GilfordGrok

Once the meeting with the selectmen had concluded, Moultonboro members went downstairs to the Town Hall lunchroom to await School Board members Sue Allen and Derek Tomlinson, for their next information session. Murphy, Lambert, and Hollis accompanied them, Hollis and Lambert setting up their cameras again in the lunchroom.

As I said before, I was invited by Hollis Caswell to join them.  It wasn't until afterwards that I learned that the BudComm had been mentioned as part of the meeting.  But at the same time, it was posted as a public meeting up in Moultonborough as a meeting to obtain info about the Gilford Budcomm, so why not?

Allen and Tomlinson arrived, and immediately backed off upon seeing the cameras in the room. They met outside the room with Hopkins, who agreed to meet them elsewhere for a more one-on-one interview. They left to go upstairs to the meeting room, where Allen said they held an open door meetings.

This was not my recollection of how this transpired!  There was quite a bit of discussion in the kitchen as to if the Moultonborough citizens, Hollis Austin and Barbara Rondo, would be able to accompany Mr. Hopkins.  It was certainly made clear that they were not welcome, that it was to be a private meeting.  There was also a discussion as to whether that broke the RTK law as well as people were being excluded from the meeting.

The video that was shot is being turned into another YouTube on this point.  I am also QUITE sure that we can made DVDs, unedited, for anyone who is interested to view it and they can decide for themselves (which is the whole reason why we tape - don't take our word or sometime lapsed memories - watch what actually happened).

Video - a strong flashlight into the inner workings of government that is not used to being challenged.  

"The doors were wide open," said Allen. "Jerry asked to take notes. We had nothing but positive things to say about the Budget Committee."

Mary Frost, who was in Town Hall at the time, independently confirmed that she had seen Allen, Tomlinson and Hopkins in the meeting room with doors open.

That's nice to say, and probably may be true. Yet, the discussion was that no one was to follow Jerry Hopkins or that meeting would not be held.  Again, check the video to ensure my memory is correct (and I am quite sure Doug will quick to correct my words here).

Downstairs, Lambert and Moultonboro Police Chief and member of the committee Scott Kinmond said that they were aware there was a meeting going on between Tomlinson, Allen, and Hopkins, but did not know where or when. Allen said that she did not know if the people in the lunchroom knew about the place and time of her meeting with Tomlinson and Allen.

Sure.  They first appeared in doorway, and then refused to enter.  I think there may be a typo with the last line of this snippet, but I get the drift.  And I don't buy it.

"It was open-door," said Hopkins. "We just didn't want to be recorded."

Nor do I buy this.  At an open, public meeting, there is no right to keep other citizens excluded.  Nor do elected representatives have the ability to arbitrarily decided that they can exclude cameras from those meetings.

Lambert said that Hopkins came back into the lunchroom and stated that he was going to have a private meeting with the two members of the School Board, because of their discomfort with the cameras. He questioned the ability of the chair to hold a private meeting instead of in a planned public setting. Although he said that he doubted they had done anything wrong, he said it was likely that a Moultonboro resident would bring a Right-to-Know suit, looking for a record of that meeting.

"I believe the Moultonboro people are committed to seeing this through," said Lambert. "For them to say this was open with a straight face would be laughable, if it weren't so sad, that they went to the extent of changing what had been scheduled as a public meeting because they refused to meet with the cameras rolling."

And that is my concern - public meetings are to be open.  It was a posted meeting - to arbitrarily decide to move to a private meeting circumvents at least the spirit of the RTK law.

Allen's point was that since she and Tomlinson did not constitute a quorum of the School Board, they did not publicly post it, since it was not an official meeting, but an informational session.

"Had they come up, they would have seen that the doors were open," said Allen.

Given the fact that Mr. Hopkins made it quite clear that HE was meeting with Allen and Thomlinson, no one did.

Although Hopkins said that the 20 or so minutes that he spent asking questions of Allen and Tomlinson were beneficial, he didn't believe the meeting with School Board went well. He also expressed some further thoughts about the earlier meeting with the Board of Selectmen, unsure if the presence of two Budget Committee members had any bearing on the answers he received.

I'm not sure they (the Board of Selectmen) spoke their heart, except for the Town Administrator," sadi Hopkins.

Is Mr. Hopkins impugning the integrity of the Gilford Selectmen and the Administration?  Not to leave anyone out here, but I cannot see that the presence or absence of either Doug or I would change what Connie Grant or Evans Juris say. 

Nope, not at all.

"We got a pretty direct answer (on the unions). If that's the situation, then the Budget Committee is more damaging if people are resorting to unions."

I believe that the empirical evidence states otherwise - if the people of Gilford thought that Doug was more of a hindrance than a help, then why did he receive the highest vote total of all the people running for the Budcomm seats available this election?

Hopkins said the committee had met with officials from Tuftonboro and Holderness, and were comparing the situations in all the towns, and the effect that Budget Committees were having on the towns. Hopkins said that the committee had seen cases where a Budget Committee worked in towns, and cases where it did not. As to any meeting in the near future, Hopkins said that he doubted it.

"I think I'm done with meetings," said Hopkins. "This has been a pretty souring experience."

Again, I saw the video from before.  The impression that I have carried away is that even before coming to Gilford, he was expressing a negative view of Budget Committees in general.  I believe that he may just be looking for reasons to torpedo the effort to put a strong Budget Committee into place.