King County Executive, and West Seattle Rotarian and native, Dow Constantine spoke at the Rotary's weekly luncheon meeting at Salty's Tuesday, May 4. He appeared to be at ease with the hometown crowd, and spoke of news both good and bad.

"I want to welcome Donald Schmidt, new pastor at Admiral Congrational UCC. (He was a guest at the luncheon.) I'm an old congregationalist. You all know what a 'UCC' stands for, a 'Unitarian Considering Christ,' "quipped Constantine.

"I'm leaving tomorrow morning (May 5) with the governor to visit Washington, D.C. Senator Murray has invited us back to work on the Whiter House, FEMA and the Corps of Engineers on this issue of the Howard Hanson Dam. Our Colonel of the Army Corps Anthony Wright has come up with a plan to reinforce the temporary wall, but the ultimate fix is half a billion dollars. For 44 million (dollars) they can complete the wall (...) and protect the Green River Valleyt over the course of several years to get the perminent concrete wall built. Seventy percent of goods headed for Alaska come through that valley. If we have a siginficanty flood in the valley it would cost $3 billion right ourt of the gate.

"We need to get that rail built out to Remond, up to Northgate, down to Federal Way, then the next phase, the Sound Transit Two measure, the next destinations include Issaquah, Lynnwood, Tacoma, Ballard, and West Seattle. It will be some time, The mayor has created some pretty high expectations about the speed of which the next phase can be rolled out which don’t completely sink up with the regions financial capacity. We want to methodically move forward.

The county's budget woes and necessary cuts he said include looking at eliminating over 80 sheriff staff including about 70 sheriifs deputys, 36 people from the prosecutors office including public defenders, eliminating probation services, family court, making deep cuts to public health, putting an end to alternative detention programs that save millions of dollars.

"I joined with sheriff prosecutor, and County Council to put a two-tenths of a cent sales tax on the ballot. The state has authorized counties to use three-tenths. Forty percent goes to citoes. This proposal preserves the existing criminal justice system, public safety and public health in the general fund, but does not address the cuts I described, It prevents things from becoming substantially worse. The county's share of that money would be about $47 million. The deficit for next year is $60 million and, the following year is $80 million."

Asked by an audience member if King County would divest itself from unincorporayed urban areas of King County such as North Highline, Constantine said, "We’re trying to grt our children married off. Under the state growth management act and county policy all urban areas should be in cities where they can be served by a local government that has the appropriate revenue authority to provide urban level services. We lose money on the deal, but In the end it’s the best thing overall for providing for the people."

In an exclusive interview with the West Seattle Herald following his speech he updated progress on the South Park Bridge issue.

"As you know I've been the leading advocate among elected officials for replacement of the bridge. I have been to Washington, D.C. and Olympia several times lobbying for the money. When I am in Washiongton, D.C. I will devote Friday to continue lobbying for federal help for the South Park Bridge. I have charged our Department of Transportation with putting together a comprehensive and feasible financing plan that includes local, state, federal and potentially private money to move forward in constructing the bridge that we have already designed and engineered.

"There are other, more glamorous projects, but now, with the impending closure of the bridge, people outside of our immediate community are able to recognize that this really is a critical link, one that perhaps they don't use every day, but the loss will impact them economically and also in terms of their commute."