The City of Tacoma’s Board of Ethics decided Monday to accept and investigate a formal complaint made against Councilman David Boe about his involvement with one of the losing bid teams competing for the Cheney Stadium renovation project.

The complaint — filed by John Hathaway, online publisher of The New Takhoman – stems from Boe’s eleventh hour disclosure of his involvement with Wade Perrow Construction, one of three design-build teams that competed for the city public works project. I wrote about the disclosure issue here and here.

Among other things, the ethics board directed city staff “to retain an independent investigator to investigate the facts and nature of the relationships and/or interest, if any, between Council Member Boe and Wade Perrow Corporation…” (A detailed summary of the board’s action can be found below in this blog post). The investigator is expected to come back with written findings for the board at a later date yet to be determined.

In a phone call today, Boe told me he welcomes the investigation.

“I look forward to working with the investigation in every way possible,” Boe said. “I look forward to helping in any way I can. I’m optimistic that everyone can get a better understanding of what occurred.”

Boe noted he attended the board’s special meeting about the complaint on Monday. Other than city spokesman Rob McNair-Huff and members of the board, Boe said he was the only person present.

“They reviewed the complaint, then went to closed session for two hours, then came out and made their decision,” Boe said.

In January, Boe worked on final conceptual drawings submitted to the city by WPC as part of its bid for the ballpark project. Boe said he did not accept money for his work, and at the time of his involvement, he had yet to be appointed to the City Council.

But, Boe was a finalist for Council appointment at the time. After being appointed to the panel, Boe offered critical public remarks about the chosen design from a competing team, and he also raised issues about the design-build process behind the scenes. Yet he did not choose to fully disclose his involvement with WPC until City Manager y Eric Anderson and City Attorney Elizabeth Pauli learned about his relationship just before the council was set to publicly vote on awarding the project’s contract, they said.

City officials said they advised Boe then to reveal his WPC ties before the vote, which he did. Boe did not recuse himself from voting on the issue, however, and cast the lone vote against awarding the contract to a team headed by Mortenson Construction.  Pauli said because Boe did not have a financial tie to the project, nothing legally required him to recuse himself from the vote. But city officials often abstain from voting on issues when even the slightest appearance of a conflict might exist, Pauli and others say.

(According to the city’s Request For Proposals for the Cheney Stadium project, teams bidding for the project were also supposed to inform city officials of any changes or additions to their teams during the bid process.

“If extraordinary circumstances require a proposed change, it must be submitted in writing … (to) determine whether to authorize a change,” the relevant section states. “Unauthorized changes to the Proposer’s team at any time during the procurement process may result in the elimination of the Proposer from further consideration.”

City officials said neither WPC nor Boe informed them that Boe, who came in late to the bidding process, was being added to the WPC design-build team. The team ultimately finished last among the three bidders.)

The ethics board’s decision to investigate the matter came after the board’s vice chairman, Stan Betts, informed his fellow board members that he had contacted me shortly after the complaint was filed to tell me the board had received it and intended to consider it.

“I contacted the press regarding these matters because, like everyone in this room, I knew that one of our city officials has been a focus of some media attention and that the news stories published have generated some comment and concern,” Betts told his fellow board members.

“I believed that it was important that this same news media know we have a process in place that assures that issues like this are given some fair and objective consideration by an independent board. And, I thought it was important for the public to know that, too.”

Betts offered to recuse himself from deliberating and voting on the complaint involving Boe, if any board members objected to his actions. None did.

Here’s a verbatim summary from the city about the action taken by the board on the Boe complaint:

Agenda Item II: Review a complaint submitted to the Board and to take further action as the Board deems appropriate consistent with Tacoma Municipal Code Provision 1.46.045 D, including, if necessary, to designate an individual to conduct an independent investigation of the complaint.

Action: Pursuant to Tacoma Municipal Code 1.46.045, D, the Board directs staff to retain an independent investigator to investigate the facts and nature of the relationships and/or interest, if any, between Council Member Boe and Wade Perrow Corporation and the contract awarding process for the Cheney Stadium design rebuild project, and to further investigate Council Member Boe’s involvement in the contract award process including voting on the matter during the March 9, 2010, city council meeting. The investigator will prepare written findings and conclusions for submission to the Board addressing whether the results of the investigation establish any violation of the city of Tacoma’s Code of Ethics contained in Tacoma Municipal Code 1.46.030, A through K, and any supplemental provision of RCW Chapter 42.23, the Code of Ethics for Municipal Officers.