Scottsdale Planning Commissioner Kelsey Pasquel resigned Friday amid conflict-of-interest complaints related to her comments about a development in which her new husband is involved.

At a planning commission meeting last week, Pasquel suggested that opposition to the Papago Plaza project in south Scottsdale was "fake."

Pasquel's husband, George Pasquel, is one of the planners for Withey Morris, a real-estate firm working on the project.

Pasquel did not return requests for comment from The Arizona Republic on Thursday. By Friday morning, a city spokeswoman confirmed she had resigned.

In her resignation emailed to the city, Pasquel said that she had decided to move into her husband’s home in Phoenix, and would no longer meet the residency requirement to serve on the commission.







"I still own my personal home in Scottsdale, my office building, and 3 businesses all based in Scottsdale and will continue to have a vested interest in the City. I have enjoyed every second of the 34.5 years I have called Scottsdale home," she wrote.

What the commissioner said

Dozens of residents lobbied the city last year for more public input on the Papago Plaza project.

The iconic south Scottsdale shopping center has stood mostly vacant for years and will be torn down in the next few months to make way for a contemporary mixed-use development.

Planning commissioners on March 13 were discussing improvements to the public outreach process for public hearing cases when Commissioner Christian Serena referenced the dozens of residents who showed up to ask for more public input on the Papago project.

That's when Kelsey Pasquel jumped in.

"The whole Papago thing, a lot of that uproar that came after we saw the project, was fake opposition," she said. "It's people that don't live anywhere in the neighborhood that are coming down and causing a huge stink because they want to run for City Council in 2020 and they want to get their name out there."

She also added that the city did not need a new public outreach process, citing the "unnecessary uproar."

Approximately 130 people attended the first of two public-outreach meetings this year to discuss the Papago Plaza project, according to planning Director Tim Curtis.

"I would be surprised if every person in opposition of Papago that showed up out of the woodwork is running for City Council in 2020," Serena responded.

George Pasquel said Thursday that he had no comment as his wife does not speak for the developer.

What city's ethics policy says

The city's ethics code states that city officials with a conflict of interest must refrain from participating in the matter, including during public meetings.

A conflict-of-interest form on file with the city in November 2018 shows that Pasquel, then Kelsey Young, recognized that her participation in discussions about Papago Plaza might "raise the perception of undue influence or impropriety."

Pasquel began serving on the commission in 2017 and her term would have expired in 2020.

Scottsdale activist Jason Alexander filed an ethics complaint against Kelsey Pasquel with the city on Thursday, saying she was in violation of the city'e ethics code.

"When a conflict of interests arises, commissioners involved must immediately refrain from participating in any manner in the city's decision-making processes," Holly Walter, a Scottsdale city spokeswoman, said in an email Thursday.

"If the City Council finds an ethical violation, then it may remove a member from a city board, commission, committee, task force, or other appointed advisory group. The totality of the circumstances is taken into consideration."

Have a tip out of Scottsdale? Reach the reporter Lorraine Longhi at llonghi@gannett.com or 480-243-4086. Follow her on Twitter @lolonghi.

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