Former School Board Member Seeks Concord City Council Seat

CONCORD, NH — No one in the city's politerati can recall the last time a Concord Board of Education member sought a Concord City Council seat which makes it appear as if Nathan Fennessy is attempting to perform a unique trick in the history of Concord's city elections as he attempts to win one of two at large council seats Tuesday. The last politico to do something similar, about a decade ago, Tara Reardon, an attorney, former state department of employment security commissioner, county commissioner, and wife to Mayor Jim Bouley, did the opposite: She moved from a city council seat to a school board seat. Fennessy was appointed in June 2015 to fill out the remaining year of a school board seat held by Oliver Spencer after placing second in the District B seat race in 2014.

In 2015, he ran citywide and placed second, winning one of three at large school board seats. But three years later, he was ousted from the seat by Danielle Smith, placing fourth.

The experience of being on the school board brings a diverse perspective if elected to the city council which Fennessy hopes will give him an edge.

First, he is not starting from scratch when it comes to understanding budgeting and property taxes.

"It's essentially the same wallet," Fennessy said.

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Another is previous service with the joint city council-school board meetings, meaning he will know a lot of people sitting at the table, being from both bodies. A third reason is union negotiations. Fennessy was the chairman of the negotiation team for the school board when it came to contracts.

"For the council and the school board to have a good relationship," he said, "to be able to work together, and understand, sort of, the concerns and priorities of the one versus the other, I hope, if I can get elected, I can serve to a conduit; to provide those sorts of relationships, that I do have, at least with some of the members of the board."

Fennessy believed that the city manager and school superintendent seemed to have an improved relationship compared to the past and he said despite the upheaval of the Concord School District in recent months, he supported the autonomous role that each served. Both bodies, he said, were answerable to the public, with new school board members being elected each year and councilors being elected two years.

The expansion of I-93 is one of the main reasons he is running for city council. The current plans, offered by the state, were still conceptual, and carry a price tag of around $270 million. But members of the public needed to become involved to ensure the state knew what city residents wanted.

"If they are going to spend that much money on doing something," he said, "let's try and make sure it doesn't screw up the geography of our city for the next 100 years."

The new project should connect the downtown and the Merrimack River Greenway Trail, he said.

Concord, while always considered a bedroom community for the southern part of the state, has become an employment and economic hub for many towns around the region. As many as 60,000 people come into the city on any given weekday to work. Fennessy said, while it is good that a lot of those people might have lunch, dinner, pay parking, or take in a show, what could officials do to make those people stay 24 hours instead of commuting?

"Am I saying that the goal should make the city 100,000 people? No," he said. "All I know is there traffic going (in directions). But what is it that they are leaving here to go find?"

New development is also important to the future of the city. When serving on the school board, "you're basically spending money," to create the best school system that can be funded. On the council though, officials play "a more active role figuring out ways to improve and enhance the types of revenue that you bring in." Expanding the property tax base needs to be a top priority, he said.

Connecting the Horseshoe Pond development to an expanded Storrs and Commercial streets is one opportunity, he said. Maybe expanding a bus route during Friday and Saturday nights to improve nightlife attendance, in a cohesive manner, while still getting people everywhere they need to be, he said, adding that the idea was kind of just spit-balling. Many of the hotels are not walkable to the downtown, he noted. If and when a hotel is constructed at the Exit 13/Concord Drive-In development, visitors won't walk from there either.

Fennessy is also concerned about retaining young people in the city and state, getting them into the many open jobs available in the area, including nursing positions for an aging population in the city.

Public safety is also at the forefront of what any new city councilors will need to be prepared to discuss and make some hard decisions about. Should a new ambulance be purchased for the fire department? Should more police officers be hired? Right now, first responders make up about 60 percent of the city's budget, he said.

"Everybody is always a little reluctant to increase that percentage," Fennessy said. "But there are certain things … everyone wants to be in a place that's safe. So, if you need to add more personnel to ensure the safety of everybody, all the neighborhoods throughout the city, that's a cost you may need to incur."

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