King County Council approves Dembowski amendment to strengthen oversight, accountability of County-funded programs in DCHS compliance legislation

County Councilmember
Rod Dembowski

Ahead of approving legislation to reform oversight and compliance of Department of Community and Human Services grant programs, the King County Council on Tuesday adopted an amendment offered by Councilmember Rod Dembowski designed to significantly strengthen oversight, audit and accountability systems for county-funded programs.

“While the majority of County programming is well done and money is efficiently and effectively spent, recent identification by our Auditor of waste and potential fraud in some county funded programs has broken the public’s trust,” Dembowski said.

“I proposed these ideas to ensure that public funds are not misused and that we build robust systems to systematically identify and root out any misuse of taxpayer dollars.”

The amendment includes three components, to be reviewed and developed in partnership with the King County Auditor and Ombuds offices. They are:

1. Develop a program for independent audits of county funded programs and organizations;

2. Assess the feasibility and merits of an Office of Inspector General, which would include powers to investigate waste, fraud and abuse in county funded programs and county organizations; and

3. Assess the potential of creating a Qui Tam program, similar to that used by the federal government, to incentivize reporting of waste fraud and abuse in county funded programs.

The Auditor’s report is due to the King County Council by June 1, 2026, with a status report provided by March 1, 2026.