After more than a year under a torrent of ethics complaints, Gilbert Town Council has created a subcommittee to review its code of ethics for members of town council, boards, commissions and committees.
Council took the action at its Dec. 13 meeting, voting unanimously without fanfare for a subcommittee whose members will be Kathy Tilque, Scott Anderson and Council Member-elect Jim Torgeson.
The item was brought to council at members’ direction after a vigorous discussion at the town’s retreat Dec. 2.
At the retreat, Town Attorney Chris Payne presented to council and council members-elect background on the town’s code, which was established as policy in 2012 and revised in 2021. He also compared it with what some other Valley cities do, all of which have some form of code or policy.
The discussion that followed included Mayor Brigette Peterson, who has been the target of a series of complaints and been cleared of all of them, and Torgeson, who has filed some of those complaints against her before running successfully for council.
Peterson said the process had been turned into a tool for people to file anything on the council, even though all those filed had been cleared, according to minutes from the retreat.
In discussing how the policy had been used against her, Peterson said people tried to weaponize the policy in a political manner to punish a council member, not for the use that it was intended.
Tilque also said she thought the intent of code had transformed into something different than intended and was not what the residents felt it was. She said it had become a method of complaint.
Tilque added that that perhaps Gilbert did not have a system for people to provide feedback if they did not like a council member and instead went to the Code of Ethics, where it then had to go to external counsel to investigate.
Payne said in cases of complaints against council members, they are automatically referred to outside counsel because the council is his boss.
Torgeson advocated for a more defined set of rules and accountability, similar to a set of rules or ethics for doctors or engineers. He said it needed to be clearly defined with more transparency, according to the minutes.
He said there should be a process that could result in a positive outcome, as well as something that the council members could go by to determine if something should be discussed or not.
Tilque suggested that if there was some type of new ethics policy, it would allow for a first step to work the complaint out before it went to a next step. She said then maybe the next step was a formal process.
Council Member-elect Bobbi Buchli agreed that mediation would be a good first step, though she had questions about how it would work and how it would be communicated to the public.
At council, Tilque briefly recapped the purpose of the subcommittee and moved to form one with Vice Mayor Aimee Yentes seconding. The motion carried 6-0 with Council Member Laurin Hendrix absent.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
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).
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