Gilbert mayor files ethics complaint against council member
Resident's earlier complaint from week targets Jim Torgeson, Bobbi Buchli
Photos from Town of Gilbert
Gilbert Mayor Brigette Peterson (center) has filed an ethics complaint against Council Member Jim Torgeson (left) based on a voicemail from a previous ethics complaint this week against Torgeson and Council Member Bobbi Buchli (right).
Gilbert Mayor Brigette Peterson has filed a formal ethics complaint against Jim Torgeson, the second such complaint filed this week against the freshman council member and frequent mayoral critic.
In her complaint filed July 13, Peterson accused Torgeson of “creating and spreading a false narrative and disparaging comment” about her and violating five sections of the council’s code of ethics. She cited a voicemail recording from Torgeson included as evidence in the ethics complaint filed July 10 by Gilbert resident Maureen Hoppe.
Peterson declined comment to the Gilbert Independent.
Hoppe’s complaint against councilors Torgeson and Bobbi Buchli charges violations of 10 sections of the code of ethics and says she has suffered irreparable damage to her reputation from direct and indirect actions of the two.
Hoppe identifies herself as a precinct committee member for Arizona Legislative District 14 Republicans and says she aided Torgeson’s and Buchli’s election campaigns. She included voicemails and pages of social media screenshots as evidence in her complaint.
The voicemail from Torgeson included in Hoppe’s complaint and cited by Peterson accuses the mayor of unsuccessfully conspiring to attempt to have him charged with extortion and says, “She’s that (expletive). She’s that bad a human being.”
Torgeson doubled down on the voicemail when contacted by the Gilbert Independent.
“I have no problem with what I said,” he said. “I stand behind every word.”
Torgeson’s voicemail, which Hoppe said she received May 2, does not indicate any context for Peterson accusing him of extortion, nor does either ethics complaint.
Peterson wrote in her complaint that, under the code of ethics, she was obligated to report the voicemail.
Hoppe’s complaint indicated she asked questions in “appropriate venues” about the pair’s voting record on apartments and their stances on pay raises for council members.
In response, Hoppe said she was harassed online, contacted on the phone by people she did not know and had disparaging comments made about her to friends. She included the voicemails and screenshots of social media posts and text messages as evidence of the harassment.
She also indicated she had been retaliated against in her role as precinct committee member, though Torgeson said he has nothing to do with how the party’s district leadership is run.
“I’m done being bullied by these two council members,” Hoppe told the Gilbert Independent. “All I did was tell the truth, and I was brutally harassed.”
Hoppe said she only wanted misinformation to be corrected and an apology to have her name restored.
“That never happened,” she said. “It only got worse. Truth speaks volumes. As elected officials, this behavior is unacceptable.”
Torgeson said he did not believe the complaint will get anywhere as he does not believe he harassed anyone.
“It’s like, go ahead, let’s run it through the process,” he said. “It’ll cost the town $20,000. Nothing will happen.”
Buchli declined to comment on the complaint until after she has had an opportunity to speak to the town attorney, Christopher Payne.
The posts involving several members from a private social media group for GOP precinct committee members show varying degrees of disagreement, ranging from merely explanatory or polite — including an apology from Buchli to Hoppe for including her name on a post — to sarcastic or vitriolic.
In the group, Hoppe questioned the continued approval of apartments, coming in the wake of the April 18 vote on the District at Cooley Station, a retail/commercial/multifamily development that includes 612 apartment units.
A major general plan amendment and rezoning clearing the way for the development passed on a 6-0 vote with Buchli voting for it and Torgeson recusing himself. Both had campaigned against more apartments in Gilbert.
At the meeting, Buchli acknowledged her campaign stance but said she was not unilaterally against apartments and found this project to be acceptable given its location in an area of town with other such units.
Torgeson indicated in an email to the developers’ attorney, Sean Lake, that he would oppose the project because of his promise to voters. In a text message to Hoppe, he indicated he “recused myself to prove a point and protect myself from a frivolous accusation” but did not indicate what the accusation was.
On a public officer disclosure statement filed with the town April 18, Torgeson wrote under “Disclosure of Bias or Prejudice” that “a citizen felt I was inappropriately opposed,” but did not elaborate.
Hoppe also challenged the idea of council members voting themselves a large pay raise, an issue that has never been brought to the agenda during the past five years. A resident, Tom Smith, did suggest it in public comment May 2 as a means of drawing better candidates for council to the ballot.
Torgeson and Council Member Chuck Bongiovanni expressed support for it on social media on the same grounds as Smith.
Hoppe, however, suggested a 120% pay raise, as proposed by some after Smith’s comments, was not within conservative values and said small adjustments were more appropriate. She also questioned council members voting themselves a pay raise.
In the social media group, Torgeson and Buchli both challenged the notion they would be voting themselves a pay raise, saying it would only affect newly elected or reelected members in 2025 and could not apply to them until at least 2027 if they were reelected.
Hoppe produced email correspondence with other council members and Payne contradicting Torgeson and Buchli’s assertions because state law requires all members be paid the same.
Hoppe said her requests for the two to correct the record on that issue and apologize to her went unheeded.
The complaints were filed under the 2012 code of ethics. Council approved a new code June 20 as worked up by a subcommittee that included Torgeson, but it will not take effect until Aug. 20.
Torgeson, then just a resident, filed three ethics complaints against Peterson in 2021. An independent investigator cleared Peterson of the first two, which had to do with her control of public comment at council meetings, and council declined to take up the third, that she had lied to the investigator. Council members indicated they were not wanting to cover the same ground again.
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
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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