Bushnell Resigns

We can thank initially the Democratic Party for promoting and sanctioning Haugen. He like many others in “the party” show up for work one day at the city or county with no explanation other than he is with the in croud.
We can also thank our former executive Ron Sims. He was aware of the convictions of check fraud, aand hired him any way, placing him in the budget office.
After 4 years of questionable service Haugen left. His tenure at king county included spending time in Hawaii tele-commuting, and doing "special projects".
I was not surprised that Haugen showed up again, but am surprised the mayor did not have the common sense to realize the "baggage" attached to this guy.
For those on the outside, this ought to be a wake up to the character of McGinn since is more than aware of Haugen's past, and present.

tikka,

Agreed, unfortunately, McGinn is not doing a good job of that.

Though honestly I would prefer a tax increase.

well done publicola.
thank you for checking facts that others did not. i'll trust that the only reason the mayor didn't do his own due diligence is because he's been running 200 mph since november. admittedly, he's got a lot on his plate and learning fast. but having someone with this trackrecord as a senior leader in the city - even for 2 weeks - is disturbing. consider how demoralizing it would be if you've spent 15 years working hard in city government following a much more rigorous standard of conduct than the private sector and this guy parachutes in. it's appropriate that he's gone. bothersome that he got this far but appropriate that he's gone. integrity is non-negotiable. you either have it or you don't.

@Giffy

I was speaking not of ideological change, but bare bones budget stuff. That is change that HAS to happen - projections are that it's just going to get worse for our budget this year.
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what that means is that any good leader needs to understand how to assign priorities and lay strategic communications on paper, so that the department heads can be on the same page in the budget cycle.

@tikka,

You very may be right. It may also be the case that McGinn is a corrupt idiot who will cause major damage to the City. We depend on a media that relishes in a scoop like this to keep our government honest. Healthy skepticism and a general distrust of people in power is not a bad thing. After all, they work for us. We need not simple accept and follow.
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Its also pretty easy to say 'change' but much harder to figure out what that change should be. I know I support McGinn on light rail, but not so much on 520 or bike stuff. One because I am opposed and the other because I don't give a shit. That is my right as a citizen as it is everybody's right. We should be criticizing McGinn, that's what an informed and engaged populous does. It is his job to either convince us or circumvent us.
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You say people want change but McGinn won on a narrow margin against a pretty unimpressive candidate. I personally sat the election out. I think that people have certain things they want changed, but I don't hear from a lot of people that we are just completely fucked up. This is not Bush to Obama, but more of Nickels fatigue leading to what was basically a coin flip of an election.

It looks like the published lies and the felony are just canaries in a pretty deep coal mine.

It appears that someone had a pretty bad reputation for treating people poorly, being the smartest guy in every room, overall disrespect for other good people and generally projecting having an extremely high opinion of ones own smarts. Which generally means you're not so smart, just self possessed and inexperienced. And pretty darned dumb.

Really effective people in government rally the troops to good causes. Doing less is simply waste. Being "for" something is waste if you're not really doing anything. Being "for" seems to be the MO in this case. Blaming lesser mortals for ones own failures is also a thread.

Smart, public spirited people who are aware of these types of things generally feed things to reporters if they think they can solve a big problem. Looks like that's what happened here.

@Tikka Your knowledge of the budget only seems to go back to last year. when Nickels came into office -- after some of the most bullish markets in the city's history, the "rainy day" fund was zero.... he built it up for just the "rainy day" we are now experiencing. so he spent it wisely - he didn't just "blow" through it as you contend.

Greg Nickels solved the 2010 problem. Council preferred a slightly different solution. Fine. That's our system.

But to knock the man because he didn't balance the budget for all time is just silly.

@Tikka, the City has a Rainy Day Fund for "rainy days." If the worst recession since the Great Depression is not a rainy day, what is?

@JD

not really debatable - the rainy day fund numbers are pretty clear. Nickels used the reserves to achieve budget (and wanted to take it down to 5M) instead of balancing with revenue and spending controls. Even the council objected to the 2010 proposol from Nickels and scrapped for spending the fund down to only 10M.

http://www.komonews.com/news/61532392.html

http://crosscut.com/blog/crosscut/19199/

But there still remains a fiscal crisis, one that isn’t going to go away in 2010 or in 2011. In fact, forecasters say that 2011 figures to be an even worse year for Seattle. One reason for concern is that the balancing the budget this year required spending the lion’s share of the city’s painfully accumulated $30 million Rainy Day Fund.

Does everyone from West Seattle fawn over Nickels? Just curious.
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Maybe he should hire George Clooney to fire the people that he wants to fire. Mmmmm....George Clooney....

@tikka - you seem to be guilty of exactly what you are proferring. Nickels did not blow through the reserves. He and Dwight Dively not only balanced the budget but cut bloat from the Schell years and then cut some more. All to the tune of a top bond rating.

McGinn and his acolytes are well-meaning amateurs.

Good job Publicola. Now the inevitable backlash of the demoralized supporters saying "so who cares, he rides a bike like me."

Greg lost because we are in a deep recession and the majority of homeowners in Seattle have lost all their equity in their homes and the economy went into a near depression. And the snowstorm was shorthand for trying to blame him for the depression. But he was a very good mayor and the city ran well.

McGinn is the next Jane Byrne.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Byrne

1 - This is not the media's fault. This is Chris Bushnell's fault.

2 - I'm getting really tired of the "he's trying to change the status quo, man, and that shakes everybody up" line from McGinniacs. I don't care if he's shaking up the status quo, I don't care if he's a buttoned down old school cigar chomping suit.

All that I want is an efficient, effective Mayor for my City. It's early, I'm still waiting to see if he can be that. I'm williing to see what he has to offer. The last month has not given me much hope.

But I refuse to be painted as a old geezer who's scared of change because I'm criticizing my Mayor. That line of defense isn't gonna last long, folks. It's time to give it up. Now.

You know, it's funny. The "change" agent must "cut jobs", "slash budgets", etc. In Europe they call this austerity. In both the US and Europe it is a free-market policy of right wing economists, and is a liberal meme thanks to people like Bill Clinton. Mike McGinn is an economic conservative (and his campaign rhetoric reflected that, big time) and if he took advice from a (so called) economist from the UW, you can bet that is the ideological orientation. So while McGinn and his supporters are using his green credentials to tout some kind of progressivism, his economic policies for all purposes are inspired by the ideological basis of the Wall Street Jounal and The Economist.

Anyone who claims the title "progressive" that still supports McGinn has been "had". And now we are expected to let bygones be bygones so McGinn can implement the rest of his local auterity measures dressed up as "green". Citizens have already had to save more to pay their utility bills in order to prop up the city's credit rating. We have to pay more, for less, basically.

Change is not necessary a good thing. Nor is it necessarily inevitible. But somehow, in the HR mentality of the above poster, anyone who regards change with skepticism is suspect. The fact remains that change for change's sake is the tonic of a Demogogue. And that is exactly what McGinn is.

@Nemo

Sounds about right to me.

Change is hard. McGinn HAS to make changes, whether he wants to or not, to balance the budget. Nickels didn't and opted instead to blow through reserves. So, people are afraid. It's natural. And they are feeling anxious and nervous. Change management is an art and if not carefully done, the natural and very human anxiety about what might happen in the future that you have control over turn people into very nasty little creatures.

That's how nasty and untrue rumors get started. Anybody remember the Norm Rice rumors? That's how little things become the focus of the narrative, because in the backs of their terrified minds, they figure that if the source of the fear (the change agent) is destabilized and loses credibility, then the change can be prevented.

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. Jobs HAVE to be cut. Programs HAVE to be cut. It's going to hurt and it's going to hurt everyone - no one will be unscathed.

So, my prediction is, whoever McGinn has out front will become the focual point for attacks. Lighning rods draw fire - it's the nature of the beast. If not Bushnell, it will be the next staffer assigned to work on change. Some will slop onto McGinn. It's inevitable.

We'd all do better realizing that change is hard, change is coming and change is inevitable and support ALL of our leaders (city, county, council, state) in the budget balancing process instead of creating and participating in the 3-ring circus that only serves as a distraction to getting real and tangible progress towards a balanced budget.

We will hear all kinds of crazy rumors, unsubstantiated character attacks and g_d knows what else in the coming months - because people are scared. Steel yourselves for it, folks, because it's coming. "Naked, on the conference room table!" "Sleeps around!" "Steals, cheats, lies!" "Corrupt!" "sexist, racist, biggoted!" It's all going to swirl and there will be grains of truth in there once in a while, but mostly not. What we have to ask ourselves is if 1) it's factual 2) it matters and 3) making an issue of it hurts the ability to actually get things done.

Because the entire city of seattle gets hurt if we neutralize the needed ability of leaders to get things done.

Bushnell is done. That's where we are now - right, wrong or indifferent. But, I sure hope that the media and the people in government don't make "death by a thousand pin pricks" a habit. If it becomes a habit, neither love nor money will get people to take a job, for less pay than they can make in the private sector, to serve our city.

@ seriously -
It's the proverbial post-coital cigarette. Wait a few days and they'll have another McGinn staffer in their sights....

@Excuse me?
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I assume that you are all smarter than I am, and therefore can fully understand my terrible typing grammar (I really require grammar/spell check).
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And dammit, it's "ux", not "ox"!!!!!

@ Michael Maddox
That's whose, not "who's".

why are you people still talking about this? who cares. he quit. it's over.

People are actually reading more into this (because they WANT that theatre, and it gets eyeballs, dammit), and assuming more than they really can substaniate about Bushnells actual authority.

The buck stops with McGinn. It is up to him to take and/or act upon a "Special Advisor's" advice. Bushnell did not have the authority to hire or fire anyone, period. Sounds like more that a few people believe in Bushnell's pretention was actual authority only when it suited a straw man point.

Hiring a former Felon is not a crime, unless it's a intentional conflict of interest, or the type of offense that prohibits the offender from working in certain areas/occupations related to the offense. Again, it was pointed out Bushnell was not invloved in Finance.

I am not defending the appointment process, or any of the appointees, but that process is a tradition that predates McGinn, and is his perrogative. It goes with the territory. If you don't like who he appoints, thats fair, but this kind of drivel that tries to pass as fact, is BS with an agenda beyond the issue at hand. I would agree that McGinn was being extremely naive about Bushnell, and a few other things, but he seems to be learning from his mistakes. The molehill is not a mountain, but beliefs can die hard.

The "mindless tinkering" has NOT happened. Some people are threatned by mear questioning of the Status Quo. How do you think McGinn can make intellegent and difficult decsions unless he gathers all the facts and the context surrounding those facts first? He has made NO decsions on any of the budget or personnel issues yet, and in fact has been very flexible in allowing more time for this and expanding the scope of things to consider after the Finance office gave him the bad news.

A lot of this is fear and loathing, not based upon much else at this point. McGinn is ruffling some feathers, and those birds are whining about being "unfairly targeted," without anything to substaintiate it,as they act like they are entitlted. Tough. I fully expect those who do get the ax to cry foul, but will be unable to factually subtaintiate it to justify keeping their jobs in the current budget environment. There is a shortfall, and up to this point the upper job classes were not fully sharing that burden under Nickels.

Meinert,

Actually the losers are supposed to do exactly that. Politics is not won or lost on election day; the battle just moves on to a different front. Winning an election is not a blank check to do whatever you want for years, its a chance to try, nothing more, nothing less.
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I fully expect the losers to continue to fight and work for what they want. McGinn and his supports certainly have the advantage, holding the mayors seat, but his opponents also have some strengths. That being said I also have very little respect for McGinn as someone who has the slightest idea how to accomplish things within government. He is trying the same strategy he used as an outsider and falling flat on his face.
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Personally I support him on some things and hope he is successful at those, but on others I oppose him and will certainly, in my very small way, oppose him.

@Meinert
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Threw, not through. I had a really rough time reading that sentence, and I blame you for that!
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I stand by what I already said. I would only add that the voters had two unknown quantities. One who's campaign message was anti-tunnel, then won't get in the way, and then, literally, listening to the voters. There was no seawall talk. No major change talk.
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The other one, Mallahan, was the one who was talking about cutting out consultants to the city, which he was in turn made fun of for because they a: don't cost that much and b: a lot are not paid for by the general fund. And then McGinn came up with 200 people to let go, a large portion of which are not paid out of the general fund.
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We had two unknown quantities as voters, and the voters picked this one. They did not, however, give him a mandate to engage in water sports with the populace.

@Not Surprised -

McGinn was elected on his positions, and on his general philosophy. That means he is supposed to make policy based on these ideas. He is the mayor for all of Seattle obviously, but leading means he makes decisions based on what he ran on, not based on his opponents beliefs.

In a Democracy, it's the losers who want the winner to represent the non-winning ideas. Not really how it is supposed to work.

McGinn won by twice as many votes as Nickels won by in his first election. Not exactly razor thin.

The voters through out the Nickels administration. We also rejected the ideas Mallahan put out there. And now it's time for McGinn to execute on the ideas and ideals he ran on. This will upset some people, especially the people in the establishment that have been used to doing things in a certain way for the last 8 years. And that's the effect of administration change. I suspect the whiners will slowly fade away, as they did with the changes Holmes has put into place.

That said, I think Bushnell, or whatever his name is, needed to go. Good work Erica. I'm interested in someone following up on the possible voter fraud too. This story could get more interesting. Super good to have Erica on it.

Is that Tim Burgess I hear, licking his chops?

So far, we have a seriously inept Mayor staffed by a slimy, ethically challenged crew. All this administration's work is suspect at this point, and I hope Publicola will continue digging. I'm bettin' there's lots more.

maybe he moved to Seattle before the vote

Wow, voter fraud too.

Concerned - Wow - if he really lives in Tacoma why is he voting in Seattle? The voting database indicates he voted in Seattle in 2009. I'm sure there will be a great explanation or apology.

I'm noticing a disturbing trend among McGinn-ites to reframe the election as a "mandate" and a "clear call for change". The PRIMARY was a mandate and a clear call for change-- Nickels was out for many of the same "crimes" of arrogance we're already seeing being repeated in this administration. Remember that the general election was so close that it wasn't decided for a week after election day. Never forget that most of the voting public held their noses & really wanted to vote for "neither" but ended up voting for what they felt to be the lesser of two evils. Never forget that McGinn is supposed to be mayor for ALL the city, not just members of the Sierra Club. 49% of the people who voted in the last election didn't buy what McGinn was selling. Seattle is a big city with surprisingly diverse opinions, but McGinn is going to have to get out of his echo chamber of ego-fawning yes men (and I do mean "men") to truly become a leader. This was a razor thin win and I bet if the election were held today, the outcome would be very different. A little more humility from the team on the 7th floor would be appreciated.

morningfizzy - I guess I was thinking of scrutiny of McGinn's staff vs scrutiny of Constantine's staff. You are right about general County staff not getting the scrutiny of general City staff right now

Bushnell/Haugen's not gone; he's just off the payroll.

Several McGinn volunteers I know knew about this before the election. They tried to warn McGinn. He ignored them, obviously because he knew the situation and still stuck with Bushnell/Haugen. He didn't let him go until it got a little more public. Now he'll just use him as a personal advisor; someone else will pay B/H.

Big change.

And don't characterize those of us who are disgusted with McGinn as "McGinn haters." I voted for the guy.

@ Bob: I got my information from the website of Bushnell's former employer, the campaign strategy firm of Gogerty Marriott, which lists Bushnell as one of their staffers:

Chris Bushnell

"Chris Bushnell joined the Gogerty Marriott team in April 2008."

"Previously, Chris served six years as the Chief Economist in the King County Office of Management and Budget, and five years as a fiscal policy analyst at the University of Washington. He also has experience teaching microeconomics and public finance courses at the Evergreen State College, Bellevue Community College, and the University of Washington."

"Chris's work at Gogerty Marriott focuses on opinion research and analysis. He lives in Tacoma, Washington, with his wife Megan, a marine biologist. "

The page is no longer available on the Gogerty site, but the cached version is here: http://bit.ly/boNTJB

And @Relieved: I understand there are a lot of good city employees who live outside the city limits. But I think the mayor and his closest advisers should at least live in King County, if not in Seattle. I want them to pay the taxes for the policies and projects they saddle us with.

Dorothy - Bushnell/Haugen worked for king County for years without any of this coming out.

If Bushnell did the numbers on the Seawall then they should be reviewed.

Political hangers-on of former Mayors get "diverted" to line departments well before the adiministration leaves office. There they reside and enjoy the long-term benefits of regular city employees for life.

@Seybold

I don't think it is that King County is not under scrutiny, but I think Dow hired known quantities. Most of his people come from known backgrounds. His transition with former Sims staff was much less chaotic - he even kept Sims' great scheduler and assistant. A couple of the people who might have raised eyebrows for a variety of reasons, chose to not even apply.

@Meinert "And the 520 rethinking was a great call." I'm not so sure. If it were that easy to put a stake in the sand and say "my way or the highway," the stakeholder group (Seattle stakeholders, that is) would've done it a long time ago. Playing hardball right now could backfire and push the state into a bad mood that will be worse than the alternative now on the table. By state I mean everyone except Chopp, Murray, and Petersen -- all from the 43rd who might be thinking more about reelection ("look, Montlake, Eastlake, Laurelhurst, I did everything I could!") than the repercussions of pissing off the Eastside.

And while I'm on it: a special Sound Transit levy to get light rail on 520???! He might want look into the ST2 planning documents to find out why that option wasn't endorsed early on -- serious technical obstacles. But hey, McGinn sounds like the bold change-maker everyone who voted for him is still hoping he might be -- strategic, realpolitique, developer-friendly track record notwithstanding (not that that's bad).

Great job, bummer it wasn't uncovered before the election.

Soap - it is very hard to determine whether people in general have been appointed without proper skills or ahead of other people that were more qualified. This is because of a PDA exemption as seen below.

RCW 42.56.250

The following employment and licensing information is exempt from public inspection and copying under this chapter:

(1) Test questions, scoring keys, and other examination data used to administer a license, employment, or academic examination;

(2) All applications for public employment, including the names of applicants, resumes, and other related materials submitted with respect to an applicant;.

yeah sure, rocking the boat?

when his two lieutenants are from the development and real estate industries?

it'll be build build build. just maybe not a tunnel...

i remain unconvinced that he represents change of any significant measure.

@Meinert
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I would disagree with your characterization that McGinn was elected to bring drastic change. My take is that he was elected because people felt he was more prepared than Mallahan, and after he said he wouldn't try to kill the tunnel, were satisfied that he wouldn't try to really rock the boat. Don't get me wrong, I want our city to succeed, and that means I want him to succeed in governing (while not necessarily in policy making on all levels), but I don't think it can be said he was elected to really rock the boat.
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If you look at the rest of November's election - we held on to a Democratic insider for County Executive, Conlin won with overwhelming support, as did Bagshaw, O'Brien was helped by a sweet ass and an overblown negative campaign in the last weeks from his opponent (and, generally, he's pretty spot on with a lot of his ideas), and Licata won, but with the smallest margin of the City Council candidates.
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The only person who was given a mandate to shake things up, honestly, was Pete Holmes. I would venture a guess that it is not in the Mayor's best interest to "piss on and piss off" a bunch of people. All that will do is create animosity amongst the city staff who are not political appointees, and sour his relationship with a City Council that is ready to take the reigns of the city (with some top notch talent in every office there).

A couple of points.

I think this is all Marco Lowe and Ethan Raup's fault.

Most City employees who make over $200k are linemen for City Light and Firefighters -- our City's hero's -- ha!

McGinn has a huge credibility problem -- it is one thing to stand by your guy, it is another to say you tried to talk the liar out of resigning.

Publicola did great work and is proving itself more than just an insider's rag.

Mr. Mike - a quick story about making $110K from my buddies' Friday night poker table:
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A friend of mine, who is really nice and really well-grounded, but 'retired' from Microsoft at 38, took 2 years off, and then went to the Gates Foundation, made the following flippant comment:
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"Who doesn't make 6 figures these days?"
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There were some blank looks across the table, a little awkward silence, and then everyone let it slide. But we all remember it.
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It just shows that people who are used to being in that club forget what it's like on the other side.

Granted the salary is not the story here. But -

I dunno, but is $110,000 qualifying as underpaid these days? I really know nothing of city salaries or comprable private sector salaries but...geez...

So the whole seawall thing is really just so Chris Bushnell and his wife can get rich?

First, congrats to Publicola for the superb reporting on this story. It is a great illustration of the shortcomings of a one-newspaper town. Where was the Times and other media on this? Fortunately, Publicola has served notice that it will serve this role for our community.

Second, the whole episode reveals a sad truth about our new Mayor: he does not value honesty or integrity. My guess is that the Mayor is really mad that "his enemies in the establishment" (whatever that means) have forced Bushnell out and the wagons are circled more tightly than ever in the Mayor's office.

Third, Bushnell is not going anywhere. He will remain the Mayor's pollster and a key (if outside of government) advisor.

If the Mayor does not open his eyes and learn from this episode, our City faces a very long next four years.

Who on Nickels staff made over 200,000K ? I am talking about his Office not Jorge Carrasco and dept directors.

There are plenty of people who make more than the 110K Haugen was bringing in. Look at the deputy director jobs and communication directors. Many of the staff assistants are classified as ..what for it... Strategic Advisors but are starting on the lower range of pay.

Also the bigger story is the seawall contract bid...which will still have to go back to bid. Remember it is widely believed that Haugen constructed the Seawall levy. That is still the story.

@Abbot - I am not trying to divert attention away from this story, I just think mentioning the salary over and over is petty.

I do agree this Bushnell thing is weird. Probably good he is gone. Someone may also want to look into why this guy is supposedly voting in Seattle when he lives in Tacoma. That goes beyonh misrepresenting your educational background.

But also, many of the comments I'm reading seem to be from McGinn haters. And what is being overlooked is that McGinn IS stirring the pot, and that's a good thing. He was elected to change things and that means things get changed. The seawall thing seemed to me to be a kick upside the head on an issue that has been I'm front of the council for a decade by not being acted on. And the 520 rethinking was a great call. McGinn is right on both, but obviously couldn't have used his position as mayor to weigh in on them until now. Duh.

McGinn will and should continue to piss on and off the people who do things the way they have been done because that way wasn't working and the majority of people in Seattle weren't happy about it. Change upsets people, and I don't put any stock on the complaints about it. Anyone who has taken over a business or come on board in a high position at a new job knows this. A change in administration is no different.

OK, Really. Someone give me an estimate of how many "political hangers-on from Nickels’ and previous administrations" with poor credentials are REALLY still in city government. Cut the bullshit and give me some facts. Please. Give the unsubstantiated anti-Nickels, anti-big government, anti-bureaucrat crap a break until you can give me some real names and numbers of people who were not hired competitively.
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Not just people you don't like, fizzy. People hired without a competitive search, background check, etc.
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My contention is that there weren't nearly as many of those rats as we're led to believe, and most of them left when their ship was sinking. Certainly not 200. And certainly not as many as portrayed.
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THAT is a smear campaign, not whistle blowing.

One point that has gone so far unmentioned in any of these threads: Seattle city government draws much sharper media scrutiny than King County government.
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You can get away with things at King County that you can't get away with in Seattle City Hall.

"probably not the last staffing change were likely to see in the near term"

Ahhh, spoken like a true believer.

Campaign volunteers' backgrounds are seldom if ever checked. Once admitted into the inner circle by volunteering, it's an easy move to employment with the administration. The City is still staffed with political hangers-on from Nickels' and previous administrations. Wonder what their credentials would reveal?

I have to comment on one other quote Emily Heffter got from our Mayor:

"McGinn said the two men share an approach to issues, in that they like the challenge conventional wisdom and aren't afraid to "wade into" discussions about change."

This has been a big problem so far, in that they appear to be challenging conventional wisdom without first understanding any of the widsom that may exist in a system. Or any of the real costs (in time and attention and temporary loss of functionality) of moving a bunch of stuff around.

My impression, and granted this is from a distance, is that Bushnell enabled Mayor McGinn's tendency to walk into a room and start re-arranging the furniture before getting any understanding of how the system functions today and its history, what's working well and what isn't.

I'm not saying the City functioned perfectly. Far from it. But there were a lot of well-functioning structures in place at City Hall and SMT ready, willing and able to carry out his orders on day one. But no orders were forthcoming. There was no opening agenda, by his own inaugural speech admission. Instead, we had re-orgs out the wazoo and lots of people moving desks and spending all their energies trying to figure out how things are supposed to work today.

I'm hopeful that with Bushnell gone, the mindless tinkering may wane, but again, my impression is that this is a pretty deep-seated tendency in Mayor McGinn, so we'll have to see.

He lives in Seattle. Or at least he is registered to vote in Seattle. He is registered under Haugen and there is no evidence that he has ever changed his name legally. It would appear that he was using both a fake degree and name.

Was he really calling himself Bushnell at the county? Was he paid as Haugen but publicly saying he was Bushnell?

@ Concerned -- None of us cared where he lived. We have a lot of good people in City Hall and SMT who commute in from far and wide to work for Seattle. They do good work, bring in valuable perspectives we wouldn't otherwise have, and manage to not lie, steal, fabricate credentials, change their names and telecommute from Hawaii.

On all of this pay talk -
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Meinert is 100% correct that it's sort of a "stir the pot" to continue to list Bushnell's salary. IMO, all of McGinn's staff are underpaid. However, the lack of governmental experience justifies that, and, after they get some time running the city under their belt, they will all deserve solid pay increases.
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Government service doesn't pay well, and most people who work in upper levels can make much more in the private sector, if they're good. It's in the best interest to keep them in city government wherever possible. Of course, the key is "if they're good", which again, with a fair amount of his appointees, we have yet to find out (running a campaign is very different from running a city).

This story should not be over. The connections of people to Haugen need to be followed. He seems to have been instrumental in placing key people in jobs. He has a very deep connection to consultants that have direct connections to top level MO employees. I'm guessing that most of those people knew of at least part of his past and choose to associate with him and that brings just a little question of their ethics into the fray.

This was necessary. About half the City did not vote for McGinn. A lot of people thought he ran a dishonest campaign.

This was starting to look like his administration was honesty challenged.

I think the line above about McGinn's entre into City Hall looking like a reality TV show is extremely on target. This is becoming a great soap opera.

@Meinert

OK. We get that you hate Nickels and love McGinn and you would like to divert eyes away from this story. But the salaries of Robert Mak or any other Nickels advisors are irrelevant to this story. If Robert Mak was a convicted felon who had lied about his academic credentials, you would have been screaming bloody murder.

What is relevant is that Bushnell was a paid advisor and a city employee. He was making hiring and firing decisions of qualified city employees when he himself lied about his qualifications. He was advising the Mayor on multi-billion dollar projects when he himself was a convicted felon for money laundering.

What is relevant to this story is how McGinn used his judgement as a chief executive to hire Bushnell (allegedly knowing all of his flaws) and how he continued to stand by him when those flaws were exposed and the community expressed concern.

Mayors will always have diehard supporters and detractors. But by any objective measure, Bushnell should never have been hired and certainly not defended for his illegal and unethical conduct.

Unfortunately McGinn's actions in this matter raise many questions and doubts about his administration and how he will govern our city. He needs to take some proactive steps now to restore trust and confidence in city hall.

One thing he could do is post the names (and resumes) of all key staff members in the Mayor's office. Right now the Mayor's website has a blank page devoted to introducing his staff. I guess it takes a while to fabricate 30 resumes.

@Meinert,
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Its a lot of money for someone with potentially no educational qualifications and a questionable work history. Its also a lot of money to pay someone who went though a hiring process that was basically "you want a job? OK done".
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I have no problem with people in government making good money. They are still making less than a private sector equivalent, but I have a huge problem when those people are hired simply because the mayor likes them despite being a pathological liar.

@nemo - yeah, bushnell *wasn't* advising the mayor on finance. right.

Let's review the accomplishments of the McGinn administration thus far:

1. He has angered city council by blindsiding them with his proposal to fund rebuilding the seawall with a voter approved levy.
2. He has angered Olympia with his support of a last minute change in the design of the 520 bridge.
3. He has angered the meritocracy at city hall with his plan to fire 200 of them.
4. He has angered the thinking voters of Seattle by appointing a chief advisor who is a convicted felon and pathological liar.

I worry for our future under his "leadership". It is going to be a very long 4 years.

@WTF - in the Nickel's admin, about 700 city employees made over $100,000 per year, with most senior level people earning over $150,000. Robert Mac made around $160,000, and several top advisors made $200,000 +

So harping on the $110,000 a year salary is really sort of meaningless. I assume anyone in Bushnell's (or whatever his name is) makes at least that. Not that it's not good money, it's just not huge money comparatively.

Great reporting otherwise

Well, I just found this site this morning after reading the PI online site.

So this individual is from TACOMA????

Wow, he'd fit right in with the Tacoma City Council or Pierce County Council.

Maybe he'll run for office at PC Councilman!

What the new mayor REALLY needs to do - just my opinion: hire people with experience outside the Sierra Club echo chamber.

Bushnell/Haugen was the antithesis of what McGinn needed for a top advisor making personel decisions.

Not to worry, 6 loyal Chris B-H friends out there. All this means is that your hero won't be able to double-dip for a while. Mayor McGinn will likely steer plenty of business to Constituent Dynamics over the course of the next four years.

It's not as if Mike is gonna delete Chris' number from his iPhone. Chris' business partner is still married to Mike's chief of staff, afterall.

I wonder how all the *anybody but Nickels* voters are feeling this week?

Mr.X @9:32 PM

Robert Mak may have been a decent guy, but he was completely out of his element as a Communications Director. He did very little actual communcations, and his deputys had to do everything. He had no clue about what to do in that role. He was a good media commentator and moderator, but that's not what was needed in that govermental role. He could not write a decent press release or even communicate to the press for that matter. Mak saw the writing on the wall after the election, and he left.

Having said that, Bushnell was more of a hinderance in that role than a help, and like Mak, was smart enough to see the writing on the wall. McGinn will NOT miss him in the long run. There are more and better out there that would do a good job, without misrepresenting and power tripping on people. If he had not been a Felon, this story would not have gotten the traction it did. I don't know if that is a good or bad thing.

The not unexpected Education of McGinn (by his own admission) is actually progressing more quickly that most will admit. At least Bushnell was not advising him on Finance....

How much does Meinert make?

Wow -- it only took a month for the first piece of good news to come out of the McGinn administration. Too bad it wasn't a result of action taken by the mayor, but whatever. Definitely sounds like Bushnell will be keeping his cool kids membership in the McGinn/Broadhead/Mercury fanboy club.

Relieved, that's a damn good point about the Times story. No wonder they didn't pick the story up, if that's their "you kids quit playing on my lawn" editorial and reportorial attitude toward Publicola and its readers.

Blessing in disguise, though: between that and The Stranger's see-no-evil act, Publicola got to OWN the story through and through.

Selma, this wasn't Publicola "getting someone fired".
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Sure, Publicola researched the facts behind a poorly kept secret, and developed the story while more-established media outlets gave us the sound of crickets chirping, while the mayor's office hunted in vain for some facts to convince the public and themselves that the phony credentials, etc. meant nothing on principle.
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Publicola didn't start it, Bushnell did. Publicola didn't end it, McGinn did.

And our collective immune system expels a dangerous pathogen from within our midst.

Thank you, Erica and Josh, for pursuing the facts and doing a service to the whole city. Stubborn things, those facts.

I also have to take issue with Emily Heffter's tardy reporting today in the Seattle Times:

"But over the past few weeks, some of McGinn's critics targeted Bushnell, tipping reporters to questions about his educational and criminal background. They also called for his firing and blamed him for McGinn's decision to eliminate 200 of the city's top positions. The political Web site, PubliCola, has blogged about Bushnell repeatedly and first reported his claims about the doctorate."

This graf makes the whole investigation sound like a smear campaign by McGinn haters. More like whistleblowing by public spirited citizens who value truth, fairness and honest dealing! But Emily Heffter couldn't be bothered with our tips.

Of course, the rest of the Times article documents that the smear was _absolutely true_ and as damning as the worst critics alleged, making the tone of the above graf rather inexplicable.

The really sad thing is that these facts were known by many of the "little people" who blew the whistle for months and years. Until these past two weeks, though, Bushnell didn't present much of a visible target. First, he was just a guy on the campaign who seemed to have McGinn's ear a lot. Then he was this nebulous possibly unpaid "volunteer" on the transition who seemed to be calling all the shots. Then, finally, he had a named position with an elastic title and still seemed to be calling a lot of shots.

Strange times, indeed.

Emily Heffter is a hack and a not so closet McGinn supporter. Go back and read some of the articles she wrote about Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn. Mike bites and so does Auntie Em.

@ Soapboxin'

I don't disagree, and posted as much in another thread. But I see that it took Publicola a week to get someone fired, pretty much on their own. While, you and I both know that Bushnell was a fraud and shouldn't have been hired in the first place. I do think it's a little too easy to go through public records, highlight a salary, manufacture outrage, and put someone else out of a job.

lbloom.net + Facebook + records requests mean anyone with a .gov e-mail address is fair game for these kinds of scoops. I'm not so sure that's necessarily a good thing.

I know soapy, we should be done with this but one more deception - he's not going by Chris Bushnell when he contributes money to campaigns:

McGinn campaign - same for O'Brien

$700 CHRIS HAUGEN GSM
ECONOMIST 3/29/09

$700 MEGAN BUSHNELL Grette Associates
BIOLOGIST 3/29/09

And as for PDRs - everything should be online as Obama has suggested..

Well done Publicola!
You'll never hear it from him, but Mike McGinn owes you the biggest thanks of all.

Chris Cientodiez es no mas.

@Selma - I know second-hand how nasty Susan Kelleher was with the PDA machine last year, and that it was very destructive.
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This was very different. He truly brought this on himself.

Good work, Erica. He needed to go. And echoing Soapbox, I think I'm ready to move on. It certainly was good political theater. I'm not shedding any tears for Chris Bushnell and I'm keeping one eye open while McGinn's in office. But it's done. This was the correct resolution.

But the Stranger just picked up the story today? huh...

Enough,

Oh, Selma's comment makes plenty of sense, if you think the public and the truth are your enemies (PDR = Public Disclosure Request)

@Selma

That post makes no sense at all. I suppose it is hard riding the elevator down from the 7th floor and typing on your new iPhone at the same time.

Nice to be able to give Publicola credit for a job well done. About bloody time.

Meinert, it adds pathos to show what somebody about to lose his job would have made if he lasted a full year. It's a slam dunk if the amount is a good deal more than most readers can dream of.

Soapboxin', I don't disagree that Robert Mak's stint in the Nickels administration wasn't a good fit, but at least Mak had amply proved himself prior to that as someone who brought real value to local politics as a journalist, and who was also a thoroughly honest and decent person.

I get your metaphor, but it's an apples and oranges thing, at least in my view....

Great story, Publicola gets a ton of credit for breaking and staying on it. But the constant quoting of his salary " $110,000-a-year city office" is really petty and annoying. Hats the point? Other than that he was underpaid?

Well, Publicola gets a scalp, which seems to have the point out of all of this.

I wonder what are low-hanging fruits are available? Quick, to the PDR machine!

Busnell may not be on the payroll, but that doesn't mean his influence is gone. He was influential long before he was officially on the city payroll. Now Erica won't be able to ask for emails because they will go from private email to private email. Remember that McGinn is still defending him.

Politics 101...
Rule #1 Staff never ever get in the news.
Rule #2 If Rule #1 Violated -- get thrown under the bus.

Bus meet Chris.

wtf? McGinn tried to talk him out of it.... what does that mean?

Oh and one more thing. Remember Robert Mak? An ongoing embarrassment for Nickels because he was an overpaid and completely ineffective political appointee. He became a punching bag. It's good for McGinn to be rid of the same kind of liability.

His public service career isn't ruined. McGinn hired him KNOWING all this. Someone else will also. Because he's really a "smart" sociopath...uh, guy.

Good Riddance. As the first story in the Times is that he resigned I doubt many people who don't read PubliCola will ever notice this story.

Well done, Publicola. (Think if we generate another 178 comment stream thread we can get Mayor McG to follow suit?)

Again, let’s recognize BOTH sides of this. It was delicious political theater and he had to go. I don’t doubt for a second that he’s really smart, that he’ll land safely w/his friends in the private sector, and that he’ll still have the Mayor’s ear. But he shouldn’t be on the city payroll and he shouldn’t be setting policy.
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And he paid dearly for all of this. His public service career is ruined, for now, and he’s been publicly eviscerated.
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Pour yourself a stiff one, Chris. Tomorrow’s another day.

Thanks for reporting on this. Along with the deserved kudos and credit for the story, you appear to have attracted not a few migrating commenters from the Times / P-I. Oh, dear.
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(Shoo. Yes, I mean you with the foil hat. Git.)

I'm very glad to see that Bushnell resigned. Hopefully there won't be any more of these...debacles...in the future, and we can get back to moving this city forward.
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And I really do mean this, top notch reporting here at Publicola.

Mayor "Pollyanna" McGinn__RELUCTANTLY______ lets poor J. Christopher Haugen-Bushnell BA, PhD, JD go.

Wake up, Mikie! Is it hard to believe that some people can't be trusted due to profound character/personality flaws. Does someone want to volunteer to remove the mayor's rose-colored glasses?

How many chances does Chris get before we can safely conclude he is not to be trusted??? Apparently, the mayor thinks he is just fine and dandy. Is Chris going to be a consultant to our Mayor? Is his wife's firm going to get the seawall contract?

This will be like the Bush years when we had to wait for the madness to end.
Start the countdown to January 1, 2014 when Seattle can get a better mayor with a professional, qualified team with reasonable plans and proposals.

Another fact about this shyster Bushnell is that he lives in TACOMA. Doesn't it make you feel good that a guy who was going to be the Seattle Mayor's right hand man and advisor doesn't even live in Seattle, and thus would not be impacted by any of the ill-fated advice or decisions he made for our city.

I say good riddance to this life-long liar. He should team up with Frank Abagnale.

@hmmmm - yes, I'd love to read the bios on all of his staff, but the Meet the Team page on the mayor's website is still conspicuously blank. I'm sure some?/many?/most? of them may have relevant experience (and hopefully no skeletons as big as Bushnell's), but it is still quite unclear...
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Who knows, maybe this was part of McGinn's strategy behind the plan to cut senior positions: get rid of the most qualified and experienced people so that his own appointments didn't look so unqualified and inexperienced...

It was the only move and the probably not the last staffing change were likely to see in the near term. The Mayor needs experienced advisors around him as the issues he'll face only get bigger and more complex.

His erratic and ill advised pr moves in the last several weeks combined with the Bushnell story has blown his boat way off course and are a worrisome indication that he simply isnt getting the policy direction an executive needs.

Nice job tracking this story, though unfortunate for the beleaguered administration and people of Seattle.

Oh, it is so Disneyesque. Just like the ending of "Old Yeller".

No need to re-bid the seawall RFQ then, correct?

In this episode of the McGinn Reality Show, the Tribe leader reluctantly takes away his buddies' immunity idol for after he is caught spiking the Kool Aid.

Burning question: is this an anomoly, or a sign of the organizational culture that McGinn promotes? If the latter, then it's fish in a barrel.

And the key quote from the Times article:
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"McGinn spokesman Mark Matassa said the mayor tried to discourage
Bushnell from leaving and "very reluctantly accepted his resignation."