Elections office moving out of flood zone to Boeing Field

Because of potential flood risk, King County Elections headquarters will move over the next four weeks from its building in Renton to a temporary site at Boeing Field, Elections Director Sherril Huff told the Metropolitan King County Council Wednesday.

Huff said the move is necessary to guarantee the county is able to count votes in the Nov. 3 election even if the Green River overflows its banks because of the reduced capacity of the leaking Howard Hanson Dam.

"There's really no good side to this story," Huff said after telling the council that she intends to have all essential election functions moved into the county-owned Airport Office Center on East Marginal Way South by the first or second week of October.

Huff said her office's move to the airport will cost more than $1 million, but she doesn't yet know the precise cost.

County Councilmember Julia Patterson of SeaTac, whose district includes much of the lower Green River Valley, agreed the elections office must move if the county is to guarantee a full count of the November election, but she warned the move could have "a chilling effect" on business activity in one of the state's most important warehousing and manufacturing districts.

"I think it's almost like a canary in the coal mine for what could happen if people become fearful," Patterson said.

Water has been seeping through an abutment on one side of the earth-and-rock Howard Hanson Dam, prompting the Army Corps of Engineers to limit how much water the dam can hold while it makes emergency repairs.

Low-lying parts of Kent, Renton, Auburn and Tukwila could be flooded if winter storms force the corps to release large amounts of water from the reservoir.

Contractors already are doing electrical work and remodeling in the airport building where the elections office will be located. The building served as an elections annex from 2005 to 2007.

King County consolidated its scattered elections operations into the current building on Grady Way in late 2007. At the time, Huff said, the building wasn't in a federally designated floodplain.

The alternative to moving — building a $5 million flood wall to protect the existing election headquarters from water up to 10 feet deep — would still leave the building unusable because workers wouldn't be able to get to the building, Huff said.

County Executive Kurt Triplett plans to ask the council as early as this week for a supplemental appropriation to guarantee that elections and land-use offices in Renton and the animal shelter, courts and jail in Kent can operate at other locations in the event of a flood.

Natasha Jones, a spokeswoman for Triplett, said the first steps toward moving the elections and animal-control facilities must begin even before the money is approved.

Several County Council members said they support moving the Elections headquarters to the airport, but expressed concern it might have to move again if the dam remains compromised for several years. The Federal Aviation Administration may require King County to lease its airport building to an aviation-related tenant next year.

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