Grant Audit Finds A Few No-Nos County May Have To Repay State Improperly Spent River Grant

Spokane County may have to repay as much as $45,000 in state grant money awarded to improve public access to the scenic outlet of the Little Spokane River.

A county audit found the money apparently was spent outside the scope of a 1995 state Department of Natural Resources grant, said deputy auditor Vicki Dalton.

The state grant went to the Spokane County Parks Department, which signed a contract with a group headed by an environmental activist named Easy, who managed the project.

The state and county provided a total of $71,500 to kill weeds, plant native shrubs, publish a handbook, improve trails and install permanent signs at the outlet of the Little Spokane.

Little of the work was accomplished, DNR officials say.

Instead, money was spent for unrelated costs, including T-shirts, photographic supplies and the production of a $25 book being sold by Easy.

He billed the county $40 an hour for his consulting services and an additional 15 percent of the total contract for “administrative costs,” for a combined total of almost $30,000.

“This was horrible,” Dalton said of the way the grant money was monitored and spent.

The audit was conducted after a sheriff’s detective, assigned to conduct a companion criminal investigation, obtained court subpoenas for Easy’s bank records.

No criminal charges will be filed as a result of the investigation, said Capt. Doug Silver.

“Our investigation showed there was sloppy bookkeeping and mismanagement of the money spent,” Silver said. But detectives found no evidence that Easy directed the grant money “for his own benefit.”

Easy refused to talk with either the sheriff’s detective or the county auditor during their investigations, they said.

“Nobody ever questioned his commitment to the environment and what he does for it,” Dalton said. “It’s some of his practices that are questionable.”

Easy didn’t respond to a message left on his answering machine seeking comment.

DNR grant manager Lisa Randlette in Olympia said the state is still awaiting an official explanation from Spokane County parks officials.

“We award grants to county and local governments - not nonprofit groups or private individuals - in the belief there will be accountability,” she said. “That doesn’t appear to have completely occurred here.”

Fran Boxer, the county’s assistant chief administrative officer, and county parks supervisor Wyn Birkenthal said they will contact DNR soon and turn over the internal audit.

“We will be looking at pursuing civil charges to recover what we’ve lost,” Boxer said.

Birkenthal, who oversaw the grant, dispersed some of the money after receiving written estimates, not actual bills for subcontract work, investigations revealed. He now admits serious errors in supervising the grant.

“I would hate to call it sloppiness,” Boxer said. “To a certain extent, we were duped by this contractor.”

Birkenthal said he hopes the actual amount of reimbursement to the state can be negotiated down to about $1,000. He said Easy won’t get further county contracts.

Some of the grant money was used to produce a book about the Little Spokane watershed, a project not mentioned in the grant.

At DNR headquarters, Randlette said costs associated with publishing the book are beyond the scope of the grant.

“The county owns the rights to that book and should be benefiting from any sales of the book,” she said.

Spokane County initiated an expanded probe after The Spokesman-Review detailed questions about grant spending last March.

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