, the Dems were trying to determine whether to issue a dual endorsement of Nickels and McGinn.

McGinn has done well in these Democratic gatherings around town, getting a piece of other dual endorsements.

No one showed up to speak for mayoral candidate James Donaldson, and Norman Sigler was disqualified because his only supporter does not live in the district.

In other contests tonight:

Another member of the 34th, Dorsol Plants, shared the Position 4 endorsement with Sally Bagshaw.

City Attorney Tom Carr, who is being challenged for re-election by Pete Holmes, took the city-attorney endorsement with 68 percent of the vote.

City Councilmember Nick Licata and challenger Jessie Israel looked likely for a dual endorsement tonight.

City Council candidate David Ginsberg missed the endorsement in his home district by one vote, prompting a long dispiute and another vote. Ginsberg, who is challenging incumbent Richard Conlin, didn't make the two-thirds threshold the second time either, so the 34th issued a joint endorsement of Ginsberg and Conlin.

Because there are only two candidates in that race, voters will not see Ginsberg's and Conlin's names on the Aug. 18 primary ballot. Voters will have to wait until Nov. 3 election for that matchup.

The 34th District Democrats just endorsed Robert Rosencrantz and David Miller for the Position 8 Seattle City Council seat.

Richard McIver decided not to run for re-election to the council.

The 34th District Democrats have packed The Hall at Fauntleroy tonight, where it's standing-room only, even for Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.

This district in West Seattle is the mayor's home turf, and home to City Attorney Tom Carr. Neither has won a Democratic district endorsement yetNickels has won only one Democratic District endorsement (the 11th), and Carr has received none, so the stakes are high.

Peter Steinbrueck is here. Not his district. He lives in Northgate.

Steinbrueck hasn't endorsed anyone in the mayor's race Even so, mayoral candidate Jan Drago is quoting her former City Council colleague on her first piece of campaign literature. Today, Steinbrueck endorsed Pete Holmes for city attorrney, over Carr.

Steinbrueck said he worked with Carr, and considers him a "personal friend." But, Steinbrueck also said, "I also know his weaknesses, and I think his weaknessese are Peter's strengths."

It's going to be a long haul before the endorsements are in tonight. The rowdy crowd just voted a second time in the race for Seattle City Council Position 8, currently held by Richard McIver. In the first round of voting, tree activist David Miller and landlord Robert Rosencrantz got the most votes, but neither received the necessary two-thirds. Not in the second round, either. Everybody will vote now on a dual endorsement, but there may be none at all.

This post has been updated.

My story today about Seattle City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco's $40,000 bonus was the scoop of PostGlobe.com, a news site created by former employees of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. They had the story Monday evening.

By Tuesday, several other news sites had picked it up, but the question of whether Mayor Greg Nickels was contractually obligated to give Carrasco the bonus was still unanswered.

The Stranger's blog, the Slog, reported that the mayor's office said the bonus was required by Carrasco's contract.

But when I spoke to the mayor's spokesman last night, he told me the mayor could have given the superintendent no bonus at all.

I got a copy of Carrasco's contract today so I could read the portion about the bonus. It's clear the mayor had the option not to give Carrasco a bonus this year if he determined the superintendent hadn't met "all his specified performance goals."

It's also clear the final decision was the mayor's.

From the contract:

In the event that the Superintendent does not accomplish all specified performance goals, the Mayor, at his sole discretion, may approve a bonus of less than 8% of Base Salary, or no bonus at all, depending on the Superintendent's performance toward achieving the specified performance goals.

It looks like the Seattle City Council will put off plans to repeal the city's employee "head tax," or Employee Hours Tax, a $25-per-employee tax charged to business owners in Seattle.

City Finance Director Dwight Dively told the council's Transportation Commmittee this morning that the city could make up the $4.5 million in annual revenue it will lose if it cancels the head tax in 2010. That eased concerns of some council members, including Transportation Committee Chairwoman Jan Drago, that sidewalks and other small projects would be postponed if the tax went away.

Still, three members of the council's Budget and Finance Committee said they support postponing a vote on ending the tax until the council considers the 2010 budget later this year.

"I don't want to deal with this in a piecemeal fashion," said Councilmember Nick Licata.
Councilmembers Jean Godden and Richard McIver oppose removing the tax.

Council President Richard Conlin and member Tim Burgess, along with Mayor Greg Nickels, support removing the tax right away.

It's unpopular with business, hasn't brought in the projected amount of revenue, and is complicated to administer and pay.

The tax was initially Nickels' idea, and as Publicola pointed out recently, he indicated his support for the tax as recently as a May forum.

The saga of Seattle's proposed 20-cent bag fee is being included in a documentary about the environmental and health impacts of plastic due out this fall or winter. Colorado-based Reel Thing Productions is making a feature-length documentary about plastic bags called "Bag It."

"We are including Seattle as it is the first city we know of in the U.S. to attempt a bag fee for plastic bags with the vote going to the public," the film's director, Suzan Beraza, told me in an e-mail.

In a visit this spring, filmmakers spoke with Mayor Greg Nickels, Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin, local environmentalists and a spokesman for the campaign in favor of the fee. Beraza said they'll be back to film the result of the Aug. 18 primary, when Seattle voters will decide whether to require a 20-cent charge for disposable bags -- plastic or paper -- at grocery, convenience and drug stores.

Here's a trailer: