The two candidates voters in King County’s 3rd council district have to choose from have a few similarities. Both started in their current positions in 2022 — Sarah Perry as a Metropolitan King County Council member and Rob Wotton as a Snoqualmie City Council member. Both have credible experience in the nonprofit sector — Wotton has served nonprofits and helped small businesses, and Perry was an executive with Social Venture Partners International.
But when it comes to the issues facing the county, Perry’s two years on the County Council give her an advantage in serving the residents of the 3rd District, which includes Bothell, Issaquah, Sammamish, Redmond, Snoqualmie and Woodinville. She should be reelected.
That recommendation is made with a couple of caveats: Perry should take to heart the lesson she says she’s learned from her recent irresponsible social media post that ostensibly gave the location of federal agents staying in an Eastside hotel. More about that later.
Also, she owns the failure, with her fellow council members, shown in the recent audit of the Department of Community and Human Services. The audit found mismanagement of funds and possible fraud in DCHS, which oversees $1.8 billion in contracts for county services. After the audit results were made public, she supported an ordinance that would put in place procedures for vendors with county service contracts.
Perry wants to see more training for contractor organizations so they can meet high standards of accountability. The test will be whether those high standards are actually met. The same is true for other county enterprises, such as its partnership in the King County Regional Housing Authority.
Perry acknowledges that oversight and auditing are strongly needed there, too.
“It’s been bitterly disappointing to watch this. We were spending $100 million a year without it, and the idea was that we’d spend $100 million with it and do better.”
Perry said her top five focus areas if she is reelected, based on feedback from her constituents, include maintaining roads and bridges, public safety, more housing for all income levels, clean water and fish habitat, and transportation.
With credible public service, Wotton, who served as chair of the Snoqualmie Valley Housing Task Force, acknowledged that he knew little about the regional homeless authority, but added, “I’m anxious to learn more and lean in on that topic.” That’s disappointing when it comes to such an important and intractable problem.
Perry touts her practice of conducting roundtables to “bring more minds to the table” to develop solutions in the county, including in the courts and the prosecutor’s office. Perry helped restore $845,000 to increase staffing at the sheriff’s office, and last month voted for a 0.1% sales tax increase that will raise $95 million for criminal justice efforts.
Her support for law enforcement makes a recent lapse in judgment all the more perplexing. In late September, Perry posted on her personal Facebook page a text message that she said was meant to warn Latino families that ICE agents were in Issaquah. In the post, she gave details of where the agents were staying, including on which hotel floors. Turns out, the agents were actually officers with the Washington State Patrol in town for training. They had left the hotel by the time the post was live.
When addressing the Times editorial board about the incident, Perry conceded her mistake. She also apologized to the WSP officials and others law enforcement agencies.
“I posted to alert the families who were here legally. It is with deep regret that I sit with it. It was a stupid, stupid decision. It was an incredible lapse in judgment,” she said.
Contrition matters, and so does grace. Both make for a delicate and appreciative path forward. Perry seems to be on that path.
