Was Concord's Mayor Not Disclosing Business Relationship a Conflict?

What is it that Mayor Jim Bouley - and the Concord City Council -  doesn’t understand when it comes to open meetings, conflicts of interest and ethics?

As reported by Tony Schinella in Concord NH Patch this week:

Earlier this year, when the city landed millions of dollars in TIGER grant funds to improve Main Street, Bouley put together a study committee to look at what to do and named Duprey to lead the committee. He said he spoke to his attorney before appointing Duprey to the committee to see if there were any conflicts and neither he nor the attorney believed there was a conflict. Bouley also discussed the issue with some city councilors.

“I did not send a memo out or anything like that, no,” he said. “As I talked to councilors I told them, ‘Yeah, he’s my landlord … it’s no big deal.’”

So when Bouley talked with all the councilors except Blanchard and Patten, did he do it to inform them of his choice for the committee chairman? Did he do it to solicit an opinion from them or did he do it to influence their vote? Unfortunately we'll never know because it was done behind our backs.

It seems to me that not only was Rule 6B ignored, but RSA 91A was also thrown to the dogs.

And why does Bouley solicit his attorney's advice to determine if there is a conflict when council Rule 6B is quite specific as to the steps to taken if there is concern a conflict exists?

From Rules of the Council - Section 6B:

The issue of the eligibility of a Councilor to vote pursuant to section 6A may be raised on his/her own motion or on the motion of another Councilor. At such time the Councilor affected shall advise the Council as to the full extent of his/her interest in the matter under consideration. The Mayor shall in the first instance rule on the issue of conflict of interest. The decision of the Mayor may be put to a vote of the Council. A majority of those present and voting shall determine the eligibility of a Councilor to vote on the issue under consideration.

Unfortunately city council members didn’t take the opportunity to rule on the mayor’s possible conflict in a public session. It appears that the mayor did an end run around council Rule 6B, to avoid any discussion of conflict, by contacting councilors individually and in private. So while the mayor has some explaining to do, so do the councilors who were contacted and felt that the mayor’s behavior wasn’t violating city rules and a state RSA.

There is a PDF attached to this blog post featuring an article that reporter Shira Schoenberg wrote in January 2010 while she was working for the Concord Monitor. Since the redesign of the Monitor's website, some archives are no longer available online.

The article carefully details how Duprey used his contacts in city and state government to change laws and receive zoning variances and changes for the development of his Smile building. The article also details the mayor's involvement in this project.

And while it appears on the surface that the mayor was using prudence when contacting his attorney and asking for an opinion on a possible conflict of interest, the bottom line here is that it is a ruling for the council to make. And if the council is still conflicted after discussing a potential conflict, they can request an opinion from the city solicitor. 

The reason for Rule 6B and the purported reason for a Board of Ethics is to avoid conflicts, both real and apparent. Conflicts where there are financial conflicts and conflicts devoid of a financial interest yet the appearance of a conflict exists.

So, once again, the public is left wondering why. If this was no big deal - renting from Duprey - then why the behind the scenes phone calls? If this was no big deal, then why did the mayor feel a need to contact his lawyer for an opinion?

It is the public’s business the council is charged to carry out. This isn’t some club. If a councilor has a relationship with an individual, a group or a company (and there are concerns as to whether that relationship will effect the councilors impartiality) and that person, group or company has business before the council, there is an obligation to make that relationship public. 

Why wouldn’t the mayor publicly disclose his relationship with Duprey, before appointing him as the chairman of a committee that is recommending to the council how to spend $7.8 million on Downtown Concord? And why wouldn’t the mayor disclose his relationship to Duprey, a downtown developer who owns property that will be impacted by the Complete Streets project?

It is time for this city council to realize that real and apparent conflicts of interest impact the public’s perception of the council. This council has to ask, do they want the public to believe they are working for all of our city’s residents or do they want the public to perceive that this council is working to advance the interests of their pals?