CHANDLER, AZ — Chandler City Councilmember Jane Poston doubts she’s the subject of an FBI public corruption investigation and defended her personal company’s work with the local police union.
Poston sat down for individual interviews with ABC15 and other news outlets on Thursday ahead of a city council meeting.
“I adamantly do not believe that investigation is happening,” she said. “There is absolutely no reason to believe that is happening.”
Poston added, “City staff hasn’t been contacted. (The Chandler Law Enforcement Association) hasn’t been contacted. And I certainly haven’t been contacted.”
The FBI doesn’t confirm or deny the existence of an ongoing investigation.
But Poston is responding to an email obtained by ABC15 that was sent in November from then-Police Chief Sean Duggan to City Manager Joshua Wright. Duggan wrote that he had information about the FBI investigating Poston and the Chandler Law Enforcement Association’s former president Michael Collins.
In the email, Duggan didn’t write what the FBI was specifically investigating.
But sources told ABC15 that it appears the allegation surrounds Poston’s personal media company’s work with the police union.
Poston and her husband, Jason, own a company called J2 Media, and she confirmed they did video, website, and public relations work for the Chandler Law Enforcement Association.
She declined to tell ABC15 how much money J2 Media has received from the union in recent years.
“No. Talking about the money that a business chooses to spend with my company isn’t an appropriate conversation for me to have about any business,” she said.
Poston said that her paid work ended in December 2022, which is the month before she took office.
The Chandler Law Enforcement Association spent more than $150,000 in recent years on advertising and promotion expenses, according to publicly filed tax forms in 2021 and 2022.
Filings for last year are not yet available, and the public forms do not include an itemized breakdown for those expenditures.
Before 2021, the union spent little or no money on advertising and promotion, tax records show.
RELATED: ABC15 questions Chandler officials about allegations against councilmember
In a previous report, ABC15 proved that J2 Media did provide video services and studio space for the union after Poston took office.
Poston confirmed that’s true but claimed that was done for free and denied that any of her company’s work created a conflict of interest.
At Thursday’s meeting, Poston voted to approve a substantial new compensation and benefits contract with the union.
She also asked City Attorney Kelly Schwab to weigh in before the vote and provide an opinion on whether or not Poston should recuse herself.
Schwab said no.
ABC15 will publish and broadcast more from Poston’s interview in the coming days.
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@abc15.com.
