Telegraph file photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Michael Pedersen, a state representative from Nashua's Ward 5 and a leader of the Citizens for Local Control initiative, speaks to people gathered outside City Hall in August, when members of the group delivered their petitions to City Hall for verification. (Telegraph fiel photo by DEAN SHALHOUP)

NASHUA – Numerous plaintiffs, including police Chief Michael Carignan, businessman Rob Parsons and former police officer, firefighter and alderman Michael Soucy, filed suit Wednesday in Superior Court, asking a judge to issue a preliminary injunction that would block the city from placing the police commission petition question on the Nov. 2 ballot.

The plaintiffs, represented by attorneys from the Manchester-based firm McLane Middleton, including former Attorney General Joseph Foster, claim in the suit that the petition circulated by proponents of amending the city charter to change the way Nashua’s police commissioners are appointed needed far more signatures than the 2,058 they collected in order to put the question to voters.

The petitioners, the plaintiffs argue, needed to collect signatures from at least 10% of Nashua’s registered voters, the number that they say is “explicitly required” in the city charter.

The plaintiffs do in fact acknowledge that RSA 49-B:5, the statute the petitioners followed when figuring out how many signatures they’d need to place the matter on the Nov. 2 ballot, only requires signatures totaling 15% of the number of voters who cast ballots in the most recent municipal election.

But they also argue in their injunction motion that the “current city charter” requires signatures equal to or greater than 10% of the total number of registered voters in Nashua “to rescind the governor-and-council-appointment process for the police commissioners.”

The plaintiffs therefore contend that the petitioners would have had to collect upwards of 6,700 signatures, as Nashua, according to their estimate, currently has about 67,700 registered voters.

According to city Corporation Counsel Steve Bolton, however, the statute that requires 10% of registered voters was superseded some years ago by the adoption of RSA 42-B:5 – the one that requires the number of signatures meet or exceed 15% of the number of voters who voted in the last municipal election.

“Notwithstanding the shortage of signatures,” the petitioners wrote, the city and the office of City Clerk Sue Lovering “have apparently accepted the campaign’s petition and have spent and will spend public funds to present this unlawful ballot measure to the voters in the November election.”

The initial hearing in the case has been scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 7, at Hillsborough County Superior Court South.

It couldn’t be determined Wednesday whether the ballots for the Nov. 2 election have already been printed. Phone calls to the City Clerk’s office Wednesday afternoon went unanswered.

Sonia Prince, an organizer of the petition drive and co-founder of Citizens for Local Control, said the plaintiffs, by filing the motion for an injunction, “are just trying to stop voters from expressing their will.

“Everyone should be allowed to express their will … the question is, why are they trying to stop voters” from doing so?” Prince added.

But the plaintiffs adhere to their position that the charter is “unambiguous” in requiring the higher number of signatures. They also note that the Board of Aldermen rejected, by an 8-6 vote, the proposed ballot question, and then “voted to establish a committee to review and study the matter and determine whether such a change would actually be in Nashua’s best interest.”

The plaintiffs also criticized Mayor Jim Donchess, his supporters and the petitioners for “ignoring the considered opinion of (the Board of Aldermen) and utilizing a citizen petition drive take action to place the measure on the November ballot.”

Historically, according to the plaintiffs, municipal office holders way back in 1891 and again in 1913, enacted “special legislation” that provided for the creation of police commissions in Nashua and several other cities, members of which would be appointed by the governor and executive council to oversee their police departments.

The intent in creating the commissions “was to end undue political influence exerted by the mayor and aldermen” on their police departments, “allowing for a more stable department and the politically neutral enforcement of the laws.”

Over time, all the other cities amended their charters to bring the process back under local control, leaving Nashua the only city whose three commissioners are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Executive Council.

Should the petition question stay on the ballot and be approved by voters, the current commissioners would finish out their respective terms and either be replaced or reappointed. It would also expand the commission from three to five members.

Carignan, meanwhile, said Wednesday that Nashuans “can discuss other ways to conduct oversight of the police department, but our citizens and city leaders haven’t even had the conversation.”

The process, he said, “is being rushed through … let’s slow down and consider the consequences of such a significant reform.”

Parsons, a local businessman and general manager of Sky Meadow Country Club, said the police department has risen to a “respected, fully accredited department with well-trained, equipped and qualified officers” under the oversight and guidance of the Police Commission, members of which “are respected leaders in our city.

“This proposed change makes no sense,” he added.

Another local businessperson, Sandy Cleary, who founded the investment, consulting and marketing firm SLC Group Holdings, said no changes should be made to the commission “before examining impacts on safety.”

Donchess, Cleary said, “has not provided the public with compelling or legitimate reasons for this change of control.”

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

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