The Town of Alton must be reading memos and emails from the Timberlane, Gilford, and Windham School districts.
The board of selectman, during public comment, had a taxpayer arrested on the grounds that he had violated their recently enacted policy–enacted to shut people up. In this case the taxpayer was arrested for disorderly conduct (no personal attacks), which translates to “publicly expressing his displeasure with their service.”
According to resident Jeffrey Clay of Alton, this is just the last in a series of actions to shut people up, himself in particular.
From an editorial by Mr. Clay in Feb 12, 2015 edition of The Baysider Pg A5
The members of the Alton Board of Selectmen have been violating the peoples’ rights under the law for quite some time now regarding right to know. I have repeatedly spoken to the board regarding this issue over the past couple of months in an attempt to resolve the issue without having to take them the to court.
Their response to my concerns however, was silence. No discussion. No taking of responsibility for their actions. Nothing. Instead of acknowledging past transgression and making a commitment to adhere to their own policies and laws of the state in the future, the BOS freely choose to take the low road. In an effort to squelch my free speech rights whereby I attempt to hold the BOS accountable during public input time at BOS meetings for their willful violations of the peoples’ rights, the BOS stopped airing public meetings on public TV, instituted a policy regarding pubic input (where none existed prior) limiting public input to five minutes and which dis-allows so called “personal attacks.”
Even more reprehensible than what is described above, the BOS started having an Alton police officer show up to their meetings…
He goes on to describe the circumstances of his arrest.
On Feb. 3, I addressed the BOS during public input where I stated: “Every time I show up here, it is my most fervent hope to find that you have resigned. But you continue to show an unwillingness to step-up to the plate and take responsibility for your poor actions as selectmen and resign. I am asking you to do this now. It just takes two words: stand up and say I resign. I take responsibility for my poor decisions, for my poor actions and continued violation of the citizens rights of Alton.”
My comments took all of approximately 30 seconds. At this point the BOS immediately voted to close public input, claiming my words violated their newly adopted public input policy. I disagreed. And since I had four minutes and 30 seconds remaining, I began reading definitions of integrity, honesty and character. When I refused to stop reading these definitions, Alton’s chief of police threw my left arm up behind my back causing severe pain and I was placed under arrest and charged with disorderly conduct.
I tried to check the Alton Police Department’s online police logs but there is only one entry for the week of May 1-7th….2011. (Note to the Alton PD: Logs is plural.)
I don’t know Mr. Clay and we only have these remarks to work with, but I’m inclined to believe him. His story has become all too common in towns and at meetings all across the state. And even if the circumstances of his arrest are open to debate the other points are not, nor is the perception. Why else end the airing of meetings on public access television, change public input rules, make it harder to speak without violating vague policies, AND have an armed officer present?
To shut people out or to shut them up.
This reinforces any claim that public information is being squirreled away and made more difficult to unearth; all of which suggests the Alton Board of Selectman have something to hide and they are trying to hide it.
So, sadly, we can add Alton to the list of Boards, committees, and both elected and appointed officials who are adding hurdles to access public documents and implementing policies to intimidate or silence public input.
The people in Alton need to figure out what they are hiding and they may need a change of leadership to do that. Whatever they do, attending these meeting and forcing the board to become more transparent has to be job number one.
For those of you in the other 230+ towns in this state, you’d best get yourself or someone you trust to your town meetings to find out what they’ve been doing to silence dissent and start reporting it or sharing that with someone who can report it for you.
If they are, you need to act now to stop it.
Updated: From the Union leader
Clay, a longtime critic of the board, according to the Laconia Daily Sun, which first reported the story, immediately asked all members to resign for their “poor actions as selectmen,” “poor decisions” and “continued violations of the citizens’ rights here in Alton.”
At that last phrase, Selectman David Hussey raised his hand, said “This is character assassination,” and walked out of the room to fetch the chief of police, the town video (www.alton.nh.gov/Videos.asp) shows. Exactly 38 seconds had elapsed between the time Clay stated his name for the record and Hussey moved to shut him up.
Update: Video Added
