(The Center Square) – As the city of Bellevue’s Transportation Commission prepares to meet this week to review a proposal converting vehicle lanes into bike lanes, a private citizen has accused one staffer of trying to “steer” the public engagement process in its favor.
The $18 million project would convert vehicle lanes in several local neighborhoods into bike lanes in an effort to reduce biker fatalities and offer more opportunities for non-vehicle commuting. City documents claim that removing the vehicle lanes would not affect traffic, though one transportation analyst has pushed back against that conclusion.
As part of public outreach, the city conducted a survey in September. According to the ethics complaint sent to City Manager Diane Carlson and City Attorney Kathy Gerla, Bike Bellevue Project Manager and City Mobility Planning and Solutions Manager Franz Loewenherz contacted numerous cyclist and transit organizations’ leaders and encouraged them to have their members participate in the survey. In one of the emails, he addresses the group as a “team.”
The Dec. 4 complaint alleges that argues that this constitutes a “biased, covert and selective effort to undermine the Bike Bellevue public engagement process and to steer the resulting public comment and participation toward a pre-determined result. While these special interest groups may have members in Bellevue, the effect of having them solicit feedback from their membership is to invite significant responses from non-Bellevue residents and thereby skew the results and undermine the validity of the Konveio survey.”
According to emails included in the ethics complaint, Loewenherz also forwarded other stakeholders’ public comments critical of the project to these individuals, with the message “FYI – Sharing in confidence.”
“This again shows bias, unequal access to information and the acknowledged impropriety of action by requesting confidentiality,” the complaint states.
Specifically, the complaint alleges the communications violated the city code of ethics, which states, “No city employee shall engage in any act which is in conflict with, or creates an appearance of conflict with, the performance of official duties.”
The complaint requests that Loewenherz be removed from the project and that a new public engagement process occur “in a manner that comports with the Council’s adopted Vision and the Mission and Core Values that guide how Bellevue staff does its work.”
When Center Square reached out to the Bellevue City Manager’s Office for comment, Chief Communications Officer Michelle DeGrand wrote in an email that “the city is looking into the complaint. That process is ongoing and we aren’t able to comment while the investigation is taking place.”
The Center Square also reached out to Loewenherz for comment, but did not receive a response.
The Bellevue Transportation Commission will discuss Bike Bellevue at a special meeting on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
