State reprimands county for misusing grant

Spokane County was reprimanded Friday by state auditors for improperly spending federal grant money in 2005, including purchasing a $516,000 mobile command center van and a $210,000 explosives disposal truck without putting either vehicle out for competitive bids.

The county declared an emergency to avoid the bidding process because the deadline to spend the Homeland Security grant funds was fast approaching. According to the Washington state Auditor’s Office, however, that doesn’t qualify as a legitimate emergency for purchasing purposes.

The Auditor’s Office issued two findings for the 2005 audit period.

The first includes the emergency management equipment purchases as well as a failure to adequately monitor agencies to which it passed along Homeland Security grant money.

The second finding was that Spokane County didn’t sufficiently monitor about $1 million in Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services grant funding to make sure it was being spent properly by a consultant or companies hired to provide services. The county also failed to request price quotes from other vendors.

“It’s certainly a concern,” said Mindy Chambers, a spokeswoman for the state Auditor’s Office.

The issues were serious enough to warrant the “finding” designation, which means the county must take corrective action, Chambers said.

“There were other reasons to buy the equipment quickly,” said Spokane County Emergency Management Director Tom Mattern. “One of the things was that our bomb unit has a huge response area.”

That region stretches from Central Washington to Western Montana and from Oregon to Canada.

Mattern said the urgent need for the equipment wasn’t properly conveyed in the emergency procurement resolution, and he said that mistake won’t happen again.

“We learned from it,” he said, adding that he doesn’t believe the price the county paid for either vehicle was out of line.

Previous findings were issued in 2004 for the same Homeland Security and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services federal grant programs.

The problems weren’t the same, and the 2004 issues have been resolved, Chambers said.

It’s unlikely either 2005 finding will jeopardize federal funding because Spokane County is taking corrective action by keeping better track of the money and changing purchasing policies, Chambers said.

“The best thing they can do as we find these things is to fix them,” Chambers said.