By Sherri James | Fountain Hills
So much for transparency and fewer executive sessions, which were two of Mayor Friedel’s promises. Those were also his primary complaints about the previous administration. The mayor is now facing a succession of executive sessions to deal with fallout from the resignation of the town attorney. So much irony.
Thanks to the open letter from Attorney Arnson, it seems that not only was the April 15 executive session contentious, it appears at least three elected leaders may have been “conspiring” to accuse him and his firm of over-billing, which he denied. By naming councilwoman Gayle Earle as the leader, we now know she and others were conducting some kind of “personal audit” of attorney fees. Really? Audit a flat fee contract negotiated and approved by the town that hasn’t changed since 2019?
Getting rid of the town’s attorney is just the latest step in this group’s attempt to reclaim our town for themselves and cause chaos. Their less-than-transparent actions have led to a bevy of town staff losses, starting with the manager, the finance director, two town clerks and now the town attorney.
In the meantime, Mayor Friedel doesn’t know how to control his council, which regularly interrupts with points-of-order and call-for-questions at every turn … ways to squelch comment by other councilpersons or the public. The council definitely needed an attorney on Tuesday when members decided to dismiss the ethics complaints against themselves!
That’s transparency for you.
Please send your comments to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
