Aldermen OK Charter Amendment Granting School Board Budgeting + Taxation Powers
Rich Girard and Victoria Sullivan Fail to Take a Public Stand Before Board
MANCHESTER, NH — Ward 3 Alderman Pat Long’s proposed City Charter amendments granting autonomy to the Board of the School Committee as regards budgeting, finance and taxation passed the Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA) by a vote of 7 to 4 on Tuesday night.
According to City Clerk Matt Normand, for an alderman’s proposal to advance to the municipal ballot to face approval or rejection by the voters required a simple majority of the aldermen present. With 11 aldermen present, that meant Pat Long’s proposal needed six votes.
Earlier, a proposed City Charter amendment to standardize special elections for vacant BMA seats offered by Ward 6 Alderman Sebastian Sharonov failed to reach the six-vote threshold.
Pat Long took four proposals developed by the School Charter Commission that was chaired by former Alderman-at-Large Mike Lopez, and submitted three of the amendments as the Commission approved them. He altered one amendment, the most important proposal addressing School Board autonomy, and adapted to it.
Under both the School Charter Commission’s proposal and Alderman Long’s, an independent School Board has the right to set its own budget and control its own finances, without oversight from the BMA.
The Commission proposal required any tax cap override to be approved by the BMA. Long’s proposal gave the School Board full independence on fiscal matters. Long’s amendment granted the School Board the right to override the tax cap by the vote of a supermajority of School Board members.
For the BMA to override the tax cap, 10 aldermen must vote for it.
In order for the amendments to be put on the municipal ballot, they must be reviewed and approved by the New Hampshire Attorney General. That process usually takes 45 days.
After debate, the Long amendments passed.
Voting with Long were Kevin Cavanagh (Ward 1), Will Smith (Ward 2), Tony Sapienza (Ward 5), Barbara Shaw (Ward 9) Bill Barry (Ward 10), Norm Gamache (Ward 11) and Alderman-at-Large Daniel P. O’Neil.
Those opposing the amendments were Sebastian Sharonov (Ward 6), Ross Terrio (Ward 7) and Alderman-at-Large Joseph Kelly Levasseur.
Aldermen Jim Roy (Ward 4) and Keith Hirschmann (Ward 12) were absent. The Board seat for Ward 8 is vacant.
School Charter Commissioner Will Infantine spoke out against Long’s proposal to give the School Board full autonomy in the public comment season that starts out all BMA meetings,a s did former State Representative Tammy Simmons.
Former Ward 6 Alderman Elizabeth Moreau, a candidate for alderman-at-large, sent in an email to the City Clerk’s office. Read by City Clerk Normand, Moreau expressed her opposition to granting the School Board the ability to override the tax cap.
Neither of the two Republicans opposing Mayor Joyce Craig in the 2021 election, Rich Girard or Victoria Sullivan, appeared at the BMA meeting to voice their position on the Long amendments. Both candidates could have emailed a statement to the City Clerk that would have been read into the record, as was Moreau’s remarks, but they failed to do so.
