The mayor’s nomination for CEO of Seattle City Light will likely face at least some opposition in the Seattle City Council's energy committee, which could decide before the end of the month whether to recommend his confirmation to the full City Council.
The Stranger reports that committee chair Kshama Sawant is likely to vote against the nomination of Larry Weis, former head of the Austin, Texas, utility, based in part on environmental concerns. after she talked with three concerned environmental activists from Austin. She is also opposed to Weis’ salary of $340,000, which she said would give him the highest salary of any city executive. His predecessor at City Light, Jorge Carrasco, was receiving $245,000 last year when he announced his departure, but the City Council had authorized more than $350,000.
Two environmental groups, 350 Seattle and the local branch of the Sierra Club, are concerned because they believe Weis is too supportive of natural gas -- he helped build a 500 megawatt power plant in Austin. They’re also worried about some of his comments about renewable energy, and his stated reasons for wanting to work in Seattle -- that it has a political system with a strong mayor, who he will mostly report to rather than the City Council. As he was leaving Austin to work in Seattle, Weis criticized the Austin City Council
