SEATTLE -- President Barack Obama announced Monday that he will nominate Ron Sims, the top elected official in Washington state's most populous county, as the second-in-command at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

If confirmed by the Senate, Sims will oversee day-to-day operations at an agency with 8,500 workers, a nearly $39 billion budget and a thorny problem: millions of foreclosures threatening homeownership nationwide. He told a news conference he was honored to have been chosen and would carry out the president's commitment to improving the lives of people in the nation's cities and closing the gap between the haves and have-nots in American society.

"We all need to own the reality of inequity," Sims said. "I do not believe that these inequities are either natural or inevitable. I have devoted my life to reversing these courses."

Sims, 60 and a native of Spokane, is the state's most prominent black politician. He was appointed King County executive in 1996 after his predecessor, Gary Locke, was elected governor. He won election the next year and was re-elected in 2001 and 2005. Also a former county councilman, he has lost two statewide races -- for Senate in 1994 and the Democratic primary for governor in 2004.

He didn't ask for the job, he said, but he wasn't going to pass up the chance to be part of the new administration, either -- especially after gushing with praise upon meeting Obama in Chicago last November.

The president-elect asked Sims if he would serve in his government. Sims said he replied that "no one is going to tell the president no, and no one is going to tell you in particular no."

As King County executive, Sims has championed conservation and mass transit while maintaining the county's triple-A bond rating. He proudly noted that King County's jails hold fewer people now than they did in 2000.

"Ron's track record as an innovative leader with an exciting vision for the future of our nation's communities make him the perfect deputy secretary candidate as we tackle the nation's housing crisis amidst the biggest economic downturn in decades," new housing Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a statement.

Sims, who had been running for re-election, urged the King County Council to appoint a "caretaker" executive to replace him -- someone who's only interested in serving through the November election -- to avoid giving political advantage to any candidate. He said he gave the council the names of people who would serve well in that role, but declined to say whom he suggested.

Sims counted growth management, the protection of more than 100,000 acres of green space, the development of a light rail line from Seattle to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and expanding the county's fleet of hybrid buses among his greatest accomplishments as executive.

Asked what he could have done better, he pointed to changes in the county's accounting and payroll computer systems that have cost millions of dollars. But Sims has also been criticized for repeated mess ups in the county's elections department, and for a Justice Department report that determined excessive use of force and poor medical care at the King County Jail violated inmates' civil rights.

Gov. Chris Gregoire said she congratulated Sims in a phone call Monday morning.

"While it is bittersweet to see my friend Ron leave our great state, he will be a wonderful representative of the Northwest in the other Washington," she said. "This is a challenging time for the housing sector and Ron is the right person to ensure people have stable affordable housing during these difficult times."

Sims, a Central Washington University graduate, worked on consumer protection issues at the state attorney general's office and the Federal Trade Commission. He ran Seattle's juvenile offender program and worked as a legislative aide in the state Senate before he was elected to the King County Council.

King County, which includes Seattle, is the 13th largest county in the nation with a population of 1.8 million. The county accounts for more than 40 percent of the state's jobs. The county government has a work force of more than 13,000 and an annual budget of $4.4 billion.

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