-Hello. I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
Two King County councilmembers are running against each other
for the county executive seat.
Their positions on many major policies are similar.
So what really differentiates Girmay Zahilay and
Claudia Balducci?
-Working together,
we will expand opportunities
and make King County safe for everyone.
-Council Chair Zahilay won the primary with 44% of the vote
and says his high-level endorsements show he's
a trusted coalition builder.
-I'll bring experience and urgency
to affordable housing and childcare,
public safety, and climate action.
-Councilmember Balducci was second in the primary
with 30% of the vote
and says her many years of executive leadership
should give her the edge.
How will the candidates deal with major cost overruns
on light rail expansion in Seattle,
a struggling Regional Homelessness Authority,
and a controversial crisis care center slated
to open on Capitol Hill?
-A lot of alcohol, a lot of drugs, a lot of crime, right?
So we know this is happening.
-And I understand
why a lot of our community members have concerns.
-The candidates connect.
-The Regional Homelessness Authority has
not produced the results that we would like to see.
-The truth is every single jurisdiction in this county
is putting money into homelessness.
-The race for King County executive next on
"City Inside Out."
And we are here with the two candidates
for King County executive.
Claudia Balducci, thank you very much for being here.
-Thank you for having us. -Also with me, Girmay Zahilay.
Thank you for being here, too.
-Thank you for pronouncing it right.
-I do what I can. Every now and then, it works.
We had a coin flip before the show and Councilmember Balducci,
you'll be speaking first.
Why are you running for county executive?
What are your qualifications? Please keep it to a minute.
-Well, again, thanks for having us here.
I am a long-time public servant.
I come from a family of public servants
and I believe fundamentally
and I've dedicated my career to the fact
that when local government does our job right,
we make people's lives better.
I have been the mayor of the second largest city
in this county, the city of Bellevue.
I have been a line staff at King County
and worked my way up to being a department director.
I ran the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention.
I know what it takes to make government work
and that's what I want to do as King County executive.
We have some really big challenges,
which I'm sure we'll talk about.
Public safety, transportation, housing,
and how to deal with some of the challenges
coming from the federal government.
I believe my experience, my tenure, my record of delivery,
and all the partnerships
I've developed over 25 years in public service
will serve the county very well
as we go through this challenging time.
-Thank you very much for that.
Councilmember Zahilay,
why are you running for this position
and what qualifies you for the job?
-Thank you so much, Brian.
I really appreciate the time.
My name's Girmay Zahilay.
I'm the chair of the County Council
and I'm running for executive
because I really care about this community.
It is the place that I moved to
when I was three years old as a refugee.
It is the place
where my wife and I are raising our one-and-a-half-year-old
baby daughter, Jazzy.
We're facing so many challenges right now from public safety,
to homelessness,
to a federal government
that's attacking a lot of our communities.
And I believe that King County is a powerful organization
for creating change.
That belief has been reinforced during my time on the Council
where I have worked to make transformational investments
in our behavioral health and addiction system.
Raising the minimum wage to put more money
in low-wage workers' pockets.
Transforming under certain neighborhoods like Skyway
to have more affordable housing, and transit,
and community centers.
And I know that there is so much more work to do.
This is part of a long track record of public service
that I have had since I have been in this area.
And now I believe
that the county executive is a next step
to being able to get results, and accountability,
and help a lot of people who are struggling in this region.
-Thank you very much for that.
Councilmember Zahilay, let me put another question to you
about the county's finances, if I could.
And specifically,
an audit of the county's
Department of Community and Human Services
from a few weeks ago,
"Seattle Times" reported on this.
The department nearly doubled
its grant making from 922 million in 2019-2020
to 1.8 billion in '23-'24, a 95% increase.
One of the big concerns here,
the audit said there wasn't a lot of oversight
when it comes to the recipients of these grants
which may have led to improper payments and fraud.
What happened here?
How did it happen during your time as a county councilmember?
How would you fix this if you were executive?
-Yeah, I'll start off by saying the results of that audit
were unacceptable.
As elected officials,
we have a paramount duty of protecting taxpayer dollars.
And this is an instance
where I believe that the department lowered barriers
for maybe smaller organizations to be able to participate
to get resources and assumed more risk.
And I believe that that balance did not...
was not appropriate in this situation.
To me, as executive, accountability, transparency,
and efficiency would be a central theme
of my administration.
That's why long before these audit results even came out,
my team released our King County Delivers plan,
which is our plan to hold government accountable.
We are calling for an Office of Internal Audit to make sure that
we are not waiting for a councilmember to request
an audit but instead proactively auditing all
of our departments periodically.
I'm also calling for quarterly reports to make sure
that we are disclosing to the public
how their tax dollars are being spent
and what the outcomes were of those expenditures.
So that we're not celebrating when we launch a program
or how much money we spend but instead tracking the outcomes,
things like how many people were moved off of the street
and into stable housing.
Things like how many overdose deaths were reversed, how...
by what percentage do we reduce emergency room visits.
These are the things that we need to track
and report out regularly.
-Okay, thank you for that.
Councilmember Balducci, what's your take on this problem?
Would you handle it differently if you got the job as executive?
-So one of the things I think it's really important
for the viewers to know is this audit looked at about 35
or 36 contracts in a department that has got over...
almost 600 contracts.
And as you said, well over a billion dollars under contract.
So the first thing we have to do is finish the job.
We don't know the full extent of the problem
and we've been talking about it at the Council
now for a little while.
I am proposing that we complete the audit job.
I've been making a proposal in the budget that we do that.
That has not gotten traction, yet.
I think there's a fear of it.
We can't be afraid to know the truth.
We have to be able to understand the problem
so we can scale solutions.
In this race, we're both going to say, of course,
we're going to make promises.
Politicians, we make promises,
but who can really actually deliver accountability
for not just this program but the $10 billion a year
that King County spends?
I've run a major department, as I said.
I have delivered a jail...
major jail multiyear reform effort
that was very successful under the Department of Justice.
I've been responsible for a large budget.
I'm the only member of this campaign that has...
only candidate in this race
that's been responsible for a major budget and an operation.
I think I know how to deliver accountability
and that's what I'll do as county executive.
-Okay. Thank you very much for that.
Councilmember Balducci, I'm going to stick with you.
Another budget issue
that's a little bit unsettled for the County
and really local governments across the country right now,
the threat of the Trump Administration
cutting federal funding.
This is money that goes towards programs like Medicaid, housing,
or other human services funds, as you know.
How are you responding to the situation right now,
and if you are elected,
what's your plan for what could be more clashes
with the Trump Administration in the future?
-Right.
It is a huge challenge
that is facing down all of local governments,
especially in blue states
where we are being called out and targeted.
We've done a pretty good job at local and regional governments,
including Sound Transit Board,
and Puget Sound Regional Council, and other places
where I have been in leadership roles.
Pushing back the initial wave,
which was the threat to retract grants
because we wouldn't sign loyalty oaths to decry DEI
and what is called gender ideology by the Administration.
But what's coming next is bigger and harder to fight off.
What's coming next is massive cuts planned to Medicaid,
to SNAP, to housing vouchers, and...
-SNAP for food stamps, etc.
Keep going, yeah.
-For... yeah, for food security.
So if you look at all of that,
what that heralds is a potential major rise in poverty.
People will lose healthcare, food security, and housing.
So it is really important, and as soon as we saw this coming,
I chair the Committee of the Whole,
which is what it sound like, all of us together,
and started holding regular meetings to get the executive.
We passed a proviso that I put on the budget
to report back what does it mean to us
and what do we do about it.
We've got a pretty good idea what it means to us.
It means the loss of, I mean, over 100,000 people
are at risk of losing their healthcare, for example.
What do we do about it? We have not made that plan, yet.
That's the first job the county executive has got to do.
We have got to get the plan together.
We can reprioritize some of our funding.
We can ask for more funding,
which is digging in our own personal pockets,
asking the voters,
or we can partner better to fill as much of the gap
and protect people as much as possible.
-Okay, thank you for that.
Councilmember Zahilay,
what's your assessment of this federal funding threat
to King County right now
and what would you do about disputes like this
with the Trump Administration in the future?
-First and foremost,
we have to inform our community what is at stake here.
You know, since I've been on the Council,
what I've been doing is organizing panels of experts
to share with our community what is going to happen.
When you hear $800 billion of cuts to Medicaid,
that might seem like an abstract figure.
But I brought together the CEO of Harborview,
and people who work at Western State Hospital,
and long-term care workers,
people in the reproductive healthcare space.
And what they told us is real dire impacts
for the people of King County right here.
Hospitals overflowing,
people getting their reproductive healthcare cut,
longer wait times for people in mental health crisis.
We're going through some really challenging moments,
and where it's possible,
I believe local dollars have to backfill the things
that are being attacked.
That's what I worked on
with our reproductive healthcare organizations
and we were able to get them some funding
to make sure that some clinics continue their operations.
And we have to strengthen our partnerships
with those frontline communities and organizations to push back.
Every community that is directly under attack
has backed this campaign.
If we're trying to protect immigrants,
OneAmerica has said this is the campaign that they trust.
If we're trying to protect reproductive healthcare,
Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates,
Pro Choice Washington.
They said this is the campaign that they trust.
If we're trying to protect workers in the onslaught
on labor standards, MLK Labor,
which represents 220,000 workers,
has said this is the campaign that they trust.
If LGBTQ communities are under attack,
every LGBTQIA organization that has endorsed in this race
has backed our campaign.
-Thank you.
I want to keep going down this path,
if I can, with both of you.
Councilmember Zahilay,
you won the August primary with 44% of the vote.
Your campaign has raised about $1.18 million as
of mid-October here.
Tell us about your top three endorsements
and what they say about your campaign.
-Yeah, I would say the top three endorsements are first
and foremost our government, Bob Ferguson.
I think that is indicative of the need
for King County to collaborate effectively with the state.
As you know, King County has a lot of limitations
on our jurisdiction.
And so collaborating with the state around tax reform
and addressing homelessness,
that's a top priority for me and that shows
how I'm going to be able to collaborate with them.
Another one I would say is Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.
She is somebody who has been fighting back against overreach
from this Administration.
And having the alliance of our federal delegation here
is going to be critical for King County's ability to push back
and have a resilient region. And finally,
I'll say MLK Labor is probably the third most important one
just because it represents so many hundreds of thousands
of workers in the region who are suffering in this economy.
And I have an agenda for affordability
that they really appreciate
and I look forward to working with them to implement that.
-Thank you very much for that.
Councilmember Balducci, you came in second
in the August primary with 33% of the vote.
Your campaign has raised $913,000 as of mid-October.
Talk to us about your top three endorsements
and what those endorsements should tell voters.
-Yeah.
I'm running on a platform of making government work.
And I'm really proud of the endorsements
that we've garnered that are from people
who actually are doing the work,
who are on the ground doing the work.
So, for example,
I've been endorsed by 19 mayors in this big county
because I'm a former mayor, myself,
and we know how to work together.
We know what it means to deliver services directly to the people.
I'm very proud to have been the only candidate endorsed
by any public safety leaders, in addition to folks
who are doing work in prevention and response in human services.
But former sheriff
and former Seattle City Interim City Police Chief Sue Rahr
has endorsed my campaign.
We've worked together for a long time.
And then I'm also very proud of my labor endorsements.
We have a very broad coalition
of labor endorsements including labor unions
that represent most of the employees of King County.
But I'm the only candidate
that also has business organization endorsements.
And so I think we have a really broad coalition of people
who knows what it means to make King County work.
-Okay. Thank you for that.
Councilmember Balducci, I want to stick with you
and talk about Sound Transit, if I could.
You're vice chair of the Sound Transit Board.
You're fully aware of the project
to expand light rail certainly in Seattle
is seriously overbudget, all around the system overbudget,
somewhere in between 22 and $30 billion.
The agency is considering a 1% property tax increase next year
as a way to keep up with some of these rising costs.
Is that something you support, first off, and also, is it time
to start considering some cuts to the light rail expansion
into West Seattle or Ballard, for example?
-Thank you for the question.
It has been one of my missions in life
to build out this light rail system.
It is something I've worked on for a very long time.
I'm proud to have fought and won the battle of light rail
in East King County
and now you see trains going back and forth
across the bridge in testing.
We'll be ready to open very soon.
So it is a critical mission that we have to complete this system.
I'm the only candidate in this race
who's actually delivered anything big like this,
honestly, and I have fought for it.
And we've overcome one challenge after another.
It's not the first challenge Sound Transit has had.
So I want to say first,
we can overcome this challenge and we have to do everything.
We have to look at financing.
Can we use debt and finance in a different way?
That is a large part of our challenge.
And what can we do on the delivery side
that will actually save costs? I have been the leader working
with the Sound Transit Board chair...
previous board chair, Kent Keel,
to create a reform effort
that is starting to look at many different ways to control costs.
Including little things like changing how we do contracting.
You save six months on a contract procurement
on every contract procurement,
then you start to save some real money,
a bunch of smaller things. But then bigger things.
To your point,
I am asking the agency to take a very serious look at
whether we need a second tunnel through downtown Seattle.
We've planned it for a long time.
It is important that we have reliability,
and resilience, and enough capacity.
But other agencies in the world
and in the country are looking at the same volume of trains
through one tunnel
that we are thinking about putting through two tunnels.
-Okay.
-That could save billions of dollars
and make a system with better connections.
So little things, big things, all the things
to deliver the system.
-A lot going on there. Thank you for that.
Councilmember Zahilay,
you also serve on the Sound Transit Board.
Do you support this 1% tax increase?
Are you looking at cutting back the expansion
of the system at all?
What can you tell us?
-Yes, I support the increase
and it's not going to be anywhere near enough
to tackle the deficit that Sound Transit is looking at right now.
So we're going to have to do everything
that we can to pull every lever to design our system
within the budget that we have.
Sound Transit has proposed many things from small to big
in order to find cost-saving measures.
Things that are small
that they've seen, just small design changes,
you know, eliminate an escalator here and there.
Midsize changes could be changing the way
that we do construction avoiding deep excavations.
But then there are the big things that are on the docket
that we have to really consider.
Things like eliminating certain stations,
consolidating certain stations,
even looking at what my colleague is talking about,
not building that second downtown tunnel.
This is the time right now to take a step back
and say what is the best way
we can deliver on our voter-approved promises
to have a high-speed, effective, reliable transit system.
This is the time that we have to make really hard decisions.
What I've asked the agency to do is come back to us
with all of those scenarios and options as quickly as possible
because every day of delay
adds a million dollars to the price tag.
-Yeah.
Let me stick with you for a minute
because the County Council just approved
a voter-approved crisis care center
to be established on Capitol Hill in Seattle, as you know.
At Broadway and East Union
in the old Polyclinic building there.
This is a place
where people can come regardless of their ability
to pay for mental health treatment,
substance use disorders, things of that nature.
The Council had a meeting recently about this,
and from the public hearing,
I would say a lot of people
are looking forward to having this facility.
But you've got a lot of people
who are really worried about
how it would impact the neighborhood.
Councilmember Zahilay,
this was a measure you championed back in 2023
when it was on the ballot. If you're elected as executive,
what do you say to neighbors
who say this plan hasn't been fully thought out
to put this location here.
-I'm glad you're asking about crisis care centers.
This is the issue that I've worked on the most
during my time on the Council
because we've seen that the need is great.
I believe that we should have a region
where every single person has the opportunity to recover.
We don't give up on people.
We've also seen that in recent years,
we've seen the number of overdose deaths hockey stick.
It's really unacceptable and so we need crisis care centers.
And from talking to community members,
there are not many people
who dispute what happens within the walls
of a crisis care center. People know that we need it.
Where the disputes come in is
how do people get into the center and how do they leave.
And I want to make sure as executive
that we're addressing both sides of that equation.
Making sure that we're doing aggressive outreach
to our communities who are on the street
so they actually have a pathway to get in
and we don't have as much outward visible suffering.
And so that we have a good plan for how people are discharged.
I'm proposing that we invest more money
in post-crisis stabilization, that we have strong connections
for people to exit the crisis care center
into whatever their next step would be.
Whether that's a long-term residential mental health bed,
or permanent supportive housing, or the emergency room,
whatever it might be.
They need to have that clear, individualized plan.
I think that we should have done a better job of engaging
that local community.
I don't think that anything that they have said
is outrageous or untrue.
There is a concentration of services in Capitol Hill.
We want to make sure that there is no public disorder,
that there is safety,
that there is cleanliness,
and that will be a top priority for me as executive.
-Thank you for that.
Councilmember Balducci,
what do you say to neighbors
who aren't convinced the Polyclinic is the right spot?
It might have a negative impact on the city of Seattle.
Talk to me about this crisis care center issue.
-Yeah, you know,
deciding any kind of major public facility
is always a very difficult thing to do.
I've had a lot of experience doing this.
We sited the first ever homeless shelters in East King County
when I was the mayor.
That was my initiative to create homeless shelters.
It was the first ever permanent supportive housing.
The light rail, itself, not real popular in some places.
And so you have to work through the community concerns
and being open with them.
I've been meeting with the community members.
I took a walk with them
I want to say around midnight one night just
to see what Capitol Hill is like that time of night.
It's eye-opening. There's a lot going on.
My main response to the community
is I believe we need to figure out
how to site sensitive facilities that are absolutely needed.
That is correct.
But to do it in a way that we work in trust and collaboration
with the community as opposed to being worried
that the neighbors are going to stop this
so let's bake it real quick and then put it out there.
-Okay.
-We should work with the communities
and make things in a way...
one of their complaints is solvable.
Many of them are probably solvable but one of them
I'll point out is they're concerned partially
with what is the rest of this very large building
going to be used for.
It's bigger than we need by a lot for a crisis care center,
so there's fear what are we going to pack a bunch of social
services and look at the way
things look across from the court house where we work.
When you put a lot of concentration of people
in one place, it can be much more challenging.
So how about we work with the community.
It's a proposal that I'm going to bring forward
to commit to put things in the rest of that facility
that are helpful to the needs of the local community.
And that way, it's a win-win.
-Thank you very much for that.
I wanted to stick with you,
Councilmember Balducci, to talk about homelessness,
if we could go back to that issue.
It's still a major issue in King County,
has been more many years.
Last year's point in time count
showed about 17,000 people living without homes,
a 26% increase from two years before that.
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority,
established in 2021,
still really struggling to make a dent in that number there.
Is it time to do away with the KCRHA?
It just hasn't seemed
like it's been able to get buy-in from surrounding cities
to tackle homelessness as a regional issue.
-Yeah. That's a great question.
The next executive really has to find a path forward
with partners including especially the next mayor
of the city of Seattle,
figure out a path forward where we continue to work regionally.
Because it is a true statement
that homelessness is a regional problem,
requires regional solutions.
But this specific approach of having this outside agency
with federated oversight, it's not launched well.
It has not met the goals we've set it.
By the way,
there are really good people there doing a lot of work.
They are passing through money
and making sure services are happening every day.
What we're not doing is making progress
and we're not coordinating. I have heard the mayor say
that the cities outside of Seattle don't pay in.
The truth is every single jurisdiction in this county
is putting money into homelessness.
Some of them are putting into KCRHA like the city of Seattle.
Some are doing it just within their own boundaries
but everybody has got homelessness coordinators
and contracts for services, and outreach, and shelters.
What we're not doing is coordinating toward a common,
aligned goal,
and I think that is the major role
of the next county executive.
If that means rethinking our partnership
so it's not through a separate agency like KCRHA,
if it's rather through an agreement that the cities,
we all just do our part and coordinate,
that would work for me.
It has to work for everybody
but that would be the direction I would consider with partners.
-Thank you very much for that.
Councilmember Zahilay, would you abolish the KCRHA?
Some thoughts on that
and how you would approach homelessness
if you were elected.
-This is the crisis of our region.
Too many people are living outside.
I believe in a King County
where everybody has a roof over their heads
and the services that they need to make a recovery
and that is just not happening right now.
I believe that homelessness is a regional problem
requiring a regional solution and it's also true
that the Regional Homelessness Authority has
not produced the results that we would like to see.
I think there are a number of things going on there.
I believe there's a scale issue.
I believe there's a structure issue
and I believe there's an accountability issue.
On the scale front,
what I always say is demand for housing and services
always far outpace the supply.
And so we need to build more permanent supportive housing,
more emergency housing like tiny house villages,
more low-income housing for people who are just
can't afford to live in a home.
And that is going to require progressive taxation.
It's going to require more revenue
and that is not the issue that we're dealing with
when it comes to the Regional Homelessness Authority.
With the Homelessness Authority,
we need our regional partners to put money into the system.
We need to have a more stable revenue source for the system.
We need better decision making.
But none of those structural changes
can happen without the accountability piece.
You can't go around and ask our regional partners to contribute
when they've lost trust in the entity.
So I believe that new leadership is a time for a reset.
We should ask our neighbors what would it require
for you to have buy-in in this system.
How do we implement the changes that are needed
and how do we effectively move forward with the coordination
and the scale that's needed to tackle this problem?
-Thank you for that.
We're almost at last statement time,
but I wonder can you take 30 seconds?
I feel like we've hit some of the big topics
but is there something we haven't talked about,
maybe hasn't hit the big headlines
that's important to your campaign?
Is there anything you could think of, Councilmember Zahilay?
-I think just the need for collaboration
is more important than ever.
This is a time when no individual,
no level of government,
is going to be able to solve these problems on his own,
her own, or its own.
And this is a time to strengthen our coordination,
our collaboration, whether it's on homelessness,
or public safety,
or responding to the federal government.
And in addition to being the CEO of county government,
the next executive is the leader of the region,
the convener,
and that is the part of the job
that I'm going to take most seriously, as well.
-Thank you.
Thirty seconds, an issue we haven't talked about.
-Yeah, I don't think we actually talked directly
about public safety. -Okay.
-And that is something that I hear about a lot
from constituents here and throughout the region.
I am a former public safety official, myself.
I have deep relationships and knowledge of the system.
We need to be moving in a direction
that makes people feel safe.
So we talked about the crisis care centers.
We seem...
we're lacking a space
where people who are in crisis on the streets
but are not in a place to say,
"Yep, I'm ready for help."
Not voluntarily ready to go in
but they're going to go to jail if they don't, you know,
if they get arrested,
and they're going to go to Harborview if they're too sick.
How about a third place that is a diversion from jail
that helps people off the street,
slows the revolving door?
I've been a consistent voice on public safety,
a former director of the jails, as I said.
My colleague ran his original campaign
on shutting down the juvenile detention facility
and defunding the police.
He's changed his position in this race
but I'm the consistent voice on public safety
and I think the voters should know that.
-Fair enough. It's time for a final statement.
You, first, Councilmember Balducci.
Why are you the right person for the job?
Tell the voters. -Thanks very much.
You know, we hear the question a lot.
"What's the difference here, really?
You seem to share a lot of the same views,
a lot of the same values."
I think what voters should be asking is
do we mean what we say.
Are we consistent?
Are we able to deliver what we promise
and can we manage this big, multifaceted county
that has got real challenges?
I talked a little bit about meaning what I say
on public safety.
Can we deliver what we promise?
Let's take housing.
I've worked on a plan, 44,000 units of affordable housing.
We did it with partners, and cities,
and experts over a year with an associated implementation plan.
We know we can do it.
My colleague has proposed borrowing a billion dollars
to build affordable housing.
The report that came back and was not
day lit for several months showed that
that provides zero housing.
We don't have time to be figuring it out.
We've got to do what works.
And then finally, who can run this big county?
I'm the only candidate with executive experience.
I've been the chair of the Council for over...
for three years.
It's not the same thing on the County Council.
You need somebody who knows
how to run a big executive operation.
-You get the last word.
-Thank you so much, Brian, for the time, today.
I believe that all of our residents and voters
have seen what is at stake in this race right now.
We have public safety issues, the homelessness crisis,
an economy that is failing to meet the moment for people
who can't afford their basic needs.
A federal administration
that's continuing to attack our communities.
And I believe that the King County executive is
a very important position for solving problems
and getting results.
While my colleague continues to look over her shoulder
and attack me,
I understand that this is a race
that is bigger than any one of us.
It is bigger than any one level of government.
It's going to be how effectively can
the next executive collaborate to solve these problems.
I listed for you
before who has entrusted this campaign
over any other campaign in solving problems.
We're going to have to work with the state
to do the reforms that are needed to solve homelessness,
tax reform, the public safety issues.
And we have the most endorsements of the governor,
the attorney general,
more state-level elected officials,
than any other candidate.
If we're going to have to protect our region
from the federal government,
we have both Pramila Jayapal and Adam Smith on board
saying they're going to work with this campaign.
If we're going to have to work with the Council in order to,
you know, solve our budget issues
and which controls a lot of our policy agenda.
I'm the only candidate
that's endorsed by any current King County councilmembers.
And so don't elect me,
elect us and our ability to work together to solve problems.
Thank you so much.
-Thank you both for this and we will be right back.
What are people saying online about the race
for King County executive?
One person writes, "Zahilay's time will come,
but for now, he should stay on as backup quarterback
and watch and learn as much as he can.
Balducci has 20 years' experience on him.
Let's give her the reins." Another says,
"Girmay is really down to earth,
well-grounded, and has a pragmatic approach
to issues facing King County,
including ensuring accountability."
We'd like to know what you think.
Send us an e-mail at contact@seattlechannel.org
or find us on social media. Great to get that input.
Also great to be with both of our candidates
here for King County executive.
We will see you next time on "City Inside Out."