Complaint against Gilbert mayor recommended for dismissal

By Tom Blodgett
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Another Gilbert Town Council ethics complaint has been recommended for dismissal — this one from a council member against the mayor. 

Independent investigator Kenneth Fields found that Mayor Brigette Peterson did not commit ethics violations with her own complaint against Councilmember Jim Torgeson or when she met with Council Member Scott Anderson and former Council Member Bill Spence, now a private citizen.  

Those allegations were filed July 27 by Councilmember Chuck Bongiovanni, who on July 31 helped call for a special council meeting Aug. 1 to give a vote of no confidence against the mayor and then largely drove the discussion at that meeting. Council ultimately took no vote but chose to enter mediation among the members. 

Peterson, by text from from Gilbert's sister city of  Antrim-Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, noted all complaints against her have been dismissed by different investigators and said council has policy-making and budget process to do for the community.

"At this time, my hope is our residents and council members realize these accusations and stories are not factual or reliable," she said. "This has been a part of a concerted effort, by a small group, to tarnish my reputation for the purpose of influencing a political agenda and their personal agendas."

However, Bongiovanni, also in a text, expressed disappointment in the findings. 

“I was honestly surprised and disappointed at the level of poor behavior that is needed to be considered unethical,” he said. “It appears my personal ethical standards are much higher than what is expected for politicians. I can tell I wouldn’t be proud of myself if I did the acts that I brought up in my complaint against the mayor.  

“These findings only tell us that the bar of expected professional behavior in Gilbert, Arizona, is extremely low. Gilbert deserves better, and the people will have to make that decision at the polls.” 

In his report, Fields looked at three allegations from Bongiovanni, two regarding the complaint against Torgeson and the third from the meeting with Spence. 

Bongiovanni charged that Peterson should not have filed the complaint and had no obligation to do so, as she has said about the complaint. He alleged she was putting her own interests before those of the town because she and Torgeson are political rivals.  

Torgeson has been a longtime critic of the mayor dating from before his election to council. In that time period he filed at least two ethics complaints against the mayor, both of which were dismissed. 

Peterson’s complaint was about a voicemail Torgeson left for a resident, Maureen Hoppe, in which he charged, without giving details, that the mayor was trying to get him charged with extortion. Peterson claimed Torgeson was creating a false narrative about her. 

Fields previously found that Torgeson’s voicemail, while intemperate, did not rise to the level of an ethics code violation, though Torgeson should be cautioned about the special duties and responsibilities of a public official. 

Fields found the mayor had a good-faith belief that Torgeson violated the code. 

“The filing of this particular complaint was not against the interest of the public and the Town of Gilbert even though it may also have been in the political interest of the mayor,” he wrote. “Political figures and public officers may defend themselves against comments by other political figures and officers once the substance of the message is put into the public realm as here. To do so is not a violation of the code.” 

Bongiovanni also charged that Peterson should have informed Torgeson before filing the complaint and should not have disclosed it to a member of the media before the town had a chance to distribute it among the council. 

But Fields wrote disclosing someone else’s complaint before the town released it could be construed as an ethics violation, but disclosing her own would not be. 

In an amendment to his original complaint, Bongiovanni brought up several concerns about Peterson being included in a meeting between Spence and Anderson about the council ethics subcommittee, which Anderson chairs.  

Bongiovanni alleged it was discussed at that meeting that Torgeson be replaced as a member of that subcommittee. 

“I am concerned that this supports my overall belief that the mayor has been working behind the scenes AGAINST members of the council with a Gilbert resident who is wanting to run for council for a third time after Gilbert residents rejected Mr. Spence two times before in prior elections,” Bongiovanni wrote. 

However, Spence told the Gilbert Independent on Tuesday night he has no intention of running again for council and that he previously closed his political action committee and zeroed out his account. 

Further, he said removing Torgeson was not discussed at the July 25 meeting and Peterson said very little at the meeting.  

Spence said he asked to meet with Anderson and Peterson because they were the two people who had been contacted by Gilbert landowner Jeff Cooley about unnamed council members threatening a project involving Cooley's land. Those threats are at the heart of Spence’s ethics complaint, still under investigation, against unnamed council members in his complaint. 

Fields found the meeting did not rise to the level of an ethics code violation. 

“While Council Member Bongiovanni may strongly disagree with the mayor and another council member meeting with a former council member, it does not rise to the level of an ethics violation under the code,” Fields wrote. “This is normal and expected political activity of elected members of a town council interacting with a constituent.” 

That leaves four of the seven ethics complaints filed in the past two months recommended for dismissal. The remaining complaints still under investigation are Spence’s complaint and two against Councilmember Yung Koprowski, whom a Maricopa County island resident accused of profiting from her firm, Y2K Engineering, doing business with the town. 

Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X. We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. 

Tom Blodgett
Senior News Editor | Gilbert

tblodgett@iniusa.org

Meet Tom
Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.

Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.

Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism. 

Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.  

Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).