Reaction to his term so far is generally favorable, although Nickels has ruffled more than a few feathers because he has also brought a new, more centralized management style to the office.
"In my first 100 days I wanted to re-establish that the mayor's office is going to be a place you can come to, get an answer, get things done," he said.
It's a question of accountability, a quality that has been lacking in city government the last few years, according to Nickels.
"The buck stops on that desk right there," the mayor explained, pointing to an ornately carved desk he's moved into one corner of his 12th-floor office. "And I need to be accountable for the operation of the city departments."
To that end, Nickels reined in the power of the Seattle City Council to deal directly with city departments.
The council, the mayor said, "has sort of strayed into running the departments." Many city council members don't see it that way, and the mood is grim at city hall.
Less responsiveness
Council president Peter Steinbrueck agrees it makes sense for Nickels to restore the lines of authority in city government.
"But sometimes that can go too far," Steinbrueck said. "You don't want to have everything cleared through the 12th floor."
In the past, council members have been able to call city departments and "get something fixed," he said. By contrast, having to go through the mayor's office first will be less efficient and more time-consuming, according to Steinbrueck.
"I'm concerned whether the public will be well-served."
Nick Licata, chair of the council's Neighborhoods, Arts and Civil Rights Committee, said there is another result besides slowing the response to citizen concerns.
City staff members are so worried they might be crossing the line into policy issues they take the safest way out, he said.
"It really stifles innovation."
Licata also believes other groups that will suffer under Nickels' new top-down approach are neighborhood-based institutions.
"I don't see a lot of encouragement for them at this stage."
Removing Jim Diers
Neighborhood activists are also concerned about that - especially because Nickels ousted Jim Diers as the head of the Department of Neighborhoods.
Nickels said he got rid of six department heads, but he insisted that's not unusual. New presidents and new governors clean house, and so do the vast majority of new mayors in the country, he said. "Here in Seattle, it seems to be the reverse; the mayor has to justify bringing in new blood and creative ideas."
While that may be true, dumping Diers has many people "totally bent out of shape," said Joyce Moty, a neighborhood activist and Mount Baker neighborhood resident. "He took out the best department head the city had ever seen."
The Department of Neighborhoods is the main point of contact for city residents, she added.
As for the 100-day report, that's just grandstanding, said Moty, adding that the mayor is patting himself on the back for programs that are frequently carryovers from previous administrations.
The Pothole Rangers set up by former council member Charlie Chong were filling potholes when Norm Rice was mayor, she said of one example.
"The crews (then) were pretty responsive to calls."
Lisa Merke, a citizen activist from the Rainier Valley, said she's feeling "a little bit betrayed" by Nickels. Merke is most concerned about the fate of the Department of Neighborhoods, she added.
"From what I've heard, the new director (Yvonne Sanchez), she believes neighborhood planning is a waste of time."
Merke is clearly unimpressed with Nickels.
"I think he started out as a bully, and I think he's unapproachable unless you're part of his inner circle."
Others more upbeat
Kirk Robbins, a longtime member of the Queen Anne Community Council, said Nickels is doing a fairly good job.
"As one who didn't vote for him, I'm more pleasantly surprised than not."
Robbins said reining in the city council is a big improvement.
"I like the idea. It's not up to the city council to divide up areas (of responsibility)."
Robbins also lauds Nickels for disbanding the Strategic Planning Office (SPO), a wonkish city department that Robbins said was working under neither the mayor's office nor the city council. There was no accountability to citizens because of that, he said.
Jeanne Kohl-Welles, a state senator and Queen Anne resident, believes it's too early in the game to make the call on Nickels' administration. She described the mayor as being a hard worker and a very caring and committed individual who has lofty objectives.
However, she said her constituents are deeply concerned about the problems facing Seattle City Light, and Kohl-Welles wonders what Nickels will do about that hot-button issue.
As president of the Capitol Hill Safety Coalition and the owner of the Deluxe Bar & Grill on Broadway, Barry Rogel gives Nickels high marks. The new mayor has - with the exception of Sound Transit - set the right tone, Rogel said.
"From what I've seen," he added, "I think he's been engaged more so than the last mayor."
Rogel described Schell as a big-idea mayor who wasn't able to handle the small stuff.
"It took me six months to get traffic barriers picked up on Broadway," Rogel said of one example.
Ann Donovan, past president of the Capitol Hill Community Council, favors Nickels' centralized style of governing. Removing several department heads will increase the give and take between the city and the neighborhoods, she believes.
Donovan said she's had problems in the past dealing with city departments.
"It was like dealing with little fiefdoms."
Now Donovan said city staffers seem to be more accessible and more willing to look at issues from a fresh perspective.
Changes at DCLU
Suzie Burke, a high-profile Fremont businesswoman, welcomes the changes brought by the new mayor. She is especially happy about the changes at the Department of Design, Construction and Land Use.
Nickels removed Rick Krochalis as director, and he is also restructuring the DCLU so the department will start issuing building permits on a more timely basis, Burke said.
Five permits were needed to move the Red Door Alehouse, which she owns, to a new location, and it took far longer than it should have to get them, Burke said.
"If we want to move a new business into an empty building, we need to know quickly about permits."
Burke faults the consensus approach to development under Schell's administration for slowing down the pace of business.
"I think Seattle has to realize it's over-processing things," she said.
University District Community Council President Matt Fox thinks Nickels is doing "a reasonably good job," at least so far. Still, he noted, Nickels picked small projects that were easy to tackle in his first 100 days.
"The flip side of that is, if you aim low, you achieve low."
Fox said Schell was a pro-development mayor and that building requirements under his administration were softened so that, among other steps, fewer parking places were required for housing developments.
"If Nickels doesn't stop that (trend), I think we'll have some problems."
The 900-pound gorilla
Describing it as "a 900-pound gorilla," Fox noted that Nickels is pursuing one big-ticket item: Sound Transit. Fox said he's not too concerned with the issue for the moment because the light-rail system is years from reaching his neighborhood. Donovan, from Capitol Hill, said the same thing about her neighborhood.
But Sound Transit and Nickels' support for it is very much on the mind of Ruth Korkowski, a Rainier Valley resident and member of "Save Our Valley," a neighborhood organization fighting plans to bring the line through the area.
"I'm against the surface light rail," she said. "He's built his entire career on that."
Korkowski is also critical of Nickels' support of a proposal to have the city pay for the Community Development Fund, which will be used to mitigate the impacts of Sound Transit. "I think Sound Transit should be paying for that."
A county perspective
Larry Phillips, a King County Council member and Magnolia resident, said he thinks Nickels will do just fine as mayor.
"He struck the right chord with the public."
On the other hand, Phillips concedes Nickels has struck a sour note with the city council, but he said part of that is the result of a customary tension between city and county bureaucrats. As a county official, Nickels sometimes rubbed city council members the wrong way, Phillips believes.
"So they're not going to cut him a lot slack from the get-go."
Describing it as basic government, Phillips also said sacking department heads is entirely appropriate.
"People run out of gas," he said of long-term department directors.
Phillips added that - while the accomplishments Nickels listed for his first 100 days are comparatively minor - the new mayor can't be judged on them alone.
"It's not just small ball," Phillips said. "Light rail is going to happen on his watch."[[In-content Ad]]
