The King County Council Committe-Of-the-Whole is now having its elections briefing. Watch on KCTV.
Meeting is now adjourned. Some running commentary in the extended entry...
First up is Cheryl Scott, the Democratic bigwig donor who was the handpicked chairwoman of Ron Sims' personal task force on whitewashing the elections disaster.
Scott: biggest problem in elections office is culture.[I wonder whose fault that is]. Bring in a turnaround team! [Indeed, bring in a turnaround team]
Scott: "in order to fix the culture, we need all-mail voting!" [what the hell does that have to do with the broken culture? This woman is an idiot]
Kathy Lambert: how can we intervene when the employees aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing?
Scott: something has to change in a fundamental way. [Yes, it does]. We bring in a turnaround team! We have to hold the Executive accountable!
Lambert: we have held the Executive accountable. Nothing's changed.
Scott: We bring in a turnaround team! [Give this idiot the gong]
Jane Hague: you recommend all-mail ballots. But most of the problems were in mail ballots. Why should this increase confidence?
Scott: "We have to solve those problems" [Idiot Scott won't be bothered to understand what those problems are, let alone what is involved in solving them]
Comrade Phillips: goal is to get "every vote to count". [but not apparently, to prevent illegal votes from being counted]
Cheryl Scott has fortunately left the stage. Next up is County Auditor Cheryle Broom. This woman is in desperate need of a haircut.
Ron Sims' chief-of-staff Kurt Triplett is now on. Promises a reappearance next week with Dean Logan to explain everything they're doing to improve elections. Today --- highlights!
* Sent two pieces of legislation to council
-- appropriations for more elections staff
-- adopt state legislative agenda.
David Irons: [I summarize] "So you're not going to adopt the task force's recommendation and vest authority in the turnaround team instead of Dean Logan?"
Triplett: [I paraphrase] "Correct. Dean Logan is still the Man"
Triplett: "We all know the technology of 2003 couldn't handle the 2004 presidential election. That's why we had to change the technology" [yes, but the fabulous new technology couldn't handle the 2004 election either!]
In order to fix the election, without getting caught next time we need all mail voting.
Posted by: JCM on August 15, 2005 10:59 AMBut I agree 150%.
Posted by: swatter on August 15, 2005 11:15 AMWTF!!!!????? Where does she live, not King Co. Off the cuff diagnosis, Lambert is delusional, I recommend a room and board at Western States for a while.
Reasonable question from Hague. A reasonable intelligent respond would be, "We have to fix the problems before we even think of all mail balloting." Another sign control of the election process is the paramount consideration, not a clean, accurate, fair, open election process.
Scott should be fired for being stupid if nothing else.
Posted by: JCM on August 15, 2005 11:25 AMAnd that's just for starters.
Why is taxpayer $$$$$ being spent for this pap? Why are they gumming up the airwaves with this???? couldn't they be showing reruns of Mr. Rogers or Sesame Street or something else worthwhile????
Posted by: SnoCo Voter on August 15, 2005 11:28 AMIndeed, all Sims seems to have done is bully elections workers who have dared to speak publicly about solutions to the problems.
Lambert seemed to me to be expressing skepticism that Sims has the competency to corrent the problems. Basically she was saying, "We've already given Sims several chances -- why should we give him another one?"
Posted by: Observer on August 15, 2005 11:47 AMExcluding Jim Buck's name cited in a Seattle Times article has anyone seen a list of these employees pulled from other departments yet?
Posted by: Joe on August 15, 2005 12:17 PMWhen I tuned into King County TV, though, after watching several county-funded commercials on environment, chat rooms and other public service stuff, now there is some cultural artistic program on that began with some blond doing some drug-induced dance called art in some Seattle back-alley with a bunch of homeless bumbs watching and applauding. It raises a question for me that is outside this thread but I think worthy of some investigation.
If we have to vote on Medic One, parks, and other programs that everyone generally would support as part of government's role, where in the hell does King County fund the production and airing of this liberal culture crap on King County TV, including the implied endorsement of what is presented as King County TV?
Medic One or liberal programming, including interviews with budding artists in Seattle? The answer is pretty obvious.
Posted by: Mike on August 15, 2005 12:51 PMWhat this shows us is that the current leadership and management at King County is incapable of dealing with this, or any other major, issue. They don't even know what the problem is and a year later they have done nothing that will do anything to make things better. It's all smoke and mirrors.
Thankfully the Republican Caucus is asking some tough questions but without control they can do little but make them squirm.
Those who can do, those who can't teach.
To include; those who can do neither get elected.
Posted by: JCM on August 15, 2005 01:41 PMI suspect there's a line item somewhere labeled "public outreach" or "education."
Posted by: South County on August 15, 2005 01:58 PMScott is indeed an idiot! Her body language was so revealing of her deception - that my 7 year old asked what was wrong with her?! She evaded the most important questions from council members...like :
* When she and her task force identified the KC Executive (Ron Sims) as the main election problem - Why did they seemed very comfortable giving the executive (Ron Sims) ultimate authority over the turnaround team? When asked about this, Scott started her spin on how private sector turnaround teams report to the CEO ..blah blah.blah..
*And when questioned about the possibility of the turnaround team reporting instead to the County council - she poo-pooed the idea of the team reporting to even the smallest number of council members! She could not allow the control of the elections to be taken out of Sims hands - even when she identified him as the problem! ....DUH!
*Then there was the revelation that All Mail Ballots actually *increased* the election problems! Scott simply did not want to deal with that fact....It didn't fit into her 'Sims approved' script!
I thought all Republican council members did a good job questioning the many absurdities of Scott and her task force recommendations!
Ms. Broom, the auditor?, had the most distracting hairstyle! It was as though she were trying to hide inside of her thick black locks! I don't recall a thing she said! I just kept hoping she would put her hair behind her ears.....
Triplett was the most ridiculous of all at the meeting today! My God! He was gleefully addressing the council - assuring them that heads were gonna roll next week when Sims makes some big announcement of election staff action! Woooooh! I can feel the shaking.....NOT! Ron Sims has probably identified a few right-leaning employees - who's employment he will slaughter as sacrificial lambs! Then - like the smoking man on the X files - Sims will claim these poor employees are responsible for every problem and questionable practice that has plagued the KC elections since the early 1990's!!
Oh yeah Ron......like anything you offer at this point will fly with the citizens.....Hah!
I have to admit...Scott and Triplett are actually becoming *Transparent* in their deception! So - I guess *transparancy* is coming to the elections one way or the other!
Posted by: Deborah on August 15, 2005 07:59 PMAnd, no end to our opportunities to watch a room full of idiots in action.
Posted by: BananaLand (aka Iguana) on August 16, 2005 04:56 PM