After a complaint was filed in January that Seattle City Council candidate and current King County employee Jessie Israel violated the King County Employee Code of Ethics to benefit her council campaign, the Ballard resident responded by saying the violation would not be repeated.

No further action will be taken on the complaint according to the county and Israel.

According to a release from the King County Ombudsman, a complaint was filed by a citizen on Jan. 30 that said Israel violated sections of the county code of ethics, which specifically prohibit employee use of county resources for personal convenience or profit, and in election campaigns.

The complaint alleged that Israel sent an email from her personal computer to the King County email addresses of fellow employees, soliciting campaign support in the form of personal endorsements, financial contributions and a request that recipients of the email forward the message to additional people.

Of the 1,800 people the email was sent to, 210 were county employees.

Israel has been an employee of the county’s Department of Natural Resources and Parks since March 2003.

“We received a complaint, we investigated, and found she had violated the ethics code by using county facilities,” Amy Calderwood, director of King County Ombudsman said. “From that point we make the finding she can file an appeal to the Ethics Board within 25 days.”

Israel said no further actions will need to be taken on either the part of her campaign or the Ombudsman.

Israel issued an official response to the complaint two weeks ago.

"The email in question was sent from a home computer, but mistakenly included the addresses of a number of county employees," said Israel. "As a candidate for city council, I have an obligation and a commitment to uphold the highest ethical standards. It was an error I regret, and one which will not happen again."

Israel seeks long-time council member Nick Licata's seat. Seattle Planning Commission member Martin Kaplan also recently announced his candidacy for Position 6.

Israel told this newspaper last month that she is running for Seattle City Council to be the voice of Seattle-ites under 40 and a representative of other Ballard residents.

The primary election will be held Aug. 18.