Gilbert council subcommittee will look at conflict of interest rules

By Tom Blodgett
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Twitter: @sp_blodgett

A Gilbert Town Council subcommittee on ethics will look at more closely specifying what constitutes a conflict of interest for council members. 

The subcommittee’s chair, Council Member Scott Anderson, suggested during a study session on the matter Aug. 1 that his group take on the issue and then bring it back to council.

Council members Jim Torgeson, Chuck Bongiovanni and Bobbi Buchli requested the item be added to the study session. It comes in the wake of Maricopa County island resident Terri Naddy filing two ethics complaints against Council Member Yung Koprowski, stating Koprowski had a conflict of interest when her firm, Y2K Engineering, did two projects for the town. 

Koprowski has said that after she was appointed to council in April 2020, she had a firewall put in place in her firm so she would not be involved in any decisions or be the signatory on any contracts for town business. 

After her firm did one project, she decided the firm should do no more, but was called upon to do a needed repair on a project the company completed before she joined council. 

Bongiovanni said a higher threshold on what constitutes a conflict of interest was needed as an official could do something that was perfectly legal but still eroded trust from the public.  

He suggested that council members should be required to recuse themselves from contract or budget votes involving companies that they have at least a 20% ownership stake. 

Koprowski said she was supportive of “continuous improvement” and looking at some of the policies, including what other bodies do. She also mentioned looking at conflicts holistically and not just on financial interests. 

Vice Mayor Kathy Tilque cautioned that council would have to give good direction to Town Attorney Christopher Payne for writing code on it because the “devil is in the details.” 

“I’ve been involved in writing lots of policy over the years, and you really have to be looking at what are the unintended consequences if you write it wrong,” she said. “I'm not saying we shouldn't write it. I'm just saying we have to be very cautious on that.” 

Mayor Brigette Peterson agreed and noted many companies do business with the town. 

“I think we could really find ourselves limiting our pool of candidates for boards and commissions and limiting the pool of candidates for future council seats if we get too strict on this,” she said. “So I think there's a point of being careful and transparent, but there's a point of maybe going too far.” 

No timetable was set for when the item would come back to council. 

Naddy later spoke during the “communications from citizens” portion of the regular business meeting and again challenged Koprowski for a perception of “shady dealings.” 

“Please tell me how what I found is not an ethics violation in at least one arena,” she said. 

She added that she had asked the town to hold her complaint to possibly save taxpayers money on investigations by it being considered under a new ethics policy set to take effect Aug. 20. 

Allowed by law to respond to criticism made during public comment, Koprowski noted she was in favor of improving council policies for greater transparency and accountability. 

“The conflicts of interest that I have as a business owner have been properly identified, disclosed and disqualified, but I am committed to continue serving in the best interests of the public and making decisions that benefit the community as a whole and not for personal gain,” Koprowski said. 

Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on Twitter.  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
@sp_blodgett

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).