Someone needs a timeout: The latest installment in the soap opera at 3000 Rockefeller Ave. would be funny if it didn’t involve such a serious matter.
Snohomish County Council undid the work of their 2005 predecessors by voting 3-2 last month to erase mini-cities as a future development possibility.
The dissenters were Councilmen Dave Gossett and John Koster, who in 2005 helped put those devilish fully-contained communities in the proverbial tool box of land uses.
They cared enough about keeping them in the tool box to let County Executive Aaron Reardon know, indirectly, they wouldn’t mind if the big guy exercised his powerful veto pen on their colleagues.
When Reardon did — saying their nods, winks and voice mail helped sway him into action — the two councilmen freaked. Apparently they didn’t like being on the same side of the issue and having the world know this.
Gossett felt Reardon used him as a shield against a public angered by the veto. Reardon said he didn’t plan to uncork his pen at all until hearing Gossett and Koster would back his move.
On Tuesday, Gossett plans to vote to override that veto effectively nullifying the votes he took last month and in 2005 in support of mini-cities.
While some enviros may be quick to brand him a hero, Gossett should explain whether he’s changed his heart toward them or not.
This week’s episode didn’t make it clear.
Cancelled flight: Gov. Chris Gregoire has obtained an extension on a political loan to help her effort at keeping Boeing happy and peppy and staying in Everett.
Under an agreement announced this week, Bill McSherry will continue serving as her special adviser on aerospace through the end of the year.
Since February, she’s borrowed him from the Puget Sound Regional Council where he is the director of economic development. He was set to return there last Tuesday.
A primary focus for McSherry is making the case that Washington is the best place for Boeing to open a second production line for its 787 Dreamliner.
McSherry has also been quietly effective in channelling the governor’s ideas to the wealth of aerospace-related organs in the state. And his presence is helping mend relations with political, business and labor leaders who’ve been critical of her role in aerospace matters the past year.
Boeing may decide on a site for a second line this year. If not, McSherry may find himself in Olympia a bit longer.
Togas on the tarmac? There’s talk percolating in Snohomish County about putting a four-year college at Paine Field.
Snohomish County Councilman Mike Cooper thinks the soon-to-be-launched aerospace institute at Paine Field could provide the foundation on which, over time, a campus could rise.
With federal and state aid, aerospace-related degrees and hands-on training programs could be developed rather quickly, he reasoned.
It wouldn’t be the quietest campus with planes flying overhead.
It would be darn close to a ferry line serving the Whidbey Island constituents of state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, who’s been the chief naysayer of a campus showing up anywhere south of Marysville.
On Oct. 19, Cooper and the rest of the county council plan to toss about ideas on getting a college with state and local legislators.
And this trial balloon may get floated in the process.
Read political reporter Jerry Cornfield’s blog, The Petri Dish, at www.heraldnet.com. He can be heard at 8:15 a.m. Mondays on “The Morning Show” on KSER (90.7 FM). Contact him at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
