Members vote to form subcommittee with intent to listen to public
Screen capture from YouTube
A packed council chambers, with many audience members wearing orange T-shirts supporting "Justice 4 Preston Lord," listen to Gilbert Town Council discuss teen violence.
After facing at times withering accusations during public comment, Gilbert Town Council voted Jan. 9 to form a subcommittee on teen violence.
The subcommittee will consist of council members Scott Anderson, Chuck Bongiovanni and Jim Torgeson, the three members who asked the formation of such a body be put on the council agenda.
The action came after a highly charged public comment period and a statement from Police Chief Michael Soelberg, who said his department was now investigating nine incidents of assault involving teens, five of them new reports since the department turned to the public for help Dec. 28.
“I know our department is thankful that the community has come together to support seeking justice for Preston Lord and any other victims,” he said. “It can be frustrating waiting for additional information and charging decisions. It may seem at times as if action isn’t being taken, but I can assure you that everyone here is working hard to ensure that anyone who has committed a crime in Gilbert is held accountable, and we will continue to support the Queen Creek Police Department's investigation into the death of Preston Lord.”
Lord, a Combs High School student, was attacked at a Queen Creek house party Oct. 28 and died two days later. Since his death, social media account exploded with references to attacks on teens in Gilbert during the past year.
Because of Arizona open meetings law, Tuesday’s meeting was the first opportunity council members had to discuss how to address the violent incidents. As council members considered their options in discussion from the dais, the restless crowd — many wearing orange Justice 4 Preston Lord shirts and holding orange electric candles — loudly egged on council members to take urgent action.
While the council considered a suggestion to employ the town’s Community Engagement Task Force as perhaps more free from legal restrictions than a council subcommittee, it ultimately voted 6-0, with Councilmember Yung Koprowski absent, to form the subcommittee as the fastest path toward taking action.
Town Attorney Chris Payne advised council the subcommittee was the item on the agenda and therefore the only one that could be voted on. Expanding the scope of the task force would require direction from council, then the staff to come back to council at next meeting for action, Payne said.
That pushed Torgeson to urge action on the subcommittee, which Council Member Kathy Tilque moved to create and Bongiovanni added a second.
In discussion, council members emphasized the need to listen to the community on the issue.
“We have to listen, learn and work together to solve this issue,” Bongiovanni said. “And I don't want to delay it. I don't want to wait.”
Torgeson said that includes listening to teenagers on the matter.
“The most successful man I know told me he didn't care who screwed something up,” Torgeson said. “He cared about who fixed it. And he was always listening to the ideas of the people who were around him, and he was the smartest man the room, but he didn't have the answer. So anybody that thinks they're the smartest man in the room, he might not have the answer. It's going to come from the mouth of a child, it's going to come from a teenager, it's going to be coming from somebody that lives with fear that was afraid to report this for 14 months and found the courage to do it.”
Council members also expressed a desire to work with Chandler and Queen Creek officials in a kind of coalition to work on the problem since it is not exclusive to one municipality.
“The violence certainly is not based geographically, only to a city, to a town,” Torgeson said. “It's to a region.”
During public comment, Chandler Unified School District Governing Board Member Kurt Rohrs volunteered to work with any subcommittee on the problem.
But the “communications from citizens” portion of the movie started with sharp rebukes of council and Mayor Brigette Peterson in particular.
Resident Brandon Ryff, already suing the town from Peterson’s ejection of him and two others from a council meeting in 2022, cast some blame Peterson’s leadership.
“In part due to her failed leadership, we now have a group of entitled punk little thugs beating on innocent people for no reason and getting away with it,” he said.
Resident Kristine Brennan accused the mayor of a lack of empathy.
“The mayor’s absence during walks of support for ‘Justice 4 Preston’ and (telling) council members not to attend vigils and walks demonstrates a concerning lack of support for the very citizens she was elected to serve,” she said.
Peterson countered that notion when she spoke later.
“I don't have school-aged children,” she said. “I can't imagine what you are all feeling or thinking as your kids go off to school every day since this has occurred in Queen Creek with Preston Lord. My heart breaks for his family. It just breaks. There aren't many things that keep me awake at night, but this issue has just gutted me.”
Resident Nicki Reber aimed her comments away from council and toward the police department.
“I certainly hope if you're making this subcommittee, you're going to hold the police department responsible for taking an ‘I don't give a darn' attitude toward this because that's exactly how it has come across,” she said.
Torgeson also challenged people about that perception.
“Some people want to blame the police for something,” he said. “Some people want to blame the mayor for something. It’s not that. It's our community. It's our culture, and it is a bigger problem, and we're listening and hearing and learning things that I couldn't even relate to as a youth. ... There's a learning curve, (and) it's not instant.”
Councilmember Bobbi Buchli broke down speaking about how it has affected her and the community and invited people to call or email her whether she was a member of the subcommittee or not.
Other public speakers were more measured in their comments. Rohrs, for example, noted that investigations have been hampered by people not coming forward.
Queen Creek resident Katey McPherson, who has been active as a partner to the Lord family, said it was important to recognize youth were signaling a need for help and called for more open communication.
“In the absence of it, the general public is filling in the blanks about you, and it isn't with warm and kind words,” she said. “We are the town of Gilbert. The fact that we have remained a town is intentional. A town conveys something to its residents, small. We know each other. We care about each other, and we definitely care about our youth.
“It conveys something to neighboring cities that we are different and that we care. It is critical that we live up to our origin and history of the town. Otherwise, we might as well be one other city.”
Peterson said council has not said much so as not to jeopardize the investigation.
Anderson said the investigation and the subcommittee run as two separate processes.
“I know it's been frustrating to you because we haven't been sharing a whole lot of information,” he said. “The reason is because we're building an investigation and to be able to be successful with that investigation, we have to consider it as being confidential at the time. But we feel like, and that's the reason this (subcommittee) is on the agenda tonight. It's time to listen and we're here now to listen.”
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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