Random Proposal By Concord Councilor For Diversity Committee Nixed

CONCORD, NH — The Concord City Council rejected a proposal to create a diversity committee for appointments on committees after a councilor criticized part of a 17-page report by the city manager focused on council priorities and communicated with a contractor about expanding the promotion of open positions to people outside of Concord.

At Monday’s meeting, Ward 5 Councilor Stacey Brown pulled the city manager’s quarterly status report of city council priorities for 2022-2023 from the consent agenda. The consent agenda is random items submitted to the councilors for review and, most of the time, are approved by voice vote each month. The report was an update by Thomas Aspell, the city manager, on all the items recommended by councilors for him to work on during its January 2022 priority session meeting. The meeting, which is a lowkey, conversational affair, where councilors eat together and discuss different initiatives, occurs every two years, after the odd-numbered election.

Brown, while saying there was a lot of good news and info in the update, was critical of the diversity section of the document, which was two paragraphs. In the report, Aspell wrote the city had purchased a contract with CircaWorks, a company that assists with compliance and diversity recruiting, to expand the city's diversity hiring.

“This will help us reach under-represented groups to innovate and lead with the country’s largest network of community-based organizations and niche sites,” Aspell wrote.

Aspell said Jennifer Johnston, the city’s director of human resources and labor relations, also sat on a panel discussion for the Human Resources Association-Greater Concord discussing diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies for the workplace in November 2022, and the fire department was on its way to expanding the number of women on its firefighter and EMT teams to five.

Brown said while expanding the fire department was great, the effort was not enough. She said boards, commissions, and committees needed broader representation and city employees needed to be brought in from other communities to diversify the workforce.

Brown called CircaWorks to get an overview of what the company was doing to assist the city in diversifying its workforce. While she called the contract “wonderful” and said she was “pleased to hear” about the company’s work, she thought human resources needed to reach “out to a different, broad range of groupings” and was critical the company seemed to be only focused on Concord. Brown said the city needed to “extend the range” of potential applicants to other areas.

“They are only focused on Concord,” she said.

Brown pointed to Matt Walsh, the new deputy city manager, and suggested she thought he lived in Hooksett, something he denied.

“Oh, you’re from here?,” she said. “Alright, I talked to somebody from Hooksett who is an employee.”

Brown said CircaWorks offered free webinars so the city could “craft our job applications” geared toward diverse hires. She suggested Johnston add councilors to the CircaWorks system so “then we would have access to those webinars, which would be beneficial.” Brown said the mayor always requested names of potential constituents to serve on committees, but, “I think we’re really struggling to attract a diverse representation to our boards, committees, and commissions.”

Brown stated some city residents were unable to get what they wanted — including a request to install lights at Keach Park, and, therefore, felt disenfranchised.

Ward 7 City Councilor Keith Nyhan requested Brown confirm what she was doing by calling a city contractor. She said she wanted to know what they were doing and how they worked. Brown said CircaWorks controls the regions where applications are sent and the city only gets applicants from Concord.

Aspell requested Johnston, “who is the one who actually uses CircaWorks,” to come before the councilors and explain the contract, adding the city had found the tool “very valuable.”

Johnston said the city had 23 active job openings and CircaWorks sent the openings to all kinds of organizations to expand application opportunities. Since July 2022, 130 job openings have been sent to the company. She corrected Brown’s assertion, which was inaccurate, that only Concord applicants were being requested. Johnston said outreach by the city had included the Manchester NAACP, Easter Seals in Manchester, which has applicants with disabilities, veterans’ organizations, a group in Keene, and employee recruiters that promote female hiring. She added the city was casting a wide net, including nationally, for applicants, since there were so many openings.

Bouley asked Johnston how Brown could get so much false information from a city contractor.

Johnston said an employee at the company contacted her about whether Brown was an employee of the city after receiving the call. She told the employee Brown did not work for the city. Johnston said the CircaWorks employee told her the only information given to Brown was how the system worked — not “specific functioning” by the city.

“I have the email,” she said. “That’s what he related to me.”

Ward 10 Councilor Zandra Rice Hawkins said she would be willing to second Brown’s proposal for a committee, to have “community conversations around those topics.”

Bouley said, while Brown’s proposal was a “worthy idea,” he would be voting against it since he was working on a proposal of his own that was broader than what Brown had forwarded.

“It shouldn’t be just the council … it should be community-oriented,” he said. “If you hold just a little bit, I think you’re going to see something that is a little more comprehensive.”

Several councilors said they would hold their questions and comments until that time.

Rice Hawkins, however, countered she had been waiting since June 2020 “for these conversations.” She added, “I’m a little done with waiting … we need the investment of the council.”

Bouley said the problem did not appear to be the city’s efforts with hiring and said Brown appeared to get the wrong information when she contacted the contractor. He called it “counter to what was provided.” Bouley said the city was already doing “a lot of things” to acquire diverse applicants.

Rice Hawkins said she thought the original proposal was only for boards and commissions, and the city clerk, Janice Bonenfant, read from her notes. Brown, however, clarified the ad hoc committee would receive input from the public about membership on boards and committees, not employees.

“We don’t have representation on a lot of our boards and committees,” she said.

Bouley, after being asked by Amanda Grady Sexton, an at-large councilor, if the idea would be available for the next meeting, he said that it would. He said he appreciated all of the volunteers who served on committees in the city and called it one of the strengths of Concord, the willingness to volunteer.

“Could it be better? Absolutely,” he said. “(But) they do yeoman’s work.”

Bouley said, if he had not had computer problems on Monday, he would have had a proposal ready for councilors to consider.

Byron Champlin, an at-large councilor, said he supported the mayor’s purview on selecting members of committees. He said, while he supported Brown’s idea, he would be voting against it.

Nathan Fennessey, another at-large councilor, agreed and said it was not appropriately proposed.

“I don’t think there is anything in front of us to consider,” he said, noting the lack of specifics about Brown’s idea.

Aspell thanked Nyhan for raising the issue of non-interference by city councilors in management decisions.

“To make sure you stay in conformance with the charter and council rules,” he said, “you do not get involved in management prerogatives.”

A vote was taken and Brown’s measure was defeated — with only a few councilors audibly supporting it.

A vote was taken to accept the report and Rice Hawkins requested a roll call vote. After the vote, she said she wanted a roll call vote on Brown’s proposal, not the report's acceptance. Bouley said the vote was already held by voice vote, and the report was accepted.

Measure 27 of the city charter, entitled “Noninterference by the City Council,” states: “The City Council shall act in all matters as a body. Members of the Council shall not seek individually to influence the official acts of the City Manager, or any other officer; or to direct or request, except in writing, the appointment of any person to, or removal from, office; or to interfere in any way with the performance by such officers of their duties; but they may make suggestions and recommendations. Any member of the Council violating the provisions of this section, as determined through procedures established in this Charter, shall forfeit the office.”

It is unknown, at post time, whether Brown calling the contractor and requesting access to webinars and other resources, as well as requesting the city change its outreach strategies based on the false perception it was not casting a wide net for potential and diverse employees, was in violation of the charter.

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