It seems every week there is another story of how a King County official, or the large county government bureaucracy (currently more than 14,000 employees) has done something to make residents feel less safe or worsen the region’s homeless crisis.

Most recently, the Seattle Times strongly criticized King County Executive Dow Constantine’s actions regarding the Clark Children and Family Justice Center on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Because the county executive has openly discussed closing the facility which houses juvenile criminals, staff members have fled to more secure jobs. The subsequent staff shortage has forced teens to spend more time confined to their cells with no access to an in-house library (which has been closed since November) and other rehabilitative services.

The Times praised King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn for his efforts to correct Constantine’s poor management. The councilmember called for a thorough audit of the Clark Center, then correcting the problems it uncovers. Councilmember Dunn asserted that this was more efficient than Constantine’s expensive plan of constructing an unnecessary new facility.

The county’s juvenile diversion program (where charged teens escape punishment by promising to attend classes – yet often never appear) has already drawn serious criticism for its lack of financial accountability and for allowing outside progressive organizations to determine which charged youths should be allowed to enter the diversion program. Local law enforcement officials blame the lack of punishment as a leading cause for the explosion of youth crimes in King County.

In short, King County’s juvenile justice system is an expensive mess. It is failing to keep violent young criminals from committing more crimes, and it is failing to rehabilitate those who seek to follow a more promising path.

Constantine is also the lead actor in the region’s decade-long failed approach to homelessness. In 2015,  he joined then-Seattle Mayor Ed Murray to declare homelessness an “emergency”  and committed to pouring more taxpayer money into reducing the number of people living on the streets. Yet, despite spending billions, the homeless number continued to skyrocket, from around 10,000 ten years ago to more than 13,000 today.

Unfortunately, Constantine budgeted $16 million of homeless funds to go to the King County Housing Justice Project to defend squatters who fail to pay rent on the expensive homes they are residing in. Many King County residents were rightfully upset that their money was wasted defending this irresponsible behavior.

The King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) has become the symbol of the region’s failed approach to homelessness. King County (along with the City of Seattle) provides most of the local funding and Executive Constantine is a leader of its Governing Board.

Change WA has written extensively about the many problems encountered and created by KCRHA. One of the most telling statistics is that more homeless people die on the streets or from drug overdoses in temporary housing then the authority has placed in permanent housing.

Since its creation in 2019, KCRHA was criticized for its lack of a mission and failure to remove encampments. Last year the authority became a rudderless ship as controversial CEO Marc Dones suddenly resigned and many other top administrators soon followed.  The City of Seattle cut 10% of its financial support of KCRHA.

Because of the authority’s many severe problems, there is no timetable to hire a new CEO. Despite this lack of direction, KCRHA continues to advertise to hire more bureaucrats who will receive taxpayer-funded gold platted benefits which include unlimited vacations, 12 days of paid sick leave, and 12 more days of official holidays.

While Executive Constantine is attempting to hide behind the actions of others for the many of the disappointing homelessness decisions he is ultimately responsible for, the situation in Burien is one for which he cannot escape responsibility.

In 2020, Constantine fought hard to remove voters from selecting the sheriff. Now the position is a political appointee of the executive. In early March, sheriff deputies were instructed by their supervisors that they were forbidden from enforcing the city’s anti-camping ban (Burien contracts with the county to provide police services).

Since then, large homeless encampments have returned to Burien, and sadly four people have died from overdoses. In a Seattle Times op-ed, Burien’s Democrat Mayor Kevin Schilling blasted Constantine’s decision, calling it “a moral failure to double down on failed approaches.”

On both juvenile criminal justice and homelessness, Constantine has stubbornly adhered to failed progressive approaches. As a result, juvenile crime is skyrocketing as teens learn there are no consequences for their criminal behavior. And despite overwhelming evidence that his approach to homelessness has only increased the number of unsheltered individuals in King County, Constantine continues to waste taxpayer funds on “solutions” that simply do not work.

We can and must do better!