A recent performance audit of King County (Wash.) Parks and Recreation Division found millions in grants meant to pay for improvements and programming has not had enough oversight to match the size — and rapid growth — of the dollars involved.
According to KOMO News, the King County Auditor's Office reported that the Parks and Recreation Division's grants program had expanded since 2017, but the oversight and documentation practices have not kept pace with grant volume.
In August of 2025, voters approved renewing the Parks Levy, a move that auditors say will help fund a grant portfolio expected to total more than $100 million from 2026 to 2031 — roughly $20 million per year — largely through levy revenue.
The audit found that the grants are meant to support "nonprofits, community organizations, tribal entities, cities, and other public partners investing in parks, trails, open spaces, recreation facilities, and programming."
However, the auditor's office's audit raises questions around how the money is actually being used.
“There were some gaps in some financial procedures, which means that they’re not in a good place to be able to consistently detect and prevent fraud misuse those sorts of areas,” said Mia Neidhardt, one of the investigators who was part of the audit.
The audit focused on 288 grants awarded in 2024 and 2024 and conducted a deeper review of 25 of those grants.
While the auditors said they did not find evidence of fraud, waste or abuse, they did find gaps in the Parks Division's financial practices, meaning auditors could not confirm that all grantee payments were in line with program intent.
“We could see money was going out the door, but there wasn’t the documentation to show and that money contributed to the goals of the program,” Neidhardt said.
The auditors are now recommending more robust documentation to ensure grant money is being used as intended.
“We’ve got to do a far better job in terms of demanding accountability and measuring the outcomes for those programs,” King County vice chair Reagan Dunn said. “I continue to see a pattern in King County where the people’s tax dollars aren’t being appropriately granted out in a way the public trust they’re being used for good."
