August 25, 2005
New Monorail Boss

"New monorail leader bullish despite deadline"

Five hours into the job, new monorail chief John Haley was asked if Seattle will ever have its voter-approved line, given its cash shortage.

"I don't know," he told reporters.

They're paying the guy, what, $38,000 a month? For that amount of money they could at least have hired somebody with enough of a clue to understand that the "voter-approved" version of the Monorail doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being built.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 25, 2005 10:51 AM | Email This
Comments
1. The monorail project was designed to withstand all kinds of attacks. Once formed, it has turned out to be pretty much immune to being killed off. Sound Transit is just as impervious -- it will go on taxing forever no matter what. You like this kind of local government? Just vote yes when the RTID asks for approval of its taxes . . . .

Posted by: ronn on August 25, 2005 11:16 AM
2. They shouldn't have hired anyone at all. Preferably just shut the agency down. If not, simply make the second-ranking person the temporary head until they decided to shut it down.

If Christine Gregoire has any sense, she will call a special session of the legislature to abolish the monorail project. This is the only way that there will be any chance at all of stopping I-912 from repealing the gasoline tax (assuming this same special session also eliminates the tunnel and other gold-plating from the Alaskan Way Viaduct project).

But Gregoire isn't going to do any of this, and I-912 will pass by a huge margin, instead of having a closer race.

Posted by: Richard Pope on August 25, 2005 11:18 AM
3. $38k per MONTH? Isnt that more than the President of the United States?

SUCKERS!!!!

Posted by: Andy on August 25, 2005 11:56 AM
4. 38 grand a month- if you saw the photo of this clown in the Seattle Times, you can see how hard he's working by the face he's making.

It's like that guy at the office that's always walking around quickly and acting pi$$ed off all the time. Gives the impression that he's really busting his hump. When the guy eventually gets canned, you find out that the bozo was inept an didn't do jack.

Conclusion: Just look like your doing something and make a exagerated grimace before saying, "I don't know".

Posted by: Jeffro on August 25, 2005 12:28 PM
5. "I don't know?"

Shouldn't the following quote from the article tell the new guy that this project isn't going to build a single component despite spending millions of tax dollars:

"Haley said he will meet Monday with Mayor Greg Nickels, who has issued a Sept. 15 deadline for SMP to offer a public ballot measure, to either shorten the line or raise taxes."

So do the current monorail project folks really think that the public is going to accept either a shotened line with fewer stations and/or higher taxes to get it done?

Just because there are tax dollars to spend is not reason enough to keep this screwed-up project alive. Public support for the monorail was based on the rosy sales pitch that was originally presented some time ago - before it became obvious that it could not be done without costing way too much money over way too many years. Its time to stop asking, "Can we build it?" and start asking "Should we build it?"

Posted by: Gary on August 25, 2005 12:51 PM
6. And the saddest thing about that $38k "I don't know" is that it's probably the best expenditure the No-No-rail has made to date!

Posted by: alphabet soup on August 25, 2005 01:01 PM
7. I bet he would "know" if he was being paid a heckuva lot less!

Posted by: Mary on August 25, 2005 01:10 PM
8. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

Looks like $20k right there.

Posted by: Jeffro on August 25, 2005 01:18 PM
9. It already sounds sunk before he's begun...

With an answer like that, I think his monthly salary should be a buck-seventy-five.

Posted by: Michele on August 25, 2005 01:50 PM
10. Get a grip people. The guy provided an honest answer on his first day on the job, any other answer would have been speculative. He was asked if something would happen, not whether he thought it should or not.

Posted by: Daniel K on August 25, 2005 03:58 PM
11. I thought this guy was hired to tell us whether or not the monorail is feasible. If he is already "bullish," then he is not much of an objective voice.

This guy does not make a living stopping bad mass transit projects from going forward. So, he'll join with the board of mono-bozos (I mean really, ever watched these idiots on the Seattle Channel?) in trying to trick us into believing that it can be built and funded.

After it starts, they'll be back for more money.

Posted by: BananaLand(aka Iguana) on August 25, 2005 07:29 PM
12. It would be funny if SMP didn't do anything by Sept. 15 because the mayor would be forced to enforce his line in the sand. That would be a kick to watch.

Posted by: delfto on August 25, 2005 07:49 PM
13. Yeah delfto - that would be a hoot!

He'd actually have to say "no" to something, which obviously he has not done for a long time. Especially not when desert is served!

Posted by: BananaLand (aka Iguana) on August 25, 2005 08:34 PM
14.
And don't forget, the $38K per month is just for him. The consulting firm he works for gets an override for "additional support" or somesuch.

Glad I am safely ensconced 7 full blocks outside of the People’s Republic of Seattle, in the FU-WA (feminist utopia of Washington).

The Geezer

Posted by: The Geezer on August 25, 2005 09:25 PM
15. So what's all of the sudden so new that they need a $38,000 individual to determine. scheeees these people really know how to P away the dwindling monorail stream of revenues. Once recieved, they simply cannot and will not end. I am amazed that they aren't being diverted to another know train set

Posted by: GS on August 26, 2005 06:43 AM
16. It's time to use their own tactics and start asking questions such as 'has a monorail ever fed a hungry child?' etc. Hoist them on their own pitard.

Posted by: JDH on August 26, 2005 08:57 AM
17. If I'm not mistaken, isn't this consultant working for the Booz, Allen and Scheister (couldn't recall the last guy, but that works) outfit that was also involved in the challenges to I-912 before it even hit the streets? The same ones who stood to benefit from the massive construction boondoggles if the gas tax was to remain in effect?

Posted by: Palouse on August 26, 2005 09:18 AM
18. Good pionts Delfto and Banana land! I like Geezer and others live outside King County thank goodness! Phew!

Posted by: Laurie on August 27, 2005 09:13 AM
19. This is pure elitist liberal socialism in action, where symbols matter more than their subjects and collapse is a fait accompli.
$38,000 is nothing because it is not Sims’ money. Liberals don't give a damn about money unless it is theirs personally and then they are the stingiest bastards alive.
No one except liberals would care about the $38,000 unless it was CERTAIN NOT TO PRODUCE ANYTHING USEFUL, and now since it doesn’t –what the heck– hang the cost.

Through the monorail, liberals seek a symbol of liberal economic achievement, and by acting purely on superficiality they are getting precisely the symbol they deserve. They’ll bitch all day long about corporate salaries as though it was any business of theirs how much they earn to begin with, but fund the funeral for some idiotic lavish chariot in the air and they are generous to a fault—so long as it is not their own money. They do have a derivative reason to lament though, at least they probably feeeel so. Bums, wino’s, and round-heeled liberal downtown attorneys currently have free Metro’s to sleep on, but liberals feeeeel that is not good enough for the ultimate human symbols of their ideological achievement. “I wept because I had no shoes until I met a bum who had no monorail to schnoozle on.”

Since liberal socialists like Ron Sims slept through Economics 101(sound familiar), none of them have a passing understanding of where money comes from, but they sure like it for themselves, and they are anxious to do good things with as much money as they can get—so long as it is not their own money. If we were talking about a conservative program being supported under the administration of a conservative with a perfectly practical plan and charter, all hell would break loose with liberal nitwit protesters running around and articles in the Times and PI discussing starving children, AIDS research, free lunch for addicts, tent cities, ad nauseum what-have-you (some of which are already heavily funded through charitable contributions from conservatives own personal pockets).

I can just overhear my pointy headed union shop steward neighbor who likes tent cities say “why golly Norm they could buy 100 new tents with that.” You sure as hell won't see him or his chicken$hit liberal union spring for any tents though, and if they came anywhere near his property, that’s a different story. Nevertheless, just think of all the dope liberals could shoot up and fresh liberal multiple voters that could be conceived in those shiny brand new tents. Would boggle any “live and let live” little liberal mind.

Hey liberals, hey Ron Sims, I like to live and let live also, but on my own money assholes!! Keep your greasy self-righteous parsimonious miserly mitts off my dough until you can justify using it for purposes I can share some benefit in. Otherwise form a private company, put together a plan, fund and build it yourself. Little hint, if it isn’t feasible, maybe you should NOT DO IT? Oh I forgot, you missed econ 101.

Now that the expenditure involves the simple laying to rest of a loser liberal pet hog—money is no object—so long as it is not their own money. Liberals are very amusing indeed, but in a disgusting sort of way.

Posted by: Amused by liberals on August 27, 2005 10:43 AM
20. Yet Chapter 80 in "The Decline of the Emerald Empire:"

$38,000 for a first class cabin ticket on the SS Seattle-Titanic. The clueless liberal voter icebergs loom in the apathy fog. Hope history dosen't repeat itself. Curiously, only the homeless are hunkered down in the lifeboats and lowering. Inside scoop?

Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on August 30, 2005 11:19 AM
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