Allen Skillicorn, a councilman in the very red town of Fountain Hills, Arizona, filed a lawsuit recently against the town, its far left Mayor Ginny Dickey, a couple of progressive council members and their attorney alleging violations of “free speech, his right to petition government officials for a redress of grievances, and his due process rights.” The officials had disciplined Skillicorn over expressing concerns that council members were voting on issues regarding developers who had contributed to their campaigns, and for confronting a town employee who he caught stealing one of his signs.
As punishment, the officials said Skillicorn cannot be elected vice mayor, cannot have his official travel paid for, is barred from interacting with town employees without another individual present, and required him to apologize to the employee. Fountain Hills is a conservative enclave, voting for Donald Trump for president over Joe Biden by over 20 points in 2020, but progressive officials have taken over the town, since they run in nonpartisan races, hiding their views.
Skillicorn’s complaint stated that Dickey, council members Brenda Kalivianakis, Sharron Grzybowski, Peggy McMahon and their attorney Tina Vannucci “determined, after a sham investigation, that Councilman Skillicorn had committed ‘ethics’ violations for simply exercising his constitutional rights.”
The officials’ report, authored by Vannucci, condemned Skillicorn for acting aggressively towards the employee stealing his sign. However, Skillicorn said it was the employee who acted aggressively towards him. He objected to the apology as “compelled speech.”
Skilliorn said, “It is clear that the Town Defendants are trying to intimidate Councilman Skillicorn into not saying anything critical of the Mayor and Councilmembers he disagrees with. If every time a government official found speech distasteful that speech could be squelched, there would be no such thing as free speech.”
The first incident involved statements Skillicorn made during a council meeting expressing his concern that some council members had ex parte communications with a developer or accepted campaign contributions from a developer and needed to recuse themselves. Dickey refused to allow him to question the other council members.
Skillicorn said that this was rushing through “process be damned.” McMahon accused him of “vulgar accusations,” said he had no proof and that it was no longer a hearing. Skillicorn responded and asked her if she opposed transparency.
Vannucci said the hearing should move along to something else. Skillicorn said there were rumors about the issue, and suggested going into e-session, but no one would second him.
The officials claimed Skillicorn’s behavior during the meeting violated Section 8.4 of the Fountain Hills ethics code. It states, in a broad, clearly unconstitutional way that could be used to target anyone, “[The Council shall] be dedicated to the highest ideals of honor, ethics, and integrity in all public and personal relationships.”
Second, Skillicorn was accused of violating Section 8.4(A), which states that council members shall avoid “personal attacks or derogatory language,” “verbal attacks upon the character or motives of other members,” and “making disparaging remarks about other members.” Others at the meeting appeared to be rude towards him, but this was ignored.
Third, the report said Skillicorn violated 8.6(B), another overly broad, clearly unconstitutional rule which states that council members must be “honest, fair, caring, and respectful,” and avoid the “appearance of impropriety.”
Skillicorn said the ethics rules are unconstitutional since they do not fit what the Supreme Court has defined as reasonable time, place and manner restrictions. They cannot be based on disagreement with the content of the speech.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that municipal office holders “should enjoy the fullest liberty of speech, and that he should be protected from the resentment of every one, however powerful, to whom the exercise of that liberty may occasion offense.”
The Arizona Supreme Court said, “Statements were made by a town council member at a formal council meeting during the course of that meeting … the statements are protected by an absolute immunity.”
Skillicorn attacked the ethics rules as too broad and vague. “A requirement to demonstrate ‘good citizenship’ is hopelessly vague, and basing punishment on a provision of law that fails to give ‘fair notice’ of what actions are actually prohibited and would subject a person to significant sanctions.”
In regards to the second incident, Skillicorn said he witnessed a man driving a Town of Fountain Hills vehicle stop and remove one of his signs opposing a bond measure. Skillicorn flashed his lights at the employee in order to get his attention. It was daytime. The report did not allege that Skillicorn violated any traffic laws.
The report said Skillicorn “could have” contacted the Town Manager instead about the incident. Skillicorn responded, “The government is not permitted to dictate the manner in which a citizen decides to approach a government employee and may impose no malleable ‘politeness’ or ‘civility’ requirement, or dictate which government officials an American is permitted to approach to exercise free speech rights or seek a redress of grievances.”
In regards to apologizing, Skillicorn cited a Supreme Court case which held that the right to free speech “includes both the right to speak freely and the right to refrain from speaking at all.”
Skillicorn said the Town’s actions have encouraged other ethics complaints to be filed against him.
Last year, Skillicorn led an effort to successfully prevent implementation of a “Green New Deal” style environmental plan. He also restored an invocation of prayer at the beginning of council meetings.
Dickey supported the Green New Deal plan. She previously served as a staffer for the Arizona Senate Democrats, and is former executive director of Arizona List, a PAC to elect pro-abortion Democrat women. She is part of a secret Facebook group of far left Fountain Hills activists and officials that coordinate to attack conservatives. Most people have little faith any of these leftists will be voted out this year, due to the nonpartisan nature of the race and the officials scrubbing any mention of their progressive histories and agenda from their campaign websites.
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