Town administrator offers resignation

Should we be so lucky ...


By Laura McCrystal / Monitor staff


Hillsboro's town administrator offered his resignation yesterday, two days after the selectmen met with him about a private investigation of his job performance.
The selectmen hired an attorney in March to investigate Town Administrator John Stetser, in response to a request made by four female town employees. The investigation was complete last week, Selectman Russell Galpin said, and the selectmen talked about it in two separate nonpublic meetings with their attorney and Stetser on Tuesday.
Both Stetser and the selectmen declined to say yesterday whether the resignation was a direct result of the investigation.
"I don't know what (Stetser) said, but that's my belief that it would have been very difficult for him after the investigation," Galpin said.
Stetser, who has been Hillsboro's town administrator since 2008, said he announced his resignation yesterday morning at a Hillsboro Economic Development Commission meeting. He left a copy of his resignation letter for the selectmen at the town offices yesterday afternoon, he said.
The selectmen have not yet accepted Stetser's resignation, Galpin said. They will meet to discuss it Tuesday, and Galpin said he hopes they will vote to accept it.
Stetser said his resignation would be effective Aug. 30, but yesterday was his last day of work. He will be taking vacation days until then, he said.
Michael Donovan, the town's attorney, and an attorney representing Stetser are negotiating a separation agreement, Galpin said. He said the selectmen and Stetser discussed a resignation and separation agreement Tuesday night.
"We were pretty much on the same page," Galpin said. "He's not asking for a lot and we're not offering a lot. We're just trying to be reasonable about the whole thing."
The independent investigation of Stetser, conducted by Concord attorney Emily Rice, began in March. Four female town employees requested a review of his "job performance including his interaction with employees and elected officials" in a letter to the selectmen. They did not list specific complaints against him.
Residents and employees began raising complaints about Stetser at selectmen's meetings since January. When Stetser asked about the nature of the complaints at a February meeting, Venezia told him it involved "sexual harassment generally, I believe," according to meeting minutes.
Galpin told the Monitor in March that no formal allegations of sexual harassment had been made against Stetser, but the selectmen had verbal, third-party reports of it. They also received complaints about Stetser's handling of personnel situations, he said.
Galpin said yesterday afternoon that he had not yet read Stetser's resignation letter, but "it's a relief to have it over with." The investigation has been controversial in Hillsboro, he said.
"So there is going to be strong feelings about it, undoubtedly," Galpin said. "But we'll weather through that sort of thing."

Representative Daniel Carr & John Frado

Winchester has lost two great men in the past two weeks –

State Representative Daniel Carr & John Frado

Two men that were truly wonderful advocates for our town.  They believed in community and working together for the betterment of their neighbors.  They will be missed by everyone! 

We would like to open this blog to your comments and well wishes to the women who supported and loved them –

 Julia Ferrari & Chris Frado. 

Please feel free to leave your personal stories about each of these great men. 

Board of Selectmen Regular Minutes 6-13-12

House Education Chair: U.S. School System Is 'Failing Our Country'

WASHINGTON -- U.S. students ranked "average" in an international education assessment released on Tuesday, but House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) is giving the country's school system an F.
"Average won't help us regain our global role as a leader in education. Average won't help our students get the jobs of tomorrow. Average is the status quo and it's failing our country," Miller said in a statement Tuesday.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the results "a massive wakeup call," adding that the findings released earlier today by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development "show that a host of developed nations are out-educating us."
The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment report, which compares the knowledge of 15-year-olds across 70 countries, found that Korean and Finnish students scored the highest marks overall. More generally, the report found that Asian students, especially students from China, tended to score above their counterparts from other parts of the world.
On a scale of 1,000, Americans received 500 in reading, 487 in math and 502 in science. Although American students did make small gains in science and math, they continue to lag significantly behind other countries in those subjects.
"The difference between the countries at the top of these rankings and the U.S. is that the countries who are outperforming us have made developing the best education system in the world a national goal," Miller said. "They've recognized that the strength of their economy will be inextricably tied to the strength of their education system in the 21st century."
The OECD report's authors concluded that over the next 20 years, raising scores in math, science and reading by 25 points would result in a gain of 41 trillion dollars for the U.S. economy.
"The educational success of other countries while the U.S. has stagnated is a clear, unequivocal sign that a shift in federal education policy is absolutely necessary," Miller said. "It is time we decide as a nation that we can no longer afford to stay just average. Average is not good enough for a country as great as ours."

Top officials leaving Winchester School District

Winchester leaders resign

 By Kaitlin Mulhere Sentinel Staff 

WINCHESTER — Three top-level officials with the Winchester School District have resigned. Superintendent Kenneth R. Dassau read resignation letters for himself, Business Administrator Charlie Paulin and Director of Technology Christopher Boyle to school board members at a meeting Thursday. Dassau also serves as the special education director for the district.

The board voted to extend Dassau’s contract for 60 days. He will remain with the district through Aug. 30 to help search for candidates to fill the technology and business administrator positions as soon as possible, he said.
Paulin will work with the district as needed through the summer, but Boyle will leave at the end of June to take a similar position in Massachusetts.

After voters approved a $10.8 million budget in March — about $675,000 less than what the school board recommended — the board decided to reduce the hours and pay of some central office staff, Winchester School Board Chairman Trevor S. Croteau said. That included the technology and business administrator jobs.
The changes will go into effect on July 1.

The technology director position was cut from 40 hours to 30 hours per week with no benefits, Boyle said. The business administrator’s salary and benefits were also cut.
Boyle said he enjoyed working with the Winchester district, but he could not handle the same job responsibilities as a part-time employee. Ultimately, he had to make the best decision for his family, he said.
Dassau said when he learned that the technology director and business administrator planned to resign, he decided to leave, too, to allow the board to assemble a whole new administrative team with one similar set of goals.

Dassau began as superintendent of the Winchester district in July. Prior to that, he worked as the superintendent of N.H. School Administrative Unit 38, which provided top-level administrative services for the Winchester, Hinsdale and Monadnock school districts before the unit disbanded.
He started at Unit 38 in 1989 as the special education director, moved up to assistant superintendent in 2000 and was promoted to superintendent in 2005.
At Winchester, Dassau has had a difficult relationship with the town’s budget committee, which earlier this year attempted to cut the district’s budget to $9 million, an amount school officials said would have made it impossible to operate the schools.

Dassau also served as superintendent for the Surry School District through an agreement between the Winchester and Surry districts. Beginning next year, Dassau said Surry will contract with Concord-based Granite State Transitional Principals for superintendent services.
Dassau will be a contract employee with Granite State Transitional Principals and continue as superintendent and special education director for Surry.

Croteau said the board is in the process of forming a search committee for a new superintendent and has begun advertising the vacant positions.

Kaitlin Mulhere can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1439, or kmulhere@keenesentinel.com

Marlborough selectmen sued again

Right-to-know violations alleged in suit

 By Garrett Brnger Sentinel Staff



MARLBOROUGH — Four months after a judge found that the Marlborough selectmen violated the state’s right-to-know law, a town resident says they’ve done so again.
Loretta J. Simonds is petitioning Cheshire County Superior Court to find selectmen in contempt of a January court order not to violate the right-to-know law.

She alleges violations including holding improper nonpublic meetings, making decisions outside of a public meeting and holding inaudible, indiscernible meetings, among others. She also says she improperly received 35 copies of sealed, nonpublic meeting minutes containing private, sensitive information.
For the new alleged violations of the law, she is asking the court to find selectmen in contempt of the January order. And she is asking that selectmen be removed from office for the alleged release of information.
Selectman John H. Northcott confirmed Sunday that he had been served paperwork on Friday — the same day Simonds filed her motion — but declined to comment. He said the town attorney had yet to see the papers.
Simonds, who was one of the plaintiffs in the original case against the board, said she obtained the data unintentionally when she asked for all the public minutes files dating from 2009 stored electronically.
Among those files, Simonds said, were nonpublic meeting minutes containing employee reprimands, hiring information and medical and welfare information.
Simonds also alleges selectmen violated the January court order on occasions ranging from the town budget hearing Feb. 9 to a selectmen’s meeting on May 21.
Simonds is also asking the court to invalidate a vote during the annual town meeting on whether to hire a part-time police officer (the measure was rejected by voters), and order a new town meeting.
She says in the court filing selectmen did not vote publicly on whether to support petition articles on the officer and a tax exemption for green energy systems, yet their recommendations were noted in the town report.
She also alleges selectmen did not discuss the article about the new officer at the town budget hearing, and is requesting it be invalidated.
In November, Simonds and another resident filed a suit against the selectmen, claiming a series of right-to-know violations.
Judge Philip P. Mangones found in a 52-page ruling on Jan. 31 that selectmen had failed to treat gatherings of selectmen as meetings, held meetings without any notice or without timely notice to the public, discussed town business outside of meetings through email, kept inaccurate minutes, and failed to disclose information to the public, including denying residents access to nonpublic meeting minutes.
Mangones ordered that selectmen not commit any further violations of the right-to-know law.
Both Northcott and Gina Paight were selectmen at the time of the ruling. Beverly Harris replaced Selectman Lawrence Robinson, who did not seek reelection, in March’s elections.

Town loses with deal

Besides screwing up a workable budget, the Select-board is also morally bankrupt..

Submitted in the Opinion Section of the Keene Sentinel and published today June 08,2012

When I was a selectman, the most heart-wrenching responsibility was the possibility of having to take someone’s property for nonpayment of taxes.

Fortunately, the law allows selectmen discretion in this area, and I was pleased that in several cases I could be instrumental in working out solutions that both settled the tax debt and allowed people to keep their homes. Those are called win-win situations.

Sadly, not all members of the board were so eager to find such solutions, and one was almost lustful in his zeal to seize property.

There were also many pieces of property that the town had owned for years and had just sat off the tax rolls. Most were little bits and pieces. Some of these were auctioned, and it was common practice that abutters, as the most likely competitive bidders, were made aware of the auctions.

One decision the board made was to auction the tannery property, taken for taxes many years earlier. The town manager chose to ignore the board’s direct instructions and instead listed the property with a Realtor.
“Back room” support of board members allowed his action to stand unchallenged, and the property still sits idle, yielding neither sales revenue nor taxes.

Recently, the select board voted to auction off a small lot with a double truck garage at 50 Rabbit Hollow Road, earlier taken for taxes. The board also decided to set no minimum bid.

Although the board may have met the bare legal requirements for posting, the auction came and went with hardly anyone knowing about it.

Abutters, who might have been willing to pay the most, were not notified.

The property was purchased by Selectman Gus Ruth for $12,533. The assessed value is $119,300. (Back taxes, at 18 percent annual interest, are forgiven when property is auctioned).

Although it may not be illegal for a selectman to vote to take property, to vote to auction it with no minimum bid, and to quietly snap it up at bargain basement prices, is morally repugnant.

This was a lose-lose situation. The property owner lost and the taxpayers lost, first by not recovering back taxes and then by not receiving a better price for the property.

The only winner was Ruth. It will be interesting to see whether he benefits from use of the property, or if he just flips it for a tidy profit.

 SUSAN M. NEWELL

Winchester