Seattle City Light: Campaign Conflict of Interest?

If one gave $700 to their boss for a campaign contribution, do you think that might help their job security? Or, do you think it might compromise judgment by the person in charge of such an agency?

I'm not sure. But it's worth looking at. Remember the big windstorm of 2006?

"During the storm response, City Light instituted a rule that limited crews to a 17-hour shift, from 7 a.m. to midnight. Supervisors said the rule was designed to prevent accidents and give workers time to rest.

But frustrated workers said it led to unnecessary delays. Dennis Sovern, a City Light line crew chief, said many employees are accustomed to working through the night and are experienced enough to know their limits.

"We are veterans of many, many storms," said Sovern, a lineman for 27 years. "We all know our limits. We know what we can do."

At the council meeting, City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco defended his decision to send home workers at the end of their shifts last Thursday night even though they'd be called back hours later."

The aforementioned superintendent, Jorge Carrasco took a lot of heat for pulling workers off the job. He also took heat for the fact that the more moneyed parts of town got their power back, while the south end lagged far behind in power restoration. As recent as September 18th, the Times reported that City Light employees still have little faith in the management under Carrasco:

"Some of these results are quite honestly disturbing," Council President Nick Licata said at the council briefing. "We have less than 20 percent of employees saying executive managers make decisions which seem to reflect an understanding of what's going on in lower levels of the organization...

"A council staff report said that, compared with the results then, this year's results were striking in how little improvement had occurred."

There was plenty of spin that the city that everything was being investigated and that things would improve the next time. Jean Godden, is head of the committee in charge of Seattle City Light, and is ultimately responsible for what happens there.

But two weeks shy of that report that came out in the Times, Carrasco dropped 700 bucks into Jean Godden's re-election campaign.

How does one think that might influence how Godden might handle the fact that the City Light superintendent doesn't seem to be making the agency perform any better then his predecessor? Maybe this is another "gray" area when it comes to ethics.