SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Ethics investigation launched into SDOT director over Pronto bike share
Mar 22, 2016, 5:27 PM | Updated: 6:29 pm
All those bikes the city purchased for its bike-share program would be come obsolete with an all-electric system. (City of Seattle)
(City of Seattle)
An ethics complaint has been filed against the director of Seattle’s Department of Transportation and the city’s bike-share system, Pronto!
The specific allegations against SDOT Director Scott Kubly are unknown. KING 5 reports that the city’s ethics commission has hired a former King County prosecutor, Marilyn Brenneman, to investigate the complaint. The city is spending $20,000 on the investigation.
KING 5 reports that the complaint may involve misrepresented numbers on Pronto’s membership and ridership. The Seattle City Council was told that Pronto! had 3,000 members, but the bike-share program reportedly only has 1,900.
Kubly has released the following statement:
I understand an ethics complaint has been filed about the bike share program. The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission exists to investigate such complaints. To ensure the investigation is comprehensive and maintains its full integrity, I will wait until the investigation is complete to provide comment on it. I will continue to be fully transparent and look forward to working on making the bike share system successful.
Kubly previously worked for Pronto’s parent company, Motivate, under its former title, Alta Bike Share. He worked there as a senior advisor for seven months before coming on board at SDOT.
Ethics complaints are filed with the city’s ethics and elections commission. The seven-member commission has six members appointed by the mayor and City Council. The seventh member is chosen by the other commission members.
The City Council recently voted to purchase the bike share from a private entity for $1.4 million.
