Scottsdale deserves a council that places the city’s best foot forward rather than highlighting an endless circle of tawdry behavior. Maybe the next GoFundMe campaign or PayPal scheme should be to raise money to help Loophole Phillips get new employment.”
Jim Derouin, Scottsdale resident
By Jim Derouin
It’s been an eventful last six months for Guy Phillips, the inept member of the City Council who believes that rules apply to others, but not to him.
His ignorance led to the recent disastrous anti-mask rally that shamed Scottsdale around the world.
First, Phillips was the recipient of thousands of dollars raised through an anonymous GoFundMe account to supposedly help with his medical expenses.
Then the money was used mostly for personal and business expenses. We should be thankful that the scheme was uncovered before the goal of $20,000 was reached because, as set up, Phillips was not required to either declare contributions as a “gifts” under the city’s ethics rule or as “campaign contributions” under state law.
Second, the city’s ethics code needs an entire retrofit just to fix the Phillips’ loopholes --- to prohibit anonymous gifts, to prohibit limitless “personal” gifts and to prohibit councilmembers like Phillips from soliciting contributions and employment from city employees and officers.
The task of amending the ethics code is simple: Identify what Phillips did and prohibit it all.
Then Phillips used city property to set up his rally to protest a proclamation by Mayor Lane calling for the use of masks in public --- even though Lane had consulted with members of the council before issuing his proclamation.
Phillips used city email servers to communicate with hundreds, if not thousands of people to, in effect, create a campaign event.
Phillips sent out so many emails that the city, while providing thousands of them, could only provide a “representative sample” of the total number.
At the event, Phillips attacked Mayor Lane; and a supporter referred to Lane as being the leader of a “communist insurrection.” Phillips capped his rally by mocking the murder of George Floyd, who was choked to death in Minneapolis while gasping that he couldn’t breathe.
Phillips said to the crowd repeatedly “I can’t breathe” before taking off his mask, smirking, and rolling his eyes to the admiration of his campaign supporters. His conduct was condemned around the world. What a great job Phillips does of promoting Scottsdale.
Now, a new campaign finance law complaint has been filed by resident Mark Greenburg documenting the manner in which Phillips has collected political donations via Budget Mechanical, LLC, his wholly owned business, instead of having the money collected by his political campaign committees.
In short, Phillips has been operating three distinct websites collecting campaign donations through two distinct business PayPal accounts for two campaign committees (one that was terminated long ago).
Phillips, as per usual, and in writing to the city, first denied the existence of the PayPal accounts belonging to his business before reversing himself the next day acknowledging the existence of his businesses PayPal account (to buy and sell products on eBay).
Phillips has, once again, designed a perfect operating system where accountability and responsibility can be avoided. You’ll remember that Phillips is the person who said that COVID stood for the “Chinese Originated Viral Infectious Disease” before saying “sorry, I guess I was wrong.”
After his campaign rally, arranged through his city email account, Phillips says that he didn’t intend to mock the murder of a black man. And, in his PayPal fiasco, he wants all of us to believe that he had no idea where money donated to his campaign went --- did it go to his campaign by way of his business PayPal account or somewhere else?
And if it went through his company, didn’t that make the donations “corporate” in nature?
No rule is too trivial for Phillips to ignore, nor has Phillips missed any opportunity to argue that he is the victim of his own misconduct. But each time he finds a new loophole, he brings more disrepute on the council.
Scottsdale deserves a council that places the city’s best foot forward rather than highlighting an endless circle of tawdry behavior. Maybe the next GoFundMe campaign or PayPal scheme should be to raise money to help Loophole Phillips get new employment.
Editor’s Note: Jim Derouin is an attorney who has lived in Scottsdale since 1985. He does not represent developers and has never represented a client before the city of Scottsdale. He was one of the authors of the City’s Ethics Code unanimously adopted by the City Council in 2006 and has served on various city task forces.
