Ron Sims: Running Hard, Leaning Right

NINE MONTHS into the job of King County executive, Ron Sims is still running hard to be twice as good as his predecessors.

When King County Executive Ron Sims took the county's top job nine months ago, he made history: the county's first African-American executive and one of only three or four in U.S. history.

Many call that an accomplishment. Sims calls it a constant reminder of his own personal mantra: to be twice as good as any previous county executive.

That is why, nearly a year into a tenure that Republican and Democrats alike give high marks - and in a political race in which he is the acknowledged front-runner - Sims toils as though he's about to be fired.

After he was appointed in January to replace Gov. Gary Locke, Sims spent four months touring every municipality in the county. He works 12- to 14-hour days. He uses the late night and early morning hours to answer the 200 e-mails he receives each day.

And he has steadily moved to the right of the political spectrum.

To successfully run against a well-respected Republican moderate, Rep. Suzette Cooke, R-Kent, Sims has taken stances heretofore held by Republicans.

Early on, he earmarked money for farmers living in rural flood plains. He risked angering labor unions when he offered county jail guards a contract that barely passed their membership. He plans to spend $81 million on park-and-ride lots in East and South King County. And Sims' proposed $2.5 billion budget cut some health-department programs while increasing money for criminal justice.

All of that makes Chris Vance, a Republican on the Metropolitan King County Council, give Sims' short tenure a B grade.

"How can I disagree with him when he's pushing things that I support?" he says.

But Vance, a Cooke supporter, says Sims has succeeded because he's basically "stealing ideas from Republicans."

"He's a pale version of a Republican," Vance said.

Brett Bader, a GOP strategist also supporting Cooke, contends that Sims' forays into rural and suburban King County are little more than "window-dressing" in an election year.

"It shows that he finally has learned where the votes are," Bader said.

Sims is the first county executive to come from the County Council since John Spellman, a former county commissioner, who was elected in 1969. In the way that Locke holds an insider's view of state government because of his tenure in the Legislature, Sims knows county government from sitting on the council for 12 years.

It has helped his short tenure, Sims says, that he has solid relationships with the 13 council members, the majority of whom are Republicans.

When he entered the County Council's 12th-floor chamber one recent day to introduce his budget, Sims slowly made his way to the podium, stopping to hug each council member. That moment created laughter and helped defuse budget-related tensions, especially when Councilman Kent Pullen, a conservative Republican from South King County, held Sims in an exaggeratedly close embrace.

All hugs aside, council members say that for the most part, Sims has delivered.

Sims has proposed 100 ball fields for suburban and rural King County.

His proposed budget includes a property tax increase that is smaller than the county's legal limit. In previous years, the county has gone for the maximum tax increase, indeed with Sims' adamant support. But intense pressure this year from Vance, R-Auburn, and Councilman Rob McKenna, R-Medina, coupled with election-year pragmatism persuaded Sims to seek a smaller increase.

In that same budget, Sims added $1 million to the county's Housing Opportunity Fund to bring the program that helps low- to moderate-income county residents purchase homes to $2.4 million. Sims also targeted $300,000 for a joint partnership with Fannie Mae to finance loans to low- and moderate-income home buyers. The moves brought Sims praise from Councilwoman Cynthia Sullivan, a Seattle Democrat who initially sought the appointment to be county executive.

"Considering that Ron has had nine months on the job and has had to learn this issue plus 900 others, I think he's done a remarkable job," she said.

Sims has a reputation for fiscal prudence earned when he chaired the council budget committee. He added to that reputation this year when the county's credit rating was changed to an AA+ from the AA rating it previously held.

But he is not without his detractors. Sims has angered some South End residents with his reluctance to halt the White River Amphitheatre on the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation. Cooke has made it a late campaign issue by joining the opposition group, Citizens for Safety & Environment, in warning the project will lead to clogged roads and environmental hazards.

But county officials say they are unsure local zoning laws can be imposed on reservation property.

In September's primary election, Sims carried 16 of the county's 17 legislative districts, losing to Cooke only in her home district. No county executive candidate has carried so many districts.

Sims has raised more than four times as much money as Cooke, enough to buy two campaign ads for television. And the Democrat had early support from some Republican loyalists like John Giese, an Eastside public-affairs consultant.

The political arm of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties gave Sims the maximum $1,000 allowable by law. As of Oct. 24, Sims had raised $326,379.

But Sims' heavy work schedule has his close friends concerned.

"I'm personally worried because I think he's showing more wear and tear," says Pete von Reichbauer, a Republican county councilman and a friend of Sims.

"As a county executive he's been more visible in the rural and suburban areas than both his predecessors in their combined eight years, and as a candidate he's had to go out and defend his nine months in office. That's a lot of hats to wear."

Seattle Mayor Norm Rice has even gently suggested to Sims that his heavy work schedule may be his way of avoiding grieving for his father who died last year.

Sims is not dismissing his friends' concerns. He has begun taking his blood pressure frequently and now sleeps until 6 a.m.

Sims' drive to be the best comes from years of having that idea drilled into his head by his parents and his teachers.

His Spokane high school's only African-American teacher used to encourage the young black students by walking down the hall and pointing to some and saying "you're going to be in a ditch." When he would get to Sims, he would say, "You can climb out of that ditch." How? By working twice as hard to be equal was always the teacher's answer.

It was also a lesson he learned from the life of his father. James Sims graduated magna cum laude from Lincoln University, a school chosen, Sims says, because Princeton had reached its quotas of black students by the time he applied.

Despite the man's education, the only work he could find was cleaning telephone booths and warehouses.

"Here was this brilliant man who would play games with us in Latin and was fluent in French and because it was the 1950s and he was black, he could only be a custodian," Sims says, his voice thick with emotion.

Lynne K. Varner's phone message number is 206-464-3217. Her e-mail address is: lvar-new@seatimes.com