Burien Council member ‘very excited’ Dow Constantine ‘no longer in charge of King County’
Mar 31, 2025, 5:00 AM | Updated: 5:39 am
King County Executive Dow Constantine was officially named the new Sound Transit CEO Thursday, March 27, with a hefty $450,000 per year salary attached to the job.
Constantine has served as the county executive of King County since 2009. One of his biggest critics, Burien Council member Stephanie Mora, is celebrating his transition away from King County executive.
“I am very excited that he’s no longer going to be in charge of King County,” Mora said on “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. “I’m a little frustrated that he’s going to be the CEO of Sound Transit, but I am happy that we no longer have to deal with him as far as being the executive for King County.”
Constantine beat out more than 60 other candidates, including four who were chief executives of other U.S. transit agencies. Critics of Constantine’s appointment noted that he selected several members for the council who subsequently helped decide who would helm Sound Transit.
How Constantine plans to staff Sound Transit police
One of Constantine’s immediate decisions as Sound Transit’s CEO is to relocate police officers from White Center to Sound Transit.
“That’s going to put a huge strain on our city because the City of Burien is one of the police forces that answers for White Center if they need extra help,” Mora said. “It’s very frustrating. We do have a lot of crime that happens in (Metro), but I don’t think we’re going to see even a benefit anytime soon. I’m wondering how him being the CEO is going to fix or even change that. I’m hoping that it ends up better than I’m expecting, but there is a little fear in me that knowing how he ran King County and what he did to the City of Burien with our police force, it does put a little fear in me.”
Listen to the full conversation here:
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