Ward 1 Concord City Council Challenger A No-Show At Debate: Video

CONCORD, NH — Despite repeated invitations and proposed dates to participate in a debate, the challenger in one of only two contested ward Concord city council seats was a no-show last week.

Brent Todd, the incumbent Ward 1 city councilor, is being challenged by William Barton to represent the village of Penacook — but it has not been much of a challenge, so far. While he did fill out a candidate profile, across numerous emails, Barton refused to commit to a date to debate the incumbent and talk about why he was running, questioning what would be asked and why. He has also failed to fill out expense reports with the city as required.

The debate, one of five put together by Patch, were co-sponsored and recorded by Concord TV and clips were also broadcast on WKXL.

Barton also did not participate in another debate setup by the newspaper later that evening.

In fairness to the incumbent, Todd was given 30 minutes to make statements about why he was running for reelection as well as questions about the homelessness and drug problems in the city, the budget, housing, defunding the police, potential reforms, and tax increment financing at the Exit 17 project which some residents have complained about since it pulled money from the Merrimack Valley School District.

The debate was posted on YouTube.com.

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