King County Executive Ron Sims, trying to deflect months of attacks on his management of elections, used a televised debate last night to take Republican nominee David Irons to task over his own record.

Tempers flared repeatedly between the major-party candidates, reflecting the high stakes in an election that Republicans view as their best chance to reclaim the county's top administrative post after more than a decade of Democratic control. KCTS-TV host Enrique Cerna moderated.

Sims, who is seeking a third four-year term, criticized Irons for voting against a Metro Transit tax increase. He also accused him of proposing to build a new freeway east of Seattle and trying to breach the county's urban-growth boundary in a separate proposal.

Irons called Sims' attacks "fairy tales" and "fabrications," while Sims repeatedly asked Irons not to interrupt.

"I'm not proposing as a transportation plan to put a freeway through the middle of the Snoqualmie Valley, like my Republican opponent is doing," Sims said.

"Never happened. I never proposed it," Irons shot back.

Shortly after Irons was elected to the Metropolitan King County Council in 1999, he suggested the government study a possible freeway through the rural area, but he never proposed it be built. During this fall's campaign, he has talked about modest expansion of existing freeways.

Irons, a county councilman from Sammamish, characterized Sims as a poor manager.

He said Sims mishandled a $40 million computer-replacement project, failed to correct election-management problems and imposed onerous development restrictions on rural landowners.

"Mr. Sims has never held a job in the private sector in his life," said Irons, who has been involved in three telecommunication companies.

Sims said he had pulled the county through four years of deep budget shortfalls, reined in rising employee health-care costs and earned the county the best bond ratings in its history.

Green Party candidate Gentry Lange, a Shoreline real-estate agent, also participated in the debate. All three candidates agreed on at least one thing: They oppose state Initiative 912, which would roll back the gas-tax increase.

Irons and Lange also said Sims should fire Elections Director Dean Logan. Sims said Logan's office did "a stellar job" in the September primary. He added a soon-to-be-hired "turnaround team" should decide the director's future.

Irons said the critical-areas ordinance that Sims proposed and the County Council passed last year is too restrictive. "If you have five acres in the rural areas, you can't use 65 percent of it, except to walk across it," Irons said.

Lange called the ordinance "a well-intentioned bill" hampered "by poor marketing."

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