NEW CASTLE Mayor enters ethics accord

NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- New Castle Mayor Timothy Fulkerson said he has entered a consent agreement with the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission regarding an investigation of work his private business did for the local women's shelter.
In a release sent this morning, Fulkerson said that he was found to have unintentionally violated the state ethics act and that the ethics commission will take no criminal action.
Fulkerson said he has agreed to pay $2,000 to help defray the cost of the investigation.
A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission said no formal adjudication on the matter has been released. The commission also cannot comment on whether an investigation has taken place, he said.
Probe revealed
Fulkerson revealed that he was being investigated in July 2002 over work his business, Fulkerson Roofing and Construction, was doing for the Women's Shelter/Rape Crisis Center of Lawrence County.
The mayor's company was to receive $360,257 for work it performed on the shelter's new $3 million building.
The problem stemmed from the fact that the shelter was receiving about $200,000 in federal money for the project that passed through the city of New Castle as a grant.
The mayor said he realized once his company started working on the project that there could be a conflict.
Fulkerson said that he was pleased to have the matter resolved and that he cooperated fully with the investigation.
"It was bad judgment on my part," he said.