New monorail vote at issue

The Seattle Monorail Project faces a major legal question: Must voters be asked whether they want to abandon the project or build a shorter line than the 14-mile system they approved between West Seattle and Crown Hill?

The question loomed yesterday after the project's contracting team and monorail officials said they're considering building the line in shorter segments to save money. Project leaders are scrambling to find a way to save the monorail after the board last month rejected the $11.4 billion financing plan. Shortly after that, the monorail's executive director and board chairman resigned.

The 2002 plan approved by voters described the proposed system as "this 14-mile Green Line from Ballard and West Seattle to downtown," and monorail officials have repeatedly described it that way.

During a news conference about the agency's next steps, acting monorail board Chairwoman Kristina Hill said yesterday that phasing of construction, new financing or a flat yea-or-nay vote stopping the project all could be referred to city voters.

New taxes must get voter approval, but it's not clear whether they must be asked to approve other changes, such as shortening the line to save money or phasing it in to generate more money.

Hill said without voter approval a permanent shortening of the length of the line "probably would be illegal" and she wouldn't support it.

Phasing construction -- building the line to 14 miles but in segments -- probably could be done without a vote because the 14 promised miles ultimately would be completed, she said. Board member Cleve Stockmeyer agreed, saying voters should be asked to approve shortening the line, but that staging the construction -- building parts of it over a longer period of time -- probably wouldn't require a vote.

Monorail critics, at the same time, argue that any major changes in the line require the OK of voters.

Raising more money to finance the line, or reducing its size, "will require an election," said Henry Aronson, longtime monorail opponent and spokesman for the watchdog group OnTrack. The monorail is facing a cash crunch because money from the tax on vehicles in the city is coming in about 30 percent less then expected.

"We are now at the point where we say either the Green Line works or it doesn't. They are not to spend money to develop a plan B," Aranson said.

But nobody was absolutely clear yesterday on whether any additional votes are required because the measures authorizing the monorail aren't clear, either.

According to analysis by a legislative transportation committee, the voter-approved 2002 Seattle Citizen Petition No. 1 doesn't say whether the people of Seattle must be asked to approve shortening of the line or staging of its construction. State law allowing formation of the monorail agency doesn't either.

"It's open to question," said City Attorney Tom Carr, once a director of the city's monorail planning agency, the Elevated Transportation Co. "Ultimately, I suspect it's going to be a question for a judge."

A question with phased construction is whether it would save money. It would cost less to build a segment of the line, which could be opened sooner so trains could begin raising money earlier to pay off bonds.

But critics also said it could prove costlier. Each segment would undergo costly testing. Contractors a year ago persuaded the agency to abandon opening part of the line two years early, a move they said would save millions of dollars in repeated system testing and construction work needed to tie completed segments to each new phase.

The agency board's action plan, set for adoption tonight, includes several other steps:

The hiring of Jensen & Cooper, a Bellevue recruiting firm, to search for a new executive director to replace Joel Horn, who resigned July 4 after a firestorm of criticism over an $11.4 billion, 50-year project financing plan. The plan has been dropped.

Dick Sandaas, former executive director of the county's Metro transit agency, will lead the search.

Jensen & Cooper located Joni Earl as the director of Sound Transit and Hill said monorail officials hope the recruiters can "find us someone of similar quality." Jensen & Cooper will be paid $45,000. Sandaas is not a candidate for the monorail job, Hill said.

Naming an independent financial consultant, perhaps within the next week, to discuss the project's troubled finances and possible alternatives. A half-dozen candidates are being discussed.

Internal cost-cutting proposals, including staff reductions, which the board will take up at a meeting set for 5:30 p.m. today at the project meeting room, 1913 Fourth Ave.

Conducting a "brainstorming" session with citizens beginning at 6:30 p.m. today, after the regular meeting.

Public discussions will begin July 27 on the proposed $2-billion construction/operation contract with Cascadia Monorail Co.

Hill said the board also will discuss possibly rebidding the design-build-operate contract, using consultants and outside experts as well as its own staff.

Hill said possible closure of the Seattle Monorail Project agency -- or merging it with another transit entity -- will be examined.

One merger option discussed is combining the monorail agency with Sound Transit, but that would require an act of the Legislature.