The Port of Seattle's accounting firm finally finished its audit of the port's 2007 activities and found "no deficiencies" at the port. Laurie Tish of Moss Adams, in her public presentation, spent most of her time trying to refute the state auditor's findings. So the port spent $55,000 in taxpayer money on an "outside auditor" to look at the same issues that the state had already examined. But it became clear that port staff and the accountants at Moss Adams were misleading the public. Moss Adams admitted that they didn't even look at the port's systems for managing its construction contracts--the system that was at the heart of the state auditor's examination and subsequent finding of potential fraud at the port.

And instead of being an "outside auditor," Moss Adams was paid by the port to do this audit, so the port had the ability to control the scope of the audit--something they couldn't do with the state auditor. Some folks would call this a conflict of interest, and it is. But it's also the way most audits are done in the private sector. Businesses pay accounting firms to perform audits ostensibly to discover deficiencies in bookkeeping, recordkeeping, cash flow, etc. to help highlight internal problems that need to be corrected. In reality, companies undergo audits to provide reassurances to investors that the companies are financially sound and aren't hiding anything from their shareholders. Recent corporate accounting scandals have proven how deficient this auditing system is and how little independence accounting firms have from the companies who pay them for their "findings." The little dog-and-pony show at the Port of Seattle isn't reassuring anyone; it's merely an illustration of what's wrong with our whole system, public and private sectors included.--Maria Tomchick

The City of Seattle is continuing its sweep of homeless encampments, a campaign to exterminate the homeless by destroying their belongings or confiscating anything of value. Once the homeless are robbed of their survival gear, the city buries it all in a warehouse on West Marginal Way that's difficult to reach by bus and is only open to the public two days a week (for a total of five hours). So reclaiming sleeping bags, clothing, medicines, personal photos, etc. is nearly impossible for our city's homeless population.

In a dubious gesture of humanity, the city has pledged to send outreach workers to visit encampments before the sweeps occur in order to refer homeless folks to treatment programs and homeless shelters. But in practice this hasn't happened with any consistency. In May, 44 encampments were swept on West Queen Anne. Outreach workers visited sites on only four days in May, contacting only 14 people, and referring only one person to a treatment program and one person to a homeless shelter. --M.T.

Meanwhile, the city is creating more homeless people by closing low-rent motels on Aurora Avenue North. Granted, these buildings have multiple code violations. But, as a renter for 25 years in this city, I can tell you that many, many Seattle apartment buildings have code violations and don't get shut down, even when the owners are repeat offenders and the violations affect tenant safety. Instead, the city tries to "work with" the owners to make improvements. But the city is refusing to work with the owners of the low-rent motels, even when the buildings have new owners who are willing to make the needed improvements.

You see, the city, led by developer-friendly Mayor Greg Nickels, has a plan to clean up Aurora Avenue from 110th Street north to the city limits by adding sidewalks, street lighting, and other improvements. The "other improvements" include closing down as many low-income housing units as possible to make way for condo developments, thereby kicking poor and disabled residents of low-rent motels out onto the street. Where they can be swept from one place to another like so much unwanted dust. --M.T.