King County racial equity program manager fired for steering $800K to family members

A King County program manager who ran a taxpayer-funded racial equity initiative steered more than $800,000 in grant money to five of her own family members over five years, according to a county investigation, adding to mounting scrutiny over financial controls in the region’s human services and homelessness bureaucracy.

According to the Seattle Times, Yolanda McGhee, who managed Liberation and Healing from Systemic Racism, known as Liberated Village, was fired in January for what the county called serious policy violations. The $10 million initiative was housed in the King County Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS), which has already faced criticism over lax oversight of billions in grant spending.

Between 2022 and 2025, Liberated Village distributed more than $10 million through 19 contracts. During that period, money flowed to companies owned by McGhee’s daughter, two brothers, a cousin, and a sister-in-law, according to a county investigation obtained by The Seattle Times through a public records request.

County officials reportedly first received a warning in 2020, when a former contractor employee emailed multiple county workers accusing McGhee of a “glaring conflict of interest” involving her daughter’s work. No one followed up. Staff later told investigators the pandemic had made the department too chaotic to act.

Three years later, DCHS leaders independently discovered a contractor link to McGhee’s daughter and brought it to the county’s Ethics Program. Officials concluded it was not a conflict, in part because McGhee claimed she did not influence her daughter’s hiring.

A month later, managers found McGhee had submitted a $9,999 payment for one of her brothers, one dollar below the threshold that typically triggers competitive bidding. The payment was canceled, but officials did not reassign McGhee’s work or investigate further.

The allegations went beyond undisclosed family payments. Three contractors told investigators that McGhee pressured them to hire or subcontract with her daughter’s company. Two contractors also alleged she pushed to remove two Latino consultants from the program because it was intended to “uplift black and brown scholars,” with one claiming McGhee said on a program call, “They look too white.”

McGhee denied pressuring anyone to hire her daughter and has disputed the county’s characterization of events. She is contesting her firing through her labor union.

A recent audit found DCHS failed to conduct basic financial and contract monitoring even as grant funding ballooned from $22 million in 2019–2020 to more than $1.8 billion in 2023–2024. Nearly half of the organizations receiving county funds in 2024 were flagged as “high risk,” while monitoring remained weak.

The controversy also follows financial chaos at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, where officials said roughly $13 million in public funds could not be accounted for. A separate audit cited a negative cash position of $44.7 million as of July 2025 and about $8 million in receivables that could not be explained or reconciled.