My Letter to the Citizen
Printed in the Citizen on Friday, August 10, 2007 here
Editor, The Citizen: The Gilford School Board has now communicated their displeasure with Cutter Mitchell's reporting of the Moultonborough Study Committee's official and posted visit to Gilford and their abortive time with GSB members Sue Allen and Derek Tomlinson. I'm surprised that The Citizen has not put the GSB letter online to help support their reporter. Is the GSB is trying to give a spin to the story as they are outright attacking the poor reporter who pretty much got it right? Is pressure being applied? The problem is that their accounting does not jive with mine at GilfordGrok. com or the video, which can be watched at GilfordGrok. com. It is important that reporting be correct; however, attempting spin compromises the spinner.
The GSB has started the process of killing the messenger. Their concern is with "closed door meeting," by discrediting Cutter, it moves the focus away from the GSB members. Although I may now already be in that same category as Mitchell (football and insurance anyone?), I can say that Cutter's articles come closer to reality than the spin.
They state that another meeting was in progress when they arrived. If they had bothered to enter and ask, they would have learned that we were just killing time with Q-and-A until their arrival. No, they refused to enter because of the presence of the cameras, and likely, the presence of Doug and I. They made their irritation known of the cameras well known and left.
They cannot contest and their letter ignores, however, that we in the Kitchen were led to believe by Jerry Hopkins that no one else was invited to the meeting with Sue and Derek — the video makes it quite clear.
That is the essence of a closed-door meeting — limited participation; a physically "open" door or not. Thus, their claim that "no other people chose to attend" is false. The MSC chair did not have the right to split an official meeting into private meetings on his own say so with an MSC quorum present. Like it or not, the GSB representatives seemingly have aided the MSC Chair to skirt the Right-to-Know law.
In fact, this action, in violation of the spirit of the RTK law, has been deemed sufficiently severe by the Moultonborough Selectmen, upon review of the eyewitness accounts and video, to instruct Mr. Hopkins to meet with the town counsel under the observation of two selectmen and have the RTK law explained to him. They are also making sure that official meeting postings will be done to a more stringent standard as well. Having the Police Chief resign from the MSC also speaks volumes.
Oh, the new GSB website? Taxpayers have been paying for one at gilford.k12.nh.us; why not make better use of the one you have so we don't have to pay for another one.
Skip Murphy
Gilford
