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  • lost cause pay to get him gone (Wednesday, May 20 20 08:08 pm EDT)

    The mayor and asst mayor have never had jobs that weren't govt so no idea how to have to WORK for a living enough said on that now the search was fine its when you get to the end the guy they had from Texas was so much better than anyone but the idiots that we have in place to lead are just that IDIOTS that have zero experience at anything real and couldn't function on there own

  • Bob (Wednesday, May 20 20 04:13 pm EDT)

    John O'Connor I call BS the whole search committee was a joke Damren is a bumbling idiot> If he wasn't the right man for the job than don't hire him Period. BUT they screwed up and waited to long and they were out of time. The city got what the Mayor and ASS mayor wanted. This was a shit show from the start and they should have hired some one to do it but no so here we are paying for it again. really getting tired of being bent over by the city Govt. for their stupidity!!!!

  • John J. O'Connor (Wednesday, May 20 20 08:03 am EDT)

    Give Morris a break, he wasn't the City Councils first choice.
    The Councils first candidate , refused the position so they were left with no choice but to offer him the job.
    The search committee must have seen his short comings for the position or he would have been their number 1.
    He wasn't and now the citizens of Claremont are now seeing why.

  • Katherine (Tuesday, May 19 20 05:15 pm EDT)

    I watched the Council meeting and I did not learn anything about anything until I read the two Sullivan report articles today. Mr. Morris is a conniving so-and-so. Mme. Mayor the Queen Bee and her chief lackey shaky Allen Damren and her pet councilor minions do not give a flying fig about us normal folk who have to pay the high taxes in this city. All they care about is their political agenda, their social climbing ways and the special interests they represent who keep them in political power. Selfish individuals who care only about themselves perpetuate this vicious circle.

  • Travis (Tuesday, May 19 20 01:15 pm EDT)

    The city workers who come out of the smelling like a rose because they will get more money to pay the higher taxes while the rest of us will just be paying higher taxes with no extra money. Then of course, there are most of the city employees who do not live here at all who will really make out like bandits. Morris is making damn sure that all of the city employee’s pockets are very well lined with our tax dollars. Bureaucratic scum tends to do that sort of thing.

  • Rick (Tuesday, May 19 20 01:05 pm EDT)

    Don’t forget anyone who doesn’t pay property taxes in Claremont but lives here in an apartment or rental situation will also be paying more money once this pandemic goes bye-bye. No one is safe from the taxman especially in Claremont.

  • Chad (Tuesday, May 19 20 11:35 am EDT)

    Claremont voters have elected really bad council representatives who hired an inept city manager and this vicious circle of bad upon bad has created a vacuum of intelligent leadership that is now going to bite us all in the butt.

  • Marie (Tuesday, May 19 20 10:29 am EDT)

    I am afraid that our tax-and-spend city councilors and city manager will resort to higher taxes to pay off the $1 million plus deficit. It is the only thing they seem to know how to do.

  • Tom (Tuesday, May 19 20 09:14 am EDT)

    I do not like the way Morris is operating as Claremont’s City Manager. He seems shady as hell. I do not like all the elusive talk that comes out of his mouth every time he’s asked a question which is not often from the imbeciles we have on the council. Jim Sullivan is doing a good job asking questions that the councilors should be asking. It helps when he and AJ were councilors and they actually did the job while there so they know what questions need to be asked and neither of them are afraid to ask those questions or to hold everyone in the city government accountable to the public. I also do not like the way Morris is hiding information from everyone. This deficit with both the revenue and expenses that he claims is about $1.4 million is quite significant and none of the councilors seems to be taking this very seriously. It looks like the budget is going to be increasing the tax burden for everyone but it is well hidden because the overall property value grew about $26 million to cover the cost. Morris is taking credit for the nine cent property tax rate reduction for the city part of the entire tax rate when he really spend more money and had nothing to do with the tax rate cut. The man is a fraud and the councilors are too stupid to realize it or they are conspiring with the city manager to pull the wool over the public’s eyes. Well that is not going to happen with Jim and AJ on the job. The Sullivan Report is performing an amazing service of educating the public about what is really going on at City Hall because our local press is woefully inadequate at the job. Jim and AJ may not be professional journalists but they certainly are acting the part in doing the job quite well. Kudos to both of you and please keep up the good work.

  • Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, May 19 20 06:38 am EDT)

    Two new articles published today.

    1) Secrecy behind COVID-19 reimbursements continues!

    2) May 13 Claremont City Councill meeting synopsis.

    Full details on the News Flashes page of this website.

  • Morris (Wednesday, May 13 20 08:00 pm EDT)

    16 years as a nozzle says it all real great qualifications oh yes he ran weathersfields 4 people for 10 minutes too

  • Bill (Wednesday, May 13 20 01:15 pm EDT)

    Morris is a schmuck. Nuff said.

  • Gail (Wednesday, May 13 20 11:45 am EDT)

    If you want honest and ethical people running our city government then the voters are going to have to start from scratch by electing all new people into the Council, who will promise to fire the city manager and clean house throughout the municipal administration.

  • Ken (Wednesday, May 13 20 10:01 am EDT)

    The Sullivan Report has uncovered so many disturbing things about our city government. Of course, city councilors are ignoring it all because they will never investigate themselves or their cronies. It is quid pro quo, you scratch my back I will scratch yours all the way at City Hall with the municipal administration and city council. Claremont City Hall is Tammany Hall reborn.

  • City Hall Insider (Wednesday, May 13 20 09:35 am EDT)

    With the finance director clandestinely meeting with the mayor and assistant mayor behind the backs of the other city councilors it raises the question of the city manager's knowledge of these meetings. Is he part of this secret political agenda or not? No one at City Hall is really sure.

  • Tony (Wednesday, May 13 20 09:02 am EDT)

    That $200,000 in lost Utility revenue will be just the excuse this money hungry Council and City Manager needs to raise our water and sewer rates Bang Zoom to the Moon. The corruption is almost palatable.

  • Chris (Wednesday, May 13 20 07:11 am EDT)

    Claremont City Hall is sure beginning to look like Tammany Hall more and more each day. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Tammany Hall I suggest you Google it and think of it as an online learning experience. I hear it is all the rage these days with the youngsters.

  • Bob (Wednesday, May 13 20 06:12 am EDT)

    Sure does look like Mary Walter is keeping two sets of city books. It reminds me of the three sets of books that Jim and AJ discovered with the community center a few years back. The administration flunkies blamed that one on a computer glitch. I wonder what the excuse will be this time. This Council will probably swallow whatever lame excuse is given just like that old Council did. Don’t ask and don’t tell to maintain the quid pro quo that is the lifeblood of the good ole boy network, which is alive and well in Claremont. In case you were wondering, the mother’s milk of this self- entitled crowd is the public funds that the councilors keep sliding into their pockets.

  • scumgate (Tuesday, May 12 20 06:26 pm EDT)

    Mary was trained by honest scumgate then our ignorant city council we had named a bridge after the low life because they were so stupid the looser ran the city into the ground our new guys just finishing it off

  • Laura (Tuesday, May 12 20 04:59 pm EDT)

    I would like to know how on one hand the furloughed municipal employees are costing the taxpayers $121,000 so far with possibly more to come while on the other hand they are supposedly saving the taxpayers $35,000 a month. That just doesn’t make sense, but it is exactly what Mary Walter is saying in the survey and what the city manager is telling Mr. Sullivan. While this craziness is going on the city councilors are just wallowing in their constant state of cluelessness and ambivalence.

  • Glenn (Tuesday, May 12 20 03:30 pm EDT)

    Sarah, maybe you answered your own question? You seem to be looking at this with the predisposition that municipal officials are honest. Maybe you need to rethink that it might make things a little clearer.

  • Sarah (Tuesday, May 12 20 02:48 pm EDT)

    I could not believe all of the inconsistencies in Mary Walter’s finances of the city that the Sullivan Report exposed. It makes you distrust everything she puts out. How is it that she has been able to work for the city for nearly 20 years?

  • Mike (Tuesday, May 12 20 02:00 pm EDT)

    In regards to the auditing survey, I think there was a conspiracy to continue the record of clean audits for the city. Heck Damren puts down that that the city does not comply with the laws, etc. and the city still gets a clean audit. How the heck does that happen? Now this auditing firm that hires auditors that never find anything and present glowing reports to the city council every year that intentionally overlooks anything negative no matter how obvious the negative facts are, will be auditing the books for the next five years. Who knows what the heck these public officials in Claremont will be doing with the city’s funds during that time? Rest assured shenanigans are afoot.

  • Teri (Tuesday, May 12 20 01:44 pm EDT)

    Ed Morris is an incompetent boob and he certainly is no Guy Santagate.

  • Kevin (Tuesday, May 12 20 12:50 pm EDT)

    I also think that the city books were cooked and Assistant Mayor Damren is the Cover Upper in Chief. Look at what he did with the survey with his co-conspirator Charlene Lovett and I do not buy the BS story told by Mary Walter that she only deals with Lovett and Damren. She’s been around nearly 20 years and be in a finance director she should be able to count up the nine councilors even if she has to take off her shoes to do it. Also, does anyone honestly think that Ed Morris is so out of touch as to what is going on within his administration that he is just oblivious to everything that is going on at City Hall? If so, he should be shown the door.

  • Kathy (Tuesday, May 12 20 12:31 pm EDT)

    It looks like the city’s books were cooked to overstate expenses to turn overstated revenue losses into overstated expenses. I know what we have seen so far appeared only on a survey, but if those same numbers were used to collect money from the federal government then it sounds like fraud, to me. Don’t people go to jail for that sort of thing?

  • Tom (Tuesday, May 12 20 10:10 am EDT)

    Morris is hiding information from the public and from the councilors. I see with the new agenda for Wednesday that Councilor O’Hearne requested a nonpublic meeting with the city manager under personnel. I hope he and other councilors will address Mr. Morris’ challenges with telling the truth and being forthcoming with information. Without mutual trust, Mr. Morris will need to be terminated. It will simply be no other choice except to languish with an untrustworthy city manager.

  • William (Tuesday, May 12 20 07:46 am EDT)

    Mr. Morris was trying to hide public documents from Mr. Sullivan. The first time he said nothing was there when Mr. Sullivan asked for a list of COVID expenditures and losses when all the time there was documentation. I also think that Mr. Morris did not want to turn over to Mr. Sullivan a copy of $313,638 claim form to the government so he turned over the municipal survey instead to try to appease Mr. Sullivan. Now Mr. Morris has been caught with his pants down. I think he is hiding something and I am hoping Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Maranville can uncover it.

  • Industrial Property Owner (Tuesday, May 12 20 06:36 am EDT)

    I am simply stunned as to what I read today on the Sullivan Report. Two marvelous exposés effectively illustrating the deepening corruption of our municipal government. It is painstakingly obvious that Mr. Morris’s arrival in Claremont was not a Godsend, but a calculated step in an ongoing political agenda designed to separate as much money as possible from the public at the federal, state and local taxation levels to benefit an anointed few with political connections with local officials. It appears that local municipal officials have decided to use the COVID 19 emergency as political cover to do a myriad of things, none of which is good for Claremont. It will be very interesting to see what Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Maranville find in the government document used to justify collecting $313,638 from the federal government. I will be most interested to see if any of the Morris Administration’s expense claims are fraudulent. The Sullivan Report made a very compelling case that many of these so-called COVID 19 expenses are nothing of the kind. It was a stroke of genius to use the city’s own conflicting financial documentation, most of which was apparently written by the Finance Director herself to completely undermine this financial house of cards, seemingly created to collect large sums of free money from the government. The saga of the survey from the auditing firm is also indicative of a cover-up. Assistant Mayor Damren is up to his neck in this scandal. There is definitely something screwy going on at City Hall and our elected leaders on the city council are doing absolutely nothing about it. Has the lure of free money using whatever means necessary to obtain those funds compromised the nine councilor’s common sense and ethics as well?

  • Jim Sullivan (Monday, May 11 20 10:45 pm EDT)

    Four new articles published today!

    1) Damren's auditing company's questionnaire is an interesting read!

    2) Morris Administration COVID-19 revenue losses / expense increases survey unveils interesting revelations!

    3) May 4 Zoning Board of Adjustments meeting synopsis.

    4) May 11 Planning Board meeting synopsis.

    Full details on the News Flashes page of this website.

  • Time-In (Monday, May 11 20 10:33 am EDT)

    I see "Look at me" Koloski is attempting to reopen his sorry excuse for a restaurant by having an outside seating area.
    I cannot think of anything more unappetizing than his awful food, from his contaminated restaurant, being served in a dirty, contaminated mill parking lot.
    Looks like he has at least 4 tables ready to go, which is three more than he needs for his busiest night.
    Hang it up already. No one in their right mind is going to patronize this dump.

  • Sarah (Wednesday, May 06 20 10:49 am EDT)

    I do not like the idea of Mayor Lovett being on the local housing commission. She already said she wants to bring more welfare vouches the Claremont and she supports turning Claremont into a welcoming community, which we all know is political slang for a sanctuary city. I do not know what she is thinking but she will destroy Claremont to she gets her way. What is even scarier is that she has Damren and other cronies on the Council backing her all the way. I also think that the CDA organization should be dissolved. They are acting recklessly with our tax dollars and other public property.

  • Gail (Wednesday, May 06 20 08:48 am EDT)

    The roads are a terrible mess and it looks like the not going to be fixed so the city staffers can get big raises thanks to all of the city councilors they have in their pockets. Wealthy real estate investors get more taxpayer-funded grants and Section 8 vouchers so they have guaranteed rent even in vacant apartments. Senior Citizens cannot get a reasonable property exemption and the Veterans are not treated fairly either as other communities give a larger tax credit to not only certain Veterans but to all Veterans. The CDA is running amok tying up all of our city land for a project that seems to be running up costs out of control. Claremont has a growing budget deficit. And I'm sure there are other problems that I am forgetting. My point is that our city leaders are not leading instead they are focusing on helping special interests gain access to higher sums of public funds and creating an environment of higher taxation to those who can least afford it. Mayor Lovett and all of her cronies have got to go.

  • Katherine (Wednesday, May 06 20 07:34 am EDT)

    The local press has really falling down on the job. Local government is still functioning with some things being done and no reporting about it at all. The Sullivan Report is Claremont's only new source not losing sight of what is going on. Public officials cannot be trusted. Look at what the CDA has done with our city assets by mortgaging them to the max to only raise a small amount of dollars for a project at the Farwell building that seems to be sucking up more and more money. Borrowing $350,000 more than what the CDA board of directors told Gov. Sununu and the Executive Council that they needed for the project is very suspicious. There is no government oversight whatsoever. We have a city council of nine morons who are completely clueless as to what is going on or they are colluding and hiding what is going on from the taxpaying public. We have administrators who are acting recklessly with public funds and no one is being held accountable. Heck until the Sullivan Report released this investigative article no one in the public had any idea this was going on. It is truly scandalous. Our public officials cannot be trusted.

  • Bob (Wednesday, May 06 20 03:49 am EDT)

    Most communities are worrying about the corona virus. We have another virus that has been attacking Claremont for a very long time and it is the old self-serving, entitled SOS crowd retreads and the public officials that they support on the city council, school board and county delegation. They are a deadly a virus that is really is destroying Claremont right down to its very fabric.

  • Todd (Tuesday, May 05 20 09:47 pm EDT)

    It's the new $750,000 per year paving plan that flaming imbecile Ed Morris the new city manager came up with in collusion with his dumb and dumber minions Victor St. Pierre the DPW director and Jeremy Clay, Victor's bumbling assistant director sidekick AKA Dirtboy. It's going to cost the taxpayers over $15 million over the next 20 years for nothng more than crack fill and a light layer of skim coat one time on each road for those 20 years. To anyone with a half of a brain the flaws with this plan are obvious. That is unless you are one of the many dimwits on the city council, who are all applauding this plan as if it is some kind of genius idea. Of course they're doing that because they think the public is stupid and they want to transfer money away from paving so they can pay all the city employees more money and give them even better benefits than what they are already getting. Make no mistake the taxpayers are being screwed here and our elected councilors are the ones doing the screwing without any mercy.

  • One Giant hole (Tuesday, May 05 20 09:11 pm EDT)

    Drive down west terrace street summer street the bluff what a damn joke no wonder no one takes care of there houses its called broken window theory read about it you idiots who think your managing something

  • Donk (Tuesday, May 05 20 04:56 pm EDT)

    WHAT THE F**K IS UP WITH THE GIANT HOLES IN ROADS NOT BEING FIXED?
    and don't give me no corona virus bullshit!

  • Kevin (Tuesday, May 05 20 03:12 pm EDT)

    The CDA is nothing more than a secret society of Claremont snobs that use Claremont’s assets and the taxpayer’s dollars like Monopoly money and game board pieces. The outcome really does not mean much to them because there is no punishment or any penalty for any of the board members if they fail. The only loser in all of this is the Claremont taxpayers, who have put their trust in the wrong people.

  • Brian (Tuesday, May 05 20 01:59 pm EDT)

    I know many of the political players and they all wear false faces. What I mean by that is when you meet them in person they come off as very nice and altruistic. They seem to have their hearts in the right place and a great love for our city. If you watch them closely and pay attention to their actions when they are acting within their elected or appointed power they are completely different people as they wheedle their way into more power and use that power against the people of our community who placed their trust within them. The paid staff of the worst as they have no loyalty to Claremont whatsoever and they also have their own agendas that have little or nothing to do with the betterment of Claremont. Until the voters of Claremont rise up and throw out everyone on the City Council then absolutely nothing will change for the better.

  • David (Tuesday, May 05 20 10:33 am EDT)

    I know most of the members on the CDA board of directors and they are arrogant, Type A personalities who think they know it all. Judging from all of the dumb financial decisions they have made with the public's money and assets seems to prove that they are all obviously incompetent managers of the public's possessions. I agree with the notion of disbanding the CDA permanently and placing the assets and the responsibility for managing those assets with the planning office. It may not be a perfect solution but it is better than the present situation.

  • Richard (Tuesday, May 05 20 09:15 am EDT)

    I think the CDA should be disbanded by the city council and their duties passed over to the planning office. The organization is out of control and they have placed Claremont's financial security at high risk as they have mortgaged all of the city's assets under their care to renovate the Farwell building. I am going to be very curious to find out what happened to that extra $350,000 and why the CDA board members are looking for even more money through donations and grants for the Farwell building project. I am also deeply concerned about the pleasant restaurant building project as the CDA will be going into debt over half of one million dollars for a very sketchy tenant that may not be able to come up with their rent let alone $400,000 for interior repairs and their other operational costs. I think Jim and AJ are right on the money that both of these projects will eventually become taxpayer supported in some manner.

  • Russell (Tuesday, May 05 20 08:13 am EDT)

    Allison you really hit the nail on the head with what is going on within our municipal government. Everyone is colluding and plotting to benefit either themselves or special interests and the loser every time is the Claremont taxpayers. It is truly a sickening sight to see. I am 74 years old and I have lived in Claremont all my life and I am so disheartened to see what has become of my hometown. How so many selfish people easily rose to power hell-bent on destroying this community just to achieve some political or personal agenda is simply disgraceful.

  • Allison (Tuesday, May 05 20 07:57 am EDT)

    Latest Sullivan Report article had several main focuses, the property on Main Street, the Goddard building, Section 8 vouchers in the CDA’s to renovation projects in Opera House Square. If you paid attention, you would have noticed that there is one common theme running through all of these seemingly separate issues. Public officials either hired, or elected or appointed, who are all plotting and scheming to further their own political agenda and using public funds to do so. Some of these people are not Claremont residents but all of them seem to have something in common their selfish desires are more important than the best interest of Claremont’s citizenry. Thank you Jim and AJ for taking providing such a wonderful public service by doing the investigative reporting of professional journalists as the conventional press is unwilling or unable to do so. Presumably, as many of them are compromised by their close family or personal ties to those connected to local government.

  • piss poor (Monday, May 04 20 09:20 pm EDT)

    Not morons this city is being run by FUCKING idiots they just have no clue about anything really look at all of them they couldn't figure anything out in life no real life experience whatsoever

  • Chris (Monday, May 04 20 11:45 am EDT)

    The CDA has gone into hock up to their eyeballs to keep the Farwell project going forward and now all of the city-owned property at their disposal is mortgaged to the hilt. Now they are looking at the pleasant restaurant next door and will go into debt by over $500,000 to put in a music center they may not even be able to pay their rent. The county manager and the city manager are both on the CDA Board of Directors and they are both going along with this foolishness. We have a bunch of morons running the city.

  • Karen (Monday, May 04 20 10:54 am EDT)

    Scheming, plotting and possible ethical violations and corruption is beginning to look widespread throughout Claremont’s municipal government. Public officials hiding their actions and lying to the public is becoming commonplace. It is really disheartening.

  • Industrial Property Owner (Monday, May 04 20 08:34 am EDT)

    A sensational exposé today from the Sullivan Report. The history of the 147 Main St. project is indicative of a city government out of control. I believe this issue spanned three city managers yet all of them made the disastrous decision to stay the course, which tells me their mindset is deeply entrenched in a bureaucratic quagmire of spend first think never because it is only tax dollars. This I am sad to write certainly seems to be the work philosophy of Mr. Morris, the latest in a long line of pathetically incompetent city managers. The Section 8 voucher tie-in is also extremely troubling for it will have deep repercussions for the city and the taxpayers. Then there is the saga of the two CDA projects. Reading these uncovered facts that the Sullivan Report brought to light has me wondering about a few things. Does not reporting two sizable loans on a grant application constitute fraud? On the other hand, is not reporting that the CDA is looking for additional funding for the project when stating on the grant application that full funding is achieved with what was stated on the documents that did not include $350,000 in loans also fraud? Is the CDA paying property taxes on the Pleasant Restaurant building as was promised to the public? Will the CDA and the WCCMA have sufficient revenues to meet operational expenses? What will the dramatically increased debt service for the CDA do to their cash flow? Will a taxpayer bailout be necessary? Are the CDA’s finances so dire that it was necessary to collateralize what seems to be their entire real estate portfolio to raise such relatively little money for the Farwell building project? Because of the wall of secrecy erected around the CDA and it seems the WCCMA as well the taxpayers will essentially be giving blank checks to these two organizations and with fingers crossed hope that they manage the public’s money well without any independent oversight. I cannot speak for the WCCMA but I have absolutely no faith or confidence in either the CDA or Mr. Ed Morris. In my humble opinion, neither have shown any competent or professional management acumen whatsoever.

  • Jim Sullivan (Monday, May 04 20 06:34 am EDT)

    New article published today.

    Governor and Executive Council to decide on funding for three projects for Claremont.

    Full details on the News Flashes page of this website.

  • Please run again (Friday, May 01 20 11:06 am EDT)

    Yes Chris we have an abundance of ignorant people that unfortunately vote they do nothing else so I guess its a big deal for them to vote to keep this a shit hole just how they like it. I hope you do run again

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