Metropolitan King County Council's future, minus Constantine

The Metropolitan King County Council has begun thinking about how it will replace departing member Dow Constantine, even as executive-elect Constantine puts his own transition team in place.

So far, three elected officials have expressed interest in Constantine's soon-to-be-vacant council position: Normandy Park Mayor Shawn McEvoy, state Rep. Zack Hudgins and state Sen. Joe McDermott.

McEvoy said he considers himself an independent.

The County Council has yet to establish a process for filling Constantine's council seat when he takes the oath as executive Nov. 24. He easily defeated former TV news anchor Susan Hutchison in Tuesday's vote-by-mail election.

Constantine's district includes West Seattle, Vashon Island and much of Burien, Normandy Park and White Center.

The council needs a new appointment process because this is the first vacancy in its ranks since voters last year made the council nonpartisan. In previous years, the council chose new members from candidates recommended by the departing member's political party.

On Thursday, Constantine named the 30 members of a transition committee that will advise him on whom he should appoint to help run the government.

Two of the committee members, Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis and former county Budget Director Steve Call, also will form the core of a smaller staff team that, in Ceis' words, will carry out "the nuts and bolts" of assembling a new administration.

State Sen. Fred Jarrett and affordable-housing developer Hyeok Kim are co-chairs of the larger transition committee, which holds its first meeting Monday.

Councilmember Bob Ferguson introduced legislation Thursday that calls for the appointment of a new council member who doesn't intend to run for election in November 2010.

His ordinance also would create a selection committee that would interview candidates and recommend two to five for consideration by the council.

Ferguson said he hopes the council will approve the selection process Monday. "I laid out a fairly aggressive timeline so we should be in a position to act as soon as possible after Dow is sworn in," he said.

Appointing Constantine's successor could be politically tricky because there will be only eight remaining council members deciding. Although the council has officially become nonpartisan, four of those eight members were originally elected as Republicans, four as Democrats.

He said he hopes the council will appoint the new member by its last meeting of the year, Dec. 14.

Councilmember Reagan Dunn said he is leaning toward appointing someone who wants to run for election next year "so they can vigorously represent the district and not be a short-timer."

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

An earlier version of this story, published Friday, November 6, 2009, and corrected Friday, November 6, 2009, incorrectly referred to Sen. Joe McDermott as a Representative. We regret the error.