Gotta admire their guts

We have not yet watched last night’s “Lessons from the Windstorm” City Council hearing (should turn up today on the Seattle Channel site), but at least one WSB reader who saw it “live” describes it exactly the way the Times and P-I do today — mostly a ventstorm from City Light workers who bravely stood up in front of politicians and media to accuse their bosses of bungling things while tens of thousands of us spent days in the dark, in more ways than one. We heard some of this during the outage, of course; then we heard city management take the first opportunity to refute it. But what’s that old saying about “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”? So the real issue is … what now, when the hearings end, when the bad weather retreats for another year, will anyone really change anything?

TG January 4, 2007 (7:57 am)

Look back at my comment on Dec 30th, “Shining Bright”, then read this.
I was amazed so many stood up from SCL. But if you had worked there over the past 15 years, you would not be surprised. One employee likened the utility to an abandoned car. More like a rudderless Titanic from my perspective.
It amazes me that the politically influence that has caused the utility to go down hill over the past 15 years continues to be elected.
It would help to hire competent “electric” utility leadership. Stayed tuned this is just the beginning.
Oh and keep those candles near by!

SWT January 4, 2007 (11:35 am)

The guts of these SCL employees is certainly impressive — but no doubt it’s easier to have the requisite guts if you’re protected by a union contract, like SCL folks are. One of the basic union rights is “just cause” — you can’t be disciplined unless there’s good reason, equitable treatment, etc. etc. The right to speak out against your boss when necessary is yet another reason why the public benefits when public employees — and other employees — are unionized.

Sorry, comment time is over.