Reduce city subsidies pledged to billionaire Paul Allen.
Reduce the hundreds of millions in corporate welfare the city has pledged (with no public vote) to billionaire Paul Allen's projects in South Lake Union.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled395 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Arts and culture »34 comments for Idea: Reduce city subsidies pledged to billionaire Paul Allen. -
I agree
Voting is Disabled
359 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Effective government »Secure funding for Seattle Community Access Network (SCAN)
84 comments for Idea: Secure funding for Seattle Community Access Network (SCAN)Continue City of Seattle Funding of Seattle Community Access Network (SCAN) at the current level. SCAN is funded by the cable companies through negotiations with the City of Seattle. SCAN provides a unique and critical link between community and neighborhood activities and Seattle residents. Often SCAN is the only medium through which these voices can be heard.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
352 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Libraries »Allow online/credit card payment for library fines
8 comments for Idea: Allow online/credit card payment for library finesAllow library fines to be paid online or at check-out with credit cards. This will increase cash flow, rather than waiting months to collect.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
344 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Effective government »Start with Over-Paid employees first
Please consider cutting the pay or laying off higher level employees who make $100,000+ a year, and are not essential to running the City. I suggest by doing so you could save many employees jobs who actually offer "direct services" to the public. Using the list on this website for reference: http://lbloom.net/xsea09.html Look at the neighborhoods department for example, how can they have several staff making $100,000 ...more »
8 comments for Idea: Start with Over-Paid employees firstPlease consider cutting the pay or laying off higher level employees who make $100,000+ a year, and are not essential to running the City. I suggest by doing so you could save many employees jobs who actually offer "direct services" to the public. Using the list on this website for reference:
Look at the neighborhoods department for example, how can they have several staff making $100,000 or more a year? That staff cannot be equally as vital as the Police and Fire department staff making similar pay. The director of neighborhoods earned $140,285 last year? I'm sure someone would do that job for $70,000 a year -if they truly cared about the community more than their pay. There seem to be too many over paid employees in all departments and I'm concerned that since they are at the top, they are the same people in charge of suggesting what to cut to the Council (and they are not even looking at themselves/their pay as an option).
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
329 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Effective government »Make the cuts you promised
17 comments for Idea: Make the cuts you promisedI suggest you cut the 200 mid manager positions you pledged to cut when you were elected
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
306 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Parks »Let the folks who play golf pay for golf course upgrades!
6 comments for Idea: Let the folks who play golf pay for golf course upgrades!Don't spend $3.4 million on a new driving range for the West Seattle Golf course!
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I agree
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305 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Effective government »Consolidate overlapping city department functions
3 comments for Idea: Consolidate overlapping city department functionsCombine management, billing and accounting fuctions at City Light and SPU. Why does City Light, SPU and Office of Housing all run their own utility rebate and energy efficiency programs? Why does the city need an Office of Housing department when there is already the public Seattle Housing Authority with much the same mission?
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
304 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Community centers »Pools and community centers
13 comments for Idea: Pools and community centersPlease keep our pools and community centers open even if more furlough days are necessary to keep costs down.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
283 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Effective government »overpaid workers
7 comments for Idea: overpaid workersThe Department of Neighborhoods Director gets paid a 6 figure salary, besides this person there are 2 other employees in this same Department making 6 figures. Does anybody doing what these 3 people do at Neighborhoods, really require getting paid $100,000 a year? Please cut their pay or cut them.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
276 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Arts and culture »Cut Consultants such as Cathy Allen's firm
Cut out the high paid consultants who do the work for the City that employees are hired to do. It is a culture that dates back to kickbacks. What is Cathy Allen doing that an employee can not do? And if you did an audit of her invoices and publicized them the taxpayers would be angry. What about Mr. Hawaii who was paid thousands to do what you hired new directors to do in SPU? And the wasted millions for training and ...more »
3 comments for Idea: Cut Consultants such as Cathy Allen's firmCut out the high paid consultants who do the work for the City that employees are hired to do. It is a culture that dates back to kickbacks. What is Cathy Allen doing that an employee can not do? And if you did an audit of her invoices and publicized them the taxpayers would be angry. What about Mr. Hawaii who was paid thousands to do what you hired new directors to do in SPU? And the wasted millions for training and retraining and training and retraining Seattle's police force. Why is Parks and Recreation still watering grass in 2010 sometimes even in the rainy season?
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
275 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Arts and culture »Don't close QA Gym - look for other buildings to generate income
51 comments for Idea: Don't close QA Gym - look for other buildings to generate incomeDo not close the QA Community center gym to get revenue for "BizKids" - a TV show! Please get creative and look for an alternative solution to rent to "BizKids" - e.g., closed school building, another neighborhood (why does this show have to be in Queen Anne? why not an industrial neighborhood?)
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
262 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Transportation »Stop funding the South Lake Union Streetcar
7 comments for Idea: Stop funding the South Lake Union StreetcarThe South Lake Union Streetcar serves a route that is easily served by a bus. The streetcar disrupts car traffic causing congestion throughout the Mercer corridor and often back to I-5 as it is not coordinated with the street lights. The streetcar has very low ridership and cannot support itself financially. Other transit methods could serve commuters in this area at a lower cost.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
258 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Effective government »Combine City Light & Public Utilities
3 comments for Idea: Combine City Light & Public UtilitiesCombine administration of Seattle City Light & Public Utilities... Customer service, billing, receivables do not need to be duplicated.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
256 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Libraries »Keep the South Park branch library open
18 comments for Idea: Keep the South Park branch library openPlease, please, please don't close the South Park branch library! It is one small step toward equality for South Park's citizens, and it is SUCH an important resource!!!
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
251 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Effective government »Customer Service Bureau Wasteful and Ridiculous Staff Salaries
4 comments for Idea: Customer Service Bureau Wasteful and Ridiculous Staff SalariesI suggest you look at the outrageous salaries of the Customer Service Bureau staff, with a specific eye on the Director and Supervisor positions. In 2007, the Director's salary almost doubled with no additional responsibilities and a "supervisor" position was added to supervise 3 Complaint investigators and 2 admin staff.This supervisor position is totally unnecessary and was rejected as such by Personnel for years.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
242 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Transportation »Collect outstanding parking fine debts
4 comments for Idea: Collect outstanding parking fine debtsCollect the $52 million on outstanding parking fines reported on by KIRO-TV in February.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
241 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Transportation »No more suggest traffic speed signs!
Immediately stop any further funding or future installation of those ridiculous new lighted signs that supposed regulate traffic speeds on I-5. The first time I saw them, all northbound lanes were inching along at about 3-5 mph and the signs were brightly lit, indicating we should be going 45. The next time I drove up the same stretch -- just south of downtown Seattle -- it was the same ridiculousness, The lit indicated ...more »
4 comments for Idea: No more suggest traffic speed signs!Immediately stop any further funding or future installation of those ridiculous new lighted signs that supposed regulate traffic speeds on I-5. The first time I saw them, all northbound lanes were inching along at about 3-5 mph and the signs were brightly lit, indicating we should be going 45. The next time I drove up the same stretch -- just south of downtown Seattle -- it was the same ridiculousness, The lit indicated speed bore no resemblance whatsoever to the speeds actually being traveled. Why in the world was any money at all spent on such a silly, inaccurate system?
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
237 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Effective government »Cut supervisors and management
1 comment for Idea: Cut supervisors and managementLevel the layers and layers of supervision and management. If the Seattle Public Schools had the same ratio of students to teachers as the City of Seattle has line staff to supervisors and managers, our students would be in learning utopia. Supervisors and Managers should have a minimum of 8 staff reporting to each to justify the position and compensation.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
232 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Homelessness »keep funding share
15 comments for Idea: keep funding shareit is very important to our community that you continue to fund share. I am greived that folks choose to put so much energy into such negativity about a program that is working to improve the lives of members of our community who are often ignored.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
229 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Transportation »No more "road diets"
13 comments for Idea: No more "road diets"Quit spending precious SDOT funds eliminating road capacity on arterials for "road diets" and bike lanes. Not to mention all the money saved by eliminating all the studies and public meetings associated with these "road diets." Our limited resources should go towards maintaining our crumbling roads, not reducing capacity in a growing city!
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
228 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Effective government »Cut consultant costs
Add your comment for Idea: Cut consultant costswhen consultants are doing the work of permanent employees take the cost out of salary of person who was hired to know how to solve the problems of their department.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
228 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Libraries »Library parking into rental lot when not in use
6 comments for Idea: Library parking into rental lot when not in useTurn the library's parking lots into pay lots at night and on Sundays' when they're closed.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
225 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Effective government »no overtime
14 comments for Idea: no overtimeCut all employees overtime to ZERO. Dont do any street projects on the weekends...
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
221 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Effective government »City vehicle fleet purchases on lowest lifetime cost, not "statement" value
Why does the City of Seattle continue to purchase expensive new hybrid vehicles? Please consider cost/benefit analysis of purchases in the vehicle fleet. It is GOOD to move towards more efficent vehicles, but a $14k Toyota Yaris at 35 MPG is a more sensible pruchase than a $24k Toyota Prius at 50 MPG. The fuel savings given the short distances driven in typical city cars will not make up for the higher purchase price ...more »
1 comment for Idea: City vehicle fleet purchases on lowest lifetime cost, not "statement" valueWhy does the City of Seattle continue to purchase expensive new hybrid vehicles? Please consider cost/benefit analysis of purchases in the vehicle fleet. It is GOOD to move towards more efficent vehicles, but a $14k Toyota Yaris at 35 MPG is a more sensible pruchase than a $24k Toyota Prius at 50 MPG. The fuel savings given the short distances driven in typical city cars will not make up for the higher purchase price and potential battery replacement or hybrid system repairs. The city should be purchasing vehicles with the best overall operational cost, not "statement" vehicles like the Prius.
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I agree
Voting is Disabled
219 votes
I disagreeThis idea is active.Effective government »Keep city vehicles longer, delay replacement
2 comments for Idea: Keep city vehicles longer, delay replacementDelay new fleet purchases. Keep ALL vehicles until their warranties expire and beyond.
Limit the use of city vehicles by city employees. Explore cost savings by negotiating private-sector contracts for repairs and maintenance.
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