Investigators: Fountain Hills councilmember violated 4 ethics rules
Fountain Hills City Councilmember Allen Skillicorn, the subject of six recent ethics complaints, has been found in violation of the council’s Code of Ethics.
The six complaints, all filed since December of 2023, were concerned with Skillicorn’s actions in numerous settings in the fall of 2023 and into early 2024. Fountain Hills Vice Mayor Sharron Grzybowski and Councilmember Brenda Kalivianakis, as well as residents Pamela Cap and Beth Culp, filed the complaints alleging that Skillicorn had broken the council’s ethics rules.
Skillicorn maintains that the complaints, and the investigation's findings, are partisan political attacks.
“People can see that this is all political and a smear,” Skillicorn said.
A third-party investigating law firm that was hired by the council, Fitzgibbons Law Offices, found Skillicorn violated the ethics code in an incident involving Fountain Hills Code Enforcement Officer Pete Lucchese.
In September of 2023, Lucchese reported to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department that he was being aggressively followed by Skillicorn. Skillicorn, while flashing his high beams, had followed Lucchese after he had removed one of Skillicorn’s political signs for being in violation of city codes.
The interaction between Skillicorn and Lucchese is described in the police report as being hostile and aggressive, which ethics investigators took note of.
“Approaching a town employee in an aggressive manner, making him (Lucchese) fearful of his safety, attempting to access the interior of his truck, and making comments such as ‘you guys are really skating on thin ice,’ when he is enforcing the Town Code approved by Town Council is a violation of the Code of Ethics,” their report stated.
The investigators cited four sections of the city council’s Code of Ethics. They found that Skillicorn’s actions do not set “a positive example of good citizenship by scrupulously observing the letter and spirit of laws, rules and regulations,” contrary to section 8.2 of the Code of Ethics.
The other three sections of the Fountain Hills City Council Code of Ethics Skillicorn was found in violation of were 8.3, 8.4(A), and 8.6(B).
In a press release Skillicorn said, “Using the ethics process as a bludgeon against your political opponents is in and of itself as unethical as it gets. The idea that asking questions or trying to retrieve a stolen yard sign is unethical is absurd on its face.”
Councilmember Brenda Kalivianakis authored one of the ethics complaints relating to the incident with Lucchese. Following the investigation's findings, Kalivianakis said she was pleased with the law firm's determination.
“If he understands the gravity of the situation, the fact that he's compromised this council with his behavior, I would welcome that. And I would welcome him back to civilized, decent society,” said Kalivianakis, “If he doesn't, all we can do is post our sanctions on him and hope he learns the hard way.”
Fountain Hills resident Pam Cap had also filed a complaint regarding the incident with Lucchese, but had filed another earlier this year on a more personal matter. Cap, and fellow resident Beth Culp, alleged in their additional respective ethics complaints that Skillicorn had attacked both the LGBTQ+ community and themselves on his social media accounts.
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Cap and Culp also alleged that Skillicorn is not legally allowed to block users from his social media accounts.
The investigators did not find Cap and Culp’s complaints to hold any legal validity.
In the report the investigators cite the legal precedent set by the case Garnier v. Ratcliffe. The court's ruling in Garnier determined that social media accounts whose function is to serve as a public forum for relaying public information aren’t able to block or restrict any individuals from viewing them.
Adhering to this precedent, the ethics report stated that Skillicorn’s accounts are “personal” and “the majority of information is related to sharing national and state political matters and expressing his views regarding those matters.”
Due to Skillicorn’s accounts being classified as personal rather than relating to his role as a member of the Council, the investigation found that he was not in violation of the Code of Ethics.
Cap disagrees with the law firm’s findings.
“I don't believe he's protected by his First Amendment rights when he's attacking people, specifically a marginalized group of people,” said Cap, “It wasn't to inform constituents or talk about a national topic.”
The council is scheduled to meet next on March 5. It has not yet been confirmed if the council will come to a determination on Skillicorn’s possible sanctions at that meeting.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Fountain Hills councilmember violated 4 ethics rules, report says
