The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly stopped traditional political campaigning — but it hasn’t put an end to political intrigue. Jack Hastings is learning that the hard way as the City Council candidate fights to keep his position on the city’s Arts and Cultural Advisory Commission.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly stopped traditional political campaigning — but it hasn’t put an end to political intrigue.
Jack Hastings is learning that the hard way as the Surprise City Council candidate for District 5 fights to keep his position on the city’s Arts and Cultural Advisory Commission.
Just days after he qualified for the election ballot, the city’s Boards and Commission Nominations Committee voted 3-0 to have the full city council decide whether to remove Mr. Hastings from the commission.
The City Council is expected to vote on it at its regular meeting at 6 p.m. tonight.
“I had hoped to get acquitted, but it seems like frustrating politics as usual,” Mr. Hastings, a civics teacher at Valley Vista High School, said about the committee’s April 10 decision.
Margaret Lieu, the chairwoman of the Arts Commission, asked the boards committee to remove Mr. Hastings from the board for what she called his “unprofessional and unethical behavior” on the commission.
Ms. Lieu accused Mr. Hastings of using his position on the commission to advance his campaign for the city council. Mr. Hastings called it “politics at its worst.”
“My action in reporting Mr. Hastings’ conduct regarding the use of the Surprise Arts and Cultural Advisory Commission to benefit his campaign is nothing personal and not politically motivated on my part,” Ms. Lieu wrote in a statement to the Surprise Independent. “When it was brought to my attention by a fellow commissioner that Mr. Hastings used his specific campaign Facebook account to post privileged information, he violated this ordinance and as chairperson of the commission, I was duty bound to present this to the Boards and Commissions Nominations Committee to make their own determination.”
The case
In a letter that Ms. Lieu presented to the boards committee, she detailed a series of infractions to call for Mr. Hastings’ removal.
It accused him of skipping out on volunteer events, showing up late to others and using volunteer time to further his political campaign.
“Since Mr. Hastings has chosen to run for a council seat, everything he does for and with the commission is plainly with the thought of how it will further his campaign,” Ms. Lieu wrote in the letter to the committee.
According to the Boards, Committees, and Commission Bylaws, Sec. 2-295 subsection 7, “no member of a public body may use membership on the body to advocate, campaign, or influence the outcome of an election. Violation of this section will be promptly referred to city council, and the member may be removed from the public body.”
To Ms. Lieu, the final straw came when she said Mr. Hastings prematurely released information about the city completing the History Wall, which is located in the Mayor’s Atrium of City Hall, 16000 N. Civic Center Plaza. She said instead of letting the city make the announcement, Mr. Hastings took the official communication that was not yet released to the public and posted it on his personal and official campaign Facebook page.
During the committee hearing, Councilwoman and committee member Nancy Hayden told Mr. Hastings he should have known better about posting the images of the History Wall early.
“I’ve run for office,” Ms. Hayden told Mr. Hastings. “I’ve gone through the process, so I understand where you’re at. And it is a way to promote yourself. Everything you do when you’re running, ‘Well, I got this out before the city got this out.’ It’s an ‘I’ thing and it points right at you, so I understand that process. Even though you didn’t intend for it to be this way.”
Mr. Hastings said he received messages from the city legal staff, “telling me it’s OK to post different events” on his campaign Facebook page.
“Why didn’t you call anyone on your commission and say ‘Hey, I’m going to put this out. Is that OK?,’” Ms. Hayden asked Mr. Hastings. “Why did you have to have somebody come and tell you? You know you’re an adult, you’re not a 5-year-old. Why didn’t you follow up? Or did you want to get it out there so everyone would go, ‘Oh, wow, look, he got it out first.’ It just hurt the whole release to me. It really did.”
Mr. Hastings contended he wanted to get the word out because the official public unveiling of the Wall had been cancelled because of fears from COVID-19.
“My intention was simply to get the positivity out there,” Mr. Hastings said. “I was under the understanding that when pictures had been sent out this was a public release.
“So, I jumped the gun a little bit, and that may have been unintentionally selfish of me. I’m not here saying I’ve never done anything wrong.”
Recent recusal
Adding to the political intrigue of the proceedings was the last-minute recusal of City Councilman David Sanders, who is in the seat in which Mr. Hastings is vying.
Mr. Sanders dropped himself from the Boards and Commission Nominations Committee April 7, the day the meeting with Mr. Hastings was announced and also the day after election applications were certified.
But making the matters confusing for all parties, the city’s communication staff had failed to update the committee listings on its website. Mr. Hastings said he was surprised to see Ms. Hayden sitting in at the meeting — instead of Mr. Sanders or an empty seat.
“I felt it right, given the pending city council elections, that I recuse myself from all discussions and votes surrounding this,” Mr. Sanders said. “I always had every intention of recusing myself from this matter. As a result, I removed myself from the Boards and Commissions Nomination Committee, which I have been on since my appointment (in 2019), and will not be submitting a council vote should it come to that.”
If Mr. Sanders does recuse himself from a full council vote on Mr. Hastings’ removal, that means Mr. Hastings will likely need the support of the three council members who weren’t on the Boards and Commission Nominations Committee. Councilmen Ken Remley and Roland Winters also voted to move the matter to the full council.
Only Mayor Skip Hall, Vice Mayor Chris Judd and Councilman Patrick Duffy have yet to hear about the matter in an official capacity.
“Now is not the time for politics or campaigning, which is either what this is, or what is has turned into,” Mr. Sanders said. “We need to focus on getting our lives back into order, our kids back playing their respective sports, dining with friends and families at local restaurants, and patronizing our local businesses. That is, and should remain, our focus.”
Hopeful start
Ms. Lieu told the committee she was initially excited when Mr. Hastings joined the arts board in 2017.
“Mr. Hastings is very charming when he talks to you,” Ms. Lieu said. “His outreach to the public sounds really great when he’s talking to the public. He engages people. We wanted that type of person on our commission.”
But then she said her opinion changed over time.
“I was excited when he volunteered to be the vice chair for a year,” she said. “But when he started dropping commitments I was concerned.”
Ms. Lieu told the committee she didn’t feel Mr. Hastings was “engaged” with the commission.
“When he was at the meetings he had some great points, but when it came to external things that we were involved in, he missed a lot of appointments or when he signed up for things he didn’t follow through,” she said.
Mr. Hastings took exception to that assessment of his commitment.
“I’m blessed to be on the Arts Commission,” Mr. Hastings told the committee, before listing some of the events in which he volunteered. “I love volunteering for the Arts Commission. I do not want any money out of it. That’s not why I’m there. I didn’t become a teacher for the money. I’m not here to be some smooth talker to trick you into anything. I love serving on the commission.”
Instead, Mr. Hastings said he was being singled out by Ms. Lieu and her husband, Andy Cepon, who he calls “vocal supporters of my opponent.”
“Andy Cepon has repeatedly gone after me on social media,” Mr. Hastings told the committee, adding, “I think this is a smear campaign meant to tarnish my name.”
Former NAU Lumberjack who loves going to concerts (or I did), watching sports (or I did) and hanging out with friends (oh, never mind). I also enjoy backgammon, surfing and men who are not afraid to cry.
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