Aside from finally passing a vicious dog ordinance and making the dog fouling ordinance reasonably enforceable, the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to spend one point three million dollars on three new fire trucks and approved a contract for the police support staff union that grants a one percent pay raise and increases the employees share of the health insurance premiums to seventeen and a half percent last night. It received a press release from the office of Governor Margaret Wood Hassan announcing steps she’s taken to review mental health services in light of two very high profile incidents of violence involving mental health patients in the city and received and filed a communication from Mayor Ted Gatsas stating he’d referred Ward 10 Alderman Phil Greazzo’s charter violation allegations against Alderman at-Large Joe Kelly Levasseur to the city solicitor’s office because Levasseur refused to meet with him. On that matter, Girard at Large has learned that Assistant City Solicitor Tom Arnold and Staff Attorney Peter Chiesa will conduct the investigation. City Solicitor Tom Clark is, by charter, a member of the Conduct Committee and has recused himself from the investigation to avoid a conflict of interest should the Conduct Committee be convened. This raises a number of questions regarding Chisea’s relationship with Levasseur. Two weeks ago, Chisea disclosed that he represented Levasseur in a civil action fifteen years ago. That prompted us to ask Solicitor Clark to provide information about that case and whether or not there’d been any ongoing relationship between the two. We also asked, given the clear language of the charter, why Attorney Chisea failed to advise the board of the proper process with which it should proceed with an investigation under the charter, choosing instead to advise the board that the complaint failed to provide sufficient information to warrant an investigation. Solicitor Clark has ignored our multiple inquiries on this matter and Assistant Solicitor Arnold told me last night that Girard at Large would likely not receive a response. Gatsas said he’s asked the solicitor’s office to complete the investigation within the next week, a timetable Ward 12 Alderman Patrick Arnold felt was unrealistic. Gatsas said the matter was straight forward and shouldn’t require a protracted investigation. Levasseur has not indicated whether or not he will meet with the solicitor’s office, of which he has been vocally critical on the underlying issues regarding the Manchester Dog Park Association which generated Greazzo’s initial complaint. As Mayor Gatsas will be our guest this morning, we’ll be sure to ask him about this. Link to the Live Forum Blog of the meeting.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
High drama unfolded at the Hooksett School Board last night as the Big Three continue to steam roll over the Dissenting Two. The High School Strategy proposed by Board Clerk John “Angry Elf” Lyscars, which we reported on Monday, was shot down on a three to two vote. Instead, the board approved, in what appeared to be an orchestrated move given that debate was cut short and a vote was called without much discussion, priority considerations for so called satellite schools whose arrangements are governed by Memorandums of Understanding, not a tuition contract, that would prioritize student attendance requests based on the child’s proximity to the receiving school and whether or not a sibling was already attending the school, which is kind of ironic given the board’s majority wants to approve a tuition contract with Pinkerton Academy which is a WHOLE lot further away from Manchester. Speaking of Pinkerton, that proposed contract would require the town to guarantee seventy five incoming freshman, slightly more than half the class, for the first four years. After that, it would require ninety percent of the incoming freshman class to attend Pinkerton. Board Vice Chair David The Pariah Pearl moved to include opt out criterion for the Pinkerton contract. The motion failed three to two. He asked for a special meeting of the board on Thursday to discuss opt out criterion for the Pinkerton contract. The motion failed three to two. He tried the second motion for a special meeting because it was also disclosed last night that Pinkerton has called for a meeting between it’s Board of Trustees, the Hooksett School Board and the school boards of all the towns that send their kids to Pinkerton for December ninth, presumably to have a great big meeting to work out the details of a plan that will not only be acceptable to Hooksett, but also the other towns which must approve the contract. The board also approved the pending Memorandums of Understanding with the Bow and Londonderry School districts and resident Jason Hyde, who still has his effing esophagus, read the letter of complaint he sent the board about the threats made against him by Superintendent Charles Chucky the Super Littlefield into the record. We’ve posted all the relevant documents with this newscast at Girard at Large dot com. You can bet we’ll have something to say about all of this this morning.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is straight ahead!
