Rich Girard - Manchester School Board encouraging corruption - Granite Grok

Rich Girard – Manchester School Board encouraging corruption

rich GirardOur democratic Republic depends on a number of things and one of the major ones is that elected officials will (GASP!) follow the law themselves.  They are role models, like it or not, and what they should be modeling at the very least is adherence to The Rule of Law.  But it seems that Manchester wants to be like Chicago’s – law?  What law – it just gets in the way of “getting things done”.  Sorry, but the means NEVER should justify the end.  Without transparency, there can be no Trust and without that, well, anything goes.  ‘Grok friend Rich Girard as a take on the Progressives on the Board doing a “taking” of their own:

Another View — Rich Girard: Breaking the rules, and getting away with it

It is with some sense of amazement that I write this. On Monday, Sept. 25, the Manchester Board of School Committee did two things that actually made my jaw drop.

As you may know, at-large board member Nancy Tessier violated policies of the school board, provisions of the city charter and laws of the state when she disclosed the contents of a nonpublic meeting to the staff members who were the subject of a confidential discussion. That’s not my accusation. It is the finding of the school district’s lawyer, who conducted an investigation after Tessier leaked the information in an email she sent to the board, which she copied to the staff.

That email, by the way, not only compromised the staff members who were discussed, but also Superintendent Dr. Bolgen Vargas, whom Tessier gratuitously disparaged.

Under the guise of meeting with our attorney, the board had a “non-meeting meeting” on Sept. 25. It didn’t last long once objections to the discussion of an elected official’s actions were aired. Under state law, elected officials are not allowed to have their actions discussed in non-public session. Moreover, discussion of the confidentiality breach was actually an agenda item for that evening’s meeting.

While I did successfully discuss several of the findings in the letter, an attempt to read a couple of sentences directly from it was objected to on the grounds that information protected by the “attorney-client privilege” would be released. While the district’s attorney did say that I could share and summarize the findings in his report, he also said that the board should vote to release the letter as he could not waive the privilege.

Astoundingly, that vote failed, despite the attorney saying the report disclosed no confidential information.

In arguing against releasing the information, it was said that Tessier made a mistake and that the remedies sought, despite none having been proposed, were too harsh. Some argued that, since the board had failed to correct past violations of personnel confidentiality, it would be wrong to do so in this case. One individual even implied that if the board sanctioned Tessier for her egregious breach, it should be ready for others to be accused.

Wow.

WOW indeed.  So because of past wrongs, the Manchester School Board ALWAYS has to screw things up?  With this, have they locked themselves into a state of lawlessness?  They effectively have put their stamp of approval on wrong doing – laws are for the little people.  If you can’t abide by the rules and the RSAs, the other members should, if just for the sake of INTEGRITY, put the hammer down.  Without Integrity added to Transparency, there is no Trust.

When presented with indisputable evidence that a member of the board, a former principal and assistant superintendent who certainly knew and understood the need and purpose of confidential personnel sessions, violated policy and law, board members Sarah Ambrogi (Ward 1), Mary Georges (Ward 3), Leslie Want (Ward 4), Dan Bergeron (Ward 6) Tessier (incredibly, she voted on her own actions), Erika Connors (Ward 8), John Avard (Ward 10), Kate Desrochers (Ward 11), and Connie Van Houten (Ward 12) voted to keep it a secret from the public.

The chutzpah of Nancy Tessier ranks right up there with Harvey Weinstein and other predators.  Yes, I said it.  While the topics are different, sexual predation and confidentiality, three items are the same:

  • The corrupting of a Position of Power
  • An overriding sense of Entitlement
  • Exploitation of someone down the chain

What’s worse, just minutes later, those same nine school board members demonstrated their disregard for the violations when they voted to “receive and file” the agenda item. That means they voted to put Tessier above the law and make it go away.

Just like the Weinstein Company’s Board of Directors allowing Harvey to be above the law in his contract via the sexual harassment clause that also condoned his actions (just pay us off, Harvey)?  Contract, Non-public?  Both actions are condoning illegal activity.  We know only part of the payoff by the Manchester School Board.

Once the shock of what happened wore off, I can’t say I was surprised. The same nine, plus Ross Terrio (Ward 7), who was the one who objected to my reading from the letter, also voted against my motions to eliminate taxpayer provided health benefits for board members. Several of them, Ambrogi, Georges, Want, Bergeron, Connors, Avard, Desrochers and Van Houten take either the health or dental benefits or both, despite voting to cut expenses for student supplies, building cleaning, maintenance and repairs, and even teaching staff.

Hypocrisy knows no bounds and these hypocrites are in the tank. And in looking at the roll of the MSB, is this a protection by the “Sisterhood” (as in “all we grrls hafta stick togedda”?).

Fortunately, these self-serving politicians have cast their votes in the midst of an election; an election that could very well determine whether or not the changes this district desperately needs to make will be made. While each has an opponent, and some opponents are stronger than others, it is my hope that members of the general public will understand these examples of self-service are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg and cast their ballots accordingly.

There’s more to this story, and it’s a story that will go from really bad to much worse if you let them get away with it yet again.

Rich Girard is an at-large member of the Manchester Board of School Committee.

(H/T: Union Leader)

>