The following is a release from the King County Council:

Metropolitan King County Councilman Larry Phillips will Chair the King County Council in 2014. Phillips was unanimously selected today by the full Council.

“I am honored to serve the people of King County and lead the legislative branch in meeting the challenges ahead,” said Phillips. “In 2014, King County faces deep cuts to our transit system and unincorporated road network, and many other financial difficulties to providing basic public services. We must act to secure King County’s fiscal future, as well as protecting our human services safety net, addressing climate change, and protecting the health of Puget Sound and our waterways.”

Phillips will be joined on the Council leadership team by Jane Hague and Joe McDermott, who will be the Council’s Vice Chairs.

“I am proud to lead the 14th largest county in the U.S. forward on positive issues that will move the economy and budget in a bipartisan organization,” said Hague.

McDermott echoed Hague’s gratitude for the leadership position.

“I am honored that my colleagues have chosen me to serve as Vice Chair in the coming year as King County will take on critical issues like potential devastating cuts to bus services and our ongoing funding gap,” said McDermott. “Together, we will continue to find regional solutions to key issues.”

As the Council’s management team, the Chair and Vice-Chairs work together to set the agendas for meetings of the Council and Committee of the Whole and coordinate the referral and scheduling of legislation.

Phillips is the senior member of the King County Council. He was Chair of the Council from 2004-2006 and has served as chair of the Council’s Budget, Growth Management and Transportation Committees. Phillips has been a leader on growth management, water quality, environmental protection, fiscal management and transportation.

Hague joined the County Council in 1994, and was elected Council Chair two years into her first term. She has held most major Council leadership positions as well as serving on the budget leadership team multiple times. Hague’s leadership has also extended to the National Association of Counties, where she served as president and remains a member of the Board of Directors.

McDermott joined the Council in 2010 after serving in the state Legislature for a decade. He has been the Council’s Budget Chair since 2012 and chair of the King County Board of Health since 2011.

The next step for the Council in its yearly reorganization will be the naming of chairs and the appointment of members to the Council’s standing committees, scheduled to take place in early 2014.