A normally routine bit of Camp Verde Town Council business turned into a major fight among public officials at a meeting on Jan. 8.
In the midst of discussing an application for the Planning & Zoning Commission, Councilman Joe Butner surprised his fellow council members by pulling out a police report that included allegations against the potential commissioner.
The Camp Verde Journal spoke with the applicant, who vociferously denied the accusation in the report. The Camp Verde Marshal’s Office spoke with the individual, who denied the accusations, and have not yet pursued any charges.
Since the individual has not been charged with any crime, denies it ever occurred, has no criminal record and withdrew his application to the commission, and since The JOURNAL cannot independently verify the allegation, we have omitted the name and the allegation.
The applicant said that CVMO contacted him on Monday before the meeting, nearly a month after the alleged incident, and left a voicemail. The applicant said he did not speak directly with anyone from CVMO until the day after the meeting, when he denied the allegation. CVMO declined to comment for this story.
According to Town Manager Russ Martin, CVMO is preparing a supplemental report on the incident in the near future.
At the meeting, Butner asked the applicant, “Were you riding your bike on Sunday, Dec. 13, 2019, in the afternoon on McCracken Lane?”
Butner then produced the police report that he handed to the applicant, his fellow council members and the town clerk, insisting it be put into the public record.
“Is this appropriate?” Councilwoman Robin Whatley asked.
Council called a recess, and the applicant withdrew his application for the position after speaking with Martin, hoping to keep the allegation among those who received the report.
Butner had received the police report from Councilman Bill LeBeau, who had independently heard about the allegation — he lives close to the relevant location — and filed a public records request with the Camp Verde Marshal’s Office to receive the police report.
“I understand that the manager would have preferred to handle it with more discretion,” LeBeau said, saying that it was not the first incident he had heard of involving this individual, however, no charges have ever been filed before in regards to the rumor he cited.
“I believe it needed to see the light of day,” he said “I think it’s appropriate to the situation in trying to appoint a fellow to another three-year term on a commission. It needed to be out there. It’s nothing personal. I have no animus towards anyone really.”
Martin said that he would have preferred that LeBeau or Butner had contacted him in advance about the police report, so that he could have addressed it with the applicant in advance or the council could have discussed it in executive session rather than having the applicant and some of the council members blindsided.
“The courtrooms that [Butner] works in — there’s rules for producing evidence for just that reason,” Martin said. “I would say we have rules of decorum, those are the ones that are there. They’re rules. Unorthodox is prob- ably a good term — normal procedures would require notifying the manager and making sure that the information can be disseminated to the other council members so that the council members can have their ability to make decisions.”
Mayor Charlie German declined to comment on the events at Wednesday’s meeting, but said that he would be assessing council process to prevent himself, the manager and other council members from being surprised.
Danee Garone, representative of the Arizona Ombudsman Citizen’s Aide said that as far as he could tell, bringing up a surprise document on an applicant during a Town Council discussion did not violate Arizona open meeting laws.
Butner’s actions did, however, draw anger from Whatley.
“I’ve been on the council 10 years and that was the most despicable thing I’ve ever seen,” Whatley said. “I don’t know if Mr. Butner hasn’t read our code of conduct, but I’ve made sure that hard copies are in everybody’s box as we speak.”
“He should never have given it to any of us, I believe,” Whatley said. “He should have went through proper channels, which would have been, when he found out about this, to take it to our town manager, and say ‘I became aware of this and I think you should know about this.’ Russ would have handled it.”
“This is not character assassination,” Butner said at the meeting. “This is bringing pertinent facts to the attention of the council, the appointing body for members of the boards and commissions in our town. Improper conduct is one of the things we are to consider when we appoint someone to one of those positions, and not to engage in improper conduct or offenses of moral turpitude for that matter. And so I’m not going to apologize because I’m not the one who submitted the application.”
Correction: The print version of this story incorrectly stated that the applicant spoke with CVMO on the Monday before the council meeting. He only received a voicemail from them, and, did not speak directly with law enforcement until the day after the meeting.
