King County Council chooses its newest member

De’Sean Quinn, a Tukwila City Council member and manager at King County Metro, will be the newest member of the Metropolitan King County Council, after the County Council chose him Tuesday from among three candidates.

Quinn, 52, has worked for the county in a variety of roles — at Metro transit, in wastewater treatment and in the offices of two county executives.

“My career has been here at King County and I know how much government impacts people’s daily lives,” Quinn said.

Quinn has served on the Tukwila City Council since 2008 and several colleagues from that body endorsed his candidacy.

“My values are: public service is a privilege and a responsibility, representation matters, equity is at the core of my values,” he said.

He will take over the District 5 seat, representing all or parts of SeaTac, Des Moines, Kent, Tukwila and Renton, which opened up this month when former Councilmember Dave Upthegrove took office as state lands commissioner. Upthegrove was elected to the state office in November.

King County Executive Dow Constantine nominated Quinn and two other candidates — former state Sen. Karen Keiser and former County Councilmember and state legislator Julia Patterson — for the council to choose from. All three were experienced legislators.

In public Q&A sessions with the council Tuesday, Patterson and Keiser both said unequivocally they would not run for a full term when the appointment runs out after November’s elections.

Quinn was the only candidate who said he might.

“The decision to run for this position is a family decision. I don’t do single decisions anymore,” he said. “This is the most honest answer I can give at this time: I don’t know for sure.”

All three candidates said they would work collaboratively and stressed the county’s difficult upcoming budget year. The county faces a looming budget gap in the tens of millions of dollars in its general fund.

Quinn said the county needs new revenue to fund services like public safety. He said Washington’s “constrained fiscal realities” are the biggest issue facing the county, saying they were preventing the county from funding things like housing, gun violence prevention and basic infrastructure at appropriate levels.

The council has filled a string of vacancies in the Legislature in recent weeks, as last year’s elections opened up a number of slots in King County’s delegation to Olympia.

But in filling those seats, council members have presented a united front, hashing out any disagreements in private executive sessions before voting unanimously for their choice.

On Tuesday, there was division.

Councilmembers Claudia Balducci and Sarah Perry said they would have preferred Keiser. Both voted no on a procedural vote to register their disagreement, before ultimately voting for Quinn because, Balducci said, “if a candidate has the votes they deserve a unanimous vote.”

Balducci said she preferred Keiser because of her legislative experience — she served 30 years in the Legislature before retiring in the middle of her term last year.

“It took me a year to figure out how to run this place. It works much more like a Legislature than it does like a City Council,” Balducci said.

Council Chair Girmay Zahilay, in a prepared statement, praised Quinn’s “strong, steady leadership and deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing our region.”

Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda was absent and did not vote.