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Derouin: Phillips directed campaign contributions to his business

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Bill Veeck of baseball fame once said that there were only two seasons: baseball and winter. He also said that baseball is about the only orderly thing in a disorderly world because if you get three strikes, not even the best lawyer in the world can get you off.

Well, city councilman Guy Phillips just got his third strike when the Tucson City Attorney found he had directed thousands of dollars of campaign contributions through PayPal to his business.

Mr. Phillips earned his first strike when he received thousands of dollars in gifts through a GoFundMe account from anonymous donors. Although the gifts were supposedly intended for medical expenses, his personal bills ended up being paid with much of the money. He was represented by the former Scottsdale City Attorney who convinced a three judge panel that, in Scottsdale, it is absolutely proper for our council members to receive unlimited “personal” or “anonymous” gifts. And with that great defense, the “Phillips Loopholes” gutted the Scottsdale Ethics Code.

Phillips earned his second strike while yelling “I can’t breathe” at an anti-face mask rally (set up using the city’s email system) complete with Confederate flag and a speaker accusing Mayor Lane of leading a communist insurrection.

In 2018, Scottdale hosted more than 1.5 million visitors from outside of the United States; Mr. Phillips conduct generated emails from around the world disparaging Scottsdale and harming our tourist based economy. The reaction was so bad that Governor Ducey suggested that Phillips resign.

The Tucson City Attorney called strike three on August 14 when it found that:

“The documentation by both parties clearly indicates that political contributions were received by the Committee to re-elect Guy Phillips through PayPal into the Budget Mechanical, LLC account.”

This finding directly refutes what Phillips told the Scottsdale City Clerk on July 1 when he wrote that: “Budget mechanical (sic) does not have a paypal (sic) account.”

It also refutes the attorney who Phillips hired to intimidate the person who brought the complaint by claiming that the allegations of how Phillips handled his campaign donations constituted defamation and were “outrageous lies.” If there were a fourth strike in this case, it would be witness intimidation.

Phillips is an embarrassment to the city of Scottsdale. He hasn’t seen an ethics code or campaign finance rule that he can either figure out or is willing to honor. He is a repeat offender. No other member of the Council can match his political “rap sheet.” Time for a change in November.

Editor’s note: Mr. Derouin is a lawyer who has resided in Scottsdale since 1985.