A candidate who feels compelled to enlist a spokesperson to reinforce his false campaign claims is in serious trouble. Gerry Friedel must believe that his campaign is on the rocks as evidenced by his recent ploy of trotting out his old buddy, David Spelich, to buttress his false claims about Mayor Dickey and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) contract.
Spelich was not up to the task.
• Why the MCSO contract is and always has been “bad”;
• Why Mayor Dickey is solely responsible for the flaws in the contract and MCSO’s alleged failure to abide by its terms; and
• Why Gerry Friedel is the only one with the skills and insight necessary to fix this mess.
Spelich then incongruously ended his star turn by looking sternly into the camera and by offering the following sage advice: “Here’s a suggestion, stop trying to turn the Avenue of the Fountains into Rodeo Drive.”
During his cameo performance on “Friedel Friday” Spelich repeated his friend’s false claims that the MCSO owes millions to Fountain Hills and that Fountain Hills is paying for MCSO to police Rio Verde, Tonto Verde, and other areas outside of the Town limits.
Significantly, Spelich failed to acknowledge that:
• The mayor has no executive power to unilaterally enter into a contract for police services with the County or resolve disputes arising out of that contract.
• All of the contracts with the County to provide police services through the MCSO were approved by a majority of the Town Council, and Mayor Dickey was only one member of the negotiating team.
• The settlement of the claim against the County, based primarily on personnel vacancies, was approved by the Town Council. That claim, which only Spelich and Friedel valued at between $1 million and $3 million, was resolved for $722,000 – not $600,000 as Spelich claims.
• The Town Council adopted many of the recommendations made by Matrix Consulting, the firm retained in 2022, to provide an outside expert review of the MCSO contract. Matrix recommended that Fountain Hills continue its contract with the County and rely on MCSO to provide police services. At the time, then Councilmember Spelich described the Matrix recommendations as “spot on,” acknowledging that the citizens didn’t have the appetite to pay the costs of a stand-alone police force.
• Consistent with the recommendations made by Matrix, the current contract incorporates provisions expressly intended to ensure that Fountain Hills does not pay to police areas outside of its boundaries.
• Fountain Hills pays less “per capita” for police services than almost every other town or city in the East Valley. Only Cave Creek pays less.
• The current contract, unanimously approved by the Town Council last year, will not expire until 2029. To renegotiate the contract the Town would need to advise the MCSO of an intent to terminate without cause 12 months prior to the termination date or provide notice of a breach of the contract, which would result in automatic termination if the breach is not cured within 90 days.
Spelich provides no support for his assertion that Friedel has the ability to “think outside the box” or the skill to spearhead an effort to create a independent police force, a transition that would likely cost more than $10 million the first year. During his nearly four-year tenure on the Town Council Friedel has offered no constructive, concrete suggestions as to how the current contract could be improved or even outlined a plan for transitioning to a stand-alone police force.
It is apparent that Friedel’s current “dissatisfaction” with the MCSO contract is motivated by his desire to disparage and embarrass Mayor Dickey on the threshold of an election. An election that Friedel is intent on winning at any cost, even if it involves deception, fueling unfounded rumors, and violating the Code of Ethics he agreed to uphold when he took office.
It is not a coincidence that Friedel waited until the Candidate Forum to assert his claim that Fountain Hills is currently paying for the MCSO to police Rio Verde and Tonto Verde. There is no indication that Friedel has requested a report from MCSO or even spoken with Captain Kratzer to substantiate his claim before it was asserted at the Forum. To date, Friedel has only been able to substantiate his claim by reference to emails and anecdotal reports.
During the Forum, Friedel stated:
“This contract’s got to be looked at and reworked…We’re not getting what we’re paying for… That’s got to change. All these different towns, why are we the only ones getting a bill for this? It’s got to change, and it’s got to be written.”
Friedel has yet to acknowledge the fact that the limitation he described is written into the current contract, which provides:
“Staff will be assigned to the Town on a full-time basis and will work within the Town limits unless required to cross jurisdiction boundaries for pursuits, on-going investigation of town cases or other temporary law enforcement emergency situations including responding to requests for assistance from other officers in surrounding jurisdictions in emergency or dangerous situations.” (emphasis added)
During his defense of Friedel, Spelich doubled down on Friedel’s ongoing deception by implying that Fountain Hills is paying for two deputies who are currently assigned by MCSO to patrol Rio Verde and Tonto Verde. Spelich also claimed that MCSO is dispatching deputies to calls outside of the town boundaries “almost daily.” Spelich, like Friedel, apparently made no effort to verify this claim by contacting Captain Kratzer or submitting a Records Request to MCSO.
If, as Friedel and Spelich claim, officers assigned to Fountain Hills are “dispatched almost daily” for calls that do not fall within the exceptions, the County is in breach of the contract, and the Town is entitled to pursue its remedies that would include reimbursement or termination.
The fact that Spelich scoffed at the suggestion that Fountain Hills would be entitled to pursue a breach of contract claim against the County (if what he reported were true) is telling. Either Spelich knows that Fountain Hills is not paying to police areas outside of its boundaries in violation of the contract or he does not understand how contracts work.
There is no indication that Spelich ever held a job in law enforcement that involved the negotiation, review, or administration of service contracts. Given the nature of his past employment Spelich could clearly hold himself out as having expertise in investigations and interrogation, but not intergovernmental service contracts.
The current MCSO contract was approved by the Town Council in 2023. The initial contract term expires on June 30, 2026, and is subject to one (1) three-year automatic renewal. Unless terminated, the contract will continue through June 30, 2029. Councilmember Friedel voted in favor of the contract.
If Councilmember Friedel were legitimately concerned that patrol officers assigned to Fountain Hills are being called upon to police areas outside of the Town limits that do not involve “mutual aid” (like responding to a recent homicide in Rio Verde), he would have requested a report from MCSO or, at a minimum, reached out to Captain Kratzer. Friedel’s apparent failure to seek verification confirms that his only interest in making the unfounded claim that Fountain Hills is paying to police Tonto Verde and Rio Verde is to embarrass his political opponent. Not surprising, given the other dirty campaign techniques he has employed, but certainly not ethical.
Section 8.4 of the Code of Ethics obligates every councilmember to: “be dedicated to the highest ideals of honor, ethics and integrity in all public and personal relationships.” Under the subsection to Section 8.4 captioned “Public Confidence” Allen Skillicorn and other Councilmembers are obligated to:
Engage in constructive conversations and debates that encourage the exchange of ideas while avoiding personal attacks or derogatory language.
Refrain from making verbal attacks upon the character or motives of other members of the Council, Boards, Commissions, the staff, or the public.
Refrain from making disparaging remarks about the other members of the Council, Boards, Commissions, the staff, or the public.
Section 8.6 of the Code incorporates the following relevant provisions:
B. Respectability. We shall safeguard public confidence in the integrity of Town government by being honest, fair, caring, and respectful and by avoiding conduct creating the unexplainable appearance of impropriety, or impropriety of which is otherwise unbefitting a public official.
Friedel’s conduct throughout this campaign has fallen short of the standards articulated in the Code of Ethics. He has repeatedly and falsely accused Mayor Dickey of misfeasance and malfeasance.
Near the conclusion of his video performance Spelich suggested that Mayor Dickey’s alleged mismanagement of the contractual relationship with MCSO could be attributed to the fact that Sheriffs Penzone and Skinner were registered Democrats. This ridiculous and offensive accusation may not have been made directly by Friedel, but it didn’t end up on the cutting room floor.
They should both be ashamed.