State · King County · Seattle · Regional bodies · 68 cases on file

Watchdogs are only as good as the public's attention span.

Every accountability failure on the record across four layers of Washington government, in one place.

Because the news cycle forgets, and the receipts shouldn't.

68 Cases on file
$73.77B Dollars at issue · program totals, overruns, and questioned spending combined. Not a loss figure.
4 Layers of government
Featured · Refreshed monthly

The cases drawing the most heat right now.

Ranked monthly across legal posture, evidence tier, dollars at issue, primary sourcing, recency, and cross-references. See Methodology for the full ranking criteria.

$34.50B

Sound Transit ST3 program

$22–34.5B over 2016 finance plan, formal program reset announced
$30B

OSPI school funding apportionment system

SAO performance audit finds $30B-per-biennium system at 'high risk for catastrophic failure'
$1.80B

DCHS contract oversight failure

$1.8B+ program, ~1% of spending reviewed
$500M

$500M+ in state agency tort payouts over 2 years

Gildon report documents 151 DCYF payouts over $1M, 14 DSHS, 9 DOC, 3 WSP

Every case links to primary-source documents: audits, court filings, ethics opinions, and named-byline reporting. Each case is connected to the specific structural reform that would have prevented or surfaced it. The registry is intentionally narrow. Other Washington cities are out of scope for now and may be added in later phases. We do not publish anonymous tips, partisan commentary, or rumor.

About this project

A reference, not a publication.

The registry is maintained as a public-record reference, not a news outlet. See Methodology for how cases enter, get updated, or get retracted, and About for editorial policy and disclosures.

Why this exists

One case is a story. Sixty-eight is a pattern.

Washington produces a steady stream of audits, indictments, and ethics rulings. They scroll past in the news and disappear. The registry keeps the receipts in one place, connected to the reforms that would have stopped them.