Seattle Department of Transportation Director Scott Kubly is under investigation for potential ethics violations concerning the city’s purchase of Pronto, the failed bike share company. As Shift reported, prior to making his way to Seattle, Kubly served as president of Alta Bicycle Share when that company was aligned with Pronto for a government contract.
When asked last month whether or not he discussed his potential conflict with the city ethics department, Kubly admitted that there was “no written or formal record of the city vetting his relationship with Alta.” He also said that he “does not remember” who he spoke to about the matter at the mayor’s office.
Well, the reason that there is “no record” of the city vetting Kubly’s relationship with the company and the reason Kubly “does not remember” who he spoke to in his boss’ office appears to be the city didn’t really want to know whether Kubly had a conflict of interest – they just wanted him here. The liberal blog Publicola recently reported,
“…Kubly never presented the required letter to the city’s ethics department from the mayor drawing up safeguards to protect the city’s interests when there are potential conflicts and explaining why putting Kubly in charge of the Pronto buyout was necessary. Such a letter is required when a city employee is heading up city business with a company they formerly worked for within the last year. Kubly worked for Alta Bikes right up until July 2014 when he took the job as SDOT director, and he began overseeing the city’s efforts to buy Pronto in May 2015. Kubly’s relationship with Alta was hardly a secret. The mayor hyped it when he hired Kubly and Kubly highlights it as a bonus as the city gets into the bike share business.”
It seems clear that Kubly violated the city’s ethics code, and that Mayor Ed Murray chose to look the other way. There doesn’t seem to have been appropriate vetting – not even the claims made by Pronto’s owners about the number of subscribers it had were properly vetted and now we know they were false.
It’s more confirmation that liberals pushing their agenda believe that they are above ethics because they are “green heroes” who can do no wrong.
Agenda is more important than facts and figures.
Washington state, like all the rest of our states, is run by those who aren’t experts; ignorant people who are looking at contract dollars not the work that needs to be done and how to best do it regardless of initial cost.
When will Washington state grow up?
Ever?