Seattle City Councilmember Maritza Rivera is calling for an audit of the city’s human services contracts, an effort to get ahead of any possible echoes of the fraud allegations unfolding across the street in King County government.
Rivera, who represents District 4 northeast of the Ship Canal, was not responding to any specific complaints. But some of the city’s contracts are with organizations that also have agreements with the county.
“This is not to say that our organizations are not doing good work,” she said. “But in light of the issues at the county, we would be remiss if we did not conduct our own due diligence.”
The county’s possible issues were first surfaced by its auditor, who sampled 36 contractors for review out of 359 that received grants from the county in 2024. Of those, 19 were referred for investigation into potential improper payments.
Multiple investigations found examples of vague or missing paperwork and examples of contractors claiming partnerships that apparently did not exist. The full extent of the financial cost of the possible improper payments is not known, in part because oversight has been thin.
In Seattle, the city auditor is the primary arm for oversight of city government and its effectiveness, though its resources are limited. It published seven audits last year on a variety of topics, from gun violence responses to Comcast’s compliance with the city’s “cable customer bill of rights.”
One way it takes on topics is via council request.
The city’s human services department has an over $400 million budget, though a large portion of that is sent directly to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority for homelessness services. It maintains contracts with nonprofits to provide outreach services, gender-based violence prevention, services for survivors of sexual exploitation and more. It also houses the city’s Unified Care Team, which carries out encampment removals and outreach.
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