Business leader touts single-county idea

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Could the Puget Sound region's governments be more efficient and business-friendly if united as a single Puget County?

It won't happen anytime soon. But the idea was touted Friday by some of the region's most influential business and government leaders at a conference here sponsored by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

Bill Stafford, president of the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, told about 300 attendees that the region's traffic woes and consensus-style governments increasingly have become obstacles to business.

Stafford said a path to better efficiency would be to gradually consolidate cities and counties into larger governments. He said he wouldn't be surprised if 50 years from now, Washington state had 15 or 20 counties, as opposed to the 39 it has now.

Peter Steinbrueck, president of the Seattle City Council, said the notion of a Puget County might help civic leaders think more regionally instead of defending their own political turf.

The top executives from King, Snohomish and Pierce counties all expressed support for the idea of larger regional governments instead of scores of individual cities.

"Some cities shouldn't exist," said King County Executive Ron Sims, who suggested that Puget Sound would be better served by some form of "metropolitan/regional/county" government. He declined to identify which cities he had in mind.

Some leaders cautioned that asking cities and counties to cede control to a larger government would be a tough sell to voters.

"There is a dichotomy here," said Larry Putter, Newcastle city councilman and co-chair of the Suburban Cities Association of King County. "Washington state has always had kind of a populist view. ... At the same time, it can't go on like it has."

Jake Batsell: 206-464-2718.

Information in this article, originally published October 20, was corrected October 22. A previous version of this story incorrectly attributed a quote to Kirkland Mayor Larry Springer. The comments attributed to Springer were made by Sonny Putter, Newcastle city councilman member and co-chair of the Suburban Cities Association of King County.