Forget about the interim caretaker approach. A special vote by mail election should be held right now so that the CITIZENS--NOT THE COUNCIL--can elect a new King County Executive.

Bob Ferguson and Dow Constantine seem to be the most promising candidates. Peter Steinbruik might be a possibility, but only if he's willing to make a make a long term commitment rather than being a "caretaker." While caretakers are perfectly adapted for making sure people don't break into empty houses, and raking the leaves in cemetaries, but they are not suitable for running a large, complex regional agency in a time of crisis such as this.

I'm extremely leery of Phillips because of his cynical predilection for teaming up with creepy, trollish political allies pushing wierd agendas. For example, Phillips claims to care about the environment, but has opined that it may be time to ram a new fish hatchery into the Cedar River at Seattle's behest, even though there is a huge pile of peer-reviewed scientific literature that indicates fish hatcheries impair the long-term genetic fitness and survival of salmon populations and are thus sideways with salmon recovery. Larry Phillips also didn't say diddly when King County gave away an enormous stretch of the Middle Green River near the Flaming Geyser bridge to State Parks, which will continue to mow like a pasture so a group of codgerish model airplane duffers can fly their snarky little toy planes over a vast expanse of what should be a restored riparian forest and river channel. Instead the grassy field will be mowed in perpetuity, fossil fuels will be spewed into the air, the growth of trees will be precluded, and a magnificent stretch of the Green River that could be restored to much better fish habitat will remain in a rock-lined strait jacket. Phillips would also like to see the Cedar River desnagged of natural logs to make it safe for anyone who wants to float down it on a blow-up plastic mattress. This is like saying the hell with salmon recovery--let the salmon swim at Wild Waves; rivers are for people. If Larry would just be honest with his constituents and and flat out say he really doesn't give a shit about the environment, other than its recreational value for people that would be so much easier to swallow than his forked tongue that tries to straddle the issue and kills the baby by cutting it in half way too many times.

Ron Sims also talked with a forked tongue on many environmental issues. For example, he touted salmon recovery, while seeking opinions from the KC PA that held that King County has a duty only to avoid killing ESA listed fish, and no duty whatsoever to actually protect and restore salmon depleted fish populations and their habitat. He also teamed up with the US Army Corpse of Engineers to rock the daylights out of 2 miles of the Green River, cutting down hundreds of trees in the process and agreeing to maintain this sorry piece of work--built in the name of flood control--in a sterile rock- and grass-covered condition. When he gets to DC he will probably make all flood-prone river valleys nationwide look just like Tukwila.