A complaint has been filed with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office alleging that the Town of Fountain Hills Town Council has violated the Arizona Open Meeting Law (OML).

The complaint was filed July 10 by Shawn Dow, a resident and political consultant. Dow alleges email exchanges by council members related to potential camera enforcement of red light traffic violations constituted the OML violation.

Specifically Dow cites an Attorney General’s opinion that states, “When members of the public body are parties to an exchange of e-mail communications that involve discussions, deliberations or taking legal action by a quorum of the public body concerning a matter that may foreseeably come before the public body for action, the communications constitute a meeting through technological devices under the OML. While some one-way communications from one board member to enough members to constitute a quorum would not violate the OML, an e-mail by a member to other members of the public body that proposes legal action would constitute a violation of the OML.”

In his complaint Dow cites e-mail communications on June 29 and on July 7, and he identifies three council members he said were involved in the exchange, Mayor Ginny Dickey, Vice Mayor Mike Scharnow and Councilman Dennis Brown.

As a political consultant Dow’s work has included opposition to traffic enforcement cameras in Arizona and across the country. He acquired the e-mails with a public records request and he also forwarded a copy to The Times.

The exchange on June 29 was a vendor involved in contracting enforcement cameras for red lights and on school busses. That vendor had seen an article in The Times reporting the council decision on June 16 to have staff further review the costs and legal aspects of installing a camera to monitor right turns at the intersection of Shea and Palisades boulevards.

The vendor, with Verra Mobility of Mesa, had contacted Town Manager Grady Miller. Miller copied the e-mail to public works and engineering staff. It does not appear that any council members participated, or were even copied in this exchange.

The July 7 exchange was initiated by The Times in following up on the appearance of political signs opposing red light cameras around town. A response from Dickey’s e-mail indicated she would be unavailable for a few days and suggested contacting Scharnow as vice mayor.

Scharnow was copied with The Times inquiry, which dealt with the origin of the political signs and a comment on a Facebook post indicating council members were being lobbied by vendors.

Both Scharnow and Dickey responded to The Times e-mail, both indicating they had no knowledge of the group that posted the signs nor had anyone contacted them trying to lobby or solicit their support for the enforcement cameras.

Miller also responded to The Times inquiry and his response was similar to Scharnow and Dickey. He did acknowledge the contact with Verra Mobility. Miller copied all council members with his response, but no others joined in the discussion via e-mail.

Dickey also sent her response to all council members but there was no participation from anyone. Scharnow limited his exchange in response to The Times to Dickey and Miller.

In November of 2019 Dickey and Brown exchanged e-mails on the topic in a response to publicity on a City of Phoenix decision regarding enforcement cameras.

Dickey and Brown are both members of a Traffic Safety Committee that reviews vehicle and pedestrian issues that come to their attention. They discussed bringing the issue to the committee. A third member of the council sitting on that committee is Councilwoman Sherry Leckrone. There is no indication she participated in the discussion between Dickey and Brown. Staff on the committee includes Miller, MCSO Capt. Larry Kratzer and Public Works Director Justin Weldy.

As of last week the Arizona Attorney General’s Office had no comment on the ongoing investigation into the complaint.

As of Monday morning, town staff had not heard from the Attorney General’s Office regarding the complaint.

“Usually, the AG's office will initially review the complaint and determine what action it needs to take, if any,” Town Attorney Aaron Arnson told The Times. “If the AG's office requires a response to resolve the complaint, it will send us a letter summarizing the allegations and asking the Town to respond.”