The last of the ethics complaints filed against Gilbert Town Council members last summer has been recommended for dismissal.
Independent investigator Sarah Barnes made the recommendation on former Council Member Bill Spence’s multilayered ethics complaint against unnamed council members, which ended up zeroing in mostly on Council Member Jim Torgeson. She wrote that his allegations either could not be substantiated or the behavior described did not rise to the level of an ethical violation.
Spence filed his complaint July 27 and subsequently filed four amendments that further expanded complaint, mostly tied to the District at Cooley Station development vote in April. Council approved the development on four 6-0 votes with Torgeson recusing himself.
Spence said Friday he was not surprised by the recommendation because of how the investigation was conducted and called it inadequate.
“The threshold of establishing a preponderance of evidence would never be met without the evidence being presented, the evidence being evaluated and the interviews being conducted,” he said. “And I have irrefutable proof in the form of invoices that none of the key witnesses were interviewed in this case, and I am unclear if the investigator had listened to the recording (of a phone call between landowner Jeff Cooley and Mayor Brigette Peterson) that I believe is a smoking gun in this instance prior to drawing up her conclusions in the investigation.”
Torgeson said he did not do anything that would rise to the level of an ethical violation and was critical of Spence’s complaint.
“It took (Barnes) four months to try and figure it out what the complaint really was,” he said. “I mean, remember she got this back in, I think August. We get it back in December, so that's over four months. I don't know what to say.”
Barnes did comment on Torgeson’s behavior and “coarse and borderline ungentlemanly” language at three points in the report.
“Councilmember Torgeson should be reminded of his responsibilities and position as an elected Public Official and that he should conduct himself in a more Statesmanlike manner, as the other investigator handling a separate complaint against Councilmember Torgeson noted,” she wrote in one instance.
Investigator Kenneth Fields had made a similar cautionary statement in a report on resident Maureen Hoppe’s first ethics complaint against Torgeson.
“There was a sign when I ran, ‘Torgeson says it like it is,’” Torgeson said. “I live by that. Sometimes the truth hurts.”
Barnes parsed Spence’s complaint into seven allegations.
Torgeson’s recusal from the District at Cooley Station vote, which Spence called “highly unusual” and said began his personal inquiry, did not rise to the level of an ethics violation as his reasons fell within the scope of abstention.
Torgeson’s alleged threats against landowner Jeff Cooley before the District at Cooley Station vote, which Barnes wrote there was insufficient evidence to support that Torgeson made such threats, though his efforts “may be viewed as objectionable or simply a poor approach.” She also wrote, “It may behoove Councilmember Torgeson to ensure he more carefully expresses his concerns and beliefs about various matters before the Council.”
Torgeson’s giving an unredacted ethics complaint to the Gilbert Independent was not an ethics violation and that redaction was more of town policy than a requirement of state law.
Torgeson and councilmembers Bobbi Buchli and Chuck Bongiovanni did not commit an ethics violation by calling for a study session on the town’s conflict of interest policy or special session for a vote of no-confidence in Mayor Brigette Peterson and there was not sufficient evidence that it was done for an “inappropriate purpose.”
Torgeson did not have a conflict of interest in serving on council’s ethics subcommittee while having ethics complaints against him.
Torgeson’s interactions with Peterson, other council members, town staff and residents, including Spence, did not rise to the level of an ethics violation, though he was again reminded to be more statesmanlike. Barnes also found Torgeson did not misuse town resources to pursue his agenda.
Finally, Bongiovanni was within his rights to file an ethics complaint against Peterson, even if the complaint was ultimately dismissed.
Torgeson said he did not know what Spence’s agenda was in pursuing the complaint and was critical of the town resources spent on a fruitless investigation.
Bongiovanni, in a text message to the Gilbert Independent, also was critical of the resources spent.
“It’s time to move on and stop wasting our taxpayers’ money on conspiracy theories, disjointed assumptions and outright falsehoods,” he wrote.
Spence, however, is challenging council to reject the findings because of the inadequate investigation, similar to what happened at last council meeting when council members criticized Fields’ investigation of residents Brandon Ryff’s and Ryan Handelsman’s complaint against Peterson.
“My position is this, is that if any council member votes to accept this investigation, I look at it as complicit behavior in a conspiracy to cover up the alleged misconduct of another council member,” he said. “And I've said all along, I'm not seeking a result in this investigation. I'm seeking a process that has the integrity to allow for a resident to challenge their leadership to be heard and for their complaints to be processed.”
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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