After the town council voted for sanctions during the March 19 meeting, Allen Skillicorn still doubled down during his interview with Channel 12. He called it “a partisan, political hit job.”

Yes, this decision is unprecedented. It is also unprecedented that an elected public servant had all these ethics violations. Message to Freidel and Toth: It should not be ignored and denied accountability because it is unprecedented.

For clarity and veracity, this was a simple cause and effect problem. Skillicorn caused all these investigations through his own aggressive and divisive conduct. He caused all the chaos in this town. He is not a hero. He was the instigator of the antithesis of a hero.

The rest of our public servants had to make a contentious decision and had no choice but to act and react to the root cause. It was not done to embarrass Skillicorn, as he claimed in this interview last night (March 19). It was done for accountability. The majority in our town council mentioned that we would not be talking about this if this did not happen.

Council members Grzybowski, McMahon, Vice Mayor Kalivianakis and Mayor Dickey rose to leadership. It was contentious, especially for Brenda, who aligned herself with Skillicorn during our last election. But for law and order to prevail over chaos, all of them unified to right the wrong. Kudos.

The rot and decay train has left the station. Chaos was a passenger on that train.

Let’s move on. To paraphrase the Desiderata, “With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it still is, a beautiful world. Strive to be happy.” Now, let’s go back to keeping this town beautiful. Let’s go back to governance.  Let this town breathe, move forward, unify, heal and flourish.

Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.