Marchione probe leads to disciplinary measures

The city council was criticized Tuesday for its lack of disciplinary procedures by the attorney investigating a workplace complaint raised by City Manager Brenda Fischer in May against Councilman Alan Marchione.

Bill Sims, an attorney hired by the city to investigate the complaint, made six recommendations to the council Tuesday, two of which Marchione volunteered to do.

Sims is the legal counsel for the Arizona Municipal Risk Retention Pool comprised of 76 cities and towns.

Marchione agreed to only communicate with city staff through the city manager and copy her on any written communication to city staff. He also agreed to recuse himself from any discussions and actions should any personnel matters against Fischer occur.

Sims told the council the city manager submitted a complaint May 25 to the city attorney alleging misconduct on the part of the councilman.

However, he said “this was not an issue between two persons.”

“This was a series of issues that needed to be addressed so that you as employers could ensure that your employees didn’t perceive that they work in a hostile environment,” Sims said.

Quoting from Fischer’s complaint, Sims said, “The goal of this complaint is to determine if inappropriate behavior by Alan Marchione occurred and, if so, to cease it while protecting the city from liability from Councilmember Marchione’s actions.”

Mayor Christian Price told the audience he and the council received the attorney’s report “less than an hour ago.”

And, after the council meeting, Marchione said he did not get a copy until 7 p.m. Tuesday, when the regular city council meeting was set to begin.

Marchione recused himself from the council discussion on Sims’ presentation.

The five remaining council members and Price unanimously voted to adopt the measures recommended by Sims.

Marchione said after the meeting it was not uncommon in the council-manager form of government that he would communicate with staff only through the city manager.

“It’s just ensuring that (Fischer) is in the loop,” he said.

As to taking part in any personnel discussions concerning Fischer, Marchione said, “I offered that because I felt that serving the community with honor and integrity, I felt it was important that I could never be accused of retaliating against anyone.”

According to Sims, Fischer submitted the complaint in compliance with the city code that dictates the city manager investigate “all complaints in relation to matters concerning the administration of the city government.”

“I informed the city manager that I concurred with her interpretation,” Sims said. “Councilmember Marchione also concurred with her interpretation.”

“The goal being, for both of them, was to make sure whatever we did would better the work environment here in your city,” Sims said.

Sims said during three meetings with the city manager, Fischer told him “multiple times … she did not want this to be a personal dispute between her and the council member.”

“Her goal was to better this community,” Sims said.

Marchione said “the findings are fair and balanced and the findings show that I have not committed any crime.”

Marchione said according to the report’s summary, “the investigator states that in interviews with the staff, the majority did not believe that my conduct threatened them.”

“None of his interviews indicated that there was any inappropriate sexual behavior,” Marchione said the report stated.  It also said, “There’s no gender discrimination,” Marchione said.

Sims said he interviewed 14 current employees and two past, calling “a few of them multiple times to ensure I got my facts correct.”

“I’ve encountered few cities where I’ve seen such optimistic, such encouraging, such professional and quite cooperative employees who are asked questions quite candidly in a very difficult set of circumstances,” Sims said. “I applaud your workforce.”

However, Sims said the council needed “to take steps to ensure that events don’t occur in the future that cause some of your employees to perceive a hostile work environment.”

“I applaud the city manager for writing the report,” Sims said. “I commend the council member for acknowledging the importance of this effort.”

During public comment, former Police Chief Patrick Melvin said he conducted an independent investigation and had “audio evidence” of wrongdoing by Marchione.

He called for the councilman to “immediately resign.”