SeaTac’s Julia Patterson has been a major force in Highline and South King County as an elected official on the municipal, state and county levels for almost a quarter of a century.

King County Council vice chair Patterson announced on April 26 that she is will not seek re-election to the county council.

She was a founding member of the SeaTac City Council when the city incorporated in 1989. Patterson was then appointed to the state Legislature where she served in both the House and Senate for nearly a decade.

She left the Legislature in 2001 to join the King County Council and was re-elected in 2005 and 2009.

In an interview last week, Patterson told me she is proud of her accomplishments at all three governmental levels.

But Patterson admits there is at least one area where she wishes she had been more successful.

“I am sad that we are without a dedicated, adequate long-term source for human services,” Patterson said. “I won’t see that day but I have faith that day will come.

“We find funding for transit, levees on the river, new jails, arts, but when it comes to serving the poor, regionally we have no resources.”

As the county council’s budget committee chair during the economic downturn, Patterson says she is proud that she guided the county forward with balanced budgets while facing a combined shortfall of over $59 million.

But to accomplish that the county cut all human services funding, except for domestic violence and sexual abuse, Patterson noted.

Patterson says there is ample evidence that programs such as drug treatment and job training work to keep people out of jail and into productive jobs that lift up a community.

“But we continue to put a band aid on the problems,” Patterson said. “Jails and emergency rooms are where we see the problems.”

Patterson started her career in local SeaTac politics. Ironically, that’s where she now faces some of her harshest critics.

They say she has created a personal political machine by getting some of her Angle Lake neighbors elected to the city council. Those local lawmakers are then beholden to Patterson and special interests that push human services spending over policies that would help local businesses spur economic development in the city, according to Patterson’s critics.

It’s the argument that you can get poor people to work harder if you give them less money and you can get the more well-off to work harder if you give them more money.

Patterson said she realizes that she can’t always speak for all her constituents.

“That’s the dance; how do you speak for most of the people? Usually it is clear-cut, but sometimes not. “There will always be some that are unhappy.”

After 23 years in public office, Patterson says she knows why our area doesn’t get the services it should.

“We are fractured politically and we don’t have the political power that comes from money,” Patterson declared.

South King County has about the same population as the city of Seattle but Seattle is much better organized, Patterson noted. East King County is also well organized and, in addition, has lots of money.

“The state reacts to those voices,” Patterson observed.

On the other hand, working-class south King County is chopped up into different political jurisdictions, not unified and not heard by the powers that be, according to Patterson.

While Seattle has one Chamber of Commerce, south county has five or six.

“It is difficult to get everyone on the same page,” Patterson added.

For almost a quarter of a century, she represented the area where she grew up.

Patterson attended Sunnydale Elementary in Burien until her parents moved to what is now SeaTac. She then attended Bow Lake Elementary, Chinook Junior High and Tyee High School before going to college at Washington State University in eastern Washington. She moved back to the area after college.

“It been an extraordinary personal experience and responsibility,” Patterson declared. “I’ve needed to advocate for, protect, and speak on behalf of the area for quite a while.”

As a stay-at-home mom back in the 1980s she attended a neighborhood meeting in a someone’s living room.

“I started at a minimal level but it grew,” Patterson explained.

Patterson joined the campaign to incorporate SeaTac and ended up being elected twice to the council.

Her current position on the county council is ironic because her initial activism grew from her and her SeaTac neighbors’ unhappiness with county services,

Police protection on Highway 99, the Port of Seattle’s treatment of the community, the county’s level of services and zoning under the airport flight path were among incorporation advocates complaints, according to Patterson.

Patterson insists there is no other big job waiting for her.

“There are many ways to view life and I want to look through other lenses,” Patterson said. “I want to spend time to spoil my family and do things I love.”

She lists nature, hiking, being on the water and pursuing her spiritual life as things she wants to do more of.

Would she run for office again?

“I am not ruling anything out. I’m going to keep my eyes wide open and be aware of doors opening so I can step through them,” Patterson noted.

As for her south county constituents, Patterson concluded, “I want to thank all those who shared their hopes for the community. I want to thank them for their honesty when they disagreed with me. I appreciated it and learned from it.

“I consider it a great honor to represent them.”