From Dow Constantine:I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to King County Executive Ron Sims on his appointment as deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. I commend him for taking on this new challenge and stepping forward to serve our citizens as a federal official.I will sit down immediately with my colleagues to create a non-partisan process to choose an interim replacement to serve the remainder of Executive Sims’ term.An ideal appointee would possess the necessary policy experience, political skills, and management ability to help guide King County through the next several months. We need an appointed executive who can devote his or her full attention and talents to the unprecedented financial challenges facing King County.It is the voters of King County–not this Council–who this November will select an Executive to serve them for the next four years.