The King County Council voted Tuesday to appoint De’Sean Quinn, an Assistant General Manager at King County Metro and a longtime member of the Tukwila City Council, to the District 5 vacancy created by the departure of Dave Upthegrove. Elected the state’s Commissioner of Public Lands this past November, Upthegrove had represented the district, which includes Renton, Kent, Tukwila, SeaTac, and Des Moines, since 2014.
The list of three candidates to fill Upthegrove’s seat was selected by Executive Dow Constantine, and also included former state Senator Karen Keiser and former King County Councilmember Julia Patterson, who held the District 5 seat prior to Upthegrove.
Before working at Metro, Quinn worked in King County’s wastewater division and served on the cabinet of both Constantine and his predecessor, Ron Sims. Required to resign both his seat on the Tukwila Council and his job at Metro to take the temporary position, Quinn told the council that he expects to return to both jobs at the end of his short stint, which will occur when this November’s election is certified. But in contrast with the other two candidates, he did not fully rule out deciding to file and run for the seat after consulting with his family.
As Metro’s Assistant General Manager of Partnerships and Strategy, Quinn was focused on managing equity and diversity programs at the state’s largest transit agency. “We have to be committed to creating a space of belonging, to know that wherever you come from — but in particular if you’re Black, indigenous, or people of color, where you’ve had disparate outcomes — you can come to Metro and thrive,” Quinn said in an internally created video shortly after taking on his leadership role in 2022.
As a Tukwila City Councilmember in office since 2008, Quinn has touted his efforts to add affordable housing, including the approval of Tukwila Village, a phased senior housing community operated by Seattle Housing Authority that opened on International Boulevard in 2018. In 2022, Quinn joined a cadre of South King County elected officials in supporting King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion over her opponent, Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell, citing a need to move away from punitive carceral systems and toward data-driven solutions to public safety.
As a county councilmember, Quinn will be tasked with facing King County’s looming $150 million general fund deficit in 2026, a gap that is poised to have a big impact on county services unless additional revenue can be found. In Tuesday’s question and answer session before the council made its pick from the three candidates, Quinn told councilmembers that he didn’t see a viable path forward to maintaining the county’s public safety infrastructure without those new revenues.
“I think we need new revenues, because I think right now more than [at] any time, people need to feel safe. I think now more than any time as a community, looking out for one another, safety should be at this also at the center of our communities and their growth,” Quinn said, noting that cost is a significant hurdle in being able to advance non-police alternatives that improve public safety. “I think continuing to advance [public safety] alternatives is an idea that one is a kind of a difficult one, I would say. And I think we’re all experiencing that as well, because a significant portion is personnel cost.”
Quinn’s knowledge of the inner workings of Metro will also likely prove valuable as a councilmember. The transit agency is projected to face a major fiscal cliff by the 2028-2029 biennium, brought on by the depletion of its federal relief dollars during the pandemic and costs associated with the County’s plan to convert the agency to a 100% zero emission fleet by 2035.
While the final vote to appoint Quinn was unanimous, there were dissenting voices on the council when it came to who should fill the vacancy. Both Councilmember Sarah Perry and Claudia Balducci signaled a desire to have Karen Keiser as a colleague during such a pivotal budget year when the body would be seeking significant help from the legislature.
Early this year, the county council met with King County’s state legislative delegation with a long list of asks that included lifting the 1% annual property tax levy cap and assistance with start-up costs for the county’s voter-approved crisis care centers.
“I believe that the candidate whose experience would be the most directly relevant and able to support us this year is Senator Kaiser for a number of reasons,” Balducci said. “I came here from a long career as a executive branch employee with a high ranking position and as a city council member with several terms under my belt, and it took me a year to figure out how to run this place. It works much more like the legislature than it does like a city council.”
Ultimately, Quinn will get to put his considerable experience at the county and in regional local government to work for 2.3 million King County residents over the next 10 months and start to tackle some pressing problems, likely to be made worse by impending changes at the federal level as a second Trump administration kicks into full gear.
“If given the opportunity to serve the residents of District 5, I will be all in doing the work, serving the diverse voices of District 5, focusing on their needs, interests and their role in King County regional governance,” Quinn said in explaining his desire to fill the vacancy Tuesday. “I also want you to know that I am a collaborator, and I look forward to working with each of you to further the needs of our districts. Our collective issue is providing high quality services to the people of King County, such as public safety, transportation needs, housing solutions and more. But the reality is, we’ll have to figure out the fiscal constraints facing the county so that we can continue to serve the residents of King County.”
Ryan Packer has been writing for The Urbanist since 2015, and currently reports full-time as Contributing Editor. Their beats are transportation, land use, public space, traffic safety, and obscure community meetings. Packer has also reported for other regional outlets including Capitol Hill Seattle, BikePortland, Seattle Met, and PubliCola. They live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.