(Photo courtesy of the city of Surprise)

Surprise Vice Mayor Jim Biundo

(Photo courtesy of the city of Surprise)

Surprise Mayor Sharon Wolcott

The coming election has driven a wedge between Surprise’s top two city council members, and their feud will be on public display during Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Vice Mayor Jim Biundo recently filed an ethics complaint against Mayor Sharon Wolcott for using her official title to campaign and fundraise for city council candidates.

One of those candidates seeks to oust Biundo from the council. Biundo said that’s not why he filed the complaint.

“Obviously it’s in the context of that,” Biundo said. “My judgement is that she violated some policies and procedures within the city adopted manual.”

Biundo declined to identify specific violations prior to the meeting, but said he plans to outline three or four.

An attorney representing Wolcott sent a letter to the city arguing that Wolcott’s actions are protected by the First Amendment. The letter accuses Biundo of trying to “silence a political opponent and control the content of campaign speech.”