By Jen Fifield | Arizona Republic
Two top city officials in Surprise resigned in February after a city-hired private investigator found that one of them used city resources to do an outside job and violated the city’s conflict of interest policy in numerous other ways, according to city documents.
Fred Stevens, the city’s former water resource portfolio manager, orchestrated his plan under the guise of a city pilot project meant to save water in the growing northwest Valley city, according to the investigation, obtained by The Arizona Republic through a public records request.
The pilot project would take place on a farm in nearby Waddell, Stevens told his supervisor, then-Deputy City Manager Terry Lowe. City workers would prepare the site, and then a company with an innovative irrigation technology called N-Drip would demonstrate the technology on the land.
