The Accountability Series

One file per institution: what it spends, what it produces, and who is responsible. Public files are linked; MEMBERS files are visible to intelligence subscribers.

• ⚖ Seattle Permitting Problems (SDCI) SDCI It takes 18 months to get a building permit in Seattle, inspectors don't show up, and contractors leave. We pulled the data on how SDCI broke the building pipeline.
• ⚖ SDOT Accountability SDOT Six deliverables holding SDOT accountable on budget, bike lane usage, business impact, parking removal, advocacy influence, and emergency access.
• ⚖ Seattle Police Staffing Shortage SPD Washington State ranks dead last in police staffing for the 15th year. Here is what Tokyo, Singapore, and Dubai do differently, and what it would take to get there.
• ⚖ MEMBERS Seattle Public Utilities SPU Combined sewer overflows, infrastructure neglect.
• ⚖ MEMBERS Seattle City Council COUNCIL Budget oversight and legislative accountability.

• ⚖ MEMBERS Pierce County Prosecutorial Accountability PIERCE A framework for grand jury petitions and sheriff-led accountability coalitions in Washington State.

• ⚖ WA Supreme Court Income Tax Case (2026) SUPREME COURT Five of nine Washington Supreme Court seats are on the November 2026 ballot. The court reads seven to two against the 1933 Culliton rule that blocks an income tax. Three seats decide whether the wall stands. The slate to keep it: Bloom, O'Donnell, Larson, Edwards, Stevens. Burnham Civic is building a Committee of Correspondence to rally turnout. Research at culliton2026.org.
• ⚖ Washington Department of Revenue DOR This is the agency that would collect the new 9.9% income tax on AGI over $1M, if Culliton falls. The full brief covers its history, structure, and the legislative paper trail behind ESSB 6346. Password preview: saveseattle.
• ⚖ MEMBERS Department of Ecology ECOLOGY Fines Seattle $402 per sewage overflow, lost track of 7.4 million tons of carbon reductions, and distributing $2.1B with rules it hasn't finished writing.

• ✺ MEMBERS King County Regional Homelessness Authority KCRHA $230M budget, three CEOs in three years, a $10M initiative that produced nothing, and the pass-through that funds every organization we've investigated.
• ✺ MEMBERS Homelessness Authority De-Designation FEDERAL They spent the money, and we have the receipts.
• ✺ MEMBERS Housing Power Play POLICY Authority de-designation and service delivery reform.
• ✺ MEMBERS Seattle Housing Authority SHA Public housing operations and oversight.
• ✺ MEMBERS Housing Development Consortium LOBBY A $1.6M trade group that lobbied $350M in public housing funds toward its own 215 members. The question of whether any of it worked went unasked.
• ✺ Catholic Community Services CCS With $332M in revenue, it is the largest KCRHA recipient, governed entirely by the Archdiocese of Seattle, and almost nobody has looked at the numbers.
• ✺ People's Harm Reduction Alliance PHRA PHRA runs on $3M in revenue, 99.9% grant-funded, and was the first US organization to distribute meth pipes openly. It has received one direct federal award in 18 years, a $7K SBA COVID grant; the other $3M comes through pass-throughs, and the books are kept by a small private bookkeeper.
• ✺ Low Income Housing Institute LIHI $108M in revenue, $490M in assets, a 33-year executive director earning $338K, and tiny house villages where people die and the reports don't get filed on time.
• ✺ Plymouth Housing HOUSING $69.5M in revenue, a $22.4M deficit, and a Bellevue facility that went from 5 police calls to 148 in one year.
• ✺ Downtown Emergency Service Center DESC A $103M organization whose deputy director sits on the state Appropriations Committee that funds her own employer, plus 600 police calls at one shelter.