John Stetser and Hillsborough Selectmen Brought To Task.

It would seem Winchester is not alone when it comes to having issues with our Selectmen. Here's an interesting article that was sent in to us in regards to our former town manager.


Hillsborough Selectmen challenged to set record right
Thu, 11/05/2009 - 20:45
Hillsborough
Group of Seven focuses on illegal appropriations
By Michael Pon

An informal assembly of Hillsborough Residents, who refer to themselves as the Group of Seven, is challenging the board of selectmen to set the record straight on the matter of $147,000 that was appropriated to renovate the Community Center Building to house the town offices. They want to see a warrant article put on the upcoming warrant for the annual town meeting that will formerly set the record straight.
Russell Galpin, the town moderator, is the spokesman for the Group of Seven, which is comprised of Arlene Johns, Gail and Bob Johnson, Tom McClure, Ann Mooney and Bob Thomas.
They are also concerned about several other appropriations the selectmen made that they consider to be inappropriate, including expense vouchers for meals and hotel rooms, the purchase of a laptop computer, a town vehicle, questions bout a town audit, a multi-year contract, and the duties of the town administrator.
They complain, in a list of grievances, that town administrator John Stetser did not fulfill his duty to prepare the town budget for 2009.
“Since he could not answer questions about items in the budget at town meeting, it was very obvious that he did not know about the items or the reasons from them in that budget,” they state.
The Group of Seven originally confronted the selectmen about these issues on Aug. 11, 2009. Since then, both former chairman of the selectmen, Paul Haley, and current chairman Joe Collins have both responded to the charges, but their explanations, which cite an “emergency” that prompted them to make the renovations to the Community Center, have not been accepted as sound by the Group.
“What they’ve got to do is put a warrant article in the 2010 town meeting for a deficit appropriation for the $147,003,” said Galpin. “That would legally give them back the money they spent, which is now a deficit. They’ve snuck it into the budget, and they think that is perfectly legal, but the Department of Revenue Administration says it’s not.”
Although Haley and Collins claim the move to renovate town hall was done under pressure from Max Schultz, the State Fire Marshal, to move the town offices out of the basement of the Fuller Public Library building, the Group of Seven insists there was no language in Schultz’ letter to the selectmen, written in May 2008, that states any emergency in the building – only that he wanted to see progress made toward bringing the building up to fire and safety codes.
Galpin suspects that Haley did not want to apply to the Department of Revenue Administration (DRA) and Superior Court for an emergency town meeting to appropriate the funds because the request would have been denied, based on the content of Schultz’ letter.
According to Galpin, the $147,003 in question has been entered in the ‘Official Report of the Appropriations Voted,’ for the town budget of 2009 under account #34194, General Government Buildings, an account meant for town building maintenance and repairs. However, Galpin maintains the renovations made to the Community Building, resulting in a small office complex and meeting room on the first floor is a Capital Expense, cannot legally be assigned to that account.
According to the research the Group of Seven has done, the money to cover the expenses of the renovations was transferred from several accounts within the budget. They admit that the selectmen do have authority to transfer from one account to another within the budget when necessary, and within prescribed limits, but they point out that the renovations were a Capital Expenditure and not part of the general budget. They also maintain, in a list of grievances, that this or any Capital Expenditure “has to be approved by the voters in the same manner as the purchase of a major piece of equipment or a road reconstruction project. According the DRA, it is against the law to transfer money from the budget to any expenditure outside the budget.”
The Group of Seven wants the selectmen to contact the DRA and get the $147,003 renovation expense properly accounted for and the money properly appropriated.
They want the current selectmen to “tell the people” that this is being done, so that at least they are admitting to it and putting books straight.
Although, selectman Lou Ann Rousseau was not on the board at the time these decisions were made by the selectmen, the Group of Seven has said it wants to confer with Rob Buker, who was on the board at the time, yet does not seem to have been informed of these actions by Haley and Collins.
Buker is now back on the board of selectmen after retiring last March. He was appointed to fill Haley’s seat, who recently stepped down for health reasons.
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