Metropolitan King County Councilmember Rob McKenna today expressed disappointment in Executive Ron Sims’ decision refusing his request to be re-appointed to the Sound Transit Board of Directors. Sims has also announced that he is not re-appointing Kent Mayor Jim White.

Numerous local organizations wrote to Executive Sims encouraging McKenna’s reappointment. The list includes the mayors of the cities of Beaux Arts, Clyde Hill, Hunts Point, Issaquah, Kirkland, Newcastle, Medina, Renton, Sammamish, Tukwila, and Yarrow Point. Organizations supporting McKenna’s reappointment include the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce and the Eastside Transportation Partnership.

"I appreciate the courtesy Executive Sims extended in meeting with me in person to tell me that he would not be re-appointing me to the board," said McKenna. "While I will not question the executive’s motives, I do challenge the wisdom of removing two independent voices from the Sound Transit board. The agency has been heavily criticized for not informing the public in a timely fashion when project goals or budgets, especially for light rail, are not being met. The question now is, who will be there to point out when the emperor has no clothes?"

During his six years as a Sound Transit board member, McKenna was one of the architects of Sound Transit’s financial policies that guarantee "sub-area equity": the principle that Sound Transit tax revenues raised in a sub-area (such as East King County) are invested in that sub-area. Rob also helped draft Sound Transit’s Phase One plan for East King County which includes buses and HOV facilities. Major projects include Sound Transit’s investment in the Bellevue Downtown Access project, the Bellevue Transit Center, the Eastgate Park-and-Ride lot expansion, and the Issaquah SR-900 HOV improvements.

In addition to serving on the Sound Transit board, McKenna chairs the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board and was a two-term chair of the Eastside Transportation Partnership. He is vice-chair of the WSDOT I-405 Executive Committee and a member of the Economic Development Council Board and the Trans Lake Washington Executive Committee. In 1998 he co-founded the King County Transportation Coalition.