King County Declares Emergency

King County Executive Ron Sims declared an emergency and waived competitive selection procedures to hire The Sazan Group to re-design deteriorating hot water pipes at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. Sazan studied the issue and issued a report stating that "the pipe appeared to be on the verge of immediate collapse or rupture."

Hiring a firm to conduct design work when they have conducted a study indicating the need for design work does not technically violate any law. It does raise interesting issues of potential conflict of interest, however. On the other hand, with the potential for a catastropic failure of the pipes, the emergency nature of such an action may be appropriate.

Click on the Seattle Times to read a more complete story about the emergency.