Wednesday, December 29, 2010

More Attempts To Censor Public Information ?

MINUTES of the BOARD OF SELECTMEN MEETING
Wednesday December 15, 2010


7th Order of Business: Any Other Business

The Board has scheduled a Work Session meeting to be held on December22, 2010 at 9:30 and there will be no regular meeting held that night. The next regular meeting will be held on the night of December 29, 2010.

The Board has accepted the resignation of the Water Superintendent as of December 31, 2010.  The Board would like to discuss the merging of the Water and Wastewater departments at their Work Session meeting on December 22, 2010.


The Town Administrator has submitted the Right to Know policy for the Boards’ review.  Selectman Sepe makes a motion to accept the Right to Know policy.  Selectman Gardner seconds the motion.  Motion carries 4-0.  A fee schedule will be set and presented at the Work Session meeting December 22, 2010.

Will they decide a fee schedule to make it so expensive for citizens to get a complete uncensored version of public meeting minutes? Some boards and committees, besides not even posting their laughable edited minutes don't even make audio recordings anymore. Why do our town leaders condone and participate in this disgusting conduct? It's simple, they do not want an accurate record to contradict what they tell you happened at these meetings and they don't want an accurate account that may be used against them if they are taken to court again. When people have nothing to hide and abide by the rules, they don't act like this. 

13 comments:

Concerned Citizens of Winchester NH said...

Suppression of information.

Funny you should have this topic for discussion. We’ve been trying to get information from the Town and/or Police dept. and so far they have not cooperated or even answered some of the email requests for documents and information. We’ve been given the run around and shuffled from one department to another, with no one seeming to take any responsibility for anything.

For instance, a letter was sent to the selectmen and publicly read by Sherm Tedford at a selectmen’s meeting on May 28, 2008. The letter was from a citizen thanking Dan Reppucci for his actions in response to a family tragedy. A copy of that letter was requested through email.

Joan Morel wrote back and said “A little research has been done here on your behalf. There is a complimentary letter in Mr. Reppucci's personnel file. Before I can release something from that file to anyone other than Mr. Reppucci, I will need a signed, notarized letter from him to that effect.”

The response back to her:

“So, let me understand this, a letter presented to the Board of Selectmen and read at a public hearing in front of a public audience is now not available to the public?”

“I see no legal requirement in the RTK laws for the Town to request authorization, notarized or otherwise from anyone requesting previously publicly disclosed public information, no matter where the Town Government chooses to keep it's documents and I see no law that allows the Town to hide behind that premise.”

From Joan on Dec. 15th in response to that email :

Please refer to my answer of December 13th at 4:47pm.

A second route for you to follow might be to contact Mr. Reppucci himself since copies of complimentary letters are given to the person complimented.

Joan Morel

The response back to Joan:

“It's not my job to contact anyone to see if they do or don't have copies of letters sent to the Town. It's not my job to ask them to speculate on what was or might have been read at a town meeting.

I'm asking the Town for a copy of a letter I know was sent to the Town because it is referenced as being read during a public meeting by a selectmen of the Town.

According to the minutes it wasn't read by Mr. Reppucci or anyone else from the police department and nobody from the police department is noted as being at the meeting.

The letter was read by Mr. Tedford. Kindly make available a copy of that letter and let me know when it will have it available.

You are clearly trying to suppress information that is public information and that is against the laws related to RTK requests.”

The original request was made Dec. 13th. Since Joan’s undeniable avoidance of providing a copy of the letter, 3 more emails were sent, requesting a copy of the letter. All 3 emails have been ignored. One sent of Dec 15th, one on the 23rd and once again yesterday the 28th.

The copy of the letter being requested is part of the minutes of May 28, 2008 and the reference to that letter can be viewed on line. “Sherm reads a letter from an individual commending Detective Dan Reppucci for his handling of their questions and concerns in the death of a relative.”

What are they trying to hide? With the recent news articles and Dan Reppucci speaking out against the police dept, you would think if they had nothing to hide, they would be happy to provide any and all information requested.

All we want are answers.

What are the details? said...

Are they charging per copy?

NO Respect said...

When any town or government agency tries to block public scrutiny you can bet there is something underhanded going on. Anyone with a conscience would hide there head, but with these people its full steam ahead.

Anonymous said...

RSA 91A:4:III

The person requesting the copy may be charged the actual cost of providing the copy, which cost may be collected by the public body or agency. Nothing in this section shall exempt any person from paying fees otherwise established by law for obtaining copies of governmental records or documents, but if such fee is established for the copy, no additional costs or fees shall be charged.

Anonymous said...

Their policy is to have NO policy.

So now they are going to hide documents in personnel files. What a joke. And after they are part of regular selectmen meetings and read in public.

Maybe the real reason is that they don’t want to turn it over is because they did something wrong when they read it to the public.

LOL. What a joke. Yeah, they have something to hide alright. They’re all a joke and the worst offenders have the most power. The selectmen, Phillips and Roberts are the biggest offenders. Its time to take this town back and let the losers fall where ever losers fall. LOL.

Anonymous said...

In case you didn't notice you are not dealing with normal thinking people. In the real world, when people have nothing to hide they are open and genuine. They are helpful and cooperative. If they can not assist you themselves, they direct you to someone who can.

In the world of this Town's not so great leadership they must constantly hide and cover their tracks because what they do is wrong. More importantly, they know what they do is wrong because they make every effort to conceal the facts and truths. That is then a conscious decision they are making to keep us from the truth. That is important to understand. They do this knowingly by making the conscious decision to do so.

In the real world, even when a mistake is made, it is admitted to and the corrective measures taken. Not in their world. They don’t make mistakes and worse if they get caught, they just spin another lie around the first one to cover it up.

The people you are trying to deal with in a common sense way are assumed to be rational and logical thinking people. They aren't. They are actually irrational and illogical in their thinking because of the mental and emotional disorders that manifest in each of them. By observing you can see the dysfunction and the different types of mental and emotional disorders one expects to see in this type of dysfunctional relationship. You have seen the borderline, narcissistic and antisocial personalities in full bloom on a regular basis. These people are bullies and then the defenders of the bullies because they are afraid of being bullied.

They lean on each other and feed off each other. We too offer the fuel for their fury by our mere existence and desire for change.

We are a threat.

The only way to get things going in a positive direction is to wipe the slate clean for everyone, put reasonable and thought out policies in place, adhere to them for all, when change is needed discuss that change openly and with respect for others opinions, learn to compromise, forget the past, and most important. Yes, those who are bullies and control freaks, those who want to make everyone else decisions for them will scoff at this, but the truth is you don’t have the right to speak for others, even when they chose not to speak for themselves.

VOTE FOR PEOPLE THAT HAVE THAT PHILIOSPY ALREADY INSILLED IN THEM BECAUSE YOU AIN’T GONNA CHANGE A BULLY INTO THE NICE KID ON THE BLOCK BY GIVING THE BULLY MORE POWER.

Or as the saying goes – you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Anonymous said...

The thing we have to worry about is people who believe they are a threat to the establishment and can't even spell. Sorry, but your credibility is not that great when you can't even spell:

VOTE FOR PEOPLE THAT HAVE THAT PHILIOSPY ALREADY INSILLED IN THEM BECAUSE YOU AIN’T GONNA CHANGE A BULLY INTO THE NICE KID ON THE BLOCK BY GIVING THE BULLY MORE POWER.

What the heck is up with this? I would only vote for someone that has the ability to spell "philosophy" and "instilled", and don't use the term "ain't".
Power to the Bullies!!!!

time for a fresh start said...

Abe Lincoln couldn't spell worth a damn, didn't have much schooling either,but he became President by using common sense, people skills he developed and by following the rules. You don't have to be a genius to know when there's a problem with the way things are being dealt with in this town. I say throw the bullies out and they can take their followers with then too.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous said...
December 30, 2010 7:14 PM

Just wanted to make sure the bullies were still keeping up with the facts and news presented on our town blogs.

Thanks for letting us know you do.

By the way, do you know how to spell Integrity, Honesty, Compassion and Transparency? You don't mention that in your response.

Those are the qualities that bullies don’t have, but then again by your response you did mention that you wouldn’t know much about these words when you admit to being a bully yourself. The obvious is, you likely don’t spell those words because they are not in your vocabulary and you wouldn’t know use them appropriately because you have no idea of their meaning.

Bully power tries to minimize legitimate issues by trying to divert attention to something minuscule and non-important in the hopes of muddying and distorting the facts.

People who bully others usually have no self worth and try to project that onto others. They try to beat people down and when they do it gives them the perverted pleasure of feeling better about themselves.

The only way to STOP a bully, is to stand up to a bully.

Time to take away bully power!!!!

Anonymous said...

The new bullying law goes into effect in NH. Gee does it apply to adults too???

Anonymous said...

Sure hope it does - I can think of several in town that never out grew it

Anonymous said...

Regardless of people's opinions on spelling and grammar, there remains the cold hard fact that there is a lack of honesty and transparency in the Winchester town government, and this problem has led to corruption and a failure to do right by the citizens and neighboring towns. Secret meetings and discussions are rampant in the town hall, as well as private agendas not in the best interest of the public.

Obviously a blog such as the Winchester Informer offers the public the opportunity to see what is being hidden from them, to see who is trying to control the town and maintain power and dominion over it, as well as revealing who is fair and truly concerned for the public welfare.

Many people who enter into public office cannot resist the temptation to control circumstances and other people, and to build their own power and influence at the expense of others. Clearly this behavior has been manifested ad nauseam in Winchester.

Feel free to spell check this entry if you must, but most spelling errors are a slip of the fingers, not a lack of knowledge on the part of the writer. What matters is how people feel and are affected by the boards actions, not their spelling. Everyone of every age and level of education has the right to voice their opinion.

Also concerned said...

re: Anonymous, Jan 5, 11:07 am...

Well said, Anonymous, well said.