Think tank investigates former King County Executive Ron Sims

By Stephanie Klein
MyNorthwest.com Editor

A conservative think tank, Americans for Limited Government, in Washington D.C. is investigating former King County Executive Ron Sims’ travel records.

Staff attorney, Mark Wohlschlegel, told 97.3 KIRO FM’s Dori Monson Show Sims, who recently announced he will resign from his position as Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, spent 45 of 128 traveling days in Seattle over a nine month period in 2009.

Listen to Mark Wohlschlegel’s interview

Sims spent about two years with the Obama administration working with HUD before announcing he would retire from public service to spend more time with his family in Seattle.

Wohlschlegel said they requested Sims’ schedule, meeting attendance, records, and speeches through the Freedom of Information Act in August 2010. The documents received May 5 were a partial response to the original request.

“Out of his 64 trips, 13 of those went through Seattle, his home town,” Wohlschlegel said. “If a person goes back to their hometown, it just raises questions about ‘is he doing this legitimately or is he using taxpayer dollars to travel back home.'”

Some of the trips were stretched out over a weekend, but most of the average length of Sims’ trips to Seattle was 3.5 days, said Wohlschlegel.

“This doesn’t include any vacation time, any holidays. This is all somehow linked to his position with HUD,” he said.

While travel to and from Seattle certainly isn’t illegal, Wohlschlegel said it definitely caught the group’s attention.

“Based on a standard on whether it’s legal or not…Anthony Weiner would still be chairing a committee right now,” he said.

Read more from Dori: Is this why Ron Sims resigned Obama admin job?