It’s Musical Council Seats In Concord

It’s literally a game of musical chairs over at Concord City Hall this week with another incumbent city councilor switching their filing.

At-Large City Councilor Mike DelloIacono has decided to abandon his re-election bid for a second four-year at-large seat and will instead, run for the Ward 4 seat.

DelloIacono said that he made the decision after incumbent Ward 4 City Councilor Amanda Grady Sexton called him to tell her she was dropping her re-election effort in Ward 4 and would run at-large. Grady Sexton changed her race a day after Kevin Bloom, a supporter of the effort to reject the Bearcat armored vehicle grant, filed to run in Ward 4.

DelloIacono denied any collusion between the two candidates saying that in 2009, when he was first thinking about running, he was considering running at the ward level. At the time, DelloIacono lived on Franklin Street and later, moved from that home. During the summer, he said, he purchased a home on Church Street in Ward 4. He changed his filing on Sept. 13, he said.

“(Grady Sexton) did give me a courtesy call, as one would expect,” he said. “She didn’t ask me to swap. But I figured, I like Amanda, I like what she has done for the council ... I like Fred too. Why would I want to bump either of them off?”

DelloIacono said running in Ward 4 “is a little more on the ground and that’s kinda what I’m looking forward to.” It also gives him more options in the future. He said he could run at-large again in two years, run for Ward 4 again, or maybe something else.

“I could run for mayor,” he said.

DelloIacono also said, if elected to the seat, that he could continue to focus on issues important to the ward, which covers parts of Downtown Concord, including housing, traffic, and the Complete Streets Main Street project.

“I don’t have a specific agenda,” he said, “but I do want to see our efforts in this ward continue.”

Two more file to run at-large

Also on Sept. 13, two more candidates filed to run at-large.

Timothy Willis is a South End resident that earlier this year collected signatures to have the intersection of Thorndike and South State streets turned into a four-way stop as well as banning some parking in the area back in April. St. John Regional School, which is located right at the intersection, also signed on to the request. The Parking Committee though rejected the proposal in July.

Willis said while he didn’t know everything about each councilor personally, he thought, as a collective, they weren’t serving the city’s needs. He pointed to the vote to approve the Bearcat armored vehicle as well as the heavy concentration on improving Main Street while the Sewalls Falls Road bridge was in terrible shape.

“I don’t believe the city’s best interests are being representative as a council, as a whole,” he said. “Their priorities are out of whack and I think some of the people have been there too long. They are supposed to be representing the people (but instead) seem to have a hidden agenda and a ‘we’re going to do what we want’ attitude.”

One thing Willis will have to overcome in his race to be elected is that he is a Level 1 sex offender. Willis said he was charged and convicted in Maine about 10 years ago of touching a teenage girl, a story he said she later recanted but he was convicted anyway.

“Anyone who says you can’t get convicted on hearsay doesn’t know what they are talking about,” he said.

However, in December, Willis said, he’ll be off the list, and he was looking forward to putting his energy towards improving the city’s infrastructure and making Concord a better place to live.

“I realize that because of my record and by running for city council that I’m risking a lot,” he said. “But I, my family, my friends, the state of New Hampshire, who granted me custody of my daughter, believe that I’m not what my criminal record says I am. I’m hoping that the residents and voters can open their minds and think about the positive I can do now instead of what happened 10 years.”

Scott Welch of Penacook has also filed to run. Welch unsuccessfully challenged state Rep. Steve Shurtleff, D-Penacook, for the Democratic nomination for the Ward 1 state representative seat in 2012, receiving about 15 percent of the vote.

No candidates filed for Concord School Board.

The deadline for both races end on Monday, Sept. 16, at 5 p.m. 

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