The first ethics complaint filed under new town rules has moved to an independent investigator, but the resident who filed it has told the town she is unhappy with who the investigator is.
Maureen Hoppe wrote an email Jan. 3 to Gilbert Town Council, Town Attorney Chris Payne and Town Clerk Chaveli Herrera asking that her case be reassigned to a "fair and unbiased investigator" from the currently assigned investigator, Sarah Barnes.
She had previously written Dec. 21 in protest of the assignment of Barnes to her complaint, though she noted in the Jan. 3 email that she had received no response from the town.
“I believe Sarah Barnes has a personal bias against me and the merits of my complaint, therefore she is unable to give a fair and independent review of my case,” Hoppe wrote Dec. 21.
Hoppe’s complaint, filed Oct. 17, alleges that Councilmember Jim Torgeson called her a pig from the dais Sept. 19 when he said he had no desire to get in the mud and wrestle with a pig during a council discussion of a previous Hoppe complaint against Torgeson. He said he was talking about the ethics process.
As required under the town’s new complaint process, Hoppe’s complaint went to mediation Dec. 5, but mediator Mark Lassiter declared it to be at an impasse after meeting with Hoppe and Torgeson separately. The two never met face to face.
As is then allowed under the new process, Hoppe requested the complaint proceed to an investigation Dec. 11.
From a response to a follow-up email, Hoppe learned Barnes had been assigned to the case.
Barnes previously investigated a long, complex complaint from former Councilmember Bill Spence against at first unnamed council members about the District at Cooley Station development vote and related topics.
Barnes recommended dismissal of that complaint, but Spence wrote in an email he did not believe Barnes interviewed key staff members as witnesses nor review a key recording that he considered the most important evidence in the case.
Council did not take up the complaint after a discussion, but Mayor Brigette Peterson questioned the thoroughness of Barnes’ investigation at that time.
“It has already been shown and questioned of her lack of a thorough investigation,” Hoppe wrote in her Dec. 21 email to Herrera. “She made some very deliberate and specific negative opinions of my previous complaint in her last investigation.”
That led Hoppe to question the selection of Barnes as the independent investigator on her case.
“Are we investigator shopping to sweep yet another ethics complaint under the rug?” Hoppe wrote. “When will the town be willing to stand up for the citizens of Gilbert instead of protecting the big Gilbert purse? Sarah Barnes has a direct conflict of interest. She has already reversed the opinion of investigator Ken Fields, a more experienced investigator, in a similar complaint.”
She closed by stating town policy and state law are clearly in her favor.
Herrera’s email indicated that Hoppe’s complaint is still with the investigator and the report has not been returned.
We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.
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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