Government Accountability and Reform

July 1st, 2009

The purpose of this gathering today is to announce a policy initiative that I believe is the first step to improving county government from the inside out.

When the State Auditor released his audit report of King County government last week it exposed a deeply troubling level of mismanagement.

Not a single department or division of King County government could adequately provide the information State Auditors requested in order to complete the report.

More troubling, however, is the response from the Executive’s office which blamed the auditors – not the county – for the problems with the audit.

This lack of accountability is also seen in several specifics listed in the report: Undeposited checks sitting in drawers, stacks of cash collected from Metro transit piled on tables, project managers signing work with fictitious names.

Although the attempted audit caused deep dismay among taxpayers, I was not surprised by the report. In 2005, I was one of ten community leaders selected by Ron Sims to oversee a King County Elections Task Force to restore voter confidence in King County elections following the recounts of the 2004 gubernatorial election.

We found an elections division lacking accountability, transparency, and safeguards to ensure integrity in the elections process. We made a number of recommendations to fix the problems, one of which resulted in our first elected King County Elections Director.
I am running for King County Executive because I solve problems and fix things, and King County needs fixing.

The reason I asked you to join me in front of the Benaroya Hall is because a few years ago, I was asked to chair the Seattle Symphony, a 22 million dollar institution on the verge of bankruptcy. We brought together the best leadership and staff we could find, worked with the city, labor, corporations and community leaders. And we stabilized the organization by balancing the budget two years in a row.

That experience reconfirmed a belief I have always held. Problems are not solved by political partisanship – they’re solved by working together.

As King County Executive I will approach my role with that same commitment to the people of this county. The severe problems we face will not be resolved by the same career politicians who created them.

Through the years the council has enacted ordinances for performance accountability – oversight on capital projects and performance management – but none of these have teeth without leadership from the top.

As County Executive:

• I will require of each of my departments report back in three-month intervals to the auditor and the council on how her recommendations were implemented or improved upon.
• I will work with the State Auditor to create protocols that ALL departments must follow to ensure they are capable of complying with audit investigations in a cooperative and transparent manner.
• And I will work to expand our County Auditor’s performance audit resources and authority, to help guarantee that tax dollars are spent prudently and effectively.

There is a reason our State Auditor, Brian Sonntag, a Democrat, has endorsed my candidacy. He sees firsthand the disarray of King County Government and recognizes the need for new leadership – new fresh direction. He is joined by so many others in our community that see the need for change.

That is what I offer. That is my commitment. And that is what we, as a region, as a community, will accomplish together.

Thank you.