Meeting to Consider County Executive Appointment Canceled, Leaving Shannon Braddock In Limbo at Least Two More Weeks
Council chair Girmay Zahilay said he canceled the meeting out of respect for Councilmember Sarah Perry, whose husband, state Sen. Bill Ramos, died suddenly over the weekend.
By Erica C. Barnett
Shannon Braddock, the acting King County Executive, will have to wait at least another two weeks to find out if the County Council plans to appoint her to the position through November, after Council Chair Girmay Zahilay canceled the council's scheduled Tuesday meeting. The council appointed Braddock acting executive on April 1.
Zahilay said he made the decision out of respect for Councilmember Sarah Perry, whose husband, state Sen. Bill Ramos, died suddenly during a trail run on Saturday.
"Lots of our colleagues reached out saying they thought it would better for us to not meet on Tuesday, given that our colleague on the council has experienced such a sudden and tragic loss," Zahilay told PubliCola. Zahilay said council staff told him there was no "time-sensitive legislative action" on the agenda.
In addition to legislation appointing Braddock (and a competing proposal from Reagan Dunn to initiate a process that could potentially end up appointing someone else), the agenda included an item appointing Braddock to the Sound Transit board, which is currently considering the future of light rail extensions to Ballard and West Seattle. The agenda also included a proclamation declaring April Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and the introduction of this year's Medic One Levy proposal.
"I think this is one of those situations where our desire to address the human side of this job come into play," he said. Rod Dembowski, the chair of the council’s budget committee, canceled that committee’s Tuesday meeting.
Zahilay is one of two county council members who's running for County Executive.
The other is Claudia Balducci, who—after consulting with Perry's office—decided not to cancel tomorrow's meeting of the council's Committee of the Whole. The agenda for that meeting includes several briefings about the local impact of federal funding cuts and a letter, sponsored by Balducci, supporting a state proposal to raise the cap on property tax increases—currently set at a sub-inflationary 1 percent—to 3 percent, which would allow local governments to raise more funds.
Balducci called the federal funding cuts a "rapidly developing risk to county government and services. We meet regularly once a month and by next month, the info we are being briefed on may have changed dramatically," she said, so "it seemed important to me to proceed."
"There are no scheduled major votes, so Sarah won’t miss an opportunity to vote," Balducci added.
The council will take up Braddock's appointment again on May 6, along with a counterproposal from Councilmember Reagan Dunn that would set up a "blue ribbon selection committee" to choose a finalist and an alternate for the position from a list of five people Constantine previously designated as potential successors.
The proposal is a long shot—Zahilay said he thinks Braddock has the votes—but it's an example of the obstacles facing Braddock, who's the first woman to ever serve as King County Executive.
"I absolutely understand and support" the decision to delay the meeting out of respect for Perry and her family, Braddock told PubliCola. "I’m eager to serve on the Sound Transit Board and I’m closely tracking the upcoming actions and will be prepared once the appointment occurs."
Sen. Ramos leaves big shoes to be filled here in our neighborhood and in Olympia, and I can't imagine the hole he leaves behind for his family. He cohosted a neighborhood cookout in Issaquah every summer, sharing duties with a neighbor who was active in the state Republican and Libertarian parties, and made everyone feel welcome wherever he went. He represented the best of what it means to be liberal, in politics and life. I'm glad the Council honored his family with this decision, and I hope it won't be construed as some kind of political move, as this post seems to insinuate.