ACCOUNTABILTY:

WHY WE NEED IT AND HOW TO CREATE IT

We have an accountability problem in our region. We too often view HOW MUCH we spend as an indicator of how seriously we are taking an issue, but rarely focus on WHAT WE GET out of our investments. This is not sustainable. It means we all get fewer services for our tax dollars, and it means our cost of living is one of the highest in the country.

I am a liberal and I believes in robust services. I also believe we can provide them AND care about our county’s fiscal health. Anything less is doing our residents a disservice.

issue #1

Fiscal Mismanagement

The stories all feel too similar. Issues arose with King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) in 2022, got worse from 2023-2025, and only now is meaningful action being taken since the public has now seen how damning the operations were.

King County’s Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) had credible fraud accusations in 2022, saw a whistleblower fired, and ultimately had an audit highlight that only 1% of contracts were being reviewed when their own guidelines required 33%.

Sound Transit has never once delivered a proposal on-time and on-budget. ST3, the most recent effort, which was approved at $54B, will now cost $148B, has a $34B hole, and has functionally cancelled the Ballard Light Rail extension.

my solution

NEW ACCOUNTABLE LEADERSHIP

Each of these issues reflect a combination of a broken process and a lack of leadership.

Simply put, the same leaders who turned their head on these issues for years now claim to have the fixes in place. You wouldn’t buy that argument in any other part of your life, and you shouldn’t here.

Those that had the means to correct these issues years ago, AND DIDN’T, simply aren’t the people we should trust to do so now.

We simply need new people in power, who are serious about tackling this issue.

 

ISSUE #2

THE WAY WE Budget

Ask any political figure to provide you with a specific answer to how much each program costs per recipient, what measures do we look at to see if it’s working, and what guardrails do we have in place once it’s funded to ensure it’s working. You won’t get a good answer.

And that’s because we have a PROCESS issue, not a REVENUE issue.

We simply don’t require and measure outcomes.

my solution

a new way to measure

Every program over $1M in the county budget should require an Outcome Statement. This should clearly state:

  • What problem are we solving?

  • What is the current measurable state of it?

  • What do we expect to change with this program?

  • What are we paying per outcome?

  • What evidence suggests this will work?

  • What leader is directly responsible?

  • What populations or geographies benefit?

  • What will we see at the end of year 1, year 2?

Any program that can’t provide this gets 25% of its budget withheld until it can.

Any program that doesn’t hit its target has 1 year to do so; if not, it shrinks.

If it shows it’s working, we scale it up.

This is how you maximize outcomes and hold leaders, programs, and organizations accountable.