King County to weigh reforms after manager's family paid over $800,000

A Metropolitan King County Council member has proposed updates and reforms to the county's ethics code after a Seattle Times investigation revealed a county manager oversaw payments to family members of more than $800,000.

The new legislation, from Councilmember Reagan Dunn, would broaden ethics rules to cover more potential conflicts of interest. It would also require conflicts to be resolved, not simply disclosed.

A review by our joint auditor and ombudsman plus a review by The Seattle Times have pointed some ways for improvement to tighten up the ethics code," Dunn said. "We must be purposeful in ensuring hard-earned public funds are used efficiently and effectively, not scattered indiscriminately."

The proposal comes as the county continues to grapple with the fallout of a high-profile audit finding its Department of Community and Human Services put public funds at risk because of significant oversight lapses as its budget ballooned.

The County Council is already considering a proposal to create a new office of inspector general, a centralized system to report fraud allegations and develop routine fraud awareness training for county contractors.

A county investigation recently found that Yolanda McGhee, who led a $10 million youth and racial justice program within DCHS, oversaw grant payments that went to companies owned by her daughter, two brothers, a cousin and a sister-in-law.

Last month The Times revealed how weaknesses in the county's ethics safeguards allowed McGhee to continue overseeing those payments, despite people complaining to the county about her potential conflicts of interest.

Current county ethics rules, for example, only cover conflicts of interest with an employee's "immediate family," defined as their spouse, child, or dependents living in their house.

Dunn's legislation would expand that definition to require disclosure of potential conflicts of interest with any "significant relationship," defined as "any person where the nature of the relationship may impair objectivity."

The legislation also specifies what a supervisor must do if they're alerted to a potential conflict of interest.

In McGhee's case, county officials in multiple departments learned about possible conflicts of interest years ago, but either took no action or decided they were not an issue.

Current code says a supervisor "may" reassign work to an alternate employee to relieve a conflict of interest. The new legislation would require reassigning work and also require informing the county office of the ombuds and board of ethics.

"The ethics complaint has to actually be resolved," Dunn said. "We'd see a complaint was made, but then DCHS didn't do anything to resolve the potential conflict of interest."

Dunn said he would also be looking, in future legislation, to boost funding for the county's ethics program. The program currently has one employee, who works on ethics part-time.

The ethics program organized 79 ethics training presentations in 2009. Last year, the program held none.

"I think there is a public interest in people knowing that we are taking steps quickly to begin to close the gaps in our ethics process, Dunn said.

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