(The Center Square) – The King County Council on Tuesday discussed responding to recent fiscal oversight failures by the county Department of Community and Human Services, including everything from limiting grant awards to allowing more eyes on funding distributions.
King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn is the primary sponsor of Ordinance 2025-0266. He proposed the legislation to serve as a “vehicle of reform” for DCHS. The legislation would require annual reviews of DCHS contractors, call for immediate site visits for any reports of fraud or waste, mandate in-person check-ins every three years, and require a progress report to the county council by March 2026.
The ordinance is a result of recent audit findings that revealed that DCHS distributed more than $1.5 billion in 2023 and 2024 combined – a 95% increase from $922 million in 2019 and 2020 combined. The numerous instances flagged by the audit in which improper payments, including potential fraud, were made across multiple DCHS contracts were made after the 95% increase in distributed grant funding.
Initial audit findings said DCHS distributed more than $1.5 billion in 2023 and 2024 combined, a 6,700% increase from $22 million in 2019 and 2020 combined. However, the department corrected that mistake earlier this month.
The audit points to the department’s hybrid payment model, which sets monthly payments based on contract budgets. In other words, if a contract had a 12-month budget of $120,000, DCHS pays $10,000 per month. This model accounted for more than $130 million in DCHS provider payments in 2024.
“The county’s oversight and ability to review these grants going out the door is the principal problem that I’m concerned about,” Dunn said during Tuesday’s King County Council meeting. “This vehicle is essentially a conglomeration of best practices to add to the existing standards that should have been in place at DCHS.”
Dunn pitched the idea of limiting the number of grantees to 500 or less, due to the inability of the department to control 1,250 contracts with human service providers. In comparison to another highly-populated county, Los Angeles County – with over 10 million more residents than King County – has around 700 providers.
Dunn pressed DCHS Director Kelly Rider during the city council meeting about a “developing culture of silencing those who are reporting grant recipients misusing money.”
In response, Rider said she takes that concern seriously and is working to balance how the department works with providers with ensuring tax dollars are properly handled.
Fellow King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski pitched the idea of adopting the federally-implemented “qui tam” action, which allows private individuals to litigate against entities that have committed fraud against the federal government.
“[Qui tam] really encourages a lot more eyes on the distribution of public money and that it’s spent correctly, because today there is very little incentive for someone to raise their hand and call it out,” Dembowski said.
According to Rider, the department does not have the sufficient DCHS has been working with the executive to fully staff its team as part of the upcoming 2026-27 biennium budget process which is set to begin later this month.
Rider said the department met with an external consultant on Tuesday to begin implementing internal controls and has discussed a budget proposal with the King County Executive’s Office for new financial and compliance staff needed to keep up with the expanded number of providers it funds.
The King County Council is expected to take action on Dunn’s proposed ordinance on Sept. 23. Any proposed amendments would have to be added by close of business on Friday.
