King County Council Searches for Footing with a New Executive

No one expected the first transition of a new King County Executive in 16 years to go off without a few bumps along the road. In his first seven months in office, Girmay Zahilay has had to navigate a devastating flooding event, a scandal stemming from lax oversight of county dollars at the Department of Community and Human Services, and a significant budget deficit at Sound Transit.

In contrast with the initial tenure of Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, which saw several major pieces of legislation put forward to advance core campaign priorities around adding shelter capacity, it's harder to find a signature piece of legislation that represents Zahilay's policy agenda over the course of his first seven months. But two pieces of legislation that were ultimately approved this month did reveal a lot about the dynamic between Zahilay and the King County Council.

In signing off on a major reorganization of the Executive's Office and Zahilay's first budget request, the county council showed itself as a body clearly ready to give significant deference to King County's new leader and how he wants to implement his agenda. Turning focus to structural issues that impact how the County does its work, the changes that were made are likely to impact policymaking at King County for a long time.

Five county offices eliminated, including budget, climate, and labor relations

Even before Zahilay took office on November 25, changes were already sweeping across county government. As reported by outlets including the Seattle Times and PubliCola, Zahilay and his transition team began to implement a major reorganization of the Executive's Office that left many longtime employees out of a job or reassigned to a new department.

https://www.theurbanist.org/king-county-council-searches-for-footing-with-a-new-executive/