Some Gilbert citizens are continuing a push to remove Council Member Scott September from his seat early, though an ethics complaint against September was dismissed without a hearing.
Gilbert resident Brandon Ryff filed an ethics complaint against September on Aug. 9, one week after the council member was accused of trying to remove three negative campaign signs at a polling place on Election Day. One of the signs charged that September is a puppet of developers.
Some people at the polls confronted September, and police were called in the incident.
Ryff filed his complaint nine days before police released their report, which found probable cause that September tampered with, but did not steal, the signs. The case has been sent to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for consideration on whether to file charges.
Council had 10 days for at least three members or the mayor to put the complaint on the agenda for consideration, but it failed to gain that support. Council Member Scott Anderson and Mayor Brigette Peterson indicated the open investigation was the reason they found it premature to consider an ethics complaint.
Nonetheless, Ryff and Legislative District 14 Republican Party Committee Chairman Andrew Adams have been among the people who have used time in recent council meetings’ public comment period to call for September’s resignation.
Ryff also criticized the council Sept. 6 for not taking up his complaint. He noted that Town Attorney Christopher Payne had advised council they could review the ethics complaint from the information in the police report and the code.
Ryff accused members of sweeping September’s actions under the rug by having the matter referred to the county attorney’s office when that office has a six-month backlog on cases and September will be off council in January. September lost his reelection bid in August.
“You wonder why there are signs all over the place, the people are upset about corruption?” Ryff said. “This is why. People want transparency. People want to be listened to and heard and understood and respected. All of that is in the ethics policy, and I highly recommend you guys review it because it seems to me you guys have no idea what’s going on in that ethics policy and what is expected of you as public officials. I’m truly disappointed.”
In an unusual turn, Anderson and Peterson responded at the Sept. 6 meeting because state law allows for it when they have been criticized. Anderson pushed back against the idea he did not pay attention to Payne’s advice.
“I did agonize for days over a decision on the ethics complaint that was filed on Council Member September,” he said. “I want you to know that to me the paramount issue is fairness.”
Anderson noted the issue is on parallel tracks between the ethics and legal complaints, making fairness impossible to be had.
“I’d be asked to make a judgment, a fair judgment, when the person who is being accused will not even be able to testify. … Any one of us here would want a fair consideration. The rule of law demands it.”
Anderson invited people to come back with the ethics complaint if the legal case is made for it to be considered.
Peterson concurred with Anderson’s reasoning, noting September’s inability to defend himself while the legal case was open. She also said council does not coordinate with police or prosecutors on referred cases.
“The criticism of us not doing our homework, not reading the ethics code, not reading the police report is just all not true,” she said.
September was ill with COVID-19 at the Sept. 6 meeting but present by telephone. He did not speak.
Ryff was among the people who filed ethics complaints against Peterson in 2021, primarily about her relationship with developer Howard Morrison when Morrison Ranch residents had concerns about a nearby proposed project.
An independent investigator concluded Peterson in some instances exercised poor judgment, but it did not rise to the level of an ethics code violation.
When a sixth complaint was filed along the same lines but after the investigation cleared Peterson, council voted unanimously in November to add a provision to town code to allow such ethics complaints to be dismissed administratively in 10 calendar days and without further investigation unless the mayor or at least three council members wanted to hear the complaint.
Members indicated they did not want to waste time and money on continual frivolous complaints over the same issues.
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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