On Jan. 13, resident Bruce George filed a complaint against Camp Verde Town Councilmen Joe Butner and Bill LeBeau, accusing them of “unprofessional conduct” at the Jan. 8 council meeting when discussing George’s application to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
George eventually withdrew his application and complaint, and the council voted against reprimanding Butner and LeBeau at the Feb. 19 town council meeting, but George’s complaint turned out to be just the first of a series of complaints against the council that led to the council voting to change its complaint process at a meeting on Wednesday, March 5.
Carol German filed a complaint against Planning & Zoning Commissioner Christine McPhail for allegedly “disparaging” Butner and LeBeau in public comments at a meeting.
Cheri Wischmeyer filed a complaint against Mayor Charlie German, claiming he had unfairly “attacked” Butner and LeBeau by including language disparaging them in the agenda for the Feb. 19 meeting.
Nancy Floyd filed a complaint against Planning & Zoning Commissioner Jackie Baker alleging that she had misleadingly referred to the town’s code of conduct when speaking at the Feb. 19 meeting in opposition to other members of the P&Z commission.
Steve Goetting filed a complaint against Town Manager Russ Martin, alleging that the manager had violated open meeting laws by discussing the status of construction bids on the Camp Verde Sports Complex with The Camp Verde Journal before they were discussed publicly in a town meeting.
“I can tell you right now,” German said at the meeting. “Being mayor is not a fun place to be when all these complaints are coming in, because they fall on my shoulders unless the complaint is about me, so I’ve got mixed emotions. Give me more complaints about me so it can go to the vice mayor and give me a break.”
German argued that the use of the complaint process had been abused in recent weeks, that investigations into each of these complaints had become costly for town staff and the town attorney, and that they were no longer leading to productive government.
Martin estimated that dealing with complaints had cost the town $10,000 in attorney fees and far more than that in staff time.
“Someone could not like the blouse that I chose to wear with my skirt, and they could complain about it,” said Councilwoman Robin Whatley, who agreed with German’s issues with the process. Whatley stressed that she had voted against creating the complaint form process previously. “It is so wide open. This is exactly what I envisioned — complaints coming out of nowhere, for everything. I think there’s other ways for citizens to complain, and before the complaint form there was. We had a recall.”
Butner and Lebeau, who had themselves been the most recent targets of the complaint process, argued
against the change.
“It’s not the form itself that generates complaints,” LeBeau said. “It’s the actions or perceived actions of town representatives. If we’re having a lot of them, perhaps we have a communications problem. We need to look at that. But I don’t think we can willy nilly get rid of the form, because to me it provides a way of tracking and keeping control over each individual complaint and allows it to be handled at a later date instead of being forgotten about.”
Vice Mayor Dee Jenkins expressed frustration with the current complaint process, though she also argued that it would be unwise to suspend it.
“If the complaint form is removed or withdrawn from use, something needs to be in place,” Jenkins said. “I would be concerned about removing it and not having an option of a complaint form, because the purpose of the complaint form in my mind is it gives us transparency. It gives us communica- tion that there has been a complaint. It also provides timelines and expectations from everyone involved in the complaint form. If that wasn’t available, we need to have something.”
Jenkins ended up joining Butner and LeBeau in voting to keep the complaint form, but they lost out to the other four members who voted to suspend it. The resolution passed, 4-3 ending the use of the complaint form by the Camp Verde town government.
