The meeting of the King County Council to appoint the interim King County executive is happening live right here. Bob Ferguson just put former Seattle mayor Charley Royer's name forward; his colleague Larry Gossett just nominated former executive Ron Sims' chief of staff (and current interim county exec) Kurt Triplett, arguing that Triplett has more experience in county government.

The verdict: It's Triplett. Julia Patterson: "Kurt can maintain a very steady and experienced hand on the helm of this budget process. ... I don't think this is any time for any learning curve." Pete von Reichbauer: "I'm glad we're not having a candidate for elective office as county executive during these (economic) times." Kathy Lambert: "Going into this budget, we do not have time for poorly put-together, incomplete information. ... I don't want to see happen again this year what happened last year." Larry Phillips is saying that the criteria that went into choosing Triplett ("deep knowledge of county government," understanding of how to put together a budget) would be great criteria in choosing a permanent county executive (a position for which he's running).

The roll call on the vote to include Triplett's name on the appointment legislation (his actual appointment will be by acclamation, i.e., unanimously):

For Triplett:
Reagan Dunn (R)
Larry Gossett (D)
Julia Patterson (D)
Larry Phillips (D)
Pete Von Reichbauer (R)
Dow Constantine (D)

Kathy Lambert (R)
Jane Hague (R)
Bob Ferguson (D)