Homeless in Arizona

On the other hand I suspect Phoenix Councilman Michael Nowakowski will be giving us the old Nixon line of "I'm not a crook".

Source

Phoenix land backstory: "Please do not forward by email. Print please."

Dustin Gardiner, The Republic | azcentral.com 6:09 a.m. MST March 6, 2016

Phoenix councilman said he had no involvement with his employer's bid to buy city land. At the same time, his then-chief of staff received emails from the developer's consultant.

When Phoenix Councilman Michael Nowakowski was accused of impropriety in a city land deal that involved his private-sector employer, the councilman made some public declarations: He would not vote on the deal to sell the city property. He never violated conflict-of-interest rules. And he had no involvement with his employer's bid.

But as Nowakowski responded to the growing controversy, his then-chief of staff received emails about managing the situation from a man hired as a political consultant for the developer that, along with Nowakowski's employer, had made the leading proposal to buy and build on the Fillmore Avenue property downtown.

Nowakowski's response

Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski addressed reporters Tuesday night to respond to a developer's claim that he failed to disclose a conflict of interest related to a downtown land sale worth $8.5 million. azcentral.com

Emails sent from Joe Villasenor, the developer's political consultant, and received by Layla Ressler, Nowakowski’s chief of staff at the time, were obtained by The Arizona Republic through requests under the Arizona Public Records Law.

The Republic and azcentral.com initially reported concerns about Nowakowski's involvement after the city recommended a joint land bid from Trammell Crow Co. and the Cesar Chavez Foundation, where Nowakowski is a top executive. A team of rival developers said Nowakowski met with them about the project last spring but never disclosed that his employer was also looking at bidding on the land. Nowakowski runs a network of radio stations owned by the Chavez Foundation.

The emails between Villasenor and Ressler that the city released were sent in October. The first was sent the same day that Nowakowski held a news conference after the initial report.

Using Ressler's private email address, Villasenor sent her messages about subjects including the councilman's talking points for responding to the controversy, Trammell Crow's response to the controversy and the developer's legal strategy.

Trammell Crow and the Chavez Foundation had proposed buying the city property for $9 million to build a roughly $112 million residential and commercial project. Though an external review found no laws were broken, Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher canceled the sale in November, citing concerns about public perceptions of the deal, and announced the city would start over on the bidding process.

The existence of emails between Ressler and Villasenor has since triggered a "coaching" session for Ressler with a City Hall administrator who was Ressler's supervisor. And critics say the emails raise questions about gaps in the city-funded review of the controversy in October.

That review by a private law firm concluded the bidding was untainted and that Nowakowski had not violated conflict-of-interest laws, but it has been blasted by critics as being incomplete.

One thing apparently not included in the firm's review: the emails between Ressler and Villasenor.

Council members respond to controversy

Phoenix City Council responds to conflict of interest investigation

Ressler abruptly left her job at City Hall on Friday. She had given her supervisor a verbal notice the day before, according to a city spokesman. Ressler, who declined to comment on the emails, did not respond to requests for comment about her resignation.

Nowakowski did not respond to requests for comment about the emails. The messages the city released between the consultant and Ressler do not include any sent or received by Nowakowski.

But an Oct. 15 email from Villasenor to Ressler contained a draft letter outlining a legal argument for why the city should still award the deal to Trammell Crow and the Chavez Foundation.

The subject line of the email reads: “Here is the latest draft of our letter that we will submit … Only for you and michael to look at but please do not forward by email. Print please.”

What's in the emails

All of the emails were sent as Phoenix was still considering selling the land to Trammell Crow and the Chavez Foundation. Because a deal was on the table, rules prohibiting bidders from communicating with certain city officials about the sale were in effect.

The 7.6-acre property, on Fillmore Street between Fourth and Sixth avenues, is likely the largest unclaimed piece of real estate left in a downtown core booming with construction.

The first email obtained by The Republic is from Villasenor to Ressler with the subject line "info needed." It was sent hours before Nowakowski held a press conference Oct. 6 to first address the controversy. An attachment to the email has a list of items, including: "calendar entries meeting with Michael," "emails about this property" and "number of times Michael voted."

It's not clear who Villasenor was working for when he sent that email. Jason Rose, a spokesman for Trammell Crow, said he hired Villasenor to do consulting work for the development company on Oct. 7, the day after that message was sent.

Villasenor had agreed to speak with The Republic about the emails in January, but canceled on two occasions, citing illness. He later declined to comment, saying, "I just don't have the time."

As Nowakowski's then-chief of staff, Ressler was the councilman's top policy adviser. A council chief of staff typically runs the elected official's City Hall office and acts as the council member's representative in dealings with constituents and other officials.

After the initial Oct. 6 correspondence, the communication obtained by The Republic from the consultant to the councilman's then-chief of staff continued for at least 20 days.

One email includes a draft of an opinion article or letter to the editor that Villasenor suggested Nowakowski release. That letter was apparently never published.

Another has a draft of a letter to the editor submitted to The Republic from a Trammell Crow Phoenix vice president, sent by the consultant to Nowakowksi's lawyer. A version of that letter was later published in the paper. It's not clear who sent Ressler the email, but she forwarded it from a private account to her city account.

An email from Kory Langhofer, Nowakowski’s personal attorney, was sent to the councilman, Villasenor and Ressler. The email gave a time for a conference call and included a list of talking points outlining Nowakowski’s defense against the allegations.

Langhofer declined to comment when contacted about the emails.

Separate email accounts

The Republic obtained the emails in response to a public-records request because they were in Ressler's city email account. They didn't originate there, though.

All the messages were first sent to a private email account that Ressler has from a business she created. Ressler then forwarded the seven emails to her city account, which is what the city's IT department searched in response to the records requests.

The Republic, from October through early December, filed a series of records requests pertaining to Ressler's emails. Emails on the city's servers are stored for 90 days, so the city's email searches should have captured messages sent during the public controversy. The search would not reach back to the springtime bidding process.

Some of the messages, sent from Villasenor to Ressler and then forwarded to her city address, appear to address earlier topics of correspondence. "Edits to your statement," he writes in the subject line of one message containing an attachment of a memo Ressler wrote about a discussion she had with Councilwoman Laura Pastor regarding the controversy. No email shows how Villasenor obtained an earlier draft of that memo.

The Republic inquired if other emails with keywords pertaining to the land sale existed on Ressler's private account. City Attorney Brad Holm said the city cannot search employees' private email accounts and must ask them to search for any documents that are public records.

A Phoenix spokeswoman said the city asked Ressler three times to search her private account for documents related to city business. Ressler said she had no documents, according to the city.

The Republic also requested any emails or text messages pertaining to the land deal that exist on Nowakowski's personal or work email accounts or cellphone.

The Republic found two instances where Nowakowski received emails — one sent by his attorney and another sent by a city spokesman — about the controversy on his Chavez Foundation email account.

A city spokeswoman said the City Attorney's Office twice asked Ressler whether Nowakowski had emails pertaining to the Fillmore sale on non-city accounts, but the office "was told the councilman had nothing."

Staff memos, possible explanations

Ressler's then-supervisor at City Hall spoke to her about the emails after they were uncovered because of The Republic's records requests.

Penny Parrella, who oversees City Council office staff, met with Ressler in late November to discuss a concern about two of the emails: the one that contained a draft of the letter to the editor from Trammell Crow and another containing the draft legal letter. Parrella documented the meeting in a handwritten note.

City rules generally prohibit bidders, including their agents, from having “any direct or indirect contact with any person (other than the designated procurement officer) who may play a part in the selection process” -- including City Council members, the mayor and city management -- from the start of a bid process until a deal is approved by the council. Violators are disqualified. The communication ban is known as a blackout period.

"I reminded her that we can't be responsible for things people send us but that we have a responsibility to notify — the policy prohibits direct or indirect communication," Parrella wrote of Ressler. "She responded that her lawyer told her that since (Nowakowski) declared a conflict it didn't matter, the policy doesn't apply. I said I couldn't speak to that since I'm not a lawyer but that I felt it was important to remind her of the policy and its requirement to report communication."

Though Ressler declined The Republic's requests for an interview, a memo Ressler sent to Parrella regarding their meeting outlines several details about the emails from Trammell Crow's consultant, which she said Parrella's note did not mention:

"Councilman Nowakowski publicly declared his conflict on the West Fillmore RFP on October 6th during a press conference and subsequent public statements. His declaration of a conflict ensures that he is not a participant in the selection process." "The information/emails I received came after October 6th and therefore, after Nowakowski declared a conflict." "The information/emails I had received is the same information the entire public and/or city council received." "The information/emails I received was sent to me via Councilman Nowakowski's legal team." "I was advised by Nowakowski's legal counsel there is no legal obligation to disclose." "In summary, Nowakowski's legal counsel had advised that as a result of Nowakowski's claimed conflict, Nowakowski was no longer a member of the City Council regarding this issue," Ressler wrote in her memo, "and any information exchanged with Nowakowski or his office staff was for the exclusive legal defense purpose and was in no violation of any provision of the RFP (bid process) Black out Period."

However, the first email from Villasenor, which was not referenced in Parrella's note, had a time-stamp showing it was sent hours before Nowakowski's Oct. 6 press conference, where Ressler said the councilman had declared a conflict.

That email was obtained by The Republic through a subsequent records request that was filed after Ressler's meeting with Parrella.

It's unclear whether Villasenor worked with both Trammell Crow and the law firm representing Nowakowski. In a brief phone call, Villasenor said he and Nowakowski's attorney share office space. He did not respond to a follow-up question specifically about the matter.

Villasenor also has ties to the Chavez Foundation. He, Ressler and Nowakowski served together on the foundation's Arizona development board, and their names and photographs are listed in the program from a 2014 fundraising event.

Parrella's note later prompted criticism from Nowakowski and fellow council members Sal DiCiccio and Thelda Williams, who said Ressler had not been told she was being "coached" and was not given a chance to respond to the note. All three council members wrote Zuercher with their concerns.

Developer's response: Consultant went 'cowboy'

As for Villasenor's role on behalf of Trammell Crow, Rose said the company has no knowledge of whether Villasenor also was working for Nowakowski's legal team at the same time, saying, "If that was the case, no one knew that."

Rose said Trammell Crow didn't know, until presented with the emails, that Villasenor had been in contact with Nowakowski's office regarding the controversy and that no communication between representatives of Trammell Crow and the councilman's office predated Villasenor's hiring. Villasenor stopped doing consulting work for Trammell Crow when the sale was canceled in early November, according to Rose.

"Trammell Crow has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Phoenix and is excited about doing more for downtown’s momentum," Jim Mahoney, a senior managing director with Trammell Crow in Arizona, said in a statement. "Any people or organizations scrutinized previously are not a part of our latest efforts to ensure focus on the poignancy of the proposal, not politics.”

However, Rose said Villasenor’s emails are “disappointing” and show "questionable judgment" given Trammell Crow had directed its team to have no contact with Nowakowski or his staff. Rose said he chose Villasenor, a former city employee and adviser to former Mayor Phil Gordon, as a consultant due to his familiarity with the city's bid process.

“God bless Joe, but every now and then a consultant can go cowboy, and there was certainly a Stetson on that dude,” Rose said, referring to Villasenor and the popular cowboy hat brand.

Rose said Trammell Crow has no relationship with Nowakowski.

Trammell Crow had criticized Zuercher's decision to redo the bidding process, but, Rose said, that decision now alleviates concerns about emails between Ressler and Villasenor.

“Ironically, I think the city manager’s decision, although frustrating at the time, will clear all of this up," Rose said of the emails. “It allows a clearing of the air for all matters moving forward."

Call for independent investigation

Former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said the emails show the need for an independent body, such as the county attorney or state attorney general, to conduct an investigation.

Romley said the emails raise questions about whether there was a close relationship between Nowakowski and Trammell Crow, saying, "So the question is, 'How close has this relationship been and for how long?' "

Sanders & Parks, the law firm that reviewed the bid process and accusations against Nowakowski for the city, concluded the bid process was "uncompromised" and found no evidence that Nowakowski had violated conflict-of-interest laws in his meeting with the rival developer.

But critics said the city's inquiry was incomplete. Attorneys did not have subpoena power, and Trammell Crow refused to provide emails and other requested documents, asserting they contained proprietary business information. They instead offered to sign affidavits stating they received no information about any other bids.

Romley has criticized the Sanders & Parks report because the firm did not interview Nowakowski's staff and obtain more related emails from city officials, among other shortcomings. An attorney for the firm declined to comment.

“It strains credulity that an organization with which he is supposed to have had no prior relationship is now editing talking points on a matter of grave concern both to the public and Mr. Nowakowski. They got cozy very quickly.” Brendan Mahoney, attorney and former adviser to Mayor Greg Stanton

"The investigation quite frankly was a joke," Romley said. "What this clearly shows, and I think this has been the concern from day one, is that the investigation was not thorough, it truly wasn’t independent and it does not instill the trust of the community that we really know what happened."

Romley previously said Nowakowski could have been in violation of Arizona’s conflict-of-interest law, which bars city officials from voting or “otherwise participating in any manner” in a city sale, purchase or contract where they or a relative has a substantial interest. Romley said past court cases show officials who declare a conflict must be totally hands-off.

Langhofer, Nowakowski's attorney, has said the councilman "absolutely did not have a substantial interest that could rise to a conflict of interest." The councilman's employer wrote a letter stating that Nowakowski's employment and compensation would not be affected by the deal.

Brendan Mahoney, an attorney and former adviser to Mayor Greg Stanton, questions why the law firm that issued the city's report drew conclusions without having all of the records.

Mahoney said he also finds the emails troubling given Nowakowski said he had no involvement in the foundation's bid with Trammell Crow.

“It strains credulity that an organization with which he is supposed to have had no prior relationship is now editing talking points on a matter of grave concern both to the public and Mr. Nowakowski," Mahoney said. "They got cozy very quickly."

Rose said the suggestion that Nowakowski and Trammell Crow have a close relationship is false and irresponsible. Trammell Crow has submitted an offer in the new bidding process, this time without the Chavez Foundation as a partner.

"Rick (Romley) is a good man but his suggestions fall as short as the Arizona Cardinals unfortunately did to the Carolina Panthers," Rose said in an email. "Trammell Crow offered the most for the land with the best plan before and it intends to be very competitive in the new process as well."

Though Nowakowski did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the emails and did not respond to a request for comment regarding Ressler's departure, he praised her work in a Facebook post Friday afternoon.

"It has been a pleasure to have worked with her and I want to congratulate and wish her the best as she moves towards new opportunities," Nowakowski wrote in a Facebook post. "Although our time together in City Hall has come to an end, I know I have a life-long friend in Layla."