Ethics Complaint Filed Against Ward 5 Concord City Councilor

CONCORD, NH — A complaint against a Concord city councilor has been filed with the city clerk’s office requesting a hearing into accusations of violation of conflict of interest, council rules, and state open meeting laws.

Tyler Savage, a resident of Westbourne Road in Ward 5, filed a letter with the city clerk’s office on Monday requesting a board of ethics hearing against Ward 5 Concord City Councilor Stacey Brown, who is serving in her second term on the board. In a letter, he asked for “disciplinary action” due to her “failure to recuse herself after being warned that she should recuse herself at the most recent council meeting” as well as other issues.

The recusal issue at the most recent council meeting involved a consent item pulled from the council’s agenda that involved closures of streets downtown and police details, which could also benefit her husband, a police sergeant. During the meeting, Mayor Byron Champlin told her he believed she had a conflict, but she said she was voting for the item anyway.

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Brown has consistently recused herself from votes on matters involving the police department, union negotiations, and the city manager’s salary discussion, which is why her insistence on refusing to recuse herself on a consent item has bewildered some.

In his complaint, Savage rattled off several other potential violations of council rules, charter, and the state’s open meeting law.

“She has been warned not to do this and is breaking laws despite these warnings,” he wrote.

Savage noted Brown had identified herself as a councilor at public meetings, violated the state open meeting law by emailing councilors and the mayor, and also voted on a donation to the library by her employer.

“I’m asking,” he wrote, “that this come before the board of ethics and that these issues be reviewed so that Ms. Brown can be held accountable for her clear disregard of rules, laws, and policies.”

On Wednesday, Brown did not return an email seeking comment about the ethics complaint. Savage was unavailable for comment at post time.

The month before, Ward 8 Concord City Councilor Ali Sekou appeared to have violated the recusal provision by failing to announce why he was not voting on a 79E tax exemption extension for the First Church Holdings project. He also failed to recuse himself from the entire question being discussed at the beginning of the process and only did so during the vote.

Sekou is the president of the IQRA Islamic Society of Greater Concord, a mosque that abuts the property, and was involved in a lawsuit against the city of Concord due to the zoning board of appeals approving the project, a 30-unit apartment proposal, due to limited parking spaces. A settlement is reportedly in the works.

After being told he possibly violated the council’s recusal process and suggesting he should correct the failure from the April meeting at the council’s May meeting, Sekou refused to correct the problem.

A status conference hearing concerning IQRA Islamic Society of Greater Concord vs. the city of Concord was held in Hillsborough County Superior Court North, where all land civil cases are being heard, on May 16. A joint status report is due on June 17.

According to the clerk’s office, the only complaint the city has received was Savage’s.

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