Concord Councilor Tries To Hijack Former Opponent’s Board Appointment

CONCORD, NH — A ward city councilor was roundly rejected by her colleagues after she attempted to keep a former political opponent from being renominated to a volunteer board position on Monday night.

Toward the end of the monthly Concord City Council meeting, the board began discussing four items pulled from the Consent Report by Ward 5 City Councilor Stacey Brown. The council’s consent report contains several items, including small donations, memos with information, and updates that do not require a public hearing or formal individual vote to be accepted.

Historically, the reports have been collectively approved by voice vote. But since she was elected in 2021, Brown has regularly pulled the items. In some cases, she makes relevant points or offers praise. But in other cases, she appears to be grandstanding for the cable access cameras.

On Monday, Brown pulled four. One was to praise city officials for accessing grants for projects. Two were connected to a proposal to build a new clubhouse at the Beaver Meadow Golf Course — something Brown opposes. The fourth was an attempt to hold up City Manager Tom Aspell’s three recommendations to the Conservation Commission, including the opponent in her race for the open Ward 5 city council seat in 2021, Mark Coen.

Coen, a former at-large city councilor and long-time city business leader, did not attend the meeting. But he is a member of the Ad-Hoc Beaver Meadow Golf Course Building Committee and was previously a member of the Golf Course Advisory Committee.

During the meeting, Brown said none of the appointments included resumes. She also said new members from the community were needed on committees. Brown said resumes should be submitted even with reappointments.

“We should have resumes whenever there are renewals, and I have ... I am opposed to Mark Coen being on the Conservation Commission,” she said.

Mayor Byron Champlin jumped in and reminded Brown there was a process to oppose nominations, which is why councilors were told about them a month in advance.

“You saw these nominees last month,” he said. “And if you had objections as a member, that is the time to bring it forward. That is the reason we give you the resumes for candidates for committees a month in advance. So if you had any concerns, you can raise them with me or the city manager, in this case, it’s the city manager’s appointee, not bring it forward in a public meeting.”

Brown said the report did not include resumes, while Champlin countered she should raised that concern during the previous month.

Aspell said in the past, councilors never required resumes or said they wanted to see resumes for reappointments, adding, “But I’ve only been here 26 years.” If councilors wish to to see resumes, Aspell requested a formal vote by the council since it would require more work and preparation before the reappointment process for the 54 committees the city has.

Ward 3 City Councilor Jennifer Kretovic noted there were several alternate position vacancies on the committee, so if citizens wanted to be involved in the commission, they should apply.

Michele Horne, the councilor from Ward 2, said she did not have a problem with the reappointments but asked about the interview process. She suggested tweaking the process so new community members could be appointed and make the boards more diverse. Aspell said he interviewed every new appointment but not reappointments since he or city staffers often interacted with those members during their tenure. He said two new appointments to the library board were newer residents who were not on any other boards.

“I agree with you 100 percent,” Aspell said. “And that’s exactly what I do.”

Brown then challenged Champlin about the need to raise the issue a month before the nominations were circulated, saying she did not believe the requirement was written anywhere.

“If you can point to that to me, I’d appreciate that because I have not seen anything that says that,” she said, motioning to delay the reappointments for a month.

Champlin then recognized Kretovic, who made a motion to approve the consent item and nominations, and it was seconded verbally by several councilors.

Champlin asked for further discussion before a vote, and Nathan Fennessy, an at-large councilor, raised the issue of getting more people involved with committees, adding that concerns about nominees should be done privately before they are formally nominated via the consent process.

“If we’re going to have a fight about every single appointment, guess what,” he suggested, “we going to have less people to apply if there is going to be a public hearing where people are going to debate the merits of whether or not they should participate on a committee.”

Another at-large city councilor, Fred Keach, agreed.

“I look at these three names, and these are folks that have volunteered hundreds of hours over the years and (are) highly qualified,” he said.

Keach then turned to Brown and said, “No offense, but you have a style of ambushing at the last minute,” while Brown shook her head denying the comment.

“It’s just my opinion,” Keach continued, “but if you want to be productive, I would raise concerns, you know, weeks before the meeting, not the night of the meeting. Because it’s ineffective.”

Judith Kurtz, another at-large councilor, explained to people who did not know, that councilors were given nominee names before they were public so they would have the chance to raise concerns privately without causing any potential embarrassment.

“I agree it’s a very important boundary to maintain because we do have so many vacancies on our boards and committees,” she said.

Kurtz commended Horne and City Clerk Janice Bonenfant and said the vacancies were posted online for anyone to apply.

Brown said complaints from the public only become available when the nominees’ names were published, and having a written 30-day process to raise concerns would be helpful. Champlin, however, said the process was explained to councilors during orientation. Brown countered a written policy should be in place for the future.

After discussing her original motion, which was not seconded, she amended the first motion to include a written policy. That motion, however, failed to be seconded.

Ward 1 City Councilor Brent Todd said he had served with all three members being reappointed when he was the council’s representative to the Conservation Commission. They all brought “a high degree of expertise to the subject matter at hand.”

Champlin attempted to move the question, but Brown jumped in and agreed with Todd that Frederick Chormann and Katherine Healy, the other two reappointments, were acceptable. However, new councilors may not have worked with them, she said, adding it was not unreasonable to have them come back to the council with resumes.

Kretovic said the Conservation Commission had state statutes to follow, and all three members were versed in those requirements, which was why she supported them.

The nominees were approved by voice vote with only one noticeable opposing voice: Brown’s.

On Tuesday, Coen said he was surprised by Brown’s opposition and had no idea why she raised the issue. He called it “disappointing” Brown raised the issue at the end of the meeting by pulling the consent report, which did not allow him to respond until after the meeting. He said she should have spoken to Aspell before the vote if she had concerns.

“I think the procedure that the city government has done, and the council, too, is a much nicer way of doing it than having it brought up like it was last night,” Coen said.

Coen said he had no idea why she opposed his renomination. During his first term, he said, he was active and contributed to the organization. Brown and others never raised any issues at, during, or after meetings. He was surprised, too, other citizens had mentioned concerns about him to her.

“But,” he said, “again, I didn’t have the opportunity to respond.”

The only requirement to be on a board or commission is to be a city resident who wants to be involved. However, some boards address or interpret “very technical” regulations or laws, according to the boards and commissions vacancy website, linked here. There are currently 55 vacancies listed.

Brown did not return an email asking why she opposed Coen to the board.

Ward 8 City Councilor Ali Sekou was the only councilor not in attendance on Monday.

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