City Council To Consider Removing Ward 5 Councilor; Concord Mayor Champlin Calls Brown ‘An Agent Of Chaos’

CONCORD, NH — Monday night’s Concord City Council meeting erupted into a near melee after one councilor made accusations against others, leading to police officers being called and the mayor hastily moving the board into a private meeting with the city solicitor and a quick adjournment later.

The disorder occurred during the meeting after Ward 5 Concord City Councilor Stacey Brown pulled a consent resolution to amend the guidelines, including term limits and attendance recommendations, for the Committee for Concord’s Plan to End Homelessness. Consent items are usually reports or minor policy changes that do not require a public hearing or extensive discussion. But sometimes, councilors will pull them for commentary. In the report, it was proposed to limit the terms to three years for two consecutive full terms. After a one-year break, prior members could return. It was also proposed that a member who missed three consecutive meetings, without notice, might be removed from the board.

Brown said she agreed with the changes and thought they should be made to all the committees. For several weeks, Brown and her online friends have decried that she was removed from several committees by Mayor Byron Champlin and placed on others that hardly met or have no connection to her ward. Brown was removed from the Parking Committee, as an example, and placed on the Everett Arena Advisory Committee. At the same time, she claimed, other councilors had spotty attendance at subcommittee meetings.

Brown circulated a chart previously showing some councilors’ attendance, including an accusation that At-Large City Councilor Fred Keach had missed many of his committee assignment meetings. She said the same rule for the homeless committee should apply to councilors as well.

While not mentioning Keach, she claimed “a councilor” attended only one of the 14 meetings, including public safety and finance.

“I believe, if that councilor does not attend meetings, they should not be on that committee,” she said.

Brown then directed criticism at Amanda Grady Sexton, another at-large councilor, who leads the public safety committee but also is a lobbyist for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. She claimed the roles were in conflict. Brown also criticized Grady Sexton for not holding a meeting of the public safety board in 2023 and gaps of many months between other meetings.

“The public safety board … there’s so many public dollars, taxpayer dollars that go toward that,” she said.

Grady Sexton, in response, said a document Brown circulated online analyzing councilor attendance was inaccurate and not a public document. She said, instead of targeting her online, Brown should make her accusations right then and there. Grady Sexton said Brown was out of order to make accusations of criminal wrongdoing against her fellow councilors and city staffers.

Brown accused Grady Sexton of being in conflict since the Coalition trained police officers and received funds for settlements.

“So, the person who trains law enforcement officers,” Brown said, “in pretrial publicity, should not be the chair overseeing the police officer budget.”

Brown said she believed an ethics complaint had been filed with the city clerk on Monday.

Champlin said the public safety board does not handle the police budget.

Ward 9 City Councilor Kris Schultz said the discussion of attendance had nothing to do with the homeless committee changes and attempted to move the question. But Grady Sexton requested time to challenge Brown and was allowed to.

Grady Sexton denied training Concord police officers and said neither she nor the org had trained them. She said the Coalition does work with police, but there is no fee involved or any dollar value. Grady Sexton said her role on the public safety board was advisory only, offering opinions to the council.

“I have no authority over any budget, and there is no perception of an ethical or conflict of interest in any way, and there is certainly no financial benefit to my organization or to myself in terms of our relationship with the Concord Police Department,” she said. “And I would appreciate it if you would stop making allegations, as such, on social media or here.”

Councilors then voted to close the discussion, and Grady Sexton asked for a recess, which the mayor agreed to, saying the board would take a five-minute break.

Councilors began to gather around Brown, with Keach suggesting she was out of line to accuse him. Sekou was seen embracing Keach lightly to get between them.

After about two minutes of recess, Champlin requested the chamber be cleared so councilors could meet with City Solicitor John Conforti.

Not long after being recessed, two Concord police officers arrived at the chamber. City Manager Tom Aspell met with the officers, and they both left later.

About 10 minutes after meeting with Conforti, Grady Sexton was seen, visibly upset, leaving the meeting.

Around five minutes later, the public and the press were let back into the council chamber.

After quickly referring an agenda item, the mayor moved to adjourn and closed the meeting.

More councilors exchanged words after the meeting. Ward 3 Councilor Jennifer Kretovic was also heard exchanging words with Brown concerning comments she made online about human trafficking, suggesting possible legal action against the Ward 5 councilor.

As they exited the building, both Keach and Champlin said the council would be looking at options to remove Brown from the board, without getting into specifics or revealing the private discussions between councilors and Conforti.

“We’re beyond the beyond,” Champlin said. “She has overstepped the line. Tonight was overstepping the line.”

Champlin said councilors can vote to remove her and said, as a body, they should, since it had “become impossible for the council to function” with her at the table.

“I know there are people around the table who have tried to reach out to her,” he said, “and all that she is concerned about is building her name with the public, presenting herself as a budget hawk and champion of transparency while, in fact, she’s an agent of chaos.”

Champlin said if she were not removed, other councilors might resign. Other councilors, he said, in the past have left the body due to Brown’s behavior and disruptions. He called those councilors “good people” and questioned whether she should be allowed to drive them out or be removed herself. Champlin also said city staffers have been driven out of their employment, too, “and that cannot be underestimated.” One employee reportedly was the former director of operations at the Beaver Meadow Golf Course, Phil Davis, who worked for the city for a decade and left last year due to harassment by Brown, according to online posts.

The eruption over the accusations by Brown on the consent item was on the heels of back and forth between Brown and Brian Lebrun, the deputy city manager of finance, over whether reserve fund transfers were approved by the council during a previous budget session and whether there was a missing transfer of $100,000 that was not accounted for.

Brown claimed officials withdrew $449,000 from an account, but only $244,000 was approved by the council. Lebrun, clearly distraught by the accusation that he and other employees were being accused of maleficence, said the minutes from June 5, 2025, reflected councilors voted for all the money to be transferred. When Champlin and others tried to move the question, Brown called for a point of order, insinuating Lebrun was making false statements to the council. Champlin said she was out of order, and all the provisions were later approved by the council.

Champlin said Brown’s accusations against city staff, suggesting they mishandled funds or councilors did not vote for transfers, were false and incorrect, but she continued to make them publicly, even after being shown they were false. He denied the council or staff made any unauthorized transfers and this was supported by meeting minutes showing Brown even voted for the decisions. Champlin said every time this had been shown to her, Brown would deflect to something else.

“Nothing was done improperly,” he said. “If you listen to all of this dialogue, every time something is refuted, it is ignored. Every time you come up and say, ‘This is the answer,’ it’s ignored. Or, the tactic is, shift to something else. I’ve seen that hundreds of times.”

Brown, however, refused comment when asked.

“I’m not going to give you a comment tonight,” she said. “I need time to reflect. I need to reflect.”

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