The Gilbert Town Council will take up consideration of four ethics complaints filed in July and August against various members when council meets for its Sept. 19 regular meeting.
Council will review, discuss and take possible action on a complaint filed by residents Brandon Ryff and Ryan Handelsman against Mayor Brigette Peterson. It also will take up four reports from independent investigator Kenneth Fields on a complaint filed by resident Maureen Hoppe against council members Jim Torgeson and Bobby Buchli, one by Peterson against Torgeson and one by Councilmember Chuck Bongiovanni against Peterson.
The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 19, at Gilbert Town Hall, 50 E. Civic Center Drive, Gilbert.
Fields wrote separate reports on Hoppe’s joint complaint against Torgeson and Buchli, recommending the complaint be dismissed but that Torgeson be cautioned about the duties and special responsibilities of an elected public official. Hoppe complained that Torgeson and Bsuchli had misinformed the public and failed to correct it, leading to a campaign of harrassment against her.
Fields also recommended dismissal of Peterson’s and Bongiovanni’s complaints. Peterson’s complaint centered on Torgeson creating a false narrative that she was trying to get him charged with extortion. Bongiovanni’s complaint sprang from Peterson’s handling of her complaint against Torgeson and also meeting with former Council Member Bill Spence, who also has filed a complaint that is pending.
Ryff’s and Handelsman’s complaint mirrors a lawsuit they filed against the town stemming from their ejection from a council meeting last fall during which they were protesting.
Town Attorney Christopher Payne recommended it not be taken up because it was similar to a complaint filed last fall by Maricopa County island resident Terri Naddy over the same incident. That complaint was dismissed, and Payne wrote to council it was inappropriate to take up such a complaint again.
However, Ryff objected to Payne’s recommendation and asked that council place it on its next agenda. Torgeson, Buchli and Bongiovanni agreed to his request.
Peterson asked that Fields’ four reports on the three complaints be placed on council agenda.
No one asked that Naddy’s two complaints against Yung Koprowski for her engineering firm’s business with the town be taken up. A separate investigator, Sarah Barnes, concluded Koprowski properly disclosed her business dealings, and with no one asking council to take up the matter, the complaint will be administratively dismissed.
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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