Corruption in Gilbert? Mayor Steve Berman Goes Nuclear on TV Reporter

I’ve been seeing a lot of these signs popping up in Gilbert over the last couple of days.

Looks like Gilbert Mayor Steve Berman has annoyed someone again.

Berman has a bit of a history with recall attempts (all unsuccessful to date), and public outcry. Outcry? Stories about providing tax incentives to a car dealership that then gave him a F-150 truck, some nonsense about a free custom $1200 suit he kept after appearing in a Dillard’s ad. More serious concerns about fire protection in “county islands”. So I was curious to see what the story was this time.

A little research found a video of the Mayor going off on a television reporter from Channel 15.

Some back-story may be necessary to get the full effect….

Recently a sports park, Big League Dreams, was opened in Gilbert near Power and Elliot roads (see my post on Big League Dreams here).

I knew there were cost over runs on this project (originally projected at $22.7 million with a final estimated cost of $40 million). But the latest turmoil seems to surround how the bids were conducted to award the contract to build and manage the complex.

According to some reports, the Town of Gilbert paid Big League Dreams $90,000 to conduct a feasibility study in order to help them prepare a “Request For Proposals’ (RFP). The RFP is then submitted to companies for bids where they will hopefully receive Town Council approval and a contract for the project.

The problem is, it is against both State of Arizona and Town of Gilbert statutes for a contract to be awarded to a company that participates in preparation of the RFP. There appears to be no question that Big League Dreams prepared a feasibility study. Town Manager George Pettit has said he wrote the RFP. The RFP references the Big League Dreams study.  Now the question is, does the preparation of a feasibility study constitute preparation of the RFP to an extent that violates state and town statute? The Town says no. Others seem to disagree. I suspect the state Attorney General will decide.

Here is the Channel 15 Video of Mayor Steve Berman going ballistic on ABC-15 reporter Josh Bernstein.

Is this any way for an elected official to act? I’ll let you be the judge.

Local reports of the Big League Dreams RFP / Recall / CH 15 Interview situations:

Tribune Editorial: Gilbert officials must face music on Big League costs

Berman: Mayor defends Big League Dreams

Skousen: We chose best option for park

Watson: Berman’s actions have become too much

Ripley: Where does the buck stop in Gilbert?

Gilbert mayor spews expletives at recall backer

Gilbert: Awarding of park bid was legal

The comments on some of these stories are priceless.

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