The King County Council mandated the Auditor’s Office conduct an audit of King County’s government relations functions. The Council posed several questions about the cost and composition of the county’s government relations functions as well as asking for a comparison of King County’s decentralized government relations functions compared to a consolidated government relations office. An effective government relations function is a vital contributing factor for local governments to achieve their goals and transfer from state and federal sources represent a substantial proportion of revenue.

We found no evidence that consolidating King County’s currently decentralized government relations functions into a single office would improve efficiency or effectiveness. We identified about $4.7 million in annual costs for government relations, with the majority going toward salaries and benefits of the twenty-four staff who work on government relations across the county. Officials with peer jurisdictions and national and state-level organizations spoke positively about King County’s government relations staff and the effectives of the function overall.

We made no recommendations in this report.