Just when you think you've seen it all, the Quartzsite Town Council still pulls off a surprise. Everyone managed to get through Pat Anderson's phony spiel about the peaceful passing of Rosalee Oldham Wheeler "in her sleep" (I guess nobody told her about the blood on the pillow or the requested autopsy), they survived Rain's endless diatribe about Centennial activities nobody cares about. They even made it through the carefully orchestrated attempt by Lukkason, Anderson and Winslow to get a dig in at Mayor Foster by adding their snide remarks that he should have recused himself from the executive session over the air strip battle to the official minutes of the last regular meeting. It almost seemed as if the meeting could be conducted by grown ups. But it only took about two minutes for the whole thing to disintegrate into preschool without nap time.
At "call to the public", current Candidate for Town Council Jennifer Jones informed our illustrious leaders that Police Chief Jeff Gilbert had violated Arizona Revised Statute 41-772 and Article 2, section 202 of the town employees policies and procedures manual by comparing candidate Jones and Michael Roth (the Republican Party Chairman for La Paz County) to Tucson gunman Jared Lee Loughner during "reports and anouncements" at the previous meeting. "Politicking" on public time is a no no!
A class 1 misdemeanor, A. R. S. 41-772 states:
"an employee shall not engage in any activity permitted by this section while on duty, while in uniform or at public expense. "
and
"An employee who violates any of the provisions of this section shall be subject to suspension of not less than thirty days or dismissal."
When Jones asked that Chief Gilbert be placed on administrative leave until the March 8th recall election to assist him in his apparent aspirations as wannabe pundit alongside Skip Gallup, the members of the town council came unglued. "Point of order!" "That's a personal attack!" Then Councilman Bob Kelley stormed out of the room with Councilman Jerry Lukkason close behind. Finally, Councilman Winslow has a tantrum and went to join the other rats in the back room. Because Vice Mayor Barbara Cowell was absent, this meant no quorum was present , forcing an abrupt end to the meeting which left citizens stunned and the Police Chief noticeably deprived of the opportunity to pontificate endlessly while his boot lickers gaze adoringly. For once, it seems as if a citizen almost had the last word.
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