Ryu to seek appointment to County Council vacancy but only on permanent basis

Updated 11-13-12 7:22pm

By Evan Smith

Democratic State Rep. Cindy Ryu says she plans to seek appointment to the seat on the Metropolitan King County Council that Councilman Bob Ferguson will soon give up to take the position of State attorney general that he won in the recent election.

Shoreline City Councilman Will Hall earlier had said that he would seek the appointment.

Ryu said Sunday that she would only seek a "permanent" appointment, one that assumes that she would run for a full term in 2013.

She said that she would not seek the kind of caretaker appointment that the County made when if replaced former County Executive Ron Sims and Assessor Scott Noble in 2009 and when it filled Dow Constantine's seat on the County Council when Constantine was elected County executive later that year.

In each of those cases, the appointee agreed not to run in the next election.

The County Council broke that pattern last year, when it replaced former Sheriff Sue Rahr with Steve Strachen, who ran, and lost, in the recent election.

Hall has yet to say whether he would accept a short-term caretaker position. However, accepting a full-time position on the County Council would force him to give up his full-time day job as a planner for Snohomish County.

Ferguson said Sunday that he didn't know whether the Council would seek a caretaker or a person who would run in the next election.

“That’s up to the eight remaining Council members," he said.

None of the other Council members or Executive Constantine responded Sunday or Monday.

Even though the Council is now non-partisan, four members originally won election as Republicans and four have won election to either the Council or some other office as Democrats.

That split may force a compromise that would make a caretaker appointment probable.

Constantine said Thursday that he would seek applicants for the position as soon as the recent election is certified in early December. He said he would appoint a committee of stakeholders from the 1st Council District to vet the qualifications of applicants and submit a list of qualified candidates to him.

The Executive then would choose three nominees to submit to the eight remaining County Council members. The Council must choose a new 1st District member by March 17 or the governor would make the appointment.

Applicants must be registered voters in the 1st County Council District, which includes Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, Woodinville, the King County part of Bothell, part of Kirkland, unincorporated areas between Bothell and Kirkland, and part of northeast Seattle.

The appointee would serve through certification of the 2013 election. The position would appear on the 2013 primary and general-election ballots for both a full four-year term and the last month of the current term, which Ferguson won in 2009.

A Ryu move from the Legislature to a county position would not be unusual. Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick, Snohomish County Councilman Brian Sullivan, former Snohomish County Councilman Mike Cooper and former King County Councilwoman Carolyn Edmonds all left part-time legislative positions for full-time county positions.