Rotary Club of West Seattle hears from King County Executive, honors WSB co-founder
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“I’ve got another career or two in me.”
That’s how King County Executive Dow Constantine clarified to the Rotary Club of West Seattle that he’s not retiring, just not re-running.
He was guest speaker at Tuesday’s weekly Rotary lunch meeting, which also included presentations in honor of WSB co-founder Patrick Sand.
First:
Exactly two months have passed since Constantine announced at his birthday celebration in West Seattle that his fourth term as County Executive will be his last. He told Rotarians on Tuesday that he’s “ready to do something different,” 30 years after he first ran for office, noting that his personal responsibilities include his 10-year-old daughter and “very aging” parents.
His speech touched on some of his accomplishments, as well as a sore spot or two. Public safety, for example: “There’s been some misinformation circulated about the King County Jail and who is or has been accepted. We are operating under the Hammer settlement” – more than a quarter-century old, mandating a certain jail-staffing level, he said. “During COVID … we couldn’t meet that level – so we couldn’t book for nonviolent misdemeanors,” with, he said, exceptions, such as “a big event like a protest,” or two exceptions in the past year, “everything in downtown Seattle … (and the) entire transit system.” The latter mention seemed intended to stave off questions or criticism about the recent murder of Metro coach driver Shawn Yim; Constantine said “Operation Safe Transit” starting last March has led to more than 350 arrests, and that officers downtown had been focusing on “fentanyl dealers.” He also noted the discontinuation of transit stops near 12th/Jackson on the south side of downtown “because of the street situation there.” He added that they’re working to bring the King County Sheriff’s Office – which includes transit police – up to full staffing, with measures such as a $25,000 bonus for lateral transfers: “So if your cousin in Louisiana wants to work here, now is the moment.”
Constantine segued into the observation that behavioral health is the root of much of the street disorder, and that help is expected from the 2023 voter-approved Crisis Care Centers initiative, meant to create five drop-in centers, one exclusively for youth, 20 mobile teams around the county – plus an investment in northeast cities getting a crisis care center that’s open now – with help plus a “warm handoff” to wherever a person needs to go next — from rehab to the custody of a relative. (It might be five more years, however, before all five are open.)
Behavioral-health challenges play into homelessness, he said, but declared that problem primarily the result of a houing shortage – “safe, affordable housing will be a key factor in” getting it under control, and he said the county is working on thousands of new units. Then he quickly moved to climate change, saying the county’s major water-treatment plant at West Point is better able to withstand “increasingly strong storms” because of its new battery-based system “so when City Light flickers, we don’t lose power – we didn’t in the ‘bomb cyclone’.”
The next segue was into transit, where he declared Metro to be “leading the way toward zero emissions” and said he’d “spent my whole damn adult life trying to make up for” the anti-transit decisions made in the region more than half a century ago. The progress he touted included Sound Transit light rail, for which he (ST’s board chair) declared the region to have an “enormous appetite,” noting the crowd that flocked to its Lynnwood opening. While acknowledging the “runup in construction cost,” he insisted that “we are in a strong. position to deliver what voters approved” and said it’s vital to keep working toward having projects “shovel-ready” for when the financial factors allow. As for West Seattle light rail specifically, he said the federal “record of decision” – the next major planning milestone – is expected by the end of February.
After two more quick topic mentions – arts funding and redevelopment of the King County campus downtown – the Rotary allotted a few minutes for questions. First one was back to light rail: “When is it going to happen?” Constantine replied, “That’s an open question,” adding that “the scope is really the question – do you build the Avalon station or not? … There are 100 questions like that that the board’s going to have to answer.” One thing’s for certain, he reminded everyone, West Seattle remains scheduled to be built before Ballard.
The next questioner voiced some skepticism about transit, seeing empty buses and trains, but Constantine countered that this area saw the nation’s second-largest transit growth last year, and he again vowed to improve safety, while warning that “what’s on sidewalks sometimes spills into buses.”
After that, he was asked, “Why are you giving up work?” Constantine insisted he isn’t: “I need to, want to, continue to work for a long time, but after 16 years of this gig, I’m ready to do something different.”
TRIBUTE TO WSB CO-FOUNDER PATRICK SAND: The county executive also presented a memorial proclamation in honor of WSB co-founder Patrick Sand, who died suddenly in mid-October. That followed a presentation by the Rotary, whose members honored Patrick posthumously as a “Paul Harris Fellow” – after one of the founders of Rotary International – and also announced the creation of an annual Patrick Sand Memorial Award, with the Rotary’s Brian Waid citing WSB’s unofficial motto, referring to our coverage of as much as we can (as noted in this Seattle Times essay) – “We always show up.” Thanks to Clay Eals for recording video of most of the presentation:
The awards – including an eagle trophy for the Paul Harris Fellowship – were accepted on Patrick’s behalf by your editor (his wife and co-founder) and our son Torin.
The Rotary Club of West Seattle has a lunch meeting most weeks at noon Tuesday at the West Seattle Golf Course – see the upcoming speaker schedule here.
Stanley Eugene Bradley (Stan), loving husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend, passed away at the age of 79 on Thursday, December 12, 2024.
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