Town attorney decision signals more chaos for Fountain Hills

Those who attempted to raise the alarm and convince voters to stop the attempted takeover of Fountain Hills by hyper-partisan candidates failed.

The resulting chaos is evidenced by the discordant and dysfunctional meetings and headline-generating scandals, including the departure of our experienced attorney, Aaron Arnson, and replacement (pending a final agreement) with Jennifer Wright; a lawyer with no discernible expertise in municipal law, but a long association with right-wing causes and candidates and an affiliation with Timothy La Sota, who brought two unsuccessful lawsuits against the town and whose firm will bill for her services.

A viable candidate for the position of town attorney should have experience in the law governing city charters, ordinances, resolutions and council procedures; open meeting and public records; public contracting and procurement; land use, zoning and planning; risk management; employment and labor; ethics and conflicts of interest; and public finance and taxation. As far as I can see, Wright has no listed experience in any of these areas.

I believe Wright’s retention would violate both the letter and the spirit of Arizona’s procurement laws, (see ARS §41-2579) as well as the town’s Procurement Code (Section 3-3-2). The La Sota firm’s proposal was submitted directly to Councilwoman Earle before the position was vacant and before any formal Request for Proposals (RFP) was prepared or advertised, which appears to violate the fundamental requirements of transparency and fair competition in public contracting. 

The provisions governing public contracts were enacted to ensure fairness, integrity and public confidence in how local governments spend taxpayer dollars. Here, these provisions were seemingly ignored and circumvented in an apparent effort to install an attorney that, while lacking relevant experience, certainly appears to share the new majority’s political perspective.

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