The Metropolitan King County Council on Monday reappointed Councilmember Larry Phillips as council chairman. The council also approved retaining Jane Hague and Joe McDermott as the council\u2019s Vice Chairs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI am honored to once again lead the legislative branch in serving the people of King County and meeting the challenges ahead,\u201d said Phillips in a county media release. \u201cIn 2015, we face critical issues in securing reliable and certain transportation, public safety, and environmental services. Protecting and enhancing them for King County residents is our top priority. We must also act to secure King County\u2019s fiscal future, as well as maintaining our human services safety net, addressing climate change, and protecting the health of Puget Sound and our waterways.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
As the council\u2019s Management Team, the chair and vice-chairs work together to set the agendas for meetings of the council and Committee of the Whole and coordinate the referral and scheduling of legislation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Phillips is the most senior member of the council. He was council chair from 2004-2006 and has served as chair of the Council\u2019s Budget, Growth Management and Transportation Committees.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Along with the appointments, the council also approved the chairs and members of its standing committees. The council also approved the creation of two new committees: Health, Housing and Human Services and Law, Justice and Emergency Management.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Health, Housing and Humans Services, which will be chaired by Councilmember Dave Upthegrove, will be responsible for public health, human services and housing programs. Councilmember Kathy Lambert will chair the Law, Justice and Emergency Management Committee, which will have oversight of policies relating to public safety, criminal justice and emergency management.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The rest of the committee chairs will remain the same as in 2014:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Committee of the Whole \u2013Jane Hague, Chair<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Considers legislation and policy issues of interest to the entire council, and is the only standing committee on which all nine members serve.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Budget and Fiscal Management\u2014Joe McDermott, Chair<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Develops the Council\u2019s policy direction for the county budget, and makes recommendations on the county\u2019s structural funding gap and capital and operating budget appropriations.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Government Accountability and Oversight \u2014 Pete von Reichbauer, Chair<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Responsible for making recommendations on improving the efficiency, cost effectiveness and performance of all branches of county government and enhancing the oversight, accountability and transparency in county government.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Transportation, Economy and Environment \u2014 Rod Dembowski, Chair<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Responsible for oversight of transportation (including public transit and county roads), salmon recovery, and water quality and control. Makes recommendations on policies relating to growth management (including land use development and regulation), comprehensive planning, annexations, affordable housing, and the unincorporated and rural areas.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Health, Housing and Human Services\u2014 Dave Upthegrove, Chair<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Makes policy recommendations relating to public health, human services and housing programs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Law, Justice and Emergency Management\u2014 Kathy Lambert, Chair<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Consider and makes recommendations on policies relating to public safety, criminal justice and emergency management.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Metropolitan King County Council on Monday reappointed Councilmember Larry Phillips as council chairman. The council also approved retaining Jane Hague and Joe McDermott as the council\u2019s Vice Chairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":1920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-1919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1919"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}