ChesterNHoversight

4/17/2024. Chester, NH. After various rants and disparaging comments about the budget committee, select board member goes on epic rant. At issue is the fire chief asking for a position to be funded that has been vacant for over a year. During these budget meetings, employees often refer to “my budget” “my money”. “Slush fund”.

Chester, New Hampshire. 2023.

2/5/24. Chester, NH. "I want value for my money." Chester School Budget Committee Public Hearing. Resident has legitimate concerns about the School and budget and is told he's being aggressive. Committee co-chair calls him "dude" and has side conversations asking "can I ask him to leave" and "can I cut him off." As issue, is the school board's $1.1M increase with addition of full time superintendent to oversee one small school. This was mentioned to the budget committee as an afterthought and position was already posted at the time and before the budget was approved by the legislative body aka the taxpayers.

Chester, NH. 2/22/24. Selectman motions to read a public notice in non-public, but then chair reminds him it’s a public notice and RSA. This selectman has a history of abuse of 91-a and was called out by the former town clerk for keeping non-public records at his home for a year.

School District Meeting, 3/2/21. Resident questions moderator about non-residents in the meeting and if they were voting. Moderator quickly dismisses resident and says he will contact the town attorney. In this meeting, approximately 40 people voted all measures and raised taxes for the entire town, after the school was closed to students for a year. The school board was presented with an award right before this point of order.

2020: board of selectmen go into unscheduled non-public session after opening meeting and after Pledge of Allegiance. They removed the public from the meeting while they had a secret session, then allowed public comment. It was after this meeting they disabled the chat feature on Zoom. This practice of front-loading non-public has been done with meetings on town hall as well and with other committees in town, kicking us out of the meeting room for up to an hour. Chester, New Hampshire.

2020– Selectman calls out member of public for exercising right-to-know rights under RSA 91:a. Uses profanity while others grin in agreement. Later they conspired to hide an entire committee’s meeting minutes from the public using one person as an excuse. When he posted this on Facebook, they conspired and used their influence to send a police officer to his home and threaten him with wiretapping for recording video at town hall; a legally protected right. Wiretapping was something used historically to threaten people who video public servants, but all police departments were told to expect public videos way back when Ayotte was AG. Chester, New Hampshire

7/27/23 — Private property rights vs. Beaver dam and Chester Board of Selectmen.

5/7/2020 — Chester, NH, selectmen expects special delivery of his car registration and brings it up three meetings on a row. The town clerk gives a public scolding. The same selectmen used his influence to send the police to a resident's home, because the town clerk didn't like a Facebook comment criticizing the use on non-public meetings. When the police saw that there was not threat the town clerk asked this selectman for help and he used his influence. Concerning that she asked him for help with the way he regularly treat town employees in such a disparaging manner. Link to police report: https://www.facebook.com/groups/858970335065378/permalink/1086713512291058/?mibextid=S66gvF

“Your actions are appalling. This calls into question your moral compass.” 9/15/22 Parent/PTA president questions BOS regarding hiring sex offender for town fair. -the 2 BOS who have Facebook didn’t show up -Right to know requests found that some statements were untrue -abuse of RSA 91a non-public meeting statutes -one selectmen threatens to leave when called out for having public property at his home for a year -police chief states BOS made false statements and how this affected him as “one of worst weeks of my life” Right to know found that the 300th anniversary committee and BOS voted multiple time to not hire the sex offender until the committee came up with a scheme to use the person’s business name instead of the actual name. More in this and all documentation can be found at: https://instagram.com/chester_nh_oversight_committee?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

9/15/22- Town clerk calls out selectmen for keeping town records at home for a year. He becomes defensive and verbally abusive, then threatens to leave, ending the quorum, as the two selectmen with Facebook did not show up. Right to know requests revealed they actively worked to hide the sex offender’s history from public view with a scheme to hide his name and use his business name. Right to know revealed this selectmen mis-represented his vote.

9/15/22. Selectman called out for reading the paper while a mother stated her frustration with the BOS history of hiring sex offenders and having them around children. Another selectmen, called out for a smirk, becomes defensive.

Public comment concerning Chester NH history of hiring sex offenders. In this case, there was a coordinated effort to hide the truth from the public. One selectman reads the paper while two others didn’t show up for the meeting at all. Documents at: https://instagram.com/chester_nh_oversight_committee?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Chester, NH, Board of Selectmen, town employee, and 300th Anniversary Committee silence parent attempting to discuss an email sent out by the School Board regarding a sex offender being hired by the town to fund raise for the committee. It was found the committee and BOS voted several times to NOT use this person, until they hatched a plan to use the offender’s business name instead of personal name on town records. The mitigation plan to keep him away from children failed and he was paraded around town until the school board and administration was made aware and sent an email to parents. Public outrage began on social media and the coverup was made public through right to know requests. To this date there has been nobody to take responsibility and nobody has given the full story to the public. Documents and summary at: https://instagram.com/chester_nh_oversight_committee?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==