King County holds off on elections revamp

King County's second try at hiring a "turnaround team" to rebuild its elections office turned into a confused jumble Wednesday.

More than a month after County Executive Ron Sims chose Waldron & Co. for the job, he told the Metropolitan King County Council a contract can't be signed yet because of a protest by a rejected bidder.

Although the county's procurement office has rejected the protest, the bidder has until Saturday to file an appeal.

With that cloud hanging over the contract, the County Council's budget committee declined to act Wednesday on Sims' request for $500,000 in supplemental funds for the contract.

Sims wrote a letter to County Council Chairman Larry Phillips on Dec. 2, asking that the funding vote be moved to next Monday — allowing time for the bid protest to be resolved and a contract to be signed.

If the council doesn't act on the contract Monday, its final meeting of the year, it won't be able to act until January.

Asked if the council could vote to fund the turnaround contract Monday, Phillips replied, "Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? Probably not."

Until the contract is signed, the Sims administration is refusing to give details — including total cost — to the County Council.

The 2006 budget set aside $850,000 for the turnaround team. Adding that amount to the $500,000 supplemental request, County Council staffers said the total cost of the turnaround contract appears to be $1.35 million.

County Administrative Officer Paul Tanaka and Debbie Bevier, president of Seattle-based Waldron's consulting division, said some details of the contract are not yet resolved.

Tanaka declined to identify the bidder who filed the protest. Waldron's six-member team has done some preliminary work, such as observing the Nov. 8 election and interviewing some employees.

The Independent Task Force on Elections, appointed by Sims to analyze problems in the 2004 election, urged him to hire an outside team to take over and reorganize the troubled Records, Elections and Licensing Services Division.

Sims had hoped to hire that "SWAT team" before the September primary, but task-force leaders weren't satisfied with the four proposals the county received. The search was redone, bringing in three applicants, including Waldron.

A report on last month's election by The Election Center, a national association of election officials, praised county election officials for making many improvements "as quickly as possible."

The report said King County has an urgent need for a consolidated election center. Operations are now scattered — a situation that is "inefficient, costly and makes it extremely difficult to build an election team that communicates quickly and efficiently."

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com