I’ve been trying to school my colleagues to express their thoughts about the performance of Councilmembers forcefully, clearly, and often. When a City Councilmember does something that is against our interest we should point it out, even if it seems aggressive and critical. The truth is that public officials need to be criticized, it’s part of their job description and it’s part of ours as engaged participants in the process. I sometimes get criticized myself for being “too hard” on Councilmembers. That’s nonsense. They can take it, and if they can’t they should probably find another line of work. However, the same goes for praise, and I am very impressed with the comments and votes of Councilmembers Sally Bagshaw and Tom Rasmussen on their colleague Mike O’Brien’s misdirected and illegal “linkage tax.”

I’ve been very critical of both Councilmember Bagshaw and Rasmussen, especially on small-lot legislation. Councilmember Bagshaw spoke in favor of noticing requirements that would bollix up the completion of single-family homes, adding costs but not stopping their construction. And Councilmember Rasmussen, well, has caught my ire on a variety of issues, not the least of which is his support of an impact fee, a policy that would be disastrous as it is unnecessary.

However, both Bagshaw and Rasmussen voted “no” on Councilmember O’Brien’s linkage tax. They also offered ameliorative amendments that would have slowed the process down and made it more inclusive. And Bagshaw spoke about the very real legal problems with the proposed new tax for housing. She also called for more collaboration and less vilification of developers. For his part, Councilmember Rasmussen spoke knowingly of the difficulty small builders have making ends meet or covering costs and payroll as they build housing. His words were sympathetic to the many, many small builders who are making a living building housing.

Taken together these comments and votes mean that, finally, there is some doubt on Council about charging ahead with Councilmember O’Brien’s scheme to score political points as Seattle’s Housing Robin Hood. We’ve also heard the Mayor won’t concur with the resolution. This means that finally, after taking very damaging votes on small-lot legislation and microhousing, the Council seems to be understanding that as the effort to tax and fee new develop grows, small business and renters are the ones that will get hit the hardest. The winners in O’Brien’s linkage scheme are non-profit housing developers, and the losers, sadly, are people trying to find a decent and affordable place to live.

I’ll write more about the fallout of yesterday’s vote as we learn about it, but the good news is that at least two Councilmembers not only raised doubts, but finally voted “no” on legislation that will, as we’ve pointed out again and again, make things worse.