Gilbert formally asks state to investigate Zinke land deal

Gilbert Town Attorney Susan Goodwin has sent state Attorney General Tom Horne a formal request to investigate the town's 2009 Zinke land acquisition for future parks and rights-of-way. The letter provides general background on the deal and a list of nine people Horne's office may wish to interview regarding the $50.2 million deal. The names include former Town Manager George Pettit, former Capital Improvement Program coordinator Paul Mood, appraisers Marc Barlow and Dennis Lopez, Gilbert program manager Jeff Kramer, dairy farmer and landowner Bernard Zinke, attorneys Jeff Schneidman and Gary Birnbaum and Town Manager Collin DeWitt. Goodwin's letter provides basic information on the deal, which included 142.5 acres of undeveloped farmland, which the town bought for $300,000 per acre. Gilbert also purchased dairy infrastructure for $7.4 million in exchange for the dedication of about 5.5 miles of right-of-way, valued at $6.7 million. The Republic disclosed last September that experts questioned the high per-acre cost. For information and documentation, the letter refers Horne's office to a new database on Gilbert's website where officials have uploaded more than 8,000 pages about the Zinke land deal. The letter did contain an error in referring one of the largest properties purchased in the deal: The 62-acre parcel is at the southwestern corner of Greenfield and Germann roads, not on Val Vista Drive as the letter states.

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