This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Biography: Politics and Government

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by the politics and government work group.

United States: Washington / Seattle Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject Washington (assessed as Low-importance).
	This article is supported by WikiProject Washington - Seattle (assessed as Low-importance).

Purchase of BNSF Railroad Corridor

Sims's press conference stated that the rail corridor would be purchased and reserved for 'multi-purpose' use, of which the primary would be a trail. Keeping the rails is still an option on the table as the 'other use'. To accuse Sims of trying to shut down the dinner train is questionable at best. Especially considering BNSF has been looking to sell the property since 2003[1], 2 years before Sims's announcement.

Actions speak louder than words. In a briefing of the county council his staff made it clear that Sims is not interested in the first 4 miles of the track and that the idea of "multi-use" would not be cost effective. His intention is clearly a trail only option. Not only is it fair to accuse Sims of trying to shut down the train it is 100% accurate. His staff stated "it is important to keep in mind that the Dinner Train is a private for-profit business, and King County cannot use public money to subsidize the private business operations of current users." While this in fact is not true, King County does that daily (The Subway Shop in Marymoor Park, and the hosting of concerts and circus's there is a prime example), it does show what his true plan is. Lastly one must look no further than the fact this is 100% identical to the process he used to convert the two other rail corridors to trails.

Is the first 4 miles of track available for purchase? The first 3 miles will continue to be used to service the Boeing plant and it is unlikely that BNSF would sell that portion and then have to lease access to the rail from the county when they already own the rail. The presence of 'for profit' companies on public lands does not mean that the county is subsidizing for profit companies. Are the companies leasing the property at a loss for the county? The dinner train is a profitable business, but keeping the rails only for them would be done at a loss for the county. The Dinner Train needs to find more uses for the rails besides just their business. Connecting Sounder to Bellevue would be an option, as would expanding Spirit of Washington's business beyond just a dinner train. Make the use profitable and the rails can stay.--Bobblehead 05:01, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The first 4 miles is availabe if it is to remain active as a rail corridor. The problem is that BNSF can't sell it to King County unless there is a commitment to keep it for rail use. There is a movement to provide commuter rail, using colorado rail car DMU's, from Renton to Woodinville (with eventual extension to Snohomish and Monroe) but it can not be done if the section north of Paccar to Coulon park is not available. There is no subsidy for the S.O.W. operations, or any private use. This would be nothing more than a "toll road" with rails. This brings us full circle to the agenda to eliminate the rail use and make it trail alone just as was done on all the other corridors the county purchased. A viable trolley program from Issaquah to Redmond was killed this same way when Sims ordered the tracks ripped up near Marymoor thus making it "impossible" for the trolley option as there wasn't a connection anymore. The difference this time is that the 405 corridor is perfect for commuter rail but with it's success it would kill Sound Transits agenda for light rail on the Eastside. The irony to this is that making the use profitable isn't the problem, that can be done within 11 months if given the go ahead. Making it profitable kills the trail and Sims is not going to allow that to happen.

Just to avoid sidetracking this discussion beyond the topic of the article. If you have a source that contradicts the 'fact sheet' I sourced feel free to source it. All news articles and press releases I've been able to find (including those from SOW) indicate that a decision has not been made and that the county just hasn't committed to a trail-rail use. --Bobblehead 20:32, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ban on use of Public Lands

Do you have a source that shows the King County Council banning the use of public lands for homeless encampments? Ordinance 15170, passed on May 10, 2005 allows the issuance of temporary use permits until January 1, 2015 as long as the homeless encampments meet certain conditions. King County Code 21A.32.145 supports this analysis. --Bobblehead 06:36, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

By a 8-3 vote a Motion by the council passed to prevent the use of public land pending a report from the executive that had to be delivered and acted upon within a year. Council Member Edmonds, who was the champion for the group, was voted out of office that fall. Coupled with Council Member Pelz leaving office left them with only one supporting vote. During that year, with all the documented problems, SHARE's agenda becoming more publicly known, and no support at the council level, executive staff decided to pull support for a "Dignity Village" style encampment and allowed the issue to die.

Thanks for the info. Found the motion and will source the press release. --Bobblehead 16:19, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Order as KC Executive

As it doesn't seem to be anywhere else, I'm putting a list of executives both here and on the King County Executive article's discussion, many of these people don't have their own articles.

Aricci526 (talk) 20:21, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

HUD post

Mr. Sims has been confirmed and sworn as HUD's Deputy Secretary. I've updated the article. Does anyone here know who has taken his place in his old job? I couldn't find it. - Thanks, Hoshie 17:13, 8 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No one officially has taken his position, but his Chief of Staff, Kurt Triplett, has taken over his duties until the King County Council appoints an interim Exec.[2] --Bobblehead ^(rants) 17:31, 8 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! I added the name. - Thanks, Hoshie 20:46, 8 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Leaving HUD post

Ron Sims has stated that he is leaving HUD and returning to Seattle, Washington.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015320389_sims15m.html

Some people have gone so far as to say he did not leave of his own volition, — Preceding unsigned comment added by Megadutch (talk • contribs) 03:22, 21 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This article is long overdue for an update. According to the HUD website, Ron Sims is no longer Deputy Secretary. --TommyBoy (talk) 02:31, 12 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Ron Sims. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/mlk/motion.htm
Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/19990910180122/http://www8.metrokc.gov/exec/ to http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 12:53, 15 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]