King County Executive Dow Constantine to present his 'blueprint' for change

Dow Constantine has kept a low profile since he was sworn in as King County executive in November.

Unlike Seattle's new mayor, Mike McGinn, he hasn't proposed any new taxes, announced mass layoffs, clashed with the legislative branch or made any abrupt changes in direction.

Aside from beefing up security in the Seattle transit tunnel after an attack on a 15-year-old girl and proposing to replace a struggling Brightwater sewage-tunnel contractor, Constantine hasn't done much to draw attention to himself.

He has quietly spent his first 100 days in office assembling a management team and developing a strategy to accomplish his campaign promise to make government more efficient and control costs.

Constantine will present his "blueprint for reform" to the Metropolitan King County Council Monday, followed by meetings with civic and business groups later in the week.

He will talk about his plans to work more collaboratively with the County Council and 39 city governments, improve customer service, listen to employees' ideas, "walk in the shoes" of an employee each quarter and — above all — slow the growth in county spending.

In a meeting last week in his office on the eighth floor of the county's Chinook Building in downtown Seattle, Constantine said he hasn't decided whether he will support the suggestion of Sheriff Sue Rahr, Prosecutor Dan Satterberg and county judges that voters be asked to approve a sales-tax increase of up to three-tenths of a cent on a one-dollar purchase.

Constantine and council members would be reluctant to support a tax increase if the Legislature also raises the state sales tax.

Beyond that issue, he said, "Before we move forward with a sales-tax increase, we need to show the public how we're going to deal with the cost side of the equation. ... We have to attend first to the issue of getting our house in order."

The county's biggest challenge, he said, is to bring the county's "unsustainable" rate of growth in spending back in line with inflation. Costs of fuel and employee pay and benefits have gone up faster than property-tax revenues — which are capped by state law — while sales-tax collections have dropped substantially.

Constantine must deal with a projected $60 million shortfall in the general fund next year, following years of program cuts and tax increases.

He wouldn't say if he would try to reduce union-represented workers' automatic cost-of-living increases or make them pay part of their health-care premiums — "I'm not going to try to negotiate our labor contracts in public." But he pledged to consult with the council over negotiations.

Deputy executive

To find better ways of doing business, Constantine is relying heavily on his deputy executive, former state Sen. Fred Jarrett, and his budget chief, former Seattle Finance Director Dwight Dively.

After Jarrett, a Boeing employee and manager for 35 years, ran for executive last year and lost in the primary to Constantine and former TV news anchor Susan Hutchison, Hutchison said she intended to hire Jarrett if she won the race.

Instead, Constantine won and recruited Jarrett himself — a hire he called "a huge coup."

Constantine and Jarrett reduced the number of executive-office employees by 15 percent and are paying them 10 to 15 percent less than previous executives Ron Sims and Kurt Triplett.

Regional issues

Constantine will also report Monday on his campaign promise to work more collaboratively with cities that have felt slighted on regional issues such as bus service, animal control, flood protection and jails.

On a visit to Duvall City Hall last month, Constantine talked to Mayor Will Ibershof and other officials about the city's difficulty paying for road maintenance, its now-stalled growth plans and what Ibershof called "hit-and-miss" promotion of tourism in the Snoqualmie Valley.

Constantine responded that he saw "a tremendous opportunity" for the county and valley cities to work together "to keep those tourist dollars here at home."

Later, city officials in nearby Carnation pleaded for a basinwide study to find out if development in other cities had worsened flooding along the Snoqualmie River, and said they wanted to work with the county on expanding a trail network.

Before traveling on to North Bend and Snoqualmie, Constantine directed his staff to return to Carnation and explore that city's requests.

"We really appreciate him having taken the time to come here and to have listened and to have followed up," said Carnation Mayor Lee Grumman. "Maybe we had a bad case of low expectations. If that's the case, then they were exceeded."

After the Carnation meeting, Constantine visited a footbridge across the Snoqualmie River that he helped build as a 15-year-old Boy Scout.

Constantine has met regularly with leaders of the Suburban Cities Association and plans to visit King County's 39 cities.

Federal Way Mayor Linda Kochmar, who chairs the association's public-issues committee, said the executive has been "very responsive" to cities and she called Jarrett "absolutely wonderful."

Said County Council Chairman Bob Ferguson, "I think Dow is off to a good start, in large part in that he pledged to be collaborative with the County Council, to reach out and talk about specific issues as they arise, avoid big surprises — and his staff has delivered on that promise. I think it's an easy thing to pledge and I don't often see it in action."

A West Seattle resident his entire life, Constantine, 48, admits the 24/7 nature of his new job is "nothing I should be surprised by." During his years as a County Council member, "When something wasn't right, the instinct was to say to the executive's office, 'You make it right.' "

Now it's up to him to make it right.

Mindful that the reduced storage capacity of the federal government's damaged Howard Hanson Dam increases the chance of flooding in Kent, Renton and Auburn, Constantine has had some fitful nights' sleep.

"The rain, which I used to kind of enjoy, makes me wake up in the middle of the night and say, 'Oh, my gosh, I hope this isn't the one that starts the flood.' Everything has a connection to your responsibilities as executive."

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