You likely remember the kerfuffle several years ago when the office of Attorney General Christine (as she was calling herself then) Gregoire missed a deadline that cost the state $17.8 million dollars. The same sort of thing is playing out in Snohomish County, on a smaller scale, this time for Gregoire's fellow Democrat, County Executive Aaron Reardon. A missed deadline may cost the county $1 million in Federal grant money for emergency preparedness.
The deadline was missed in the midst of the absorption of the county's Department of Emergency Preparedness, previously independent, into county government under Reardon. Reardon, though, is working hard to ensure that the buck stops somewhere else:
Reardon mostly blames Roger Serra, who served as executive director of emergency management in the county for more than six years. Serra resigned the day the county took over his agency and is now director of security and emergency management with Seattle City Light.The political undercurrent of this story is the looming showdown between Reardon and County Sheriff Rick Bart who will be challenging him for the office in 2007. Unfortunately for Reardon, the fiasco blends seamlessly into three pre-existing lines of attack against him.Serra on Tuesday said nobody should have been surprised by the grant deadline. He said he repeatedly told people inside and outside county government about it.
First, there's the assertion that Reardon undervalues law enforcement and its related functions, such as emergency preparedness. This is certain to be the main theme of Bart's campaign, and it's the reason he's getting into the race in the first place.
Second, there's the implication that Reardon is over-eager to consolidate power for himself. He's made it clear that he wants to turn currently independent, elected offices--particularly the sheriff & auditor--into appointed positions under himself, much like what he did with the Department of Emergency Management. Regardless of whether or not that was a good idea in the long run, it's pretty clear that this would not have happened had Reardon not allocated the responsibility to his office.
And third, there's the good old fashioned imputation of Gregoire-style incompetence and buck-passing. For his part, though, Bart is so far taking the high road, while still making clear his displeasure:
"Somebody dropped the ball, bottom line, and law enforcement is extremely disappointed," Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart said Tuesday...Posted by Timothy Goddard at February 08, 2006 03:04 PM | Email ThisBart doesn't care who is at fault. He said the community needs a new emergency operations center - and fast.
"We need to have a building that is big enough and dedicated to handle emergencies in the future," Bart said. "It is like traffic. We sat around on our rear ends, and look what happened."
I learned a long time ago to take personal responsibility for my actions. If you're in charge you're responsible. You may delegate authority, but you can't delegate responsibility.
Take a look at the pathetic losers with a (D) after their name. All they want is power for the sake of power. They're so incompetent that government is the only opportunity for them; they'd be lost in private industry. Cushy jobs, big salaries, private limos, taxpayer funded trips, etc., feed their already oversized egos. They don't want to take responsibility for the actions, or lack of action, of the departments they run, but they sure love the perks and the ability to tell us how to live our lives.
Only immature self-centered idiots blame others. It speaks very poorly of the people who vote such jerks into office.
They plenty more taxations, fines, regulations and overdomination in play for their next 3 years.
Then Bye Bye Queen Christine and her court of demoncraps!
Posted by: gs on February 8, 2006 03:38 PMAfter they poured about 1/2 into Ray Stephanson's $200k mayoral race and a similar amount into Koster/Sax bank accounts, they are not to be trifled with.
As far as the Bart race went, they were uncommittal.
Is Reardon actually running again? I thought he would be State rep or something.
And Misty, don't misunderestimate Reardon. He has the press behind him, too. His wife was a former writer for the local rag and is now in an executive position with the Stephanson office. Many, many stories of the conflict of interest with this group.
And for the builders, it looks like they are pushing to increase the size of Sound Transit and provide the funding for the campaign. They are also trying to merge Sound Transit with another group that wants capacity. So, watch your pocketbook, it is out of your pants pocket already.
Posted by: tradersmith on February 8, 2006 03:50 PMCedar County sounds better all the time. Unfortunately, it will most likely never become a reality.
Posted by: Gary on February 8, 2006 04:13 PMGuess he missed.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on February 8, 2006 04:37 PMSo, Reardon doesn't get the call on this one. People who vote will wonder- "why change?" and usually vote for the status quo. But, with the power of the press, who knows?
Posted by: tradersmith on February 8, 2006 04:51 PMReardon does seem to have been a few months late on some required campaign finance reports.
Posted by: Richard Pope on February 8, 2006 05:45 PMI loved the way he blamed NASCAR for blowing off the track....he had to not tick off the "Hick" (NASCAR Dads) who he needs to vote for him. He blew it to have such an economic impact on the county on purpose.
Bart is the can of whoop a$$ the county needs. Arrogant could give a crap about this county except to wipe his feet on our face on the way to somewhere else.
Vote for him if you enjoy being a footstool.
This $1 million fiasco is nothing to Reardon. He can go to his buddy Terwilliger and get things right. Right? After all, Aaron could care less about his campaign finance reports or much of anything else except greasing his rail to power.
(note to Aaron's people: I still don't want your e-mail rag in my inbox and will continue reporting it as spam. I have unsubscribed, I have done whatever, and still you send it. Don't send it - I don't want it. Send it to democraps, not to me.)
Posted by: SnoCo Voter on February 9, 2006 12:56 PM