LISTEN: Dori: The hypocrisy of the O'Brien family Your browser does not support the audio element.

The guy who has been pushing for Seattle’s proposed head tax on business is Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien.

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We’ve tried several times in the last year alone to get Mike O’Brien on this show, but he never responds.

There is a reason he won’t come on my radio show. Several years ago, Evening Magazine did a feature on his wife’s business, Firefly Kitchens, in which she admitted to using volunteer labor. Julie O’Brien’s business, by the way, sells probiotic fermented foods, according to its website. She said that she needed to use volunteer labor because she had a new business and it was tough making ends meet.

The thing is — this was at the same time that her husband, Mike O’Brien, was pushing for a $15 minimum wage. He was telling local businesses, “It doesn’t matter if it’s tough. You’ve got to pay your workers $15 an hour.”

So KIRO Radio busted her business on that. We exposed her.

The primary function of my show and of the media is to be a watchdog of government. And when you have a hypocrite like Mike O’Brien telling businesses teetering on the brink that they have to pay their employees $15 an hour, yet his wife uses volunteer labor because she can’t afford to pay her workers — that is the absolute height of hypocrisy.

Very few people in the media take that First Amendment, watchdog responsibility seriously. But it should be our mission to expose wrongdoing.

Oh, and this is perfect O’Brien family math. Firefly Kitchens sells little “infused” jars of salt. You can get three for $25, or five for $50. Usually when you buy in bulk you save money, but I guess when you’re dealing with a city council member’s wife’s business, it gets more expensive the more you buy — kind of like our taxes.