Town council meeting went fairly quickly last evening and at times got a little heated. At the beginning of the meeting it was reported that the annual "trash pick-up" day was successful. Lots of volunteers picked up litter along side roadways through-out the town.
As a side note- Community for a better Derry had done a great job co-ordinating a pick-up party for the Windham road area. My understanding is that about 50 Bags of trash were collected along with tires and other large trash items. Kudos to that group for getting people together for a better Derry.
We ( council) postponed a public hearing on restricting public parking along A and B street until May 15th. Anyone wishing to speak on those issues can come and discuss them at that time.
Then Council Chair Bulkley made an announcement that basically chastised Councilor Coyle for making accusations in the press about violating the charter by our acting town administrator and the fire chief by signing a contract without council knowledge. The chairman said he thought Coyle owed an apology to them both since according to towns attorney NO violation had taken place and everything was done properly.
Councilor Coyle said he was sticking to what he had said and refused to apologize. He then blamed the fire chief by saying that he knew all along that the contract should of been reviewed before it was signed by the council.
The meeting went back and forth on this issue and Councilor Carney had said that he had asked that we bring this issue up at a separate meeting and to agendize the issue. The chairman said he would.
I had said in the past that what was done was done and next time it should be at least reviewed by the chairman. I did not see this as a big issue and that I was ready to move onto bigger and better things. Then the press needed to take Kevin and his comments about being "sandbagged", as a front page story with all the negative comments ( you know the ones that sell papers).
Come on now- Does Kevin think that the Acting town admin and the fire chief DO NOT have the best interest of Derry here? Maybe he thinks he knows better then they, I don't know his reasons here.
All I can say is now we have to have a future meeting to discuss an issue that will be nothing but pure politics and I'm sure that meeting will have plenty of bashing and unnecessary waste of everyone time. I mean, the contract is signed- It is legal and was done legally so what can come out of this future meeting? We will not be changing a thing here.( just another bash party for some. )
Now I'm not saying Kevin is wrong by saying maybe councilors should of reviewed this contract and chime in however the way that he blew this way out of proportion is uncalled for in my opinion. What is yours???
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I believe that Councilor Coyle has been, and is still, extremely unprofessional regarding this matter. You would think that politicians would realize that it IS better to admit that you've made a mistake and apologize for it. This man is an attorney and he doesn't even know the laws. Furthermore, his job is to be a legislator for the Town, not a lawyer. It is not his place to be expressing his personal legal opinions; especially when they are wrong.
I applaud the efforts of Dr. Moody and Chief Klauber. Both men should be congratulated for their years of hard work and dedication to this community.
Now that the elections have passed, Kevin Coyle and his cohorts are no longer focused on trying to put their people on the council. They are back to terrorizing the town and trying to micro-manage everything; just as they had done the year before.
This town used to be looked upon very highly. More and more people are starting to turn their shoulder and look away. We can see this in many areas, especially economic development. God help this town when Chief Klauber and Dr. Moody, as well as others, decide to retire or move on. Who in their right mind would want to come to Derry to be the Town Administrator or Fire Chief? Why would anyone want to put up with the constant harassment that these two individuals endure?
It is rather obvious that there is a very small group in this community that is disgruntled. Let's just say for sake of argument that this "group" has about 2000 members (this number is probably high). That's only about 6% of the population of the town. Councilors Coyle and Fairbanks should be more concerned with the other 94%, the majority which they have been elected to represent.
All too often, politicians tend to express their own ideas and philosophies rather than those of the citizens they represent. I'm not trying to say that the 6% shouldn't have their opinions heard by all councilors. Councilors are elected to office by a majority vote and subsequently their legislative votes, throughout their term in office, should be the will of the majority.
I think it is very important that the town of Derry work together with surrounding towns, especially in the area of emergency services.
From the Derry News article, it wasn't clear whether the contract makes economic sense, but I would hope that the fire chief would have the best idea.
It would be best if the parties involved find a way to move forward and put this issue behind them.
Thanks to all who pick up trash in Derry.
Perhaps a lesson that is being taught (we can't count on it being "learned") is that if this Councilor/Politcian wants to continually seek from the Newspaper attention grabbing headlines on nonsensical issues, he is going to receive another attention grabbing headline in return.
It's also really too bad the press doesn't have the guts to ask the tough questions. For example, the Fire Chief's action have been deemed "reprehensible" --- excactly how is that if the FACT is that he doesn't take his marching orders from the Town Council - indeed, even if he did the Town Council never gave a marching order on this issue.
I've written it before --- sadly and unfortunately we are going to end up with an underqualified, short term martyr for a Town Administrator - someone who is just interested in the money the job pays.
Dittos on applauding Dr. Moody and the Fire Chief!!!!!!
And lastly, let's not be fooled ---this Councilor is already running the campaign for control of next years Council. Anyone find it odd that Mr. Burtis has shown his presence more recently than in the past?
Moody has shown again that his skin is as thin, as Klauber's is thick.
Does it come as a surprise to anyone that our former school superintendent, now "acting" town administrator, be flustered to the point of distraction and resignation, when caught in the DFD cross fire that predates him? Not when you consider that in Moody's new role, there is more public fiscal accountibility than when he was in charge of singularly sheparding the towns expensive bloated sacred cow, the derry public schools.
On the otherhand, Klauber has been dragged through so many self made policy fiasco's he is calloused to the point that he views his every bumble as just another bump in the road, as well as his hide. Klauber appears in this latest "ambulance case", despite councillor Coyle's articulated concern, to have made an insubordinate decision to "act" without council debate and hope he can hang on to his "bull" long enough to be protected by the same weary and fewer in number political rodeo clowns that always would come to his aid.
Coyle is right to be upset with both Moody and Klauber. Moody for not managing to "act" his interim title and Klauber for another managerial blunder that will end up costing Derry more money by underpricing our service to underdeveloped neighbors.
While none of us can compete with the previous post in regards to fictional literary skills, but we do have FACTS on our side --- read the previous post again...can you sight ANY publically confirmable FACTS??????? NOPE.
You know, FACTS like perhaps the author being a writer for an extreme and radical website OR the FACTS that motivate this "professional" author to attempt his insigificant role in dividing this town - perhaps he should also issue a disclaimer stating his personal/business history with the fire department (perhaps it didn't turn out so good for him).
It's apparent that FACTS and DISCLOSURE are a one way street for this author.
Here's a fact that you may or may not know. Kevin Coyle is swamping the Town with numerous RSA 91-A requests. These requests tie up valuable resources as well as cost the Town overtime to prepare the reports he is requesting. Fact.
Doesn't the public have a right to know what Mr. Coyle is fishing for and to what extent he is fishing?
How does a citizen or the press put in a request for info re: Mr. Coyle's requests?
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