kolbygranville.com

Kolby Granville.

The Tempe City Council has the power to discipline its members for violating its code of conduct and after last year’s election, that could include removing them from office.  

The council is scheduled to discuss the behavior of Councilman Kolby Granville at its meeting Thursday.

Granville was a teacher at a Tempe charter school until he was fired in December 2017.

Former students of the school allege Granville served alcohol to them after they graduated and made unwanted sexual advances.

Police did not charge Granville with a crime.

Tempe hired an outside lawyer to conduct an investigation into whether Granville violated the city’s code of conduct.

In interviews, Granville says he did date a former student, but denies facilitating underage drinking.

Lawyer Sarah Barnes said Granville sometimes came across as evasive and deceptive.

The city redacted Barnes’ recommendations from the documents it released. Barnes is scheduled to discuss her findings with the council Thursday.

Below are the documents Tempe has released in relation to the investigation.

Barnes-Granville Interview 

All direct quotes are from this interview. 

• Granville believes the city charter change might be used to remove him from office. “I think there’s a 50-50 chance,” Granville told the investigator in a recorded interview. “I think they would like to implement it retroactively. I think given how popular I generally am among Tempe residents, I think that they’re going to have to do a wait on how much they want to get rid of me versus how much the fallout is worth.”

• Granville says he did date one former student of the school and told her not to share that they were dating with other people. “Because something can be permissible to do, but not socially acceptable to do.” Granville said he was concerned it would be “political fodder.”

• Granville said he was set up on a blind date with another former student from Tempe Prep. The third or fourth time they went out, they were talking on his roof when her age came up. “I said, ‘How old are you?’ She said 17. You got to go. I was really upset.”

• Granville said he would like to resign from the Tempe City Council, but believes he can’t. “Because 15,000 people voted for me to do a job and I believe I should do that job. And so, it’s a horrible, miserable, terrible job where I put up with stuff like this, but it’s really not about what I want to do.”

Barnes Memo To Tempe Attorney

This document outlines the outside lawyer’s findings. The recommendations for what the city should do are redacted.

“Overall, Mr. Granville came across as somewhat evasive and deceptive at numerous times, while at other times trying to be very cooperative and open about his actions, when he was characterizing them as appropriate and being a self-proclaimed good guy.”

The investigator lists code-of-conduct personnel rules that could be applicable to Granville’s actions, including those related to abusive language, behavior or conduct, not meeting a standard of workplace civility and engaging in conduct that “causes discredit to the city.”

Granville Response

Granville said he disagreed with the conclusions and wanted to correct “characterizations” of his responses in the interview.

He added that in several instances the investigator confused stories or misstated his words. He listed these in a six-page letter. 

Barnes Response To Granville

An enumerated list of replies to Granville’s objections. 

“None of Mr. Granville’s responses or objections cause me to change the findings and recommendations in my December Memorandum with respect to the evidence.”