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Employees call it "the company," and Jim Wiley acts like he owns it. He provides jobs for friends and family members. He directs business to his pals. He and another supervisor use employees to do after-hours work for them. But the King County Housing Authority isn't a company, and Wiley, the executive director, doesn't own it. You do. It's a public agency, one that spends tens of millions in taxpayer money each year and manages holdings of more than $200 million. Its charge is to provide affordable housing for low-income residents of King County. It is, a Seattle Times investigation has found, an agency rife with nepotism, favoritism and deal-making -- an old-time spoils system in an era and region where such examples are few and far between.

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