Landowner accuses Gilbert council members of threats against project
District at Cooley Station passed in April despite backstage drama
Rendering courtesy town of Gilbert
The District at Cooley Station, a vertical mixed-use development featuring commercial, retail, office and multifamily residential space, was the subject of concerns from the landowner that some Gilbert Town Council members were threatening the decision to approve its zoning.
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I felt that as mayor, as a sworn elected in this town, that it was my obligation to bring it to the attention of someone, and then we could discuss what the next steps forward should be.”
A prominent Gilbert landowner contacted the mayor and a town council member in April with concerns that council members were making threats against a project coming before council.
Jeff Cooley, an owner whose family’s land has become the Cooley Station area in east Gilbert, separately emailed Scott Anderson and Mayor Brigette Peterson that unidentified council members were threatening to vote against the District at Cooley Station project “if Cooley doesn’t agree not to sue the town if commuter rail isn’t part of Cooley Station.”
Cooley declined to identify the council members to the Gilbert Independent, but Peterson said Cooley named council members Jim Torgeson, Bobbi Buchli and "the other new one” — Chuck Bongiovanni — in a phone call to her after the initial email and that Torgeson was leading that effort.
Torgeson denied making any threats, saying he was not “dumb enough” to do that. Bongiovanni said Cooley would have no reason to think he would vote with Torgeson against the project and that he thought it was a good project. Buchli could not be reached for comment.
Anderson said Cooley did not follow up with him on an offer to meet in person, but said he later became aware of Torgeson being one of the council members to whom Cooley was referring.
The District at Cooley Station, being developed by Kaplan Management Company on land sold by Jeff Cooley, gained approval on four 6-0 votes during an April 18 council meeting with Torgeson recusing himself. The vertical mixed-use development includes commercial, retail, office and multifamily residential uses.
On a disclosure statement filed with the town after the vote, Torgeson indicated he had recused himself because “a citizen felt I was inappropriately opposed.”
Peterson said when she initially received Cooley’s email on April 13 and without knowledge of to whom Cooley was referring to as “council members,” she reported it to deputy town managers Leah Rhineheimer and Mary Goodman in the absence of Town Manager Patrick Banger. The three then took it to Town Attorney Christopher Payne.
“It concerned me,” Peterson said about the email. “I felt that as mayor, as a sworn elected in this town, that it was my obligation to bring it to the attention of someone, and then we could discuss what the next steps forward should be.”
After that, an executive session was scheduled for April 18 to offer training of council members on appropriate interaction with developers and landowners. That executive session happened just before the regular council meeting at which the vote on the District at Cooley Station occurred.
Details of what happens in executive session are confidential by state law and thus minutes are not made available to the public and members are not allowed to discuss it outside executive session with anyone who was not in the session.
A follow-up training happened in executive session May 2 that gave council members training on proper channels and what to do if they felt something needed to be investigated.
District at Cooley Station vote
Cooley said he was unaware of any behind-the-scenes actions that took place after he expressed his concerns to Peterson. He did not attend the April 18 council meeting, but later emailed Anderson and Peterson to thank them for how the matter was handled and that the project was considered only on its merits. He also emailed thanks to other council members.
Cooley said he preferred his name not be associated with the matter.
“I have to be careful here,” he said. “I guess I would let the emails speak for themselves. I have other things going in the town, and I don't want to affect them.”
Torgeson said he has not spoken to Jeff Cooley in perhaps 15 years.
“It's very clear that I said that I wasn't holding any weight with anyone (on their votes),” Torgeson said.
Gilbert resident Maureen Hoppe questioned Torgeson and Buchli’s stances on the District in private social-media forums as both had campaigned against more apartments in Gilbert.
In a voicemail to Hoppe that is now public record, Torgeson said: “Let’s just leave it as this without me violating executive session and all these stupid legal things they throw on you: the mayor conspired to have me charged with extortion. It didn’t work. I got a recording to prove I didn’t. But that didn’t mean it would stop her from trying, and she’s still trying. And that’s why I did what I did.”
Torgeson later added in the voicemail: “She’s that (expletive). She’s that bad a human being. And not a lick of proof. Not a lick of truth. Not a lick of evidence ... but she thought she had the juice to get it done.”
The recording Torgeson refers to is one he took while meeting with an attorney who had represented Kaplan, the District at Cooley Station’s developer, in the days after council approved the project. Torgeson shared the recording, which has a low audio level and background noise, with the Gilbert Independent and said he has played it for Anderson and Bongiovanni.
“He (Torgeson) is convinced that there’s language in there that basically exonerates him,” Anderson said. “I don’t know that what I heard would do the same thing that he thought, but (the attorney) did say some things on the tape that may give some credibility to what he’s saying.”
Said Bongiovanni: “There’s some things there to consider, but I don’t know the answer to that (whether it exonerates Torgeson).”
Torgeson said he had intended to vote against the project because of promises made to voters, an assertion backed by an email he sent to the developers before the vote and apparently also on the tape.
However, he also promised that if the project passed, as he said he assumed it would, he would help get the developers past any roadblocks they may encounter.
“Once that process is in place, standing there and kicking and screaming about it and screwing around with being petty about something just because you lost, there's no point in it,” he said. “I'd much rather be, once they've done that, ‘hey, fantastic, let's rock and roll, get your things done. How can I make sure ... you don't get sucked down the bureaucratic drain?”
Complaints against Torgeson
The voicemail to Hoppe was included as evidence in an ethics complaint she filed against Torgeson and Buchli on July 10, claiming they had spread misinformation and had not corrected it when shown it was wrong. Hoppe’s complaint alleges their failure to correct the misinformation led to harassment of her.
That complaint was distributed to all council members, and Peterson then filed an ethics complaint July 13 against Torgeson based on the voicemail.
Peterson said her complaint was based solely on what Torgeson said about her to a resident in the voicemail. Torgeson has since said he stands behind every word from the voicemail.
He said the mayor demanded the case be taken to the state attorney general’s office.
However, Peterson said her complaint is not about Torgeson’s actions with Cooley and that she has never tried to get him charged with extortion nor even used that word.
“I understand that there is a false narrative out there that I was conspiring to get one specific council member on extortion charges, and that is absolutely positively false in this situation,” she said. “I felt it was my duty to bring the information forward, to see how we would handle it as a town or as a council.”
Peterson and Torgeson frequently have clashed in the past, including Torgeson twice filing ethics complaints against Peterson before he was elected to council. Peterson was cleared of the first and council dismissed the second as covering ground on which she had already been cleared.
Peterson said her actions regarding Cooley feeling there were threats against the District project were limited to reporting it to town officials because she believed it could bring the town trouble.
Of the threats and without naming anyone, Cooley said: “I didn't appreciate how this member represented himself and the town. I didn't think it was right. That's why I contacted Scott (Anderson) and the mayor.”
Torgeson said he believes Cooley made the accusation as a means of pushing the project toward approval over any dissent.
“This is not the first time apparently that Mr. Cooley's tried to lean on people extra heavy,” he said. “It probably won't be the last, but I can tell you that I believe it changed the vote from what was probably going to be 5-2 to a 6-0. That’s what I think.”
He said he recused himself because of the mayor’s threats to him.
“Knowing that it was going to go through anyhow, why would I want to bring drama to this?” he said. “My point was to never talk about this because there's no winning and everybody gives the mayor a walk on everything she does. So why would I want to bring it up in public?”
Cooley Station
Cooley Station is named after the family who once farmed the area’s land and the idea of a commuter station in the heart of the area.
The town has a 2008 development agreement with the owners that includes the town receiving three acres of land for a commuter station and a commitment from the town to help bring a public transit system there to connect the area with the Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport, Arizona State University Polytechnic campus and surrounding cities.
However, a plan to do a feasibility study on a commuter station last year stirred fierce public opposition with the idea of commuter rail coming to town. The donated land sits adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. The study has been tabled.
In emails to Anderson and Peterson after his initial expression of concern about threats from council members, Cooley said the transit system need not include commuter rail, which would not be solely dependent on Gilbert anyway.
“I personally don’t read in this section where the owner has the right to sue if commuter rail doesn’t come to Cooley Station,” he wrote.
However, he cautioned the town should not do anything that might jeopardize other developer/owner rights before the development agreement expires in 2033.
Torgeson did say he believes releasing the town from a threat to sue it about commuter rail would be good for the town.
“If he (Cooley) is going to say, I wouldn't sue the town for that, that's a big thing to do with the congestion right there in the middle of Cooley Station,” Torgeson said. “That'd be awesome.”
Cooley expressed a willingness to let the matter of any threats go, again without specifically naming anyone but referring to a recusal in the District at Cooley Station vote.
“If he recused himself, I guess someone got to him and told him it wasn't right,” Cooley said. “If he's seen the error of his ways, then fine. Let bygones be bygones.”
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).
Gilbert Town Council,
Cooley Station,
District at Cooley Station,
Jeff Cooley,
Brigette Peterson,
Scott Anderson,
Jim Torgeson,
Chuck Bongiovanni,
Bobbi Buchli,
Kaplan Management Company
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