King County Delays Ex-Seattle Mayor's Move To T-Mobile Park Board

SEATTLE, WA — Ex-Seattle Mayor Tim Burgess was headed toward a spot on a powerful public board that oversees T-Mobile Park — but the appointment was delayed Wednesday by the King County Council, possibly because of Burgess' ties to political donations from Mariners ownership.

Last week, Patch reported that Burgess, a former councilmember, was set to be appointed to the Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium Public Facilities District (PFD) board, which owns T-Mobile Park and leases it to the Mariners. The board oversee the park and the lease with the Mariners on behalf of the public.

Meanwhile, Burgess is one of 12 people board members of the private People for Seattle political action committee, which recently received a combined $10,000 in donations from Seattle Mariners owner John Stanton and Mikel Thomsen, who owns the Tacoma Rainiers, a triple-A Mariners affiliate. Both men are founding partners of Trilogy, an equity investment firm based in Seattle. The People for Seattle PAC was established to influence the Seattle City Council elections, according to reports.

Burgess was nominated to sit on the PFD board by King County Executive Dow Constantine, who has said that he was unaware of Burgess' role at People for Seattle. The nomination was approved June 11 by the King County Council Government Accountability and Oversight Committee.

The final approval was set to take place at the Metropolitan King County Council meeting on Wednesday morning. But right before the vote, Chair Rod Dembowski pulled the item off the agenda.

"I want to take a moment to reflect on some additional information," Dembowski said during the meeting, noting that he did vote in favor of Burgess' appointment as a member of the oversight committee.

When asked via email, Dembowski did not immediately say why he pulled the appointment. But in email exchanges Wednesday morning, it appeared that some Council members were not aware of Burgess' involvement with the PAC.

Asked about the final vote this week, Councilwoman Claudia Balducci said that Burgess had disclosed the conflict in his application forms. However, those forms are not publicly available, according to the Council clerk's office.

Dembowski said he was not aware that Burgess disclosed the PAC affiliation in his application at all.

"My questioning of former mayor Burgess during the [June 11] committee hearing related to his independence, and he committed to be independent in his exercise of judgment vis-à-vis the Mariners' baseball organization," Dembowski said in an email Wednesday.

Balducci said she would raise the issue during the meeting, but couldn't because Burgess' nomination was part of what's called the "consent agenda" — a way for the Council to pass multiple items at once without discussion.

"If he were coming in for an interview (as we usually do), I would ask this question and be interested to hear the answer. If I am reading the agenda correctly, this is on consent which would mean no interview or discussion," she wrote in an email Wednesday morning.

If Burgess' appointment is approved, he will serve on the PFD board with former Seattle Mayor Charles Royer. Royer's son, Jordan, who works for the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, sits on the People for Seattle board with Burgess. Burgess told the King County Council committee last week that it was Charles Royer who asked him to serve on the PFD. Also, Burgess would be filling the seat held by former PFD chair Virginia Anderson, who donated $50 to People for Seattle on May 24, according to state records.

Burgess has a long political career in the Seattle area. He served as chair of the city's Ethics and Elections Commission, and once wrote a Seattle Times editorial criticizing figures in the "Strippergate" campaign finance scandal. He was first elected to the Seattle City Council in 2007, and was interim mayor in 2017 after Ed Murray resigned amid a sex scandal.

Burgess' appointment will likely be back at the next King County Council meeting on June 26.

Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify Mikal Thomsen's affiliation with the Seattle Mariners.