Last year, after Mayor Jenny Durkan was sworn in, I was pretty critical of her early decisions, especially appointing more than half a dozen non-profits and Vulcan to her transition team. I even called a post about Durkan, “So Far Not So Good.”

This made somebody really mad. I got some heat for not sending the new Mayor congratulations and praise. I was skeptical, and this somebody suggested I was the “wrong person” to speak for builders. I’ve explained privately some of the fallout from that blog post. It wasn’t pretty.

But here we are and now it isn’t just me ranting and raving about Durkan it’s the Seattle Times. In a scathing opinion by their editorial board, the Times says,

Every council member and Mayor Jenny Durkan sided with those who vilify employers and wrongly blame them for social problems and City Hall’s repeated failures to resolve longstanding problems.

If the tax remains and Seattle doesn’t end its ideological crusade against employers, many thousands of jobs will go elsewhere or go away. That’s the opposite of what’s needed to address affordability and homelessness challenges.

Durkan’s support for the tax is disappointing. She squandered her first big opportunity for bold leadership and balancing the council’s extremism. Her ballyhooed compromise over the tax’s scope still imposed a job-killing tax.

And for some reason, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce still doesn’t seem to get it. In a bizarre “thank you” to Durkan and those Councilmembers they said this:

Two months ago, many thought a permanent $75-150 million tax was a foregone conclusion. What passed yesterday – a $45-50 million tax that sunsets in 5 years – is a bill that will hold Council responsible for producing results. We thank Mayor Durkan for her leadership on this issue in this highly politicized atmosphere, as well as Councilmembers Bagshaw, Johnson, and Juarez and Council President Harrell for raising important questions throughout the process.

When they read this, one of my colleagues actually texted me “WTF?” Indeed.

There are clearly two types of business people in Seattle, those who have finally seen what I’ve seen for some time, that City Government has failed to function as a government and the Council as a deliberative body capable of making decisions. The notion of setting up meetings and trying to explain things to these people is pointless.

And then there’s the Chamber.

When it comes to policy, the Mayor and the Council simply can’t be reasoned with. The right thing to have done would have been to veto the tax on jobs, period.

For those that say, “Well, with Moon we’d have had the full $75 million.” To those people I say, we’ve still got a harmful tax that does little, now even less than before. As I’ve said, never have so many done so little for so few. And this means that for sure the tax will fail to produce any results. What happens then? The tax will get raised and expanded. “We should have done the full amount last time!” they’ll say. Does anyone really think that the City will let go of a revenue source in the future? Maybe if it’s all new people on the Council and a new Mayor.

If we’re going to change this city and rescue it from itself, we’re going to need outside help, especially from Olympia and even from other cities and counties. That’s why I am building relationships across the state. Everyone else outside the city limits is wondering why we are dismembering ourselves. And they realize that the more incoherent City government gets here, the more and more resources Seattle will consume. It’s kind of like having an addict as a relative; you may want to ignore the problem, but as it gets worse for them, it also gets worse for you.

We simply have to stop thinking that by being nice and collegial to the Mayor and Council will result in them doing the right thing; in fact, when we don’t confront them for their bad actions we’re sending a clear message that we’re ok with it. Being co-dependent with the cash addicted non-profits and the Mayor and Council that do their bidding is not the answer. Being principled, sending a clear messages that we won’t sit still for bad housing policy, and building relationships with others outside the Seattle bubble will.