Over the past 12 years, Executive Ron Sims has worked to make King County the best place in the nation to live, work and raise a family. He also promised to look to the future and work to make sure the quality of life in King County is sustained or improved for our children and children's children compared to when he took office in 1997. As he awaits Senate confirmation for his appointment by President Obama as the new Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, his legacy of accomplishment shows he kept his promise, thanks to many community and government partnerships and the hard work of King County employees.

Equity and Social Justice Initiative

Executive Sims issued the call to action behind the King County Equity and Social Justice Initiative, which takes aim at long-standing and persistent local inequities and injustices. This initiative aims to end persistent local inequities and injustices that result in, among other things, higher rates of disease among low-income populations and disproportionate rates of young black men in jail.

Executive Sims asked King County staff to work across departments and with partners to identify opportunities to correct inequities closer to their source, to engage our communities and to work together on particular regional priorities.

Related link: Equity and Social Justice Initiative

Housing and Community Development

King County Executive Ron Sims has spent much of his career championing regional efforts to develop affordable, workforce and supportive housing, end homelessness, improve blighted neighborhoods, create opportunities for home ownership, balance the demand for housing with the need to protect our environment, and address economic and social justice inequities. He’s done so by bringing together business leaders, housing authorities, legislators and homeless individuals alike to provide diverse perspectives and find common ground in order to address the priority at hand – preserving and creating affordable and workforce housing and a healthy place to live.

Providing leadership to implement needed change, commitment to helping those most in need, innovation to create new and different ways of doing business, and fostering the sense of community that makes King County such a great place to live, County Executive Ron Sims has provided the stewardship to achieve extraordinary progress in the arenas of housing and community development.

Related Link: Executive Sims’ vision, leadership and innovation in housing and community development

Open space and trails

King County's quality of life and the health of its citizens depends on providing recreational opportunities and all the environmental benefits of of its regional trails, forests and open space.

During Executive Sims' tenure, King County has acquired more than 150,000 acres of open space and forests, including the 90,000-acre Snoqualmie Tree Forest easement, which was acquired for $22 million in 2004, and the transfer of development rights agreement with Plum Creek Timber for 45,000 acres in the upper Green River watershed, which was acquired in 2008 at no cost.

King County has also added more than 25 miles to its regional trail system, including the East Lake Sammamish Trail, since Sims took office. Cities throughout King County have linked their trail systems with the King County Regional Trail system, creating an additional 37 miles of trails that are accessible from the county's system.

Health care reform

Executive Sims is tackling healthcare reform on two fronts with innovative approaches that are becoming national models. Early efforts to control county employee benefit costs have produced dramatic results in just one year, and the region's top corporations, health-care providers and governments have joined an alliance chaired by Sims (external link) that is working to control costs while increasing the quality of health care. Additionally, the Executive spearheaded a land use study that shows people who live in 'walkable' communities are more healthy. The Executive is using the study, which explores the linkage between how communities and transportation systems are built, and their effect on everything from driving habits to physical fitness, to develop healthier communities. For more information, see HealthScape.

Related link: Health-care reform accomplishments.

Children's health care

In April 2006, Executive Sims convened a Children's Health Access Task Force (CHATF) of child health experts to advise King County on the creation of an innovative county-based children's health program. In June 2006, the CHATF recommended the Children's Health Initiative (CHI) (pdf), a local approach to improving the health of low-income children. For more information, go to Public Health Seattle & King County's Web site.

Related link: Children's Health Initiative.

Transportation

A balanced mix of transit and highways is key to keeping the people and the economy of King County moving. Every day over 300,000 riders use the King County Metro bus system, one of the ten largest in the nation, and operates one of the nation's largest carpool and park-and-ride systems. And thousands of residents depend on the County's network of 2,000 miles of roads and 220 bridges maintained by crews who work 24/7. Executive Sims is working with regional leaders to ensure that key elements of the region's infrastructure that are in danger of failing, like the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the SR 520 bridge are replaced, and that congestion is addressed at our worst bottlenecks. The Executive has also been instrumental in providing transit alternatives to congestion such as the Metro system and the light rail line that will open from Downtown Seattle to SeaTac Airport in 2009. Executive Sims' Transit Now initiative proposes to add more frequent and faster bus service to the county's busiest and most congested roads and highways.

Climate Change

King County is taking actions, providing leadership and planning for the future in response to scientific evidence that the climate in the Pacific Northwest is among the most rapidly changing in the world. In addition to being a leader in regional planning, the county operates the state's largest fleet of biodiesel-fueled buses (Metro Transit), is providing infrastructure and planning for regional water supply; reducing urban sprawl by using growth management and preservation of forests and open space.

Related links: Climate legacy, and Global Warming.

Environmental protection

Saving Puget Sound is the top environmental priority for Executive Sims who has been a key leader in the region's salmon recovery efforts since chinook salmon were listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act. And now, another icon of the Northwest, killer whales have been listed as endangered. Science-based recovery efforts include restoration projects, preservation of open space, new collaborative efforts in watersheds and innovations such as new technology for the $1.8 billion Brightwater Treatment System that will go on line in 2011.

Open space and trails

King County's quality of life and the health of its citizens depends on providing recreational opportunities and all the environmental benefits of of its regional trails, forests and open space.

During Executive Sims' tenure, King County has acquired more than 150,000 acres of open space and forests, including the 90,000-acre Snoqualmie Tree Forest easement, which was acquired for $22 million in 2004, and the transfer of development rights agreement with Plum Creek Timber for 45,000 acres in the upper Green River watershed, which was acquired in 2008 at no cost.

King County has also added more than 25 miles to its regional trail system, including the East Lake Sammamish Trail, since Sims took office. Cities throughout King County have linked their trail systems with the King County Regional Trail system, creating an additional 37 miles of trails that are accessible from the county's system.

Related links: Open space, and trails