As the search for the next CEO to lead Sound Transit continues behind closed doors, King County Executive Dow Constantine is pushing back on the idea that he has an unfair advantage on other contenders. Constantine, who has served on the Sound Transit board since 2009, revealed he’s one of five finalists being considered by the search committee earlier this month, with the names of the other four being kept under wraps. In an interview with The Urbanist this week, he defended his inclusion on that list.
Constantine has faced conflict-of-interest charges from transit advocacy groups including Seattle Subway and the Transit Riders Union due to his longstanding membership on the board and his direct role in appointing other board members in King County’s delegate as County Executive. Counting Constantine, King County members account for 10 of 18 seats on the board.
Out of the seven-member Executive Committee, which will be tasked with making a recommendation in the coming days, three members — King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, and Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus — were appointed to their board seats by Constantine. With Constantine recused from the process, that leaves the recommendation to six committee members. The full board will ultimately signing off on the decision.
Constantine, who seemed perturbed by the fact that his name had been released to the Seattle Times by Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers in mid-February, pointed to past unknown Sound Transit board members who had unsuccessfully tried to secure the coveted job of CEO.
“First of all, the CEO selection process is supposed to be confidential. Obviously, that has not happened in this case, but the agency and its attorney have been clear that there is no conflict of interest, so long as one recuses oneself from the process, as I have done,” Constantine said in response to a question about any potential conflict. “There have been other board members who’ve applied in the past for CEO positions, they have not been successful in the process, but they have applied. I’m honored to be considered and that is going to be the end of my comment on this, because, again, this process is not supposed to be carried out through the press.”
Tuesday, the agency’s Executive Committee met for most of the day to consider its final list of candidates, out of the public eye in executive session. If Constantine does get selected to be CEO, the public may not ever know who the other four contenders that have made it this far even are, as was the case when a list of three candidates was whittled down to one in 2022 — Julie Timm, then-CEO of Greater Richmond Transit Company, who left the helm at Sound Transit after less than two years.
“A majority of this committee has a glaring and obvious conflict of interest, when considering him for a job that pays over $600,000 per year. This further undermines public trust in the board and the agency which is especially troubling now as Sound Transit faces a long way to go to rebuilt trust on many facets,” David Scott of Seattle Subway told the committee before they entered their closed session Tuesday. “If the board wants the community to trust the process, that trust will not be given lightly.”
Last week, the Transit Riders Union sent a letter to the entire Sound Transit board that outlined ethical concerns, but also raised other issues that could come from picking a long-term board member as CEO.
“[W]e are concerned that the CEO of Sound Transit is an administrative leadership position, akin to the General Manager of Metro, not a political one,” the letter stated. “This experience does not align with the positions to which Dow has been elected and held. He has stood for election and won voter support on the strength of his positions, which is laudable but also a different skill set and different approach than being the administrative leader of a major agency.”
Many of the concerns transit advocates have raised with Constantine potentially being at the helm at Sound Transit stem from his support for last-minute station alternatives in the Chinatown-International District as part of a future Ballard Link light rail line. That decision delayed planning timelines to conduct another environmental study for the late additions, dropping a potential multimodal hub around Jackson Street, while at the same time directly benefiting King County by acting as a catalyst for potential redevelopment of its South Downtown campus. Critics saw it as evidence that Constantine doesn’t put transit riders first in his decision-making.
“We urge Sound Transit to, at a minimum: provide the names of the candidates, conduct public hearings and meetings for feedback on potential candidates especially if a noted politician is in consideration, and establish a formal recusal process for addressing conflicts of interest in particular board members,” Transit Riders Union wrote. “Ideally, Sound Transit will do what it has done for the last two leaders, and seek fresh experience from outside to reinvigorate the planning and construction of our major expansion, and provide renewed focus on passenger experience.”
Sound Transit expansion work is under considerable strain. Cost estimates for West Seattle Link have escalated around 70%, with other projects likely not far behind, and federal funding is almost certain to take a huge hit in a second Trump administration, which is generally averse to transit and investing in states and cities run by Democrats.
In his conversation with The Urbanist, Constantine offered with some potential insight into how he might act as CEO, praising the work of the agency’s relatively new capital delivery team, headed up by deputy CEO Terri Mestas, who was hired last year and charged with getting megaproject costs under control. Constantine wants to follow through on work underway right now to find potential cost savings before looking at a reset of the entire Sound Transit 3 capital program.
“I don’t think these have been daylighted publicly yet, but they have come up with a raft of savings opportunities, none of which are reductions in scope or schedule,” Constantine said. “They are ways that we could do things more efficiently, none of which is a silver bullet, but all of which, taken together, add up to real savings that can then allow you to deliver the stuff you need to deliver when you want to deliver it.”
Apparently, Sound Transit is having similar conversations with respect to improving transit operations and project financing.
“I’ve been having a sort of ongoing conversation about our assumptions, the way we leverage this ongoing revenue stream, and [the finance team] presented a whole whole raft of ideas of how we could actually free up more funding sooner to be able to accomplish some of the things we want to accomplish,” Constantine said.
Tapping an insider like Constantine seem to indicate the board thinks the agency is on the right track, and does not need a fresh, independent perspective from the outside. Not all transit advocates appear excited about that wager, or the ethical lapse they see in even making that bet.
Ultimately, the longtime Sound Transit champion seemed unbothered by allegations of a conflict of interest, which seem unlikely to die down any time soon. Constantine remained strident that the work to continue to build out the region’s light rail and bus rapid transit networks will continue — potentially without him.
“This is going to be a challenging time for the board over the next several years, but I also believe that we have to knit this region together, just as the people have mandated, with high-capacity transit — that is the only way forward,” Constantine said.
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.
