Mayor Recuses Himself from Langley Parkway Discussion

Mayor Jim Bouley recused himself from participating in a discussion of the Langley Parkway/Northwest Bypass extension project at a Concord City Council meeting on Tuesday after being requested to by a fellow councilor, due to his firm’s business with the main beneficiary of the project, Concord Hospital.

In a letter sent to Bouley the day before the meeting, Ward 2 City Councilor Allan Herschlag called on the mayor to step away from the discussion due to his previous relationship and his firm’s current relationship with the hospital.

“It is public knowledge that in the past you have been registered as a lobbyist for Concord Hospital at the State House and that currently your business partner Michael Dennehy is registered as a lobbyist for Concord Hospital,” Herschlag noted. “The fact of the matter is Concord Hospital is currently a client of your firm. It is also public knowledge that the one entity in Concord that it appears will receive the most benefit from the construction of Langley Parkway is your firm¹s client Concord Hospital.”

According to filings with the secretary of state, Concord Hospital and Concord Regional Healthcare are currently clients of Dennehy but in the past, have been listed as clients of both Dennehy and Bouley.

Dennehy was paid $36,000 to lobby for the hospital in 2014. In 2012, Bouley was paid $20,400, and in 2011, he was paid $23,000.

The hospital, which made a contribution to pay for the second leg of the roadway, connecting Clinton and Pleasant streets, is presumed to be a partial financier of the third leg, speculated to be about $15 million. Nearly a year and a half ago, just before the last election, Bouley said that the project was a “no-go,” in his eyes.

Herschlag, in the letter, stated that city rules show that the financial relationship should be considered a conflict of interest.

“I bring this to your attention not because I don’t believe you are unaware of the conflict, but because of the manner in which our current City Council has handled conflicts of interest,” he said. “In the case of the Chair, I believe that the appropriate action would be to turn the meeting over to the Mayor pro tem and then for the Mayor to follow the same actions as a sitting councilor would follow.”

According to sources, Bouley did step down from leading that section of the meeting. The council also removed the Langley Parkway proposal from the rest of the construction discussion and pushed the project off a year, according to the Concord Monitor.

Bouley referred the letter to the Rules Committee which was already looking at clarifying council rules including the use of recusal to avoid conflict.