Blame It On Politics: Who's The Boss? . . . Fault Lines Appear In The Mesa City Council

Some members of the Mesa City Council - including Mayor John Giles - appear to be crossing the line with respect to refraining from making public comments while a litigation is pending: Case-in-Point an incident one week ago when District 3 Council member Ryan Winkle was given a citation for the suspicion of driving under the influence.
Local mainstream media have had a field day splashing sensationalist headlines and releasing a police-cam video that might have prejudiced public perceptions ahead of the presentation of evidence in this case on June 14, 2017.

True that those in-the-public-eye usually do deservedly get more attention for misdemeanors and mistakes - and high regard and praise for the 'good things' they do - it is unusual and dis-honorable for professional public colleagues to publish in social and printed media possibly prejudicial remarks condemning Ryan Winkle in advance of misdemeanor charges that are pending. Whatever happened to the Presumption of Innocence?
Behavior while driving can be modified and rehabilited,
Apparently certain members of the Mesa City Council are reacting in public well in advance of pending traffic court actions showing a big split on the council based on their political motivations: so far it's only been John Giles District 6 Councilmember Kevin Thompson. 

The only voice of reason your MesaZona blogger finds in these circumspect circumstances is what the longest-serving member of the Mesa City Council, Dennis Kavanagh, who was succeeded by Winkle last year as the result of term limits, stating the obvious by chiming in on Sunday with a warning to his former colleagues not to overreact to the arrest.
“Our ethics code offers the city council a range of options it can consider when a member faces misconduct charges. Our ethics code permits the council to vote for censure, reprimand, suspension, monetary penalties as well as removal from office for specified reasons including conduct demonstrating a lack of fitness for office.”
Advocating a “progressive discipline approach,” Kavanaugh wrote:
“A councilmember's boss is not the mayor or the other members of the city council. The voters of District 3 are the ones who placed Ryan on the city council. They have the ability to recall the district council member after the first six months the official is in office and they have the ability to reject that official in the next election, should that member choose to run for re-election.”
“They should be the best judge of whether to remove the councilmember they elected. Remember, none of the other members of the current council, including the mayor, could cast a vote for or against Ryan in the 2016 election.”
Kavanagh's remarks are excerpted from this article written by Jim Walsh on May 15,2017 published in East Valley Tribune was updated 2 hours