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City officials accept petition calling for city charter amendment regarding Police Commission appointment process

By Dean Shalhoup - Senior Staff Writer | Aug 31, 2021

Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP The group of organizers and volunteers who gathered signatures for a petition to get a city charter amendment on the Nov. 2 ballot gather at the Elm Street entrance to City Hall after delivering the petitions last week. (Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP)

NASHUA — Volunteers who spent the last few weeks approaching fellow residents and going door-to-door soliciting signatures on a petition calling for a change in the way members of Nashua’s police commission are appointed have succeeded in their effort to put the matter to voters on the ballot for the Nov. 2 municipal election.

The office of City Clerk Susan Lovering has confirmed that of the 2,058 total signatures collected, 1,830 of them have been certified, comfortably exceeding the minimum of 1,539 necessary to put the matter on the ballot, giving voters the final say whether to amend the charter.

Sonia Prince, one of the petition drive’s organizers, said she was pleased — but not surprised — by the final numbers.

“It shows how many people were willing to sign, because they feel local control makes sense,” Prince said.

She said organizers set an initial goal of 1,800 signatures — some 261 more than the 1,539 minimum — in part because the election is not far away.

“With the timeline we had, we didn’t know how much help we’d get,” Prince said, referring to volunteers. “But we ended up getting more than we expected.”

Should voters approved the charter change on Nov. 2, the city would do away with the 130-year-old provision that authorizes the sitting governor to appoint the Police Commission’s three members — who are then approved by the Executive Council.

Instead, the mayor and the president of the Board of Aldermen would appoint the members of the commission, each of whom would then be approved by the Board of Aldermen.

The proposal would also enlarge the commission from three members to five.

The next step, according to the statute that addresses citizen petitions, is a public hearing, to be conducted by the Board of Aldermen. That hearing is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 16, starting at 7 p.m. in the aldermanic chamber.

The guidelines state that the purpose of the hearing is to provide the text of the proposed amendment and a brief explanation, but “no substantive changes may be made to the amendment” at the hearing.

The proposal to amend the city charter began as a resolution that Mayor Jim Donchess and several aldermen introduced earlier this summer.

The legislation, assigned to the aldermanic Personnel and Administrative Affairs committee, promptly drew the attention of people on both sides of the issue, ranging from longtime residents and current and former office-holders to police Chief Michael Carignan, several retired officers, at least one current police commissioner and former state Attorney General and U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a lifelong Nashua resident.

Members of the personnel and Administrative Affairs committee discussed the matter at length, and eventually voted 4-0 to send the resolution to the full Board of Aldermen without a recommendation.

After a couple more rounds of impassioned testimony both in person and over Zoom, the board voted 8-6 against putting the matter on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Enter the petitioners, who drew the ire of some board members and residents for going ahead with the petition drive rather than agreeing to a suggestion to form a study committee and take the time to examine the matter in more detail.

Some aldermen also spoke out against Mayor Jim Donchess, not only for pushing the passage of the charter change amendment, but for actively siding with the petitioners.

Donchess, like most others who favor the charter change, insist that “it’s time” to bring the police commission appointment process under local control, which they believe will help solve what they’ve referred to as a lack of diversity among the appointed individuals.

They cite the fact that in those 130 years, only one woman — the late attorney and Judge Margaret Q. Flynn — has held a seat on the commission.

Donchess, at a meeting earlier this month, told the board that “things have changed since 1891,” again noting that “only one woman has been appointed to the commission.”

Donchess also cited the proposal as calling for “very modest reform … that’s being done all over the state,” a reference to the fact Nashua is the only remaining municipality whose police commissioners are appointed by the governor.

But those who oppose the charter amendment have argued that what proponents call “local control” could very well open the door to favoritism, the skirting, or disregard of, ethical boundaries and even political corruption.

Carignan, the police chief, posted a letter to residents on the department’s website urging residents to “please do not sign the petition … until you are fully informed on the implications for this change.”

He accused the signature gatherers of “not informing the citizens of all sides of this issue, and in some circumstances, (they) are providing misinformation.”

Board of Aldermen president Lori Wilshire agreed. “I think people need to hear both sides of this,” she said, adding that while “local control” may sound like a good direction for the city to take, amending the charter to change the commission appointment process “isn’t the ‘very modest reform'” that Donchess calls it.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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