State Auditor Brian Sonntag has produced the first long-awaited performance audit, as authorized by voters through Initiative 900, and the findings, if followed, could save taxpayers as much as $21 million over the next couple decades, Sonntag says. The audit, of the state motor pool, itself cost $114,000, and that sounds darn right cost-effective. Among the conclusions:

The Motor Pool has 113 underused vehicles that should be sold or reassigned.The pool's rental rates do not cover its operating expenses. And the pool's method of purchasing vehicles results in excess interest costs.

Of 1,470 vehicles, 1,300 are permanently assigned to various state agencies. On average, the state purchases 280 vehicles each year, and the pool has grown from 1,283 vehicles in 2001 to 1,470 in 2006. Cutting back as recommended will save $1.5 million annually, says the auditor. Hear hear.

Seattle City Council member David Della, who this morning kicked off his reelection campaign for a second term, said he was worried the chilly drizzle might keep people away.

Not so. Supporters braved the rain and the 7 a.m. start time to fill Seattle Center's Fisher Pavilion. One organizer estimated the crowd totaled close to 400 and likely raised between $15,000 and $20,000 for Della's coffers.

Della told those present, which included King County Executive Ron Sims and City Council members Richard McIver and Sally Clark, that he "loves this city" and "loves his job."

He said he promises to make Seattle a "world class city" with opportunities for all. "I worry that today's Seattle no longer provides affordability for working class families and individuals," he said.

It may have been Della's party, but the background noise was council member Peter Steinbrueck's decision not to seek reelection after nearly a decade in office. Steinbrueck said yesterday that he plans to leave in part to dedicate his time to fighting a viaduct rebuild and promoting the surface street option.

When it came time at the Della event to get out the pocketbooks, emcee and Gallatin Group principal John Arthur Wilson, had this advice for the crowd: "If you're thinking about contributing $50, double it. If you're thinking about running for Peter Steinbrueck's seat, triple it!"

The challengers are already starting to line up. Venus Velázquez, one of six finalists for the seat now held by council member Sally Clark, fired off a press release this morning announcing her candidacy for Steinbrueck's seat. 

What the most literate city in America reads on the bus

Reader:  Dan Ayers
Age:  31
Occupation:  Manager of product support team
Residence:  Queen Anne
Bus:  Route 13 to downtown, 8:15 a.m.

Book:  Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story, by Christopher Moore
State of completion:  About halfway through.

Plot summary by Amazon.com:  Becoming a vampire has given the twentysomething heroine "a crampless case of rattlesnake PMS"--a grumpy mood in which she realizes that she can dress to the nines as a "Donner Party Barbie" and still end up disillusioned and unhappy, just another slacker doing her own laundry and watching sucky TV 'til the sun rises.

Plot summary by Dan:  "It's about a girl who becomes a vampire and has to deal with that.  It's a comedy."  

The hook:  "I've never read anything by [Moore], but I heard he was good, so I bought this."

Critique:  "Well, I'm still reading it.  It's good.  I'm enjoying the different characters."  

Afterward:  "I read mysteries and hard-boiled detective novels, mostly.  I highly recommend Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye."

The Oscars weren’t the only coveted awards getting handed out this week. Forget about the gold guy, think gold mouse— and not the cheese-eating type. The Congressional Management Foundation, a non-profit based in Washington D.C., has for the third time given a very public nod to senators and representatives who have Web sites that are both useful and usable.

Sen. Patty Murray earned praise and a silver ranking for her “Frequently Asked Questions” section, which provides such important and obvious things as the senator’s snail mail and email addresses, and office phone number. Yes. The bar is low. According to the judges, only 26 percent of Congressional offices offer guidance on the best ways to contact your elected officials.

Rep. Brian Baird, who represents the southwest corner of the state stretching from Vancouver to Olympia, was given gold for providing content on his site that serves the needs of his audience “in spades.” He got high marks in the interactivity category for providing the basics like email updates and schedules for town hall meetings.

But Washington’s other Senator Maria Cantwell and Seattle Representatives Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott needn’t fret. They weren’t the only ones falling short of the golden mouse. Only 18 of the 615 House and Senate Web sites earned gold; 27 got silver.

Overall, the foundation found the majority of member Web sites “disappointing.”

“Congress has just not kept up with the demands of an increasingly Internet savvy public,” lamented Congressional Management Foundation Executive Director Beverly Bell.

A challenge to ye who represent the land of the tech-savvy. Get it together and blow ‘um away next year.

Seattle industrial design student Adam Weisgerber recently beat out more than 1,000 competitors to win the fourth annual Design Within Reach Champagne Chair Contest. 

Competitors were allowed to use the materials from no more than two champagne bottles (wire, label, cork, and foil--everything but the glass), with glue being the only permitted adhesive, to create a chair no larger than 4-inches by 4-inches by 4-inches.

Weisgerber, a Western Washington University junior currently in Louisville, KY, interning as an industrial designer for General Electric, heard about the contest in December and remembered it on New Year's Eve when friends popped celebratory champagne bottles.  "I told all my friends to hold on to all the bottle parts," he recalls. "They thought I was crazy, and I'm like, there's this really cool contest and the more pieces the better."

He decided to make the chair out of cork ("I felt like cork was such a beautiful nautral material," he says. "I liked the purity of the cork") but only a few of his friends drink, so he ended up with only three corks.  Two were reserved as raw material for the chair, leaving him with a single cork on which to practice.

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Great news for screaming European teenagers, heartbreaking news for us: These Arms Are Snakes, having just played the Vera opening, will come blasting out of South by Southwest with a tour of the Midwest and then some huge shows in Europe and the East Coast, playing shrines like Irving Plaza. Unfortunately, our gifted and hunky art director, Arms guitarist Ryan Frederiksen, is going to pack up his SW design kit when he leaves for Austin. Nine weeks is too long for even us to pine away (and the way the band is going, who knows when they'll see Seattle again).

We'll be working his ass off until then, though. Thanks Ryan (in advance!), for all the great work!

In a year when seemingly everybody has bashed the Seattle School Board as dysfunctional, potential candidates are starting to think about trying to replace Sally Soriano, Darlene Flynn, Brita Butler-Wall and Irene Stewart, all up for election this year. One person who's likely to throw his hat in the ring: Peter Maier, president of Schools First, a citizens' group that supports school levies. "I'm leaning in that direction," says Maier. As a lawyer, Maier brings the kind of conventional credentials bound to please the types who think the board has drifted too far into loony land, and his would-be opponent, Soriano, is among the furthest out. Other people said to be contemplating a run include Sherry Carr, a Boeing manager and Seattle Council PTSA president, who says: "I don't have any public statement to announce at this point." Meanwhile, current board members are weighing whether or not to run for re-election. "I'm giving myself some time to decide," says former board president Butler-Wall.

The American war tolls in Iraq and Afghanistan have now crept over 3,500 - remember when 1,000 was a startling milestone? The count now includes ten more troops with Washington state connections killed in 2007 and just added to our War Dead pages. Altogether, 173 members of the military with state connections have died in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Iraq since October 2001. Ages 18 to 53, they left behind 105 children, 77 widows, and two widowers. Another reminder, as Bertrand Russell put it, that war doesn't determine who is right, only who is left.

Listen here to the senator's speech.

John McCain today became the first 2008 contender to visit the Emerald City this pre-election year— and got a warm welcome in the traditionally lefty hotbed that is Seattle.

To ensure there’d be no funny business, participants at the luncheon event were asked in advance to be on their best behavior. “Please be respectful of the senator’s time on stage,” emcee and KCTS radio host Enrique Cerna said before bringing McCain on. “Hold your questions and comments until the end.”

Members of the City Club and guests of the World Affairs Council obliged and greeted the Republican Senator from Arizona with a standing ovation. They dined on salmon and sorbet while he told them why this doesn’t have to be the “Asian century.”

“Some say the American century is a thing of the past, but the U.S. and Asia ascending doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive and it shouldn’t become so,” he said.

McCain gave the locals some love by waxing poetic about his time as a military Senate liaison traveling with “legendary” former Washington Senator Henry (Scoop) Jackson.

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One's first thought about the possible conversion of the historic Smith Tower to condos is likely to be, "Well, sure, I'd love to live there--if I had a million bucks." Or two. The upper floors of the skinny 1914 landmark would feature panoramic, 360-degree views ("four exposures" in real-estate parlance). You'd have turn-key elevator rights to your own private landing at each 2,000-square-foot urban aerie. Meaning those precious upper floors would be priced around $1.4 million and up. Unquestionably, it would become one of downtown's premier residential addresses. Unquestionably, it would also exert further gentrification pressure on the region south of Yesler to the stadium district (where more condo development is planned). In other worlds: good-bye to those bodegas selling 40-ouncers and fortified wine, and hello to Whole Foods.

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