Councilman Michael Nowakowski responded with claims of innocence to allegations that he failed to disclose his ties to a developer vying for a large piece of city-owned land in downtown Phoenix on Tuesday.
The District 7 councilman struck a defiant tone with reporters as he said he had done nothing wrong in the process of selecting the developer for land south of Fillmore Street between Fourth and Sixth avenues. The allegations were first reported by The Arizona Republic on Friday.
Nowakowski is the executive vice president of the radio network of the Cesar Chavez Foundation, which won the request for proposals process for the land. A City Council vote to confirm the selection has been delayed, according to The Republic.
“Maintaining the trust of the Phoenix taxpayers is very important to me,” Nowakowski said. “So I am releasing all documents in my control that relates to this. Emails, calendar entries, phone records, conflict of interest forms. I have asked the city manager, Ed Zuercher, to do a full review of this process, and also to include me in this review.”
Zuercher recommended careful legal counsel in a written statement and said none of the other bidders had filed a protest with the city.
The foundation was one of a few companies vying for a land deal worth $8.5 million. Robert Lyles, a partner with the competing developer Deco Communities, told The Republic that Nowakowski didn’t say his employer was also bidding for the land. Lyles said he was worried that Nowakowski had given the Cesar Chavez Foundation an unfair advantage over Deco.
Nowakowski said he knew about the Cesar Chavez Foundation’s bid a month after they had already submitted it. He said there was no conflict of interest and that he would have removed himself from the situation had there been.
“I have always treated the Cesar Chavez Foundation as a conflict when the vote is before me,” he said. “Since I have been councilman for the last eight years, I had 25 conflicts of interest when it comes to the Cesar Chavez Foundation.”
Of those 25 conflicts of interest having to do with the Cesar Chavez Foundation, the last one occurred in mid-2014, according to city documents.
Kory Langhofer, Nowakowski’s lawyer, said that according to the Arizona law regarding conflicts of interest for government workers, if there is direct compensation to the worker or it affects them in a significant way, then he or she can be prosecuted.
“You are going to see that Councilman Nowakowski absolutely had no substantial interest,” Langhofer said.
Paul F. Chavez, president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation, vouched for Nowakowski’s innocence in the situation in a written statement.
“I am writing to confirm that the foundation’s proposal for the Fillmore Street property in the City of Phoenix will not, and never would have, affected Michael Nowakowski’s employment with or compensation from the Foundation,” he wrote.
Contact the reporter at Kmlane5@asu.edu.
