Eight hundred thousand dollars to a county manager’s family — and now King County is scrambling to figure out whether its ethics rules even cover that. This is Seattle Politics and Urbanism Daily. I’m Devin, with Cassidy. And if you’ve ever wondered why people don’t trust local government to spend their money right, yeah, stay with us. So we’re digging into what the county knew, when it knew it, and whether any of the reform talk that follows these messes actually goes anywhere. Usually not. Here's David Gutman at The Seattle Times:
A Metropolitan King County Council member has proposed updates and reforms to the county’s ethics code after a Seattle Times investigation revealed a county manager oversaw payments to family members of more than $800,000.
The new legislation, from Councilmember Reagan Dunn, would broaden ethics rules to cover more potential conflicts of interest. It would also require conflicts to be resolved, not simply disclosed.
Credit where it’s due: the Seattle Times Watchdog team broke this one. A county manager steering more than $800,000 in payments to family members, and the ethics code supposedly said that was fine as long as you disclosed it. Disclosure instead of resolution is a hell of a loophole. Eight hundred thousand dollars of public money while the county is out here telling residents there’s no budget for services. And the fix is more paperwork? Reagan Dunn’s proposal says conflicts have to be resolved now, not just disclosed, which, fine — but why did it take a newspaper investigation to get here? The inspector general proposal is the one I’m watching. A centralized fraud reporting system would actually have teeth — if the council doesn’t gut it in committee first. DCHS already got flagged for blowing up its budget with zero oversight. That department serves some of the most vulnerable people in the county. So when managers are running a side hustle with public contracts, that’s who pays. If Seattle Politics and Urbanism Daily helps you stay oriented, take a moment to subscribe or leave a review wherever you’re listening. It really helps other people find the show and join the conversation.
You’ll find links to all the stories we covered today in the show notes if you want to dig a little deeper into anything that stood out.
That’s Seattle Politics and Urbanism Daily for this Friday, May 8th. This is a Lantern Podcast.