Local News: Thursday, November 10, 2005
Sims facing tougher term?
By Keith Ervin
Seattle Times staff reporter
One day after he won re-election, King County Executive Ron Sims laid out his agenda for the next four years and said his victory was an endorsement for his key priorities.
"I believe I have a mandate to move forward actively on a series of issues the public wishes to have addressed: transportation, protection of the environment, affordable housing, and keeping this government lean and effective," Sims, a Democrat, said in a meeting with reporters Wednesday.
But while voters gave him strong support, Sims is facing a Metropolitan King County Council that has been flexing its muscles and, not infrequently, rejecting his proposals.
Voters on Tuesday left Democrats with a one-vote majority on the council, which will be downsized in January from 13 members to nine. The smaller council is likely to give independent-minded Democrats Bob Ferguson and Julia Patterson, who have clashed on occasion with Sims, more influence.
Sims easily won a three-way race against Republican County Councilman David Irons and Green Party candidate Gentry Lange.
If Sims completes a third four-year term, he will have held the county's top administrative post for 13 years, more than any other executive in King County's history.
Dressed in a casual shirt in his office on the 32nd floor of the Bank of America Tower in downtown Seattle, he said, "I'm very relaxed and in a very good mood."
During the coming term, Sims said, he will work with Gov. Christine Gregoire on cleaning up Puget Sound, help develop regional plans to rebuild aged freeways and extend Sound Transit's light-rail line to Northgate, and develop strategies for coping with regional effects of global warming.
Responding to global warming may mean finding ways to help salmon in warmer waters and developing new sources of drinking water as the winter snowpack diminishes, Sims said.
Before the County Council deals with global warming or transportation plans, though, it must adopt a 2006 budget. Some Republicans say Sims' budget is overly optimistic.
Several council members of both parties also are unhappy with Sims' proposal to move the executive's office into the top two floors of an office tower the county is about to build.
Until this year, the County Council accommodated nearly all of Sims' major initiatives. He has had a tougher going this year, and some observers say they think he will face a bigger challenge next year.
There has been tension between Ferguson and Democratic leaders on the council since Ferguson toppled Sims' ally Cynthia Sullivan in the 2003 primary. After redistricting this year, Ferguson defeated Carolyn Edmonds, another Democrat close to Sims.
"This is my objective — that I ran on — that the council not rubber-stamp proposals, particularly when we're talking major proposals," Ferguson said Wednesday.
The council last year resisted Sims' negotiations with Southwest Airlines over moving to county-owned Boeing Field, refused Sims' $23 million request to create a consolidated election center and commissioned its own audit of the troubled Elections Section.
Will the changes on the council make even tougher sledding for Sims? Council Chairman Larry Phillips, D-Seattle, doesn't think so.
"We have a Democratic executive and a Democratic council," Phillips said.
"That's going to stay the same. In many respects we have the same players. I've known Ron forever; he's known me forever. We know each other's strengths and weaknesses. I don't know that it's going to be any different than it's been in the past."
Council Vice Chairman Pete von Reichbauer, R-Federal Way, said he thinks this year's Edmonds-Ferguson contest caused a significant rift among Democrats.
"Dr. Phil might be needed to heal the issues," he said. "A lot of members of the family offended other members of the family."
Sims said Wednesday that he's prepared to do some healing.
"I think I can work with Bob Ferguson and he can work with me," Sims said. "The way of politics isn't to have permanent enemies, but to have permanent interests. I think Bob and I will have those permanent interests."
Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com