Foster said the council declared the emergency because they claim they've received threats from members of the public who saw a video posted on YouTube.
The video shows a woman identified as Jennifer Jones being arrested and hauled away from a council meeting after she said the council was violating open-meetings laws. Jones was speaking during a public comment period, and Foster is heard on the video telling other council members who ordered her removed that "the lady has the floor."
"She's exercising her First Amendment rights," Foster says in the video before telling officers: "You are in violation of my rules of order."
The officers remove her, anyway, and in the process injure her elbow, which is now in a sling, Foster said.
The video has gotten nearly 30,000 views and has people from across the U.S. and world sending messages of support to Foster and messages of outrage to the council. Foster has a Facebook page of supporters and on it, people have posted messages that include, "Kudos from Mississippi. Keep the rats scurrying" and "You have Colorado's support!"
Foster said a woman from England sent him a note with just one line: "How could America be considered a beacon of democracy in the world when freedom of speech does not exist in Quartzsite, Ariz.?"
Foster was elected in May 2010 on a campaign promise to investigate corruption allegations in the town.
He said since being in office, he has discovered that every pay period, eight to 10 paychecks go to unnamed people and that he has been denied access to financial records to find out where the money goes at every turn.
He said that's been happening since 1991 and amounts to $250,000 every year. "That's literally millions of dollars," he said.
He said he's gone to Gov. Jan Brewer's office, the Attorney General's Office and the FBI with his allegations and pleas for an investigation, and that he's been ignored. He said he was contacting the FBI on Monday with information about Sunday's meeting declaring an emergency, which he said was illegal because it was closed to the public and in violation of open-meetings laws.
Spokespeople for Brewer's office, Attorney General Tom Horne's office and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests Monday about whether Foster has come to them for help.
Foster also said he has been targeted repeatedly by police Chief Gilbert, arrested or investigated for "bogus" reasons that weren't prosecuted and didn't prove any wrongdoing.
Most recently, he said Gilbert cited and released him on charges of disorderly conduct and interference six weeks ago when he tried to stop him from arresting Jones for the third time because she had sued the town for $2 million on allegations of police harassment.
"She called me and I went to the scene and I told the chief, 'What, are you crazy? Are you trying to give her and her attorney a field day in court?" he said. "And then he arrested me."
Foster said he also is the target of a recall election, in which 171 signatures were gathered, and that one of the town council members resigned from office to run against him in hopes of ousting him next month.
"I ran on a campaign promise to look into this money and I've been stymied, stifled and stopped at every turn," Foster said. "Every time you get into a political thing like this, it always goes back to money." --
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