I now chair this committee and we have put out our work plan for the first half of the year. The goal is to make King County government more accountable to the citizens it serves. We are looking at everything from improved customer service to measuring outcomes and developing stronger goals for each department. If you have ideas, please let me know.

I am very impressed that the executive office is working closely with me on these issues and the collaborative efforts will make steady progress possible. I am reading along with many others a book on ideas for government improvements. This will give us a common base to evaulate the functions the county provides. We will be linking outcome measures with the budget!

County government provides many basic services from courts to jails to sheriff protection. These are the basic core services that citizens want. They are now 76% of the general fund. The rest of the general fund covers many other aspects of local and regional government such as the assessor, legislative branch, ombudsman, auditor, etc.

The rest of the budget is dedicated funds. Dedicated funds may NOT by law be spent on anything other than the dedicated purpose. So while we continue to stretch the dollars in these dedicated accounts to be able to provide more services the savings may not by law be spent on any other purpose.