Biography

King County Executive Ron Sims has built his career in public service around the progressive principles of social justice, good government and environmental stewardship. He has a national reputation for boldness and vision, and is a champion of reforming government processes to better serve the people of the dynamic, forward-thinking Puget Sound region.

Sims has taken a leadership role on a range of issues, and has compiled a notable list of accomplishments. During his two terms as County Executive, Sims has established a strong record of environmental protection. An ardent conservationist, Sims has protected more than 100,000 acres of green space in the County since 1997. He won regional praise and national recognition for his leadership in a three-county effort to restore the runs of the prized Chinook salmon, declared threatened by the National Marine Fisheries Service earlier in 1999. He has also been a regional leader on managing growth in the economically booming King County region, as well as a driver on comprehensive, smart strategies to deal with transportation of people and goods and services in the heavily congested Puget Sound corridor. His leadership is widely credited with turning around a troubled Sound Transit agency that is now on track to providing needed relief to traffic congestion.

At the same time he has protected King County’s financial standing during the recent economic downturn by cutting $135 million from the county’s budget without compromising services. More recently, he has been lauded as a national leader on health care reform for leading a major regional effort to find innovative approaches to controlling costs while improving quality of care.

Born in Spokane, Washington in 1948, Ron’s parents both worked in government: his father, an ordained Baptist minister, worked for the Washington State Office of Community Development; his mother was the first African-American department head in the history of the City of Spokane. Ron cut his political teeth as a young man marching alongside his parents in the struggle for racial equality, and a passion for civil rights issues has animated him throughout his political career.

After graduating from Central Washington University, where he was elected student body president, Sims worked in on consumer protection issues at the Washington State Attorney General's office and the Federal Trade Commission. Recruited to run the City of Seattle's juvenile offender program, Ron remained head of the program until becoming a legislative aide in the Washington State Senate.

Ron has a long history of community involvement. As a lay minister himself, Sims volunteered for Operation Nightwatch, which serves homeless individuals in the City of Seattle. At other times, Ron's public service career has extended well beyond Washington State. He has served, for instance, as an election observer for the Carter Center in both Zambia and the Republic of Georgia.

It was Ron's service as Board President for South East Effective Development (SEED) - a neighborhood advocacy organization focused on economic development located in southeast Seattle - that created the platform from which he launched his formal political career.

In 1985, Ron was first elected to the King County Council. While serving in that capacity, Sims developed a reputation as a tireless legislator, working on a diverse palette of issues that led to advances in the areas of the environment, education, county budgeting, public safety and the protection of workers’ rights. During his first term in office, he led a successful effort to rename King County, which had originally taken its name from a 19th century slaveholding vice-president, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As a reward for his efforts on behalf of his constituents, Ron was twice reelected to his Council position by overwhelming margins.

In 1996 Ron was appointed King County Executive after then-Executive Gary Locke was elected governor. Sims stood for election the following year, winning easily, and was reelected by a wide margin in 2001.

As Executive, he is charged with overseeing the 13th largest county in the nation. It includes the city of Seattle, and with an overall population of 1.8 million, King County is home to about 30 percent of Washington state’s population and alone accounts for more than 40 percent of the state’s jobs. The County government has a workforce of over 13,000 and an annual budget of $3.1 billion.

Both as Council budget chair and Executive, Sims has simultaneously established a reputation for fiscal prudence tempered by a deeply caring set of values. For the last four years, as the region has suffered through difficult economic times, Sims has made tough choices, cutting budgets while protecting core services and maintaining the county’s high bond rating. His Productivity Initiative in the Wastewater Division saved $16 million in just four years and is a model for other county work groups. He has developed close ties to both business – the county is home such economic dynamos as Microsoft, Amazon.com, Starbucks, and Nordstrom – and organized labor. New efficiencies in issuing building permits have earned the respect and praise of Master Builders of King and Snohomish Counties. Each of his budgets as Executive has come in under the state mandated caps on local spending. At the same time, under the Sims Administration, record amounts have been spent to meet the growing demand for improved and expanded county roadways.

More recently, Sims has shown both prudence and boldness in the push for marriage equality. A long-time friend to the gay community, Sims strongly believes that gay and lesbian citizens deserve the same rights and privileges as other groups, including marriage rights. Last year, as politicians in Portland and San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples without explicit legal sanction, Sims came under pressure to do the same. He refused, citing his obligation to uphold the law. At the same time, however, he worked privately with gay marriage advocates to craft a lawsuit in which they sued him in an effort to overturn the state’s Defense of Marriage Act. And he was forthright in publicly expressing his view that gay marriage is a civil rights issue. As a result, the anti-gay marriage backlash that has swept the country has been muted in Washington State, even after two sweeping lower court rulings found the DOMA unconstitutional. Some of the same activists that last year criticized Sims for refusing to issue licenses have since publicly praised him for handling a difficult situation with foresight. A final decision from the state Supreme Court is expected this year.

Sims is the former chairman of the Sound Transit Board of Directors and oversaw management changes that have helped reform the agency whose light rail project broke ground in 2004. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Brookings Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.

Updated: August 2, 2005