King County Executive Dow Constantine is scheduled to be named Sound Transit’s new CEO this week, a move that takes him away from elective office for the first time in more than a quarter-century, yet keeps him in the thick of the region’s biggest and longest-lasting political decisions.
The Sound Transit board announced Monday it intends to sign a deal with Constantine, which requires a two-thirds majority vote on Thursday afternoon by the agency’s governing board of 18 members. Constantine will not vote and has recused himself from the board’s CEO deliberations.
“We are pleased to put forward Dow Constantine for a vote of the Board. We are confident he has the knowledge, experience and commitment to achieve Sound Transit’s goals and complete the ST3 package,” the board said in a statement.
“Being CEO of Sound Transit is a tough job with many constituencies to serve, and Dow has proved over his career in public service that he can deliver large capital projects, successfully oversee a major transit agency, and foster partnerships across our region.”
His starting annual salary would be $450,000, “at the low end” of the advertised CEO pay that could’ve gone as high as $650,000, according to Sound Transit spokesperson John Gallagher. It will still be a considerable bump from his current $296,028 annual salary for the county executive’s job.
The agency did not release the new CEO contract or Constantine’s start date, but will do so before Thursday’s meeting, Gallagher said.
Constantine, 63, announced last fall that he would not seek a fifth term this year as King County executive, a seat he won in 2009 after serving in the state Legislature and on the County Council.
He prevailed over a field of 60 applicants for Sound Transit CEO, including four finalists who are chief executives of other U.S. transit agencies. Their identities were kept confidential, while board members held closed-door meetings to interview and discuss the finalists, as allowed by state law.
Constantine would take over from interim CEO Goran Sparrman, who will retire at age 70. Sparrman followed Julie Timm, who served as CEO for 16 months after coming from a small Richmond, Va., bus agency.
As Constantine departs as county executive, the interim executive post would be filled by one of the county’s high-ranked officials whom he designates, until the County Council appoints an acting executive. Then, voters will choose the next executive in the 2025 general election. Last year, Constantine signed a succession list of five people who could be interim executive in his absence, topped by Deputy County Executive Shannon Braddock.
Sound Transit will open new stations at Marymoor Village and Downtown Redmond on May 10.
The Sound Transit board’s selection of Constantine over finalists who included transit leaders from outside the area brings an insider’s familiarity to the job, but it is also sure to draw criticism from people who see Constantine as part of the delays, soaring costs and continuing mechanical problems that have burdened light rail expansion.
During a national search, Constantine’s interest in the job became an open secret, and his name was confirmed publicly in mid-February by Board Chair Dave Somers, the Snohomish County executive.
Vice Chair Claudia Balducci, of Bellevue, said her choice of Constantine was guided by feedback from transit advocacy groups, contractors and staff about their priorities, along with her own belief that “we would not benefit from somebody who had a steep learning curve.”
“The agency’s in a fair bit of flux. It needs to be tended and supported so (CEO changeover) doesn’t become a destabilizing factor. We need a strong manager who can work with strong people,” said Balducci, who is a Metropolitan King County Council member, in an interview.
Constantine improved county government performance in the 2010s, she said, for instance by bringing in Fred Jarrett, a former Boeing executive and state legislator, as chief of staff.
County Councilmembers Balducci and Girmay Zahilay, who is also on Sound Transit’s board, are both running for county executive. Constantine is not expected to make an endorsement.
The pro-transit volunteer group Seattle Subway has denounced the board’s lack of transparency and what they called a conflict of interest. Meanwhile, in a Publicola guest essay, two transit advocates argued Constantine has a “built-in advantage” to be hired by board colleagues he chose. Based on state law that established the board in the 1990s, the King County executive owns one seat plus power to choose or renew nine board members, who serve four-year terms.
Complaints about the process also reflect underlying frustration with frequent train, signal or power breakdowns, causing light rail to be blocked or delayed during more than 432 hours last year. A study by outside engineers found crippling complexity in electrical networks and weak coordination between Sound Transit and Metro’s maintenance teams.
Alongside fellow board members, Constantine has taken credit at opening ceremonies for the 2024 light rail extension from Northgate to Lynnwood, and a starter Eastside line. The new stations scheduled to open this spring will be followed by a segment across Lake Washington in the former Interstate 90 express lanes and a three-station Federal Way extension, within the coming year.
But the regional agency also faces headwinds.
Sound Transit has failed to issue a long-range financial strategy, which was promised last year, to keep pace with skyrocketing construction inflation, overlooked issues like runaway real estate costs and Sound Transit’s growing tendency to favor complex high-rise bridges or neighborhood tunnels.
The board’s “realignment” of 2021, which delayed Everett, Ballard and other lines to spread out future cash flows, needs a re-realignment. West Seattle’s four-station project is now estimated at $6.7 billion, to open in 2032 or later, while the future Ballard-to-Sodo route was officially $11.4 billion in estimates two years ago and likely to rise.
“If you ask me what’s the most important for the new CEO, whoever it is, it’s imperative to posture the agency so they can come clean with riders, taxpayers and voters, as to how far underwater the entire capital program is currently,” former Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff said in an interview.
The agency is currently expected to spend $151 billion from 2017 to 2046 in urban Snohomish, King and Pierce counties, making debt payments into the 2060s.
Board members have acknowledged for years that more taxes or income are needed to deliver Seattle’s lines, without explaining how, and that’s back when rail to West Seattle was believed to cost only $4 billion.
It’s easy for many to pin some blame on Constantine, considering his powerful role at Sound Transit plus his ultimate authority over King County Metro, which operates Link trains and some ST Express bus lines.
After voters passed Sound Transit 3 property, sales and car-tab tax hikes in 2016, the agency launched an elaborate outreach and political review program intended to reach fast route decisions, but it has slogged along for eight years in Seattle, with groundbreaking still far off.
Seattle’s downtown transit tunnel and escalators deteriorated in the late 2010s when Metro and Sound Transit could have jointly started replacing old parts. (Sound Transit took over in the early 2020s and made elevators and escalators more than 90% reliable again.)
“It’s important to remind everybody, we wouldn’t have ST3 if not for Dow,” said Balducci. “He was a key champion of getting it to the ballot and passed.”
As board chair in 2023-24, Constantine supported the board’s quest for outside expert advice to tackle project delivery weaknesses, such as red tape that frustrates contractors. Furthering that aim, in early 2024 he recruited Sparrman to reorganize the staff, led by the hiring of Deputy CEO Terri Mestas away from Los Angeles International Airport.
Constantine has also hopped aboard a union-led push for security upgrades ranging from more police, to plexiglass driver’s compartment barriers, to mental health teams; he participated for three hours last week in a safety task force meeting at South Park.
Pro-Constantine board members can also argue things are on the right track because the Lynnwood line boosted light rail ridership to 100,000 daily passengers last October, while overall bus and train ridership gained 11% in the past year.
In a controversial move on March 23, 2023, Constantine and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell persuaded the board to endorse shelving a convenient ST3 hub station in the late 2030s next to the existing International District/Chinatown Station, as well as a deep Midtown Station near Fifth and Madison.
Instead, they propose building future stations a few blocks north and south of International District/Chinatown Station, where Constantine would like to redevelop old county buildings at Pioneer Square into a high-rise urban campus.
Balducci favors the original International District Station site at Union Station, which, though considered more expensive, would be quicker for riders to change trains, such as from the Eastside to the airport. In talks with Constantine, she says she was satisfied that as CEO he’ll carry out board decisions, whatever they become, rather than impose his own station preferences.
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