The Auditor's Function in King County

The Revised Code of Washington (RCW) assigns various duties to county auditors. Most are in RCW 36.22, but the auditor is referenced in other statutes too (e.g., 4.96.020).

However, Article XI of the State Constitution allows for home rule counties. Article XI is dense, but there are two key parts (bolding added):

• “Any home rule charter proposed as herein provided, may provide for such county officers as may be deemed necessary to carry out and perform all county functions as provided by charter or by general law, and for their compensation, but shall not affect the election of the prosecuting attorney, the county superintendent of schools, the judges of the superior court, and the justices of the peace, or the jurisdiction of the courts.”
• “After the adoption of such charter, such county shall continue to have all the rights, powers, privileges and benefits then possessed or thereafter conferred by general law. All the powers, authority and duties granted to and imposed on county officers by general law, except the prosecuting attorney, the county superintendent of schools, the judges of the superior court and the justices of the peace, shall be vested in the legislative authority of the county unless expressly vested in specific officers by the charter. The legislative authority may by resolution delegate any of its executive or administrative powers, authority or duties not expressly vested in specific officers by the charter, to any county officer or officers or county employee or employees.”

In simple terms, unless it is something RCW specifically identifies as a responsibility of a county’s prosecutor, superintendent, or courts, the county charter or the county legislature (the county council) in a home rule county can delegate responsibilities as it likes.

There are 39 counties in Washington, and 7 are home rule charter counties. The other 32 operate under the default commission approach in RCW. Learn more

Within King County's charter, there are two key sections that relate to this concept:

The County Auditor is defined in Charter Section 250. Section 250 does not include many of the duties typical of county auditors in RCW.

SECTION 250 County Auditor: “The county auditor shall be appointed by a majority of the county council and shall be responsible to the council for conducting, or causing to be conducted, independent post audits of county agencies for the purpose of reporting to the council regarding the integrity of the function of the financial management system, the quality and efficiency of agency management, and the effectiveness of programs. In carrying out this purpose, the auditor shall perform the following audits within guidelines established by the county council by ordinance:  financial and compliance audits to supplement those performed by the state pursuant to general law, economy and efficiency audits, and program result audits. In addition, the auditor shall perform such special studies as may be requested by the council. The auditor shall report the results of each agency audit to the county council. Annual audits shall continue to be performed by the state in accordance with general law. The organization and administration of the auditor's office shall be sufficiently independent to assure no interference or influence external to the organization shall adversely affect an independent and objective judgment by the auditor and the auditor shall be provided a discrete budget and staff allocation. (Ord. 8649 §1, 1988).”

And then there's Section 860, the catch-all.

SECTION 860  References to County Agencies and Officers in the Constitution or General Law: “Whenever the state constitution or a general law which has not been superseded by this charter or by the ordinances enacted hereunder refers to an agency or officer of county government who has been superseded by this charter, it shall be deemed to refer to the agency or officer designated by this charter or by the county council to perform the functions of the superseded agency or officer or in the absence of such a designation to the agency or officer designated by the county executive.”

This means that anytime there is a reference in RCW to a county auditor, and we don’t do it, someone else in the county does.