BRISTOL — The ethics guidelines that govern town employees will not apply to the Bristol Board of Selectmen.
Members of the board on January 21 rejected a proposed town ordinance designed to ensure that elected officials would remain “independent, impartial, and fair in their judgment and actions.” Town Administrator Nik Coates had brought the proposal to the board at the same time he submitted a revised ethics policy governing town employees.
Chair Wayne Anderson asked whether the ordinance might be “a solution looking for a problem.” He said there is already a process to hold a hearing and, if necessary, go to superior court if people are misappropriating money or otherwise violating the law. Unless the court removes them, he said, those who are elected should remain on the job.
“It’s tough enough to find people to run for public office today,” Anderson said. “I’m afraid if you put more stumbling blocks to prohibit people from running it will discourage participation.”
Selectman J.P. Morrison also opposed the ordinance. “The more you spell it out, there’s more area for the guillotine,” he said. “You could conceivably not want anyone who gets a paycheck from the town, and I don’t think that’s what we want to do.”
Morrison operates a construction company that successfully bid to carry out the upgrade to the town’s transfer station, and often does contract work for the town. He abstains from votes that would benefit his business.
He worried that “You can read anything you want into it. If a member of the board holds a position anywhere on the public payroll, it could be misconstrued that you are in conflict. If the electorate feels that way, there’s a ballot box to fix that.”
Selectman Leslie Dion spoke in favor of the ordinance, saying the town should spell out exactly what the conflict would be. “I don’t know why it would hurt to have it in place,” she said. “It gives you a basis for saying, ‘Yes, I read it and understand what is expected.’ I don’t think this would preclude anyone from running for the board.”
Christine Fillmore and David Connell, attorneys with the New Hampshire Local Government Center’s Legal Services and Government Affairs Department addressed ethics among local government officials in an article on the center’s website. They note that there are many state laws prohibiting unethical behavior by public officials, and that there is no law allowing towns or cities to adopt their own broad ethics ordinances. However, towns can adopt ordinances to clarify what behavior is reasonably expected of people, and they suggest fashioning such ordinances on the code of ethics enacted for the executive branch in state government.
A local ordinance, they say, can address definitions of conflicts of interest, regulation of conflicts of interest, provisions requiring the disclosure of financial interests, and establishment of requirements for “incompatibility of office” that are stricter than state law requires. Towns also can adopt non-binding guidelines that help members understand the ethical standards they should live by.
Originally discussed during the board’s January 7 meeting, the selectmen took up the proposal again at their meeting on January 21. At that time, Dion and Anita Avery spoke in favor of the ordinance while Anderson and Morrison spoke against it. The fifth selectman, Don Milbrand, did not attend the January 21 meeting.
Town Meeting
Bristol Town Meeting will take place on Saturday, March 13, at 9 a.m. in the gymnasium of Newfound Regional High School. Selectmen will be finalizing the town meeting warrant when they meet on February 4.
Town Moderator Edward “Ned” Gordon met with the selectmen on January 7 to determine whether the meeting should go forward as usual or take place under special provisions afforded during the coronavirus pandemic.
Gordon explained that House Bill 1129, passed last year, incorporated some of the temporary provisions included in Governor Chris Sununu’s emergency order for last year’s town meetings when the country was seeing the early growth of coronavirus cases. The legislature also is considering whether to allow people to participate remotely and through drive-in voting, as well as expanding absentee voting to accommodate all those wishing to avoid in-person sessions.
Normally, absentee ballots can go only to those who claim religious or job-related conflicts, or who are sick or elderly. Last year, under the governor’s executive order, it was not necessary to declare a reason for requesting an absentee ballot, and many legislators thought the process worked well enough to make the change permanent. There are questions, however, whether no-excuse absentee voting is legal under the New Hampshire Constitution.
Gordon noted that the state legislature held a session in the parking lot at the University of New Hampshire, with people remaining in their cars and participating over an FM radio station. Those wishing to speak could ask for a microphone to be brought to their vehicle.
“It was awkward,” he said, “but it did work.”
Gordon noted that the Newfound Regional School District is holding its deliberative session on January 30 in the high school gymnasium, with overflow seating in the auditorium, as well as having classrooms available for those who choose not to wear masks or who want to isolate from others.
Selectmen agreed that a similar approach would be useful to the town, moving the meeting from the high school auditorium where it has taken place in recent years to the gymnasium, with overflow space in the auditorium. Election Day voting will take place in the Old Town Hall on Summer Street, rather than the meeting room in the Bristol Town Office Building on School Street in order to accommodate physical distancing.
Holding the town business meeting in more than one location requires the appointment of a deputy moderator for the overflow areas, as well as a microphone so citizens in other locations can participate in the discussion. Selectmen also discussed technology that would provide a WiFi signal in the school parting lot.
Another bill in the legislature would allow communities to postpone their town meetings to a later date, even to September, but the selectmen agreed that operating without an approved budget for that long would create problems.
“I’d like to see as little change as possible,” Anderson said.
Gordon pointed out that there were a lot of complaints last year about the decision not to postpone the town meeting, and warned that such complaints were likely this year.
“We need to be sensitive to that,” he said, adding that online participation through Zoom could help to address the issue.
