Photo: CBE Strategic
The Bertha fiasco couldn’t have gotten more appalling.
Now comes the news that the man who’s been hired to solve the fiasco is none other than Tim Ceis, Seattle’s former deputy mayor and current lobbyist.
Ceis is infamous among Seattle’s political cognoscenti for the hardball style he displayed in the Greg Nickels administration that earned him the nickname “The Shark.” Now his consulting firm has been hired by Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP), the design-build contractor for the controversial deep-bore tunnel project. As revealed at Crosscut last week, Ceis was quietly hired by STP on January 16.
STP led the drive to convince Seattle’s city government and Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire to choose the tunnel option over other, wiser options. Now that the tunnel project has been revealed as the money pit opponents of the tunnel predicted circa 2011, Ceis has apparently been given the task of rescuing the project. Whether that means truly solving the stalled status of the project or merely saving STP’s public face is an open question.
For now, let’s consider that Ceis, along with Greg Nickels, was a tunnel supporter from the beginning. When Crosscut contacted STP seeking comment for their story, STP declined. Stay tuned.
