Sworn in early, Exec Zahilay is ready to shake up King County

Surrounded by kids from the audience and holding his baby daughter, Girmay Zahilay was sworn in Tuesday as the 10th King County executive and the youngest ever to hold the position.

“Jazzy, we’re gonna do the oath of office, OK?” Zahilay said to his 1.5-year-old, who wore white bows in her hair and pink shoes on her feet.

Inviting kids to come up and stand next to him during the oath of office is something Zahilay has done since his first swearing-in to County Council in 2020, when he ran and beat a much older incumbent.

“It's not just me being sworn into office, it's our whole community,” Zahilay said after the ceremony at a community center in New Holly, where he invited students from his alma mater Franklin High and some schools in Rainier Beach to speak before he took the stage.

Zahilay is taking office earlier than normal, right after the results of the election he won earlier this month were certified Tuesday. (His official swearing-in took place in King County Council chambers after the New Holly celebration.) That’s because he’s filling a vacancy caused by the departure of longtime former Executive Dow Constantine, who left earlier this year.

Zahilay will also serve a shorter term, until 2028. Then, county elections will move to even years, when more voters — often younger ones — show up. So he’s taking office more than a month before other candidates who won this month’s election, such as Seattle Mayor-elect Katie Wilson, who was in the audience, but he’ll serve a shorter term.

Introducing newer faces to county leadership will be one of the first items on Zahilay’s docket. Last week, he put many top staffers from Constantine's administration on notice that a major reorganization was coming, the news site PubliCola reported.

About half of the 147 executive staff have received communication from Zahilay that he's interested in keeping them on to manage the sprawling county bureaucracy of roughly 18,000 employees.

The others — roughly 70 employees in the executive department— will be "eligible to apply for new job postings as they come up in December," Zahilay's spokesperson said via text. Any who don't get a new position will lose their jobs with the county Jan. 2.

“People did not elect me to be executive, to have all the same structures and all the same priorities as Executive Constantine or Executive Braddock,” Zahilay told KUOW after the speech, referring to the former executive and interim executive. “They elected me to advance the priorities that I talked about on the campaign trail… And I want my executive office to reflect that set of priorities. Right now it does not, and so you will see a restructure.”

Zahilay is also designating his first full day in office as a “regional day of service” supporting food banks that have been experiencing high demand.

"I'm asking everyone across King County to have boots on the ground and participate," Zahilay said. "Right now, food banks around King County are experiencing record demand. People are hungry here. Grocery and food prices have skyrocketed."

Gloria Hatcher-Mays, executive director of the Rainier Valley Food Bank, also spoke at Tuesday's celebration.