State auditors rip King County on record-keeping

In the wake of a scathing state auditor's report, candidates for King County executive maneuvered Monday to show how they would do a better job of keeping a lid on county construction costs.

The county's record-keeping is so bad, the State Auditor's Office said in a 104-page report, that one of its first performance audits of King County had to be aborted because the county couldn't provide full and timely access to files on capital projects.

None of the eight departments or divisions under study was able to produce all the requested records during a three-month period last year, auditors reported. "In response to our request, the audit team received dozens of spreadsheets that were compiled manually and that contained incomplete and conflicting information."

Project managers in the Roads Division filed projects under any names they wanted — in some cases the names of science-fiction characters. Sometimes, they kept files on computer drives not accessible to auditors or supervisors, according to auditors.

County Executive Kurt Triplett's office blasted the Auditor's Office for refusing to include some of the county's responses in the report, and said some records weren't provided quickly because auditors weren't clear about what they were looking for.

The auditor's report quickly became the hottest issue to hit the contentious county- executive race.

Two Metropolitan King County Council members running for the office touted their records of bringing more oversight to county capital projects, while three other candidates said the report shows it's time for fresh leadership.

Some of the candidates' comments:

• County Council Chairman Dow Constantine: "I'm frustrated with the executive's initial reaction during the lead-up to this audit release, the continued sort of reflex to circle the wagons and deny or minimize problems rather than embracing the opportunity to change and make the government more efficient."

• State Rep. Ross Hunter: "This is a symptom of a deep malaise where no one on the council or the executive's office has really paid serious attention to minding the store. ... They have absolutely no way of monitoring construction to find out what's over budget, what's under budget."

• Former television news anchor Susan Hutchison: "It's profoundly serious and dismaying to the citizens of the county. I am not surprised. ... These problems are not going to be fixed by the politicians who have created them."

• State Sen. Fred Jarrett: "The basic message is that the county hasn't been spending time tending to its knitting. ... It's astonishing that you're using paper records in a 21st-century organization so that you have to put it into Excel for an auditor."

• County Councilmember Larry Phillips: "The audit does present disturbing findings and should cause citizens concern as it does me. But this is a great opportunity for improving government operations. That's what an audit ought to lead to."

Constantine and Phillips, who have voted in support of stronger council oversight of large construction projects, introduced separate motions to reactivate an executive audit committee, which once prodded departments to implement recommendations of state and county auditors.

Constantine on Monday released a list of proposals he's made over the past six years — some of which are now law — for measuring government performance and strengthening oversight of construction projects.

Phillips said he helped resolve a troubled Harborview Medical Center expansion and voted against a jail-security project when it went far over budget.

The primary is Aug. 18. The top two vote-getters in the nonpartisan contest move on to the Nov. 3 general election.

The state auditor's report said procedures put in place by the County Council to oversee the Brightwater sewage-treatment plant are a model for auditing other projects. "It's not all bad," said Mindy Chambers, spokeswoman for Auditor Brian Sonntag.

Chambers said she wasn't aware of any other performance audits that have been terminated for similar reasons since voters in 2005 authorized such audits, which are aimed at uncovering inefficiency and waste in government.

Sonntag wasn't available for comment because of the death Sunday of his brother, former Tacoma County Councilmember Dick Sonntag.

Finance Director Ken Guy blasted the report as "a mile wide and an inch deep. ... We understood that the initial focus was on construction management practices, but soon they wanted access to any information that was even remotely connected to capital construction."

The report, titled an annual "accountability audit," was a hybrid that also reported on the scuttled attempt at a broader performance audit.

Some of the report's findings:

• The Procurement and Contracting Services Section couldn't find hard copies on bidding and architectural engineering for the Novelty Hill Road improvements east of Redmond.

• Metro Transit fares are combined in large bins and then stacked on unsecured sorting tables without adequate accounting.

• Controls are inadequate for cash in Work Release and the Recorder's office, for drugs in Public Health pharmacies, and for ammunition in the Sheriff's Office.

The executive office and Sheriff's Office did not dispute the need for improved controls.

But Finance Director Guy said the auditors were flat-out wrong in reporting that the cost of a South 277th Street road project rose from $2.6 million to $16.6 million. He said the lower cost was only for environmental studies and design, not for construction.

Auditor's spokeswoman Chambers said auditors pulled the plug on the study before they were able to confirm or deny the county's explanation of the 277th Street costs.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com