With 2022 rapid­ly draw­ing to a close, the King Coun­ty Coun­cil is get­ting ready for the new year ahead. Today, the Coun­cil announced its lead­er­ship and com­mit­tee assign­ments for 2023. The biggest change is that Dave Upthe­grove of the 5th Dis­trict will be tak­ing over as Chair of the Coun­cil, suc­ceed­ing Clau­dia Balducci.

“My pri­or­i­ty will be to sup­port and strength­en our demo­c­ra­t­ic insti­tu­tions and demon­strate that democ­ra­cy can work,” Upthe­grove said in a state­ment pub­lished by the Coun­cil. “Our guid­ing val­ue will be respect. This means respect for one anoth­er, for our excep­tion­al staff, and for the peo­ple we serve.”

The posi­tion of Chair of the Coun­cil rotates slow­ly among coun­cilmem­bers who are from the Coun­cil’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic major­i­ty. The posi­tion has been held by Bal­duc­ci for three years, through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The nine-mem­ber body is King Coun­ty’s leg­isla­tive branch, respon­si­ble for mak­ing laws at the coun­ty lev­el. King Coun­ty is by far the largest local juris­dic­tion in the state, with 2,252,305 res­i­dents accord­ing to a 2021 esti­mate.

The coun­ty is big­ger in pop­u­la­tion than more than a dozen states in the Unit­ed States. It also has a larg­er land area than either Rhode Island or Delaware.

Its bien­ni­al oper­at­ing bud­get exceeds $16 bil­lion.

No King Coun­ty Coun­cil posi­tions were on the bal­lot this cycle because they are reg­u­lar­ly vot­ed upon in odd-years, though thanks to the suc­cess of a char­ter amend­ment con­ceived here at NPI, that’s about to change. Bal­duc­ci and her Coun­cil col­leagues from even-num­bered dis­tricts will be run­ning for three-year terms next year rather than four-year terms. Begin­ning in 2026, those posi­tions will be for terms of four years again, and will be vot­ed upon in midterm cycles.

The Coun­cil’s cur­rent mem­ber­ship is:

• Rod Dem­bows­ki, 1st District
• Gir­may Zahi­lay, 2nd District
• Sarah Per­ry, 3rd District
• Jeanne Kohl-Welles, 4th District
• Dave Upthe­grove, 5th District
• Clau­dia Bal­duc­ci, 6th District
• Pete von Reich­bauer, 7th District
• Joe McDer­mott, 8th District
• Rea­gan Dunn, 9th District

In addi­tion to nam­ing Upthe­grove Chair, the Coun­cil also set its com­mit­tee lead­er­ship for the 2023 cal­en­dar year. Lead­er­ship is as follows:

• Com­mit­tee of the Whole: Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Chair; Clau­dia Bal­duc­ci, Vice Chair
• Bud­get and Fis­cal Man­age­ment: Joe McDer­mott, Chair; Rod Dem­bows­ki, Vice Chair
• Law, Jus­tice, Health and Human Ser­vices: Gir­may Zahi­lay, Chair; Sarah Per­ry, Vice Chair
• Trans­porta­tion, Econ­o­my and Envi­ron­ment: Rod Dem­bows­ki, Chair; Pete von Reich­bauer, Vice Chair
• Local Ser­vices and Land Use: Sarah Per­ry, Chair; Gir­may Zahi­lay, Vice Chair
• Gov­ern­ment Account­abil­i­ty and Over­sight: Pete von Reich­bauer, Chair; Joe McDer­mott, Vice Chair
• Employ­ment and Admin­is­tra­tion: Dave Upthe­grove, Chair; Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Vice Chair
• Region­al Pol­i­cy Com­mit­tee: Pete von Reich­bauer, Chair
• Region­al Trans­porta­tion Com­mit­tee: Sarah Per­ry, Chair
• Region­al Water Qual­i­ty Com­mit­tee: Clau­dia Bal­duc­ci, Chair

Upthe­grove, a for­mer state leg­is­la­tor, is known for his exem­plary envi­ron­men­tal advo­ca­cy and stew­ard­ship. He served in the Leg­is­la­ture from 2002 until 2013, when he joined the Coun­cil. He is a mem­ber of the Sound Tran­sit Board of Direc­tors. He will assume his new respon­si­bil­i­ties on Jan­u­ary 1st, 2023.