Nothing stirs up citizen attacks on elected officials quite like an election year.

Province resident Terry Clark last week filed an ethics complaint against Maricopa City Councilmember Vincent Manfredi.

Clark charges Manfredi with “bullying, name calling and calling out of people while discussing city business” in a formal complaint made April 23.

“He called me a ‘snowflake,’ a ‘coward’ and a lot of other choice words that I won’t repeat,” Clark told InMaricopa yesterday.

A 12-page document released by the city in a public records request included a copy of the formal complaint, transcriptions of a Facebook comment thread and a letter vaguely describing intimidating behavior at a Pinal County Republican Committee meeting April 17.

Manfredi “needs to be more diplomatic, and he needs to publicly apologize,” said Terry Clark’s wife, Becky.

The issue will come before the City Council in an executive session with the city attorney Tuesday.

First such complaint in years

The last time a resident lodged an ethics complaint against a city councilmember was in May 2020 when InMaricopa publisher Scott Bartle accused then-Councilmember Julia Gusse of using her seat to damage his business.

An attorney determined Gusse did not violate the ethics code but conceded her comments “closely approached the line of unprofessionalism.” Two weeks after the complaint, councilmembers cleared Gusse of the charges, suggesting the city’s ethics code was only meant for internal use.

Then-Councilmember Rich Vitiello said he was “scared” the code could be used by a member of the public in the middle of an election year to damage a councilmember.

“Due process is the most important thing here,” he said during the 2020 meeting.

Other councilmembers at the time agreed with Vitiello’s sentiment, including then-Mayor Christian Price who said the ethics code was never intended for a third party.

Manfredi refutes the claims

Manfredi said he believes Clark’s claims hold little weight.

“I believe when people run for office, they don’t lose their First Amendment rights to have discussions,” he said. “I don’t think I’m a mean guy, but I am open, honest and pretty blunt.”

However, Becky Clark retorted that didn’t excuse Manfredi from online comments made toward her husband, namely, “We all know facts scare you,” and “You are such a miserable person.”

“Everybody’s entitled to the First Amendment but not disparaging or personal remarks,” she said. “That’s when you lose credibility.”

Manfredi dismissed the formal complaint as personal grievances taken too far.

“City council gets at least one email a day from Terry complaining about something or another,” he said. “I’ve always answered his emails in the past, but he’s almost gone a little bit overboard with his insults … He’s trying to be destructive.”

Becky Clark admitted she and her husband supported Manfredi’s elections in the past but felt he about-faced in recent months.

“It just blows me away because we were very supportive,” she said. “We helped get the word out to re-elect him and in the last six months; it’s like he’s flipped a switch.”

If found in violation of the city ethics code, Manfredi stands to face sanctions of a warning, letter of reprimand, public censure including loss of assignments, powers, funds and travel privileges, a demanded apology or monetary restitution, according to the city charter.

Vincent Manfredi is an owner of InMaricopa.