Contracted legal fee agreements are approved by the Mayor and require no approval of the Board of Aldermen (BOA). The purchasing policy does not require the Finance Committee or Board of Aldermen to approve legal services above $25,000. The Mayor and Legal Office have unchecked control over the legal fee contracts and the terms and expenses associated with … Read more
Rep Ming, aka “Melanie 2.0,” as I often call him, made a crybaby tweet today, one week after losing to my senator. What sweetens his loss all the more is that he’s excluded from BOTH sides of the wall for the next 2 years. My high school basketball coach regularly said following each loss “losers … Read more
The Federal Flag Hearing On Tuesday Morning, November 5, 2024, the Concord Federal Court held a merits hearing on the Scaer v City of Nashua First Amendment Flag case. The coincidence of our National Voting Day and this case could not be more fitting. I had the pleasure of attending. The City filed yet another … Read more
Nashua’s assessing office underwent significant changes between 2019 and 2021. These changes occurred when the Mayor, aware of the problems, failed to keep the lid on a dysfunctional office operating in disarray. The lack of management oversight created an unregulated environment, which eventually revealed itself and continues to reveal itself. The chief was at the heart … Read more
Mayor Donchess likes to remind us that a few residents are costing the city thousands of dollars on Right To Know Requests. The problem is that Mayor Donchess does not want transparency and would like to keep the residents from knowing what he is doing with our tax dollars and how he is running the … Read more
Why did the City spend $650,000 in attorney’s fees and City Costs in an RTK case? The First RTK Petition – My Costs – $225,000 I started seeking records in Nashua, the Welcoming City, in good faith, believing the City would comply. While New Hampshire’s Right-to-Know (RTK) law does not require employees to answer questions, … Read more
Nashua is less than 2 months away from the 100th anniversary of the fire that destroyed the previous Main Street bridge. If you’re a paid member, you can read the Telegraph article about the impact that its absence had on transit. I won’t get into the weeds of comparing 100 years ago to today, but … Read more
Washington And Nashua Have A Lot In Common Selecting people for critical leadership roles and monitoring their performance is paramount to an effective government. We all watched a bizarre public outing of our president’s diminished capacity and analysis of his fitness for duty. Those closest to him failed the nation by covering this up and … Read more
Ending Gender Discrimination in Public Information Access I have faced unjustified obstacles and outright hostility for four years while attempting to access public information from Nashua under New Hampshire’s 91-A Right to Know law. What I’ve experienced goes beyond bureaucratic inefficiency to include gender-based discrimination. Nashua’s leadership treats women differently—and worse than men. The Disparity: Men … Read more
Alderman Moran’s behavior and comments at Nashua Board of Aldermen (BOA) meetings often seem bewildering and inappropriate. This was again illustrated at the BOA meeting of 24 September 2024 when he opined on taxpayers’ reactions to receiving their “surprise” property assessment mail. Excerpts from Alderman Moran’s comments during RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR: https://youtu.be/nOf9YDorMgo?si=OvDACDlM_oauB9vo&t=797 … Read more
Democrat Mayor Jim Donchess of Nashua has changed the city’s policy regarding the flagpoles in front of city hall. Where they were once willing to allow the public to petition to fly a flag, that policy is no longer. The city will fly the flags it likes, and that’s the end of it. We predicted … Read more
I currently have a Supreme Court Appeal (2024-0181) regarding a Right to Know petition to obtain public records from NPAC Corp. The Petition was dismissed as the lower court ruled that NPAC Corp. did not meet the requirements of a public body or public agency required to disclose records. However, NPAC Corp is the shell … Read more
On September 24, 2024, the Board of Alderman meeting opened a conversation regarding the new “surprise” assessments received by property owners that weekend. The Mayor explained that properties throughout the City had increased but had no hard data to support his numbers. Congratulating homeowners on their average 20% increases in their assessed values to highlight … Read more
This past Saturday, property owners were taken aback by the unexpected arrival of letters announcing new 2024 statistical citywide assessments. The suddenness of this news, even catching our elected Alderman off guard, sparked a wave of surprise and concern that reverberated across social media for two days, with nearly 1000 posts. Why is this so … Read more
City of Nashua Budget FY2017 $263,823,554 City of Nashua Budget FY2025 $456,635,638 Difference $192,812,084 That is an increase of 73.08% This is all due to Mayor Donchess’ spending programs. So when are Nashua taxpayers going to wake up and realize taxpayers cannot afford to have Mayor Donchess doing our budgets? It looks like Mayor Donchess wants … Read more
Back in the days of “Alderman Jan,” when I was still on FB and Nashua had zero representation in any legislative body, Beth Scaer authored a survey in one of the local groups, either Nashua Politics or Nashua Scoop. It was a multiple-choice question, and it asked something like this: So you don’t like your … Read more
We had property stolen from us in Nashua. It was a property we paid for with our tax dollars, which belonged to us. It was public property, where the money going in and out of it was to be accountable to citizens. We purchased the property in 2018 for just over $2 million. The Mayor … Read more
Many Nashua citizens have lost confidence in our city officials’ ability to handle FUNDING complex municipal projects transparently. One recent project even questioned whether the city has complied with NH State laws. This project was the Performing Arts Center (PAC). The result has been a loss of confidence in City Hall and a more costly new Arts … Read more
Regular readers will know that the Donchess regime in Nashua is very selective about the flags it allows on the citizen’s pole—almost, dare I say, partisan in its rejection. Most recently, Stephen and Beth Scaer (who both write for GraniteGrok) asked the city to fly the de-trans flag. It was rejected, and an appeal to … Read more
Way back when Rep. Ben Ming first took possession of Sue Homola’s seat in the NH House, he wasted no time in deploying woke identity politics. When he bragged in a tweet that he’s the first Asian to have a seat in the House, I replied that I voted for who would have been the … Read more