It's never over 'til its over, and it ain't over
Barbara Rando of Moultonborough had a good letter in the Citizen and Sun on this whole incident from the perspective of a Moultonborough resident. I asked for and received permission to reprint it in full.
I was astonished to read the August 3rd commentary by the Gilford School Board on what transpired at the July 25th meeting with the Moultonboro Budget Committee Study Group. I wish to offer this for the record.
I was one of the two residents from Moultonboro attending the Gilford meeting. The notice in Moultonboro advertised the Study Group was meeting with members of the Gilford Board of Selectmen, Budget Committee, and School Board.
A woman I now know as Sue Allen spoke to me as I was nearest the door. At first she looked in the room and then pulled back into the hallway. I identified that I was from Moultonboro and explained that while awaiting her arrival a discussion with members of their Budget Committee had begun. I asked her to come in; we were waiting for them. The response was that she and Derek Tomlinson didn’t want to come in with the Gilford Budget Committee members present, and they would wait for someone to get them when we were finished. I asked them to wait a moment and I relayed her comments to Mr. Caswell, a Study Group member. Mr. Caswell called out and motioned to the 2 members of the School Board to come into the meeting but they did not enter. The Study Group Chairman was then interrupted and told the School Board folks were in the hallway. Chairman Hopkins leaves the kitchen.
After several minutes, Chairman Hopkins returns to the kitchen and begins his commentary on people being afraid to talk on camera, says that for some reason this Study Group is under a lot of scrutiny, we all discuss the Right to Know law, and he is then asked “what happens now”? Mr. Hopkins says he is leaving the kitchen to meet with the School Board members and that he and one other wouldn’t constitute a quorum. He would still have that meeting that we had all come down for, but it would be private. He invited any one member of the Study Group to attend this private session, but they all stayed put. The published minutes written by Chairman Hopkins state: “they (School Board) indicated they would speak with our group, but did not wish to speak in the presence of the cameras and others present”.
Now comes the July 26th Laconia Citizen which reported this from Allen: “She explained that when she walked in she believed that Lambert and Murphy were already meeting with the Study Committee, so being on a tight schedule they elected to conduct their meeting with Hopkins elsewhere as not to disturb what was already taking place.” I have no idea what is going on with Gilford politics, but after reading that, knowing what I was first told in the kitchen, and even comments by Chairman Hopkins, the School Committee members simply wanted to avoid questioning in front of a camera and in front of the Budget Committee members, and for that matter, likely the 2 Moultonboro citizens. At no time did Sue Allen’s words to me hint at anything about a tight schedule. Quite to the contrary, she said they would “wait” until the discussion was over. This version is not covered in the minutes of Chairman Hopkins.
In the same July 31st article we learn from Sue Allen that the “door was open”. Huh? After all that transpired in the kitchen, nine people are now to follow Chairman Hopkins around the building to locate and sit in with the School Board who were then going to talk openly with us in the new location? Or, does this end up conveniently in Mr. Hopkins’ lap? He was supposed to invite us up but he didn’t, and he was wrong stating they wanted to participate without a quorum as noted in his published minutes?
Then, we have the August 3rd Laconia Citizen Commentary from the full 5-member Gilford School Board. It stated: “The fact is that Sue Allen and Derek Tomlinson arrived at the Gilford Town Hall kitchen as previously agreed, and when finding a full room and what appeared to be a meeting with some members of the Gilford Budget Committee, they waited in an open conference room upstairs for any representative of the Moultonboro Study committee. When Jerry Hopkins entered they met with him with the doors open. No other people chose to attend”.
This begs several questions to be asked. Mr. Hopkins, did you ask the School Board members to come into the kitchen with the rest of the group as I had done and Mr. Caswell had done? Why did they leave the kitchen hallway? Mr. Hopkins, are your minutes correct that the Board members didn’t want to meet on camera and in front of others? What about the minutes of Doug Whitley, another Study Group member: “since we had 2 people to record the meeting, the members of the Gilford School Board would not meet with us”, are those accurate?
I’m astonished at not only the actions of Chairman Hopkins and the Gilford School Board at the publicly posted meeting of July 25th, but at the Board’s changing statements of fact. How is it that the same posted meeting with the Gilford Board of Selectmen had not only the courtesy of full participation by that Board, but also included the Town Administrator and Finance Director. Now, we have the School Board Members dancing around “quorums” to avoid public settings, and saying the door was “open”? Sue Allen, Derek Tomlinson, and Jerry Hopkins knew where we where; where were they?
This is all so very sad and unfortunate for the members of both communities. I am very glad that the public portion of the meeting was taped, otherwise, who could really believe all this? I attended this meeting out of curiosity as it was a hot item at Town Meeting. Wow, what an education in local politics! The door to their meeting room may have been physically open, but it was still a “closed door” private session as reported by Cutter Mitchell at the Laconia Citizen.
Barbara T. Rando
Moultonboro
