Girmay Zahilay was sworn in as King County’s new executive on Tuesday, becoming the youngest person to hold the position. Children from the audience and his daughter were present at the ceremony. According to KNKX, his priorities include addressing addiction and homelessness, increasing affordable housing, and improving the effectiveness of local government.
At his swearing-in at South Seattle's NewHolly Gathering Hall, Zahilay said his first full day in office would be a regional day of service supporting King County food banks, saying, "I'm asking everyone across King County to have boots on the ground and participate." He started a major administrative restructure, with about half of the 147 executive staff told they may keep their jobs and the rest asked to reapply in December. Zahilay said, “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. 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," as reported by KUOW.
On his first day in office, Zahilay participated in the Regional Day of Service, visiting food banks across King County with Doug Baldwin, former Seahawk and co-chair of Zahilay's Transition Committee, as per FOX 13 Seattle. They visited locations including the South King County Food Coalition in Des Moines and HopeLink in Bellevue. Zahilay encouraged residents to support their local food banks.
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