Letters: Reader criticizes Surprise mayor, says he needs to step down early

I had to go back and watch it to believe it, but on Tuesday, Aug. 20 right at the two-hour mark of the City Council meeting, after the mayor finally allowed a call to the public (typically near the start of meetings), Mayor Skip Hall seemed to come prepared to shut down this portion of the meeting on his own terms.

With three minutes allotted, one of our residents expressed valid concerns about the vote to pay our city attorney at least $11,000 more on top of a salary already ranking very near the top 10 in the state for appointed officials at about $266,000. Just over two minutes into it, Hall interrupted her to quote section 2(e) of the city’s “Public Meeting and Public Hearing Rules,” claiming she was “lodg[ing] charges or complaints against [an] employee of the city.”

He must have been thinking too much about what he was going to say because he didn’t listen closely enough to hear that no complaints or charges were placed. Any related complaints had already been made through correct channels in the past, and actual events and facts were being cited and shared. According to those same public hearing rules in Section 4, “Pursuant to A.R.S. 38-431.01(H), at the conclusion of an open call to the public, individual councilmembers may, in their sole discretion, respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the public body or ask for staff to followup or review the matter raised.”

Hall didn’t actually have all the public meeting “rules” on his mind, or he would have followed the protocol outlined in Section 4. Instead he chose to engage and combat with one of the citizens he swore an oath to serve and represent as mayor. He could have and should have just let her finish and sit back down, but instead he wanted to cut her short to selectively call out a “rule” and use it against her freedom of speech.

It’s fiendishly ironic that Robert Wingo, the city attorney, stood by silently in the front row, even when Mayor Hall escalated the situation into an unlawful removal and detaining of that citizen.

Sadly, Mayor Hall has a history of interrupting speakers and trying to correct them in that moment on something he disagrees with, as he did to me at about the two-hour mark of the Aug. 6 work session. What’s most disconcerting in all of this is that Mayor Hall, a lame duck mayor at this stage, has now gone a step too far towards creating greater divisions between the citizens of this city and their elected council — that’s wrong to do to “we the people,” and it’s wrong to do to those just elected to the council in July who are coming in with aspirations of bringing this city together and creating solutions to our toughest challenges.

Mayor Hall showed it’s more important to him to silence us even by force, than to listen and attempt to bring us together. Everyone should search for this six-minute segment on YouTube (Google the keywords: mayor hall speech) and judge for yourself.

There was nothing out of order. A mayor who holds the keys to appointing every city office including chief of police and municipal judges should not be giving orders to remove people from council chambers during an open meeting.

If anyone was or is in real danger, our good officers of Surprise Police Department are ready to assist.

Mayor Hall, until this moment I was supportive of the democratic process that allows you to finish out your term as mayor, but seeing now that you cannot properly control the powers vested in you, I call on you to openly apologize to the citizen that you ordered physical harm to while she spoke freely — as it was her right to — and resign the office of mayor immediately.

This trend towards more division needs to end now. We have Vice Mayor Nick Haney, and he can lead out the remainder of this term and get us back on track as a city towards greater unity.

Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.