THE TRUTH ABOUT "GILBERT TRUTH"

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Was the town being investigated by the Attorney General? (Asked by Bongiovanni/Torgeson)

YES. The AG opened a case in February 2026 and is currently conducting a criminal investigation of the Town of Gilbert for FRAUDULENT SCHEMES AND ARTIFICES, a Class 2 felony (ARS § 13-2310)

The following statement was posted online on July 3, 2026, and is used with permission:

My name is Charisia Arnold. I am a victim in a criminal investigation against the Town of Gilbert. I can confirm that the Town of Gilbert is currently under investigation by the Arizona Attorney General's Criminal Division, Special Investigations Section (SIS), for FRAUDULENT SCHEMES AND ARTIFICES, a Class 2 felony (ARS § 13-2310).

The "heavily redacted letter" referred to in a public statement is addressed to me and was posted on social media after appropriate redactions were made. The letter was published to address misinformation regarding the status of a criminal investigation. My intent was to protect my privacy and minimize the harassment that has occurred during the course of this investigation, while being as forthcoming as possible with the residents of Gilbert.

I continue to be in communication with the AG’s Office. Records and information are being to investigators. In one of my emails with the AG dated June 12, 2026, I received the response Gilbert is “not being cooperative.”

Contrary to recent rumors, the criminal investigation against the Town of Gilbert is ongoing. 

The statements being pushed by Councilmember Chuck Bongiovanni and Councilmember Jim Torgeson are false, factually inaccurate, and misleading. The statements also seem to be made with the intent to harass witnesses, interfere with ongoing investigations, and influence the outcome of the upcoming election. I believe Gilbert Police is involved with this scheme as well.

While I have tried to refrain from making specific public statements, I believe the behavior of Councilmember Torgeson and Councilmember Bongiovanni has crossed the line of both ethical and legal standards.

I believe there are serious concerns within the Town of Gilbert that warrant further investigation, possibly including the involvement by the FBI, DPS, and the DOJ.

I will continue to demand transparency, accountability, and justice for the many victims and residents who have been ignored by cover-up. There is no room for corruption in Gilbert! 

Is the town hiding over a billion dollars in debt? (Asked by Bongiovanni/Torgeson)

YES.  I use the word "undisclosed" instead of "hiding" but, YES, there is a significant amount of "undisclosed" debt that the Town is responsible for paying. The town reports $863,325,000 in total debt. However, records obtained indicate that the Town's total debt obligations may be between $1.56 Billion and as high as $2 Billion. 

To clarify, the allegations are that the town is not publicly reporting the total debt that is owed and for which the taxpayers are responsible. This is problematic because the total debt picture is never clearly presented when asking for additional spending needs.

Here is a "hypothetical" example. Let's say that the Town borrows $500M with a Bond. The funds from the Bond  go into a Fund. The Town borrows money from the Fund and spends the money on a Splashpad or pickleball court. At the same time, the Town issues an IOU (Resolution) to the Fund and "pledges" to pay the Fund back with another bond 2 years later. Now the Town has to pay back the original bond AND has to pay back the IOU by issuing a second bond. "Spend Now, Pay Pay Pay Later!"

This is almost exactly what the current council did in September of last year. The current council made a promise to put the Town into $750 MILLION MORE iIN DEBT without clearly informing anyone. They don't even seem to understand it themselves. This kind of debt is also not reported to State oversight organizations.

The Town has communicated intentions to seek HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS in non-voter approved Bonds in this fiscal year! (There is recorded documentation of these facts.)

The Town has been moving money around internally for years and these internal loans or "pledged" funds are not being disclosed to the public.  Council has been made aware of these issues and has taken a stance of "misinformation" rather than asking simple questions. 

Council is unwilling to ask the obvious question: How much money do we owe?

I believe that if the residents knew the Town's full debt picture, there would be a public outcry to stop non-critical spending immediately!

 Is Gilbert under a criminal investigation by the Attorney General? (Asked by Bongiovanni/Torgeson)

YES. The AG is conducting a criminal investigation of the Town of Gilbert for Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices.

The following statement was posted online on July 3, 2026, and is used with permission:

My name is Charisia Arnold. I am a victim in a criminal investigation against the Town of Gilbert. I can confirm that the Town of Gilbert is currently under investigation by the Arizona Attorney General's Criminal Division, Special Investigations Section (SIS), for FRAUDULENT SCHEMES AND ARTIFICES, a Class 2 felony (ARS § 13-2310).

The "heavily redacted letter" referred to in a public statement is addressed to me and was posted on social media after appropriate redactions were made. The letter was published to address misinformation regarding the status of a criminal investigation. My intent was to protect my privacy and minimize the harassment that has occurred during the course of this investigation, while being as forthcoming as possible with the residents of Gilbert.

I continue to be in communication with the AG’s Office. Records and information are being to investigators. In one of my emails with the AG dated June 12, 2026, I received the response Gilbert is “not being cooperative.”

Contrary to recent rumors, the criminal investigation against the Town of Gilbert is ongoing. 

The statements being pushed by Councilmember Chuck Bongiovanni and Councilmember Jim Torgeson are false, factually inaccurate, and misleading. The statements also seem to be made with the intent to harass witnesses, interfere with ongoing investigations, and influence the outcome of the upcoming election. I believe Gilbert Police is involved with this scheme as well.

While I have tried to refrain from making specific public statements, I believe the behavior of Councilmember Torgeson and Councilmember Bongiovanni has crossed the line of both ethical and legal standards.

I believe there are serious concerns within the Town of Gilbert that warrant further investigation, possibly including the involvement by the FBI, DPS, and the DOJ.

I will continue to demand transparency, accountability, and justice for the many victims and residents who have been ignored by cover-up. There is no room for corruption in Gilbert! 

is the town council bypassing voters to borrow 750 million dollars? (Asked by Bongiovanni/Torgeson)

YES. $750M worth of "IOU's" to be paid back with non-voter approved MPC Bonds. These "IOU's" were unanimously approved by the current council in September 2025. These funds were used to pay for Splashpads, Pickleball courts, and a bridge, among other things.

ABSOLUTELY TRUE!! The very nature of an MPC Bond is to acquire funds for critical utility infrastructure (Water, Sewer, etc) without needing to go to the voters for approval like a General Obligation (GO) Bond. The MPC Bond process is being abused! 

It should concern every resident when large amounts of debt are incurred without voter approval. The Town is hinting at wanting HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS MORE in MPC Bonds to reimburse funds spent with their disastrous "Spend Now, Pay Later" philosophy.  

Did a 473 million dollar water bond secretly force residents to pay extra? (Asked by Bongiovanni/Torgeson)

YES. However, this question is worded with spin. $473M MPC "Revenue" Bond debt paid from Water revenue solely! Did you know that this is one of the reasons for our high base fees? 

There are a lot of issues with the WRMPC "Revenue" Bond that was issued for $473M in 2022. The problem isn't that it was issued. In fact, it wasn't an entirely bad Bond under the circumstances. The real problems are that the 2022 Town Council and the public were misled regarding the specific details of the bond. 

This specific bond must be paid SOLELY from water revenue - I "minor" detail that was never explained to the 2022 Council nor the public. In fact, the word "revenue" wasn't ever spoken during any of the council discussions. 

This bond did not become a problem until the current council started making some crazy financial decisions that have placed our town in a precarious financial position. It's a longer explanation but you can read about it by clicking below.

Can the problems be fixed? Yes with some difficulty. However, the Incumbents and others DO NOT want to take the necessary actions to place Gilbert in a secure financial status. Despite what they say on the campaign trail, they are driving our town into such financial distress that they will need to send a recommendation to the voters to approve a Primary Property Tax in order to bail them out.

 Were tens of millions of dollars secretly transferred to subsidize developers? (Asked by Bongiovanni/Torgeson)

YES. Actually, it was $82.5M that was transferred to subsidize the system development fees that should've been paid by developers!

It has been proven that the Town of Gilbert used taxpayer money from the General Operating Fund to subsidize SDF shortfalls that were to be paid for by developers. The Town even publicly admitted to the transfers.

Was it done "secretly?  Here are the facts. 

• According to the Town, the transfers were approved as part of the final adoption of the Budget for the last 5 years. I have searched the several hundred page budget and these transfers are not clearly identified anywhere.
• These transfers were discovered by reading the SDF Fund History reports that are not part of the financial audits nor are they provided to or discussed with Council.
• To date, I have not found ANY instance where these transfers were presented or discussed.
• I scoured the current FY2027 Budget for any information and all I could find were references to "other revenue sources." I attempted to address this with the Town Manager and Budget Director without success.
• The documents that show these transfers are always "after the fact" reports of money transfers.

Are these transfers happening in secret? I don't know if it's intentionally being hidden from the but NOBODY seems to be willing to talk about them. Seems like an opportunity to change the way the Town does business moving forward!

 Was the 2026 water rate increase passed to cover developer shortfalls? (Asked by Bongiovanni/Torgeson)

This is such a nonsensical question. It's two completely different discussions. I'll have to come back to this one.