I recently filed an ethics complaint against King County DOT and DDES for their decision to allow Quadrant's attorney to testify on their behalf in the recent Redmond Ridge East appeal hearing. DOT and DDES allowed both a perceived and clear conflict of interest to occur in allowing Quadrant's Richard Wilson to represent the views of not only his employer, but to also imply the full agreement of these two agencies in arguments such as the unfairness to Quadrant in denying their application.

Newly hired Rural Ombudsman David Spohr did not see such a conflict. Despite Wilson's unchallenged statement at the start of his testimony that he was, "appearing today for Quadrant and, as well, also speaking on behalf of the County's DDES and DOT," Spohr refused to equate Wilson's speaking "on behalf of" these agencies to "representing" them. He was also unable to find any law or regulation that was violated, despite an ethics code that is supposed to defend against even perceived conflicts of interests.

With my councilmember gagged within the convenient "quasi-judicial" straightjacket surrounding land use decisions, forbidding her to even discuss related issues with here constituents, it's clear that Mr. Spohr is just one more cog in Ron Sims' growth machine. Citizens still have no means to challenge the systemic wrongdoing within this government that occurs every day. The creation of the new Rural Ombudsman is just the latest cruel joke in support of King County's false interest in responding to rural concerns.

Quadrant, KCDOT and King County DDES have sued the King County Hearing Examiner over his recommendation to the King County Council to deny Redmond Ridge East and rescind its 2002 traffic concurrency certificate. Several King County DOT whistleblowers are currently in Federal Court alleging, among other things, retaliation against them by their managers after they refused to go along with what they believed were improper and even illegal acts committed by the King County Concurrency Group to help Quadrant obtain a certificate to allow 800 more homes along Novelty Hill Road east of Redmond. Novelty Hill Road has been operating above design capacity for several years now.