Seattle’s Urban League Comes Under Scrutiny in City Inquiry

The Seattle chapter of the Urban League is among several organizations and individuals that were paid by the city school system under “questionable” contracts, according to a report by Washington state auditors, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer says.

Police and prosecutors are investigating a program designed to encourage small, minority-owned businesses to bid on school projects. An investigation by the state Auditor’s Office found nearly $1.8-million in spending for services that were never performed or had a “questionable public purpose.”

The local arm of the Urban League, a nonprofit civil-rights group, was paid $25,000 for a software subscription fee for a database to connect small businesses with general contractors, but the database had never been used and did not work, according to the audit report.

Several politically prominent local figures also billed for services under the now-defunct program, the manager of which resigned last year.

The newspaper article did not include any response from the Urban League.