For many voters, spending measures on the ballot are judged by their relative merits and then largely forgotten after the election.
A recent report by the King County Auditor’s Office on parks funding underscores the importance of tracking levy and other public dollars to ensure they fulfill promises.
King County Parks’ grant programs expanded dramatically, growing from $3 million in 2017 to more than $100 million expected from 2026 to 2031. Most comes from the $1.45 billion, six-year King County Parks Levy, which 72% of voters approved last August. The Times editorial board endorsed the measure.
The grants are intended to support investments in parks, trails, open spaces, recreational facilities and programming. Based on the last few years, they ranged from $2,000 to more than $2 million.
The audit, released on Jan. 13, determined: “The Parks Division has not yet translated high-level goals provided in the Parks Levy into specific and measurable objectives to guide its grants program and does not sufficiently monitor individual grant outcomes, limiting its ability to effectively manage the program and increasing the risk of misallocating resources.”
Without proper monitoring, the Parks Division “cannot evaluate its performance, use related insights to improve operations, or use that information to demonstrate how grant funds achieve levy goals to the public,” according to the report.
The audit looked at 288 grants awarded in 2023 and 2024. A deep dive into 25 grants included reviewing agreements, budgets, scopes of work, invoices and supporting documentation.
Auditors did not investigate the possibilities of fraud, and no evidence of fraud, waste, or abuse were observed. “However, because of gaps in the Parks Division’s financial practices, we could not confirm that all grantee payments were in line with program intent,” they wrote.
On a positive note, Parks hired two supervisors for the grants team, clarified some roles and responsibilities, renewed efforts to update its policies and procedures, and improved the templates that it provides to grantees.
As part of its report, the auditor drafted 11 recommendations. The county Department of Natural Resources and Parks concurred with all of them.
With so many spending measures on the ballot and government expanding so rapidly in recent years, there is an “approve it and forget it” mentality among much of the public. Understandably so.
The auditor’s report — and previous examinations of questionable spending by the county Department of Community and Human Services — underscores the need for constant and thorough oversight to ensure dollars are well-spent and levies achieve measurable goals.
That ought to be a top priority for both new King County Executive Girmay Zahilay and the entire King County Council.
