Pike/Pine nightlife group turns up heat on City Attorney Carr

A group representing several restaurants and bars in Pike/Pine are threatening City Attorney Tom Car with an ethics complaint just days before the end of the fall election. The Seattle Nightlife and Music Association sent out this release this morning detailing their plan to bring a complaint against Carr to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.

The story that the release refers to as 'widely reported' is the Stranger cover piece on a reportedly confrontational meeting between city staff and Pike/Pine club owners early in October. CHS wrote about the crime trends for Pike/Pine here and asked the East Precinct commander if there was a 'crackdown' in Pike/Pine, here.

The SNMA does not include a membership list on it site but does include a mission statement: The Seattle Nightlife and Music Association (SNMA) is a coalition of music, night club, and bar interests formed to educate elected officials, civic and community leaders, and the media on the serious issues facing the music and nightlife industry in Seattle.

Ethics Complaint Levied at Tom Carr
Seattle, WA, October 27, 2009 -- The Seattle Nightlife and Music Association (SNMA) has hired attorney, John Muenster, to look into possible reta liat ion by the current City Attorney Tom Carr against SNMA members who exercised their First Amendment rights to support his opponent during the hotly contested elect ion campaign for the City Attorney's position.

The SNMA has received inform ation dat ing back to at least 2007 indicatin g th at Tom Carr has used the City Attorney's Office and th e Joint Enforcement Team to aggressively pursue legit imate Restaurant and Bar Operatorswho have made every effort to comply wi th applicable regulat ions.

As has been widely reported, on October 6th of th is year, Assistant City Attorn ey Tienney Milnor held a meet ing of Restaurant and Bar Operators where she reportedly said th at she wou ld pull liquor licenses if

things did not change. The meet ing was supposedly brought on by alleged increases in vio lent crime in t he Pike / Pine entertainment area, but review of SPDcrime data actua lly show a decrease in crime during t he months leading up to th e meet ing in that area.

The meeting on Oct 6th occurred just after a large fundraising effort by local Restaura nt and Bar Operators for the City Attorney's opponent , and right before anot her fundraiser was scheduled to occur that same week in the Pike / Pine entertainment area.

"The Members of the SNMA work with the SPD, the Fire Department and The Washington State Liquor Control Board on a daily basis. They run clean operations and don't have violations. We don't understand how, aft er years of weekly enforcement checks and a decrease in crime, the City Attorn ey's office, in the middl e of a contested elect ion, can say change or I'll pull your liqu or license and have it not be int erpreted as a polit ical message" says John Muenster, attorney for th e SNMA.

The SNMA will be seeking additional information through the Public Disclosure Request Process. The SNMA will also formally ask the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission to look into the retaliation issue.