By Michael Ennis
For the Auburn Reporter
Sound Transit officials spend about $1 million per day in public money, yet their leadership is not accountable to the public because they are not directly elected to their positions. They are appointed.
Sound Transit is led by an 18-member board of directors who are selected by guidelines defined in a state statute, not voters.
While residents living in the Sound Transit district are taxed, as voters they cannot collectively choose who serves on the Sound Transit board.
Washington Policy Center recently asked the State Auditor’s Office to investigate Sound Transit officials because of Sound Transit’s failure to deliver on the promises made to voters in the last election.
There is probably no better example of how Sound Transit’s governance deprives voters of representation than with what is happening in Federal Way.
Sound Transit officials promised voters that light rail would expand from the airport to Federal Way. Earlier this year, however, Sound Transit’s board decided on their own to scrap the Federal Way extension. Federal Way Mayor Skip Priest estimates his citizens already pay about $13.5 million per year in Sound Transit taxes but they are not receiving what they were promised.
Currently, no one from Federal Way serves on the Sound Transit board, and the only board members who presumably represents their interests is King County Executive Dow Constantine and Councilmember Julia Patterson. While they face voters every four years in their respective King County races, their decisions on outside boards and commissions are generally insulated from scrutiny in isolated, local elections.
Sound Transit officials claim they are held accountable through an “independent” and “external” Citizen’s Oversight Panel, but with a process befitting Sound Transit’s long history of indifference toward true responsibility, panel members are selected by Sound Transit’s own board of directors.
The public essentially has no oversight and this insulation effectively shifts the power from voters to Sound Transit’s central administrative staff, who have an unequivocal incentive to grow the agency, brush off public criticisms and ignore outside, independent recommendations, such as those made by the State Auditor.
Another problem with Sound Transit’s current governance is that it creates conflicts of interest among its board members.
Conflict of interest?
The King County Executive oversees his own transit agency, but with a position on Sound Transit’s board, the Executive also represents Sound Transit’s light rail agenda. This presents a conflict of interest because the current light rail alignment has taken over many of Metro’s most productive and efficient bus routes. Furthermore, the Executive is on both sides of the table when negotiating the contracts that govern how Metro operates Sound Transit’s light rail system.
There is a solution.
State lawmakers could change the governance of Sound Transit from an appointed board to one that is directly elected.
Direct elections create accountability for Sound Transit officials by shifting the power back to citizens and taxpayers. Residents within the Sound Transit district would gain much needed oversight of an agency that has shown a pattern of failed promises.
Through regular elections, voters would finally be able to reward good decisions or punish those who make bad ones.
Direct elections also allow the public to serve on Sound Transit’s board of directors. Under the current system, unless you are an elected official from a select list of pre-approved local governments or the Secretary of Transportation, you cannot serve on Sound Transit’s board.
Allowing citizens to run for positions on an open and directly-elected Sound Transit board would ensure real oversight, provide accountability and a more collaborative approach to future decisions.
Michael Ennis is the transportation director with Washington Policy Center, a non-partisan independent policy research organization in Washington state. For more information visit www.washingtonpolicy.org.
