If the employee takes a job at such a company, he or she would face a $10,000 fine for violating any of four restrictions.

According to the new code:

First, for one year after leaving the city, an employee cannot accept a job with a company if he or she approved large contracts for that company and would work on the same project as he or she did at the city. The contracts are considered large if they total more than $100,000 during the employee’s last two years at the city.

Second, an employee cannot have a financial interest in any contract that he or she played a role in negotiating, supervising or awarding while working at the city.

Third, an employee cannot accept a job offer from a company if he or she knows or has reason to believe the offer has been made as compensation for his or her work while working at the city.

Finally, an employee cannot accept a job offer if the circumstances of the offer appear “to a reasonable person” to have been made as compensation for the employee’s work while working at the city.

The rules do not apply to employees who take jobs with government agencies.

The city’s previous code of ethics bars city officials and employees from general conflicts of interest. It also restricts former employees — for one year after leaving the city — from being involved in contracts in which they were involved with while at the city if the contracts were worth more than $5,000.

The code of ethics did not address fines, and the new and old code will be combined, City Manager Rob Wyman said.

City Councilman Bill Erxleben brought up the issue in late 2010. He said the issue came about after the 2003 Boeing tanker scandal gained renewed notoriety in 2008 when The Boeing Co. lost a major tanker contract with the government.

In 2003, Boeing hired Air Force official Darleen Druyun after she deliberately inflated the price of a sale in favor of her future employer. Druyun and then-Boeing CFO Michael Sears were both sentenced to prison time. Some pointed to the incident as the cause of Boeing losing the contract five years later.

Erxleben said he wanted to protect Newcastle from falling victim to that type of situation, which has historically been a problem in procurement settings.

“I wanted to plug a hole,” he said.

He said the city also ran into an issue of a perception of a conflict of interest when former Public Works Director Maiya Andrews left the city in February 2010, taking a job with engineering contractor CH2M Hill. As the public works director, Andrews worked with CH2M Hill while it did construction management work on the Coal Creek Parkway project and the Newcastle Transit Improvement project — formerly known as the Newcastle Transit Center.

“While there is no evidence whatsoever that I know of that there was any impropriety, it looks like hell,” Erxleben said about CH2M Hill hiring Andrews.

Andrews signed change orders for contractors C.A. Carey Corp. and Marshbank Construction, which handled the physical labor on the Coal Creek Parkway project. CH2M Hill continued billing the city as change orders increased the duration of the project.

Andrews did not respond to phone calls or emails from Newcastle News.

Wyman said he also knows of no evidence of wrongdoing, and he said it would be reasonable to assume Andrews would not be in violation of the new code had it been in place when she left the city.

The council approved the new code by a 6-1 vote, with Councilman Sonny Putter dissenting. While the council majority applauded the new code as a step forward, Putter said the code was flawed.

“My concern is that as proposed, this ethics language is far too broad,” he said before the code’s adoption May 3. He said the city should have directed the code specifically at the public works director, as the public works director handles large contracts the code addresses.

He said the code could also be damaging to the city’s contracting options.

“As a small city, we have limited options,” Putter said. “Our goal is to contract where we can.”

On the web:

Read the new code, section 2.67.020, on the city’s website, www.ci.newcastle.wa.us. Click “City Hall,” “Documents & Press Releases” and “Municipal Code.”

The existing code of ethics was too broad and did not hold employees accountable, whereas the new ordinance does — through fines. This new degree of accountability should give residents a higher level of confidence in their government.

The ordinance — which applies to employees for one year after they leave the city — should also discourage suspicious situations from originating, such as the departure of former Public Works Director Maiya Andrews. After resigning in February 2010, Andrews took a job with contractor CH2M Hill, which she worked with on the Coal Creek Parkway and Newcastle Transit Improvement projects.

There is no evidence that Andrews used her power at the city to obtain a job with the company. In fact, City Manager Rob Wyman said it would be reasonable to assume she would not have been subject to the new regulations had they been in place when she left the city and joined CH2M Hill.

Nevertheless, the situation is a hair-raiser. When Andrews recommended change to the city’s contracts with C.A. Carey Corp. and Marshbank Construction, CH2M Hill was given more work to manage and more money from the city.

Even if there is no wrongdoing, these types of situations adversely impact the city’s image and diminish residents’ trust. The new regulations may not apply to situations like that of Maiya Andrews, but they may discourage them, and the ordinance proves the city is serious about such ethical issues.

It is refreshing to see this ordinance apply to the entire city staff, but it only makes sense to apply these regulations to the elected members of the council. Although each individual member of the council has no authority on his or her own, each plays a role in making the most significant decisions in the city.

The ordinance is well-written, and only substantial conflicts of interest would be in violation. If a member of the council is found guilty of such a conflict of interest, he or she should face the same fine as a member of the city staff.

I am writing to announce that after 17 years of community service, I will not be running for re-election to the Newcastle City Council.

I am proud of how far our community has come. When we struggled to incorporate the city of Newcastle, the then-Chair of the King County Council echoed Gertrude Stein’s opinion of Oakland, saying “There is no there there.”

Since incorporation in 1994, we encouraged the location of the prominent Golf Club at Newcastle on the site of an old landfill. We provided incentives for the location of a full-service YMCA — now overflowing with active users — and an 11,000-square-foot King County library, now under construction.

We encouraged the funding and construction of two new elementary schools in the city. We leveraged Newcastle’s small capital resources over this period to construct major street, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, like the $55 million Coal Creek Parkway project and the $4 million Newcastle Transit Center.

All these amenities have attracted a highly diverse population of new residents and the construction of a large number of new, high-valued homes. Since incorporation, our population has grown by almost 50 percent to its current 10,300 residents.

Newcastle is now “on the map.” It has become a highly desirable place to live, all the while maintaining the green canopy of parks and open spaces that characterize our community. Newcastle residents feel a sense of place, a sense of belonging to a real community of neighbors. Now, when we tell people that we live in Newcastle, they often respond “Oh, you live in Newcastle,” with eyebrows raised in admiration.

I hope the future leaders of our community will safeguard this legacy and sustain our community’s vision into the future.

Sonny Putter

Newcastle City Council

Wanted: vision and leadership

I am surprised at the lack of reporting on the City Council’s efforts to dismantle Newcastle’s downtown plan.

The current downtown plan calls for a pedestrian-friendly, multistory, mixed-use town center along the lines of what Mercer Island and many other cities are doing. But the council is pushing changes to the downtown zoning code that would invite single-story, strip-mall uses, like those along Sunset Boulevard.

If the council adopts these changes, you will soon see a Walgreens with a drive-through on the fruit stand corner. Other similar uses will likely follow.

The council says these uses are needed to increase city revenues. But this defies common sense. Fiscal analyses prepared when the downtown zoning code was first adopted showed that multistory, mixed-use development would provide significantly greater revenues than single-story, strip-mall development.

Construction sales tax revenues would increase due to greater expenditures on construction materials. Property tax revenues would increase due to the much higher assessed value of multistory buildings.

In addition, with specialty restaurants and shops on the ground floor and office or residential uses above, there would be more downtown workers and residents to patronize businesses. Therefore, sales tax revenues would increase over the long term as well.

As the economy improves, commercial development is starting again in cities around us. With vision and leadership on the part of the council, Newcastle could attract high-quality developers to create a vibrant, financially sustainable downtown.

Our current downtown plan and zoning code won the Governor’s Smart Growth Award. It is still the smart way to grow.

I ask all of you who have pride in our city to speak out at a council meeting, or write or email your councilmembers. Ask them to stop opening the door to Walgreens and other strip-mall uses. We deserve better.

Jean Garber

Newcastle

King County Metro Transit routes 240 and 114 added the Newcastle Transit Center to their routes Feb. 6.

Route 240 runs between Renton and Clyde Hill in Bellevue, and it runs between about 5 a.m. and midnight on weekdays, stopping at the transit center about every 30 minutes. Buses run every 30 minutes from about 7 a.m. to midnight on Saturdays, and every hour from about 8 a.m. to midnight on Sundays.

Route 114 runs from the Renton Highlands to downtown Seattle on weekdays only. Buses on this route only travel to Seattle in the mornings and to the Renton Highlands in the evenings. Buses will stop at the transit center about every 30 minutes from about 5:50-8 a.m. en route to Seattle and from about 4:50-6:20 p.m. en route to the Renton Highlands.

Bus route 219 will continue to stop at the transit center, running between Factoria, Newport Hills and Newcastle on weekdays only. Buses on this route run the loop both clockwise and counterclockwise with stops every hour from about 6:30-9:30 a.m. and from about 3-7 p.m.

The Dial-A-Ride Transit Route 925 will also continue to serve the transit center.

The westbound lane of Newcastle Way will be closed on the east side of the intersection of Newcastle Way and Coal Creek Parkway from today until Aug. 17 for construction related to the Newcastle Transit Center project.

Coal Creek Parkway will be reduced to one lane on both the north and south sides of the intersection during the closure.

Drivers who want to access businesses on Newcastle Way between Coal Creek Parkway and 132nd Avenue Southeast will still be able use Newcastle Way to reach their destinations, but they will be unable to enter the Coal Creek Parkway and Newcastle Way intersection from the east end due to the closure.

Newcastle Communications Manager Doug Alder said there would be enough space in the intersection to allow left turns from Coal Creek Parkway onto Newcastle Way. A police officer will also be on hand during rush hour to help direct traffic through the intersection.

Eastbound traffic on Newcastle Way will not be affected.

For updates and closure details, visit the Newcastle city blog.