King County officials call for accountability following 'damning' audit of community, family services

Updated on 9/9/2025 at 4:48 p.m.: A previous version of this story reported grant amounts awarded based on numbers provided by the county auditor, which has since corrected those figures. This story has been updated to reflect the county's corrected figures.

King County officials are calling for more accountability in light of a recent auditor's report on the Department of Community and Human Services.

The auditor’s report titled — "Department of Community and Human Services Needs to Strengthen Financial Stewardship" — found a lack of oversight at DCHS, which allowed improper payments to contractors for youth programs. It also noted that grants disbursals climbed to $1.87 billion in 2023 and 2024, compared to $922 million in 2019 and 2020.

"Amid rapid growth in grant funding, DCHS did not consistently apply internal controls, resulting in improper payments, including potential fraud, across multiple programs and contracts," the report stated. "DCHS took on greater financial risk as a strategy to reduce barriers to contracting among organizations with limited government experience."

The grants were mainly funded by three voter-approved levies, including Best Starts for Kids.

RELATED: 'Damning' audit finds lax King County oversight allowed potential fraud, improper payments to contractors

Now, the auditor's findings are catching the attention of candidates for King County executive.

Earlier this month, King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, who’s running for the job, announced plans for reform. In an email, his campaign said his comprehensive plan for the county would prevent failures before they happen. His proposal would require every county department to file quarterly performance reports and publish real-time dashboards to report their measurable goals and results.

And his colleague on the King County Council and opponent in the county executive race, Claudia Balducci, called for a full internal audit of the agency.

"We need to make sure we’re being transparent and very public about what we found and what we’re doing to fix it," she said at a press conference at Occidental Square, "so that when we come back and ask for more money, the voters see what we did to fix the challenges we had here."

Balducci previously said the audit was "damning," a sentiment echoed by the county's chief auditor, Kymber Waltmunson.

"I was alarmed by the level of internal control failure that we encountered during this audit," Waltmunson told the King County Council in August.

She added, "The concern is that DCHS made these policy choices without installing a safety net to monitor whether the funds were being used appropriately."