Public Forum

Comments

Donk (Friday, April 09 21 01:42 pm EDT)

We as the lowest income community cannot afford to continue supporting and updating the Sullivan County Home.This is where the grant writer to the Federal Government could play a massive part.Otherwise it will have to close wig by wing.
Sad but true (Wednesday, April 07 21 08:46 am EDT)

I have to agree with Bob, close it down.
Bob (Tuesday, April 06 21 04:51 pm EDT)

Is there some state law that says counties have to have a nursing home? If not close the place and save the taxpayers the grief and money.
Steve (Monday, April 05 21 08:59 pm EDT)

I am not a fan of a sober house in Claremont but at least Derick Ferland is looking out for our tax dollars.
I would much rather see the county going forward with the nursing home. I have watched most of the meetings on that project and it appears some of our reps on the finance committee want to train wreck the plan. It is ridiculous to think waiting will cost less. Ferland has put a good plan forward and we should go for it.
Donk (Monday, April 05 21 04:24 pm EDT)

Why do I have to pay for druggie losers that their own families wont even have?
I'm having a hard enough time staying in my house without paying for other people.Out of the 8 Billion these are who you would house and feed?

Let 'em go
Jim Sullivan (Monday, April 05 21 04:04 pm EDT)

Sober House Bond Update!

Details on the News Flashes page of this website.
Brad (Monday, April 05 21 07:57 am EDT)

The budget outlook for next year does not look good. Mr. Sullivan calculates at least $1.2 million of expenses or revenue loss that will have to be found elsewhere in the budget to level fund the property tax rate for the city. Then on the other hand we have the city manger and the public works directors buying up new vehicles like crazy with bid practices that do not smell right and the city manager wanted to add over $1.2 million for salary raises for all of the city employees. I do not think the city manager gets the deep you know what the city finances is in or he and his staff members don't care just so long as they get theirs. The council needs to put a stop to this.
Joanne (Monday, April 05 21 06:28 am EDT)

Mr. Gauthier has been very helpful to Jim Sullivan lately. I do not know the man but I am very grateful that he is making the time and effort to help the people of Claremont. I wish Mr. Gauthier would run for the City Council in November. We do not have that many people on the Council that seem to care about the average working-class citizens. I think he would be a welcome addition at least from a citizen’s point of view.
Artie (Sunday, April 04 21 09:04 pm EDT)

And because of a family situation, the Mayor will not seek re-election.
I was aware Jim and the Mayor were such close, personal friends to a point where she shared family related issues with him.
Interesting, very interesting....
Tony (Sunday, April 04 21 05:49 pm EDT)

Lying to your boss usually gets you fired. If you are the city manager of Claremont it may get you a pay raise because the city councilors we have today suck.
Jim Sullivan (Sunday, April 04 21 04:12 pm EDT)

I will not play the guessing game with anyone regarding what I deleted from Mayor Lovett's email. I will reiterate that it had absolutely nothing to do with either her elected seat or city government. It had to do with her family, which is why I deleted it. I will not comment further about this matter.
Jill (Sunday, April 04 21 04:08 pm EDT)

I am glad to see the Jim Sullivan is going to make some suggestions about the budget because he is right the councilors will need all the help that they can get. I think it is up to all of us to look at the budget when it is available, come up with suggestions if we have any, and pass them on to the councilors if we do not want our taxes going up higher than they already are. Mr. Morris and Mrs. Walter are just not cut out to be the city manager and the finance director. Fortunately, Mrs. Walter is retiring but Mr. Morris is too young to retire and we have nine city councilors who may all be too spineless to even consider firing him let alone do it. I hope that in November we have many new candidates for the city councilor seats who are not afraid to do what is necessary for the betterment of us all.
Another day, another problem (Sunday, April 04 21 03:25 pm EDT)

The Sober House is experiencing major cost over runs not budgeted or anticipated and they need an additional bond to finish the project.
Surprise, surprise, surprise!!!!!
My prediction about the Mayor’s “personal “ note , she will not be seeking re-election in the fall.
William (Sunday, April 04 21 03:07 pm EDT)

The next budget is beginning to worry me because I do not believe Mr. Morris will ever recommend laying off any city employees because he is too much of a union man. I think the reason why the union contracts all went from being stalled to being passed by the councilors is that Mr. Morris did not negotiate on behalf of the taxpayers but on behalf of the union workers themselves so we had no one representing us at the negotiating table. That bothers me and it should bother every other taxpayer. Tack on all of the lying and deception and it is clear that Mr. Morris is not worthy of holding the important position that he has. I am not convinced this pathetic lot of councilors will ever vote to fire Mr. Morris. They would rather have the city go down in flames then publicly admit that they made a mistake by hiring him. Their arrogance and hubris will hurt Claremont in the end.
Bill (Sunday, April 04 21 01:57 pm EDT)

The need for new leadership seems to be the problem for the city, the school and the county governments.
Ryan (Sunday, April 04 21 12:43 pm EDT)

The sober house project has been a disaster from day one as the cost of the project, the number of ex-inmates living in the downtown facility and practically everything else about the project seems to keep changing from week to week and month to month. The construction crew has been there for a few months now doing work on the building and the Franklin Street side of the building is blocked off, it has been for a few weeks. The funding for this project should have been nailed down months ago and now the county leaders are going for a county bond. Is this just complete incompetence from our county leaders or has the project cost shot up again? The same thing has already happened with the Sullivan county nursing home project as a lot of engineering work and tax dollars was wasted and now a completely new project is needed that is even more expensive. As a taxpayer, I am very unhappy about these developments and I am wondering if new leadership is necessary because the present day leadership does not seem to know what they are doing.
Steve (Sunday, April 04 21 12:08 pm EDT)

Our city councilors are a disgrace to the public office that they hold. The city manager and his subordinates are consistently lying to the public and to the entire council and the nine city councilors treat it as business as usual as if this type of behavior is okay and expected. What is wrong with these people? If an employee lies to you the proper response is to fire them, end of story. Their cowardice will destroy Claremont.
Dan (Sunday, April 04 21 11:17 am EDT)

Today’s articles is why I read the Sullivan Report every week. I like to be informed about what is really going on in Claremont because the local newspapers are just recycling old news to fill up space and when there is a Claremont story it is never well researched and instead of telling the truth, the articles are usually politically spun to make government leaders look somewhat intelligent and moderately competent.
Ken (Sunday, April 04 21 10:49 am EDT)

Doesn’t Mr. Morris and the councilors realize that by trying to stop the city employees from legally forming a union they are only creating more animosity between staff and management? They are all taking everything so personally but they do not treat problems intelligently or rationally. Claremont is suffering from an epidemic of bad management and it is weighing a heavy toll on all of us taxpayers.
Sarah (Sunday, April 04 21 10:35 am EDT)

Well this latest article is a real revelation. I never realized the dire shape the city’s finances were in and this new budget is going to be a real doozy because I have no trust in Mr. Morris or Mrs. Walter or any of Mr. Morris’s other staff members with everything that has been going on lately. I would suggest all of the city staff members having to take mandatory ethics classes if I thought it would make a difference but I do not believe that it would. One would need to have a desire to act ethically in order for that to work.
Tom (Sunday, April 04 21 09:40 am EDT)

The new highway director seems like a real idiot and he appears to have no problem lying to the public and to the councilors just like his boss Ed Morris. Misquoting Lebanon’s water and sewer rates by over 60% is not a small miscalculation but an out and out lie. On top of the red truck leasing scandal the public works department is in a shambles just like the finance office, the assessing office, the planning and development office and the parks and recreation department. All of these departments are under Ed Morris’s wretched leadership and all of the city councilors continue to fiddle around and do nothing while Claremont burns.
Jim Sullivan (Sunday, April 04 21 07:43 am EDT)

Three new articles published today.

1) What's going on with the Sober House?

2) New revelations regarding very deceptive information within the Morris Administration's Water & Sewer rate increase proposal PowerPoint Presentation!

3) Delaying tactic?

All three articles appear on the News Flashes page of this website.
Stupidity at best (Thursday, April 01 21 08:32 pm EDT)

Pam is another example of a ignorant stupid person who is running her dick suckers on a computer go get a job and learn something about life
Scott (Thursday, April 01 21 06:33 pm EDT)

Pam, you need to learn how to use the NH SOS website. Alex Scott was the attorney hired to register the llc for the principle owners. Look closer and you will see the principle owners. Please don’t pass on information if you don’t know what you are doing.
Pam (Thursday, April 01 21 09:16 am EDT)

Hello Guys!
I saw that the active shooter sitch in Claremont yesterday is reported in online newspapers as happening at 247 Sullivan St. It's that building across the river from where you guys at Sullivan Report operate - that used to package herbs etc. for retail distribution. The owmer and operator of the facility is listed as "Sugar River Storage llc" and the registered agent is Alexander Scott, the former Police Chief of Claremont. What a coincidence! He even lists the address as his office being in "Suite C" in the building.

So what is the opinion of you investigators over on Factory St?
Pam
Frank Gauthier (Tuesday, March 30 21 08:50 am EDT)

Does your system charge your customers the correct amount for water? This webinar will help systems answer this question by demonstrating the Water & Sewer Rates Analysis Model, an Excel tool developed by the Environmental Finance Center at The University of North Carolina. This free, basic cash-flow modeling tool allows water systems to input their current rate structure, estimates on number of customers and water use, and the expected costs for the system. The tool then automatically projects the end-of-year fund balance for the next several years, indicating whether revenues will be high enough to cover expected expenses. Users can then enter in another rate structure and compare the end-of-year fund balance side-by-side to the one projected using current rates. This allows users to try out scenarios of adjusting their rates to meet their financial goals in the next few years, and can help users determine whether they need to adjust rates, and by how much, in order to achieve financial sufficiency. The tool can be used by systems that set volumetric charges for water as well as systems that only charge flat monthly fees.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQTrnShvdbI&list=UUDwrpShGfQM7OwSJhyzQodQ&t=15s
Frank Gauthier (Tuesday, March 30 21 08:05 am EDT)

Good morning, Jim Sullivan

I have found this tool that you can download. It’s an Excel calculator tool for calculating water and sewer rates and their consequences into the future, perhaps as far as 20 years. I am giving you the link below that you can download. It’s an Excel spreadsheet calculator. Since you have Windows 10, you have Excel. This goes with the dashboard link that I sent you yesterday.

My personal opinion is that the changes the Claremont Water Sewer Enterprise want to make to the water and sewer rates make it more complicated so they can hide things from the Claremont ratepayers. This calculator, I believe, will unlock all their complications and expose the truth! It would be interesting to plug the data from the Claremont NH City Council meeting sewer and water rates increase presentation into this calculator to see how it really shakes out! What do you think, Jim?

Use this tool to help set water and/or wastewater rates next year by projecting the utility's expenses, revenues from rates, and fund balance for the next few years. Uniform ("flat") and block rate structures for up to 12 rate structures can be assessed. Data inputs are minimal, and the tool has been updated to offer several new features and improvements to make it easier to test scenarios and help determine whether the utility needs to adjust rates in order to achieve financial sufficiency. This tool is designed specifically for small water/wastewater systems and should be used annually. The tool is free to download and use.

https://efc.sog.unc.edu/resource/water-and-wastewater-rates-analysis-model
adam (Tuesday, March 30 21 05:56 am EDT)

Wow, you finally found the Union News!
Time to go (Monday, March 29 21 08:42 am EDT)

The only reason the City Council has not fired the City Manager is purely out of embarrassment.
A majority of the present Council were involved in the hiring and firing of the last City Manager (McNutt) and do not want the embarrassment of firing Morris.
McNutt and Morris were not their first choices. Their first choices, after being offered the position with a very lucrative financial package, declined the position.
With Mary retiring there is no way the City Council will fire Morris.
Alex (Monday, March 29 21 08:35 am EDT)

City staffers all have the same affliction. Greed
Henry (Monday, March 29 21 07:36 am EDT)

I cannot believe that the city is buying a bunch of red trucks when red is the color of fire engines. I know from reading the Sullivan Report that that the city manager is probably far more qualified to be a firefighter than as the city manager but this doofus must have a thing for red vehicles because it looks like all the vehicles in Claremont will be red by the time he is done.
Kevin (Monday, March 29 21 07:09 am EDT)

Let me get this straight. The city manager is the employee of the city council. During his time as their employee he has conspired with the mayor and the assistant mayor to hide information that would undermine the veracity of a consultants city employee salary study that had its study criteria manipulated by the city manager and his staff to arrive at a fictitious predetermined outcome that all city employees are grossly underpaid to line the employee’s pockets with more money. The city manager and his staff are also editing audit reports before they are released and altering financial reports for the Claremont Savings Bank Community Center and the monthly expense report to falsify the appearance of the city’s financial health. Old applications for a city board were also altered to create the phony appearance that they were new. The public works department purchased a red truck and influenced the bid outcome by limiting the number of dealers, requesting the previous year’s model of a Ford vehicle and then accepting a bid from a local dealer for newer model and then using the trade-in of two vehicles while understating auction value of those two vehicles to make the numbers work so it is less than the state bid. The soon to be departing finance director and the city manager authorized that purchase despite the irregularities. The public works department is also following a stupid paving plan endorsed by the imbeciles on the city council that will only treat each road once in 20 years and part of that plan is to turn asphalt roads into dirt roads to save money for other things as big pay raises for all city employees. The public works department is pitching a water and sewer rate increase that hides the true cost to the increase to the ratepayers. On top of that mess, the city manager and his staff are now giving out confidential documents to citizens. All the while the city councilors are debating as to how much of a raise to give the city manager for a job well done. And people wonder why Claremont never reaches its unrealized potential.
Ray (Sunday, March 28 21 08:34 pm EDT)

City staffers all think they are entitled to receive more compensation than anyone else gets by working out in the real world where the taxpayers all live who pay for everything that the city leaders spend.
Matt (Sunday, March 28 21 05:59 pm EDT)

I keep shaking my head and wondering how long is it going to take the councilors to finally get off the fence and fire Ed Morris. I talked to a past city councilor the other day and she said that it takes five city councilors to vote yes to fire the city manager. Looking at the members of the city council, I think that Mayor Lovett and Assistant Mayor Damren will never vote to fire Mr. Morris because they are all political bedfellows. Ms. Sweetser and Mr. Contois are also unlikely to vote to fire Mr. Morris because both of them do not seem to live in the real world like the rest of us do. In my opinion that are both a couple of airheads. That still leaves five city councilors. Mr. O’Hearne and Mr. Stone are both in my opinion all bark and no bite. Mr. Koloski talks a good game but that is all it ever seems to be talk. I think Ms. Matteau and Mr. Girard are the only two normal, rational people up there. I also think that Mr. Morris realizes that he is dealing with a weak and pathetic group of city councilors so he and his staff members can do all the antics they want without any repercussions.
Wendy (Sunday, March 28 21 04:58 pm EDT)

Rebecca Vinduska poo pooed a pay raise that was about $2K a year if I remember correctly. She said thank you but we need more. Wow!
Dennis (Sunday, March 28 21 04:28 pm EDT)

Right now, I am just disgusted with our city government and I am terribly disappointed with our elected leaders on the city council. If they do not quickly turn this around then I am hoping enough new candidates will run to throw most of them out of office. Right now, I only see three councilors worth saving Debora Matteau, Dale Girard and Nicholas Koloski. At least they are asking questions and trying to find the underlying cause of things. Andrew O’Hearne does ask questions but he also seems very afraid of Ed Morris. Maybe I am imagining that but it looks that way on TV.
Lynn (Sunday, March 28 21 04:23 pm EDT)

John C's shorts are all in a bunch. I read the Sullivan Report because the news here is not conspiracy theories and all of the government documents that are published in the articles are very hard to refute and all of the other information is sourced which is why this is not fake news. I think John may work for the city or maybe even be one of the merit plan folk wanting to form their union in secret and Mr. Morris and his employees screwed that up by giving Mr. Gauthier those private documents in the thumb file. John C is throwing darts with a blindfold hoping that he hit something. Epic failure.
John C (Sunday, March 28 21 04:07 pm EDT)

Sitting here eating popcorn like a fiend, trying to guess what the next plot you all can spin. More-so why, if Jim Sullivan is such a genius why hasn't he ran. Should be lot's of seats available this fall, so please jump in...You are all so good at ragging on every single person in town, smearing them in any way you can, its disgusting. Everyone of you are finding fault and think jim sullivan is some sort of demigod. Why don't you all get together and have him run for Mayor. Between him and Nick Koloski, Claremont should get lot's done, NOT!!!!
Steve (Sunday, March 28 21 02:46 pm EDT)

Linda you raised a very good point. I saw Jim at Walmart last week and we spoke for a few minutes about what is going on with the city. I told him he was finding a lot of dirt about our city government and how I and a lot of folks in Claremont appreciate his website and what he and AJ do for the community by keeping us informed. Jim told me that what worries him the most are the things that may be occurring that they are not finding. That is a sobering thought.
Erik (Sunday, March 28 21 01:43 pm EDT)

Greg is right. Claremont cannot survive two more years with that buffoon Morris in charge. We need new city councilors if the ones we have now won't do the job and fire a city manager who is just not working out.
Linda (Sunday, March 28 21 01:17 pm EDT)

I appreciate Jim Sullivan’s suggestions about closing the Transfer Station and changing the water rate structure to make if fair for all the ratepayers. Jim cares about our community. I wish I could say the same about our elected leaders on the city council. I no longer have any faith in them because Mr. Morris is still gainfully employed with the city and doing God knows what in secret that will not benefit our community.
Tom (Sunday, March 28 21 12:44 pm EDT)

I think that Ed Morris threw Mary Walter under the bus as he did the ex-dpw director not too long ago to try to save himself from termination. I hope that the departed employees being tossed at their feet do not sway the councilors from terminating Mr. Morris’s employment.
Diane (Sunday, March 28 21 12:18 pm EDT)

I am glad Mary Walter is retiring. She should have been fired years ago. Others in the city government need to go as well. Ed Morris, Jeremy Clay and Nancy Merrill immediately leap to mind. I am sure there are others as well that deserved termination of their employment with the city.
William (Sunday, March 28 21 11:17 am EDT)

Greg, thank you for the nice comment. Jim, thank you for correcting my error. I mistakenly thought that the other dealership donated the fireworks too.
Greg (Sunday, March 28 21 11:09 am EDT)

William summed it up nicely. The Sullivan Report has uncovered a lot of disturbing stuff about what the city manager and his assistants are doing quietly in the background. The city councilors all know about this and they are doing nothing about it. It is as if they condone these reprehensible actions. If the city councilors do not take strong action then they will need to be replaced this upcoming election.
Jim Sullivan (Sunday, March 28 21 09:34 am EDT)

William, I appreciate your comments but I have to make just one correction. It was actually McGee Toyota that donated the Fourth of July Fireworks for I believe the last two years in a row.
Nicole (Sunday, March 28 21 09:25 am EDT)

What is it going to take before the city councilors get together and fire Mr. Morris?
Tony (Sunday, March 28 21 09:21 am EDT)

Just when you think that, you have heard everything. Covering roads up with dirt to avoid fixing the infrastructure to pave the way for higher pay raises for city staffers. Bad priorities from a bad city manager and bad public works managers.
William (Sunday, March 28 21 08:58 am EDT)

Here are some of Ed Morris and his gang’s greatest hits.
Changing city records and manipulating information to suit their political agenda.
Altering applications for the Downtown TIF District Board to make old ones look new.
Using the trade-in of two public works department vehicles to massage the numbers by understating potential car auction prices to steer the business to a local car dealer that donated fireworks and a police car to the city.
Greatly overstating revenue for the community center.
Hiding the true taxpayer cost of operating the community center.
Redesigning the monthly expense report for January, eliminating financial information and using two different accounting methods to embellish the amount of what cash is remaining in this year’s budget.
Audit reports edited by the city manager and his staff before it is released to the city councilors and the public.
City employee’s compensation study compromised by meddling city manager and his staff by their choosing which communities to compare with Claremont to inflate salary recommendations for themselves.
Recommendations to increase Water and sewer rates toned down with the deceptive tactic of only citing the yearly percentage increase of fixed fees and flat rates while intentionally leaving out the higher percentage increases.
Changing the color of all the public works vehicles to red so people will confuse them with fire vehicles.
Quietly turning asphalt roads into dirt roads to bring Claremont back to the dark ages.
Mr. Morris’s routine inability or refusal to answer questions posed by the city councilors.
Mr. Morris’s routine insubordination of not following through with council orders.
Mr. Morris and his staff giving out confidential documents to a member of the public that now appears on the Sullivan Report website.
The finance committee scandal when the city manager, the mayor and the assistant mayor all colluded to withhold inconvenient information about the city employee compensation study.
So why are the city councilors refusing to fire Mr. Morris?
John J.O’Connor (Sunday, March 28 21 08:39 am EDT)

I’m not sure what would constitute immediate dismissal for the City Manager but I would have to think divulging confidential information would be an extremely good reason.
It will be extremely interesting to see how the City Council either handles this or spins this.
I would also like to thank the Honorable Frank Guathier for all his hard work on behalf of the citizens of Claremont. Frank would be an excellent candidate for the upcoming council election.
Please let’s encourage Frank to run for office, he is the type of person we need as a city councilor!
Rick (Sunday, March 28 21 03:51 am EDT)

Covering up asphalt roads with dirt and handing out confidential records to anyone off the street takes a special kind of stupid. What are our elected officials on the city council thinking about? The decision to fire Morris is a clear one.
Bill (Saturday, March 27 21 09:11 pm EDT)

It is incredible that Mr. Morris and his subordinates can be so stupid as to release confidential memos and documents to the public. It is plain laziness and stupidity. With everything else going wrong under his so called management the councilors will be nuts if they do not fire him.
Jim Sullivan (Saturday, March 27 21 03:31 pm EDT)

New article.

Several surprises during March 24 Council meeting.
Guy (Thursday, March 25 21 08:17 am EDT)

Happy days are here again, Mary is retiring!!!!!!
William (Wednesday, March 24 21 07:06 am EDT)

What gets me is the current state of the city’s finances and how the books look like they are being cooked so the idiots on the city council will think that everything is great when the finances are really in the dumper. If it was not for the Sullivan Report and the efforts of Jim Sullivan and AJ Maranville and their friends who seem to be helping them, all of property owners and us citizens would never know the truth. The E- Ticker News and the Eagle Times are only interested in publishing what seems to be local government sanctioned news and the Valley News and the Union Leader do not regularly cover Claremont news and when they do most of the time the reporters seem to be ill informed of what is really going on here.
Frank Gauthier (Tuesday, March 23 21 06:39 am EDT)

Frank Gauthier

Watch Dog YouTube Clip 9-23-20 Claremont City Council Meeting Truck Leasing BIG DOLLARS $$$$$$$ TO THE TAX PAYERS !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE9SgaixJ_A
Adam (Monday, March 22 21 01:44 pm EDT)

Maybe all of those e-mails are trying to figure out how to deal with the Merit Plan going union.
John J. O’Connor (Monday, March 22 21 10:21 am EDT)

I would like to give a huge shout out the the Honorable Frank Guathier.
Great job Frank!!!!!!
Jim Sullivan (Monday, March 22 21 07:10 am EDT)

Serious questions raised regarding recent leasing of DPW vehicles.

Article found on News Flashes page of this website.
Keith (Sunday, March 21 21 03:59 pm EDT)

The Sullivan Report’s last two articles have been mind-blowing as they show how f-ed up the city’s municipal government is under lame-o city manager Ed Morris. The city councilors are responsible for not firing his butt a long time ago and for everything that he is doing that is contrary to what is best for the citizens of Claremont. The longer he stays the more things are getting f-ed up so they are just as much to blame for this mess as he is.
Tom (Sunday, March 21 21 03:10 pm EDT)

I noticed that an update appeared showing that the council did approve those vehicle leases after all. A quick public retraction displaying the public documents showing the truth indicates that Mr. Sullivan is a man of honesty and integrity and that the news printed on this website can be trusted because if proven wrong about something the record will be set straight.
Patricia (Sunday, March 21 21 12:46 pm EDT)

I never realized how hard a time Jim Sullivan has trying to get public information for his website so that he can inform us of what is really going on. It seems that Ed Morris and his staff have a lot to hide and we do have a real chicken-shit city council. I hope we the voters can work together and address that problem in November on Election Day.
Peter (Sunday, March 21 21 12:06 pm EDT)

Let’s face it; there is just bad management all around with our city government.
Brian (Sunday, March 21 21 11:22 am EDT)

The Morris administration is up to their necks in deceptive practices. The finance department’s city records are so unreliable that they have become works of fiction. The DPW is manipulating figures, structuring bids, and controlling their distribution to apparently aim their new vehicle business towards a certain business. The planning office staff is altering city documents to make old applications look new. The finances for the community center are atrocious and the finance and parks & rec departments are colluding to hide the truth about what it is really costing the taxpayers each year to keep the doors open. The city planner should have been fired long ago for neglect and incompetence and neither the city manager, the public works director or the assistant public works director have the career backgrounds necessary to hold the jobs that they presently have. This is occurring under the city manager’s questionable leadership. All the while, several of the councilors shoot their mouths off at every meeting venting their anger and that is just a big waste of time because they do nothing about actually solving the problems starting with firing Mr. Morris posthaste. Unfortunately, the people who are suffering the most are the taxpayers who are paying for this disaster.
Todd (Sunday, March 21 21 10:26 am EDT)

What the hell is up with Morris and his staff buying all these expensive trucks all of a sudden? Didn’t Morris hear the city council tell him to hold back on the spending and bring them a budget for next year that does not raise property taxes higher? Is Morris just stupid or is he arrogant because he knows he is dealing with a chicken-shit city council? Why do I think the city council is chicken-shit? Morris is still here.
David (Sunday, March 21 21 09:10 am EDT)

Thank you Mr. Gauthier for your efforts to acquire those emails for Mr. Sullivan. You are performing a terrific public service. Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Maranville are the only two people in Claremont were trying to educate and inform the general populace about the reprehensible things our local government leaders do in our name with our tax dollars. I appreciate you helping them in that endeavor.
Richard (Sunday, March 21 21 09:06 am EDT)

Decision-making is not this council’s strong suit. They are extremely challenged when faced with a decision they must make without extensive guidance and a lot of handholding from the city administration. This may be why they are having so many meetings about Mr. Morris’s job performance.
Gail (Sunday, March 21 21 08:45 am EDT)

Perhaps the voters have to get rid of the councilors first in order to get rid of Mr. Morris next.
Matt (Sunday, March 21 21 08:29 am EDT)

I have no idea what the councilors are waiting for? All they seem to do is have nonpublic meeting after nonpublic meeting but they never seem to accomplish anything. Don’t they understand that Morris needs to be fired?
Jim Sullivan (Sunday, March 21 21 08:13 am EDT)

New article published today.

Morris Administration out of control!

The article is published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Ken (Thursday, March 18 21 06:09 am EDT)

The Sullivan Report is the only new source we seem to have anymore. The Eagle Times looks like a clip and paste grade school project with articles from outside of our local area taking over what should be a local paper with local news. The few articles that have local news are full of mistakes and one-sided in favor of local government interests. The other local press offerings are not much better. This weeks Sullivan Report article was very long but very informative as well. The documents gives the story authenticity because you know that you are reading the truth and not fake news. This website is performing a true public service. Mr. Morris and his staff are doing things they should not be doing and the city councilors are burying their heads in the sand and doing nothing about it, which I am very angry about. It is a good thing this is an election year.
I’ll believe it when I see it. (Wednesday, March 17 21 09:14 pm EDT)

Speaking of useless.... it seems certain members of the council are publicly stated that the Pleasant Street project will be the savior of Claremont. It’s been repeatedly said that the tax base will increase significantly and it will be the answer to our infrastructure prayers.
I remember the same thing being said when they built Walmart and look how well that turned out, it killed downtown.
Randy (Wednesday, March 17 21 07:07 pm EDT)

Morris and his people are out of control. They are abusing their authority and the city councilors are letting them do it.
Tom (Tuesday, March 16 21 05:37 pm EDT)

This city administration acts like the most corrupt that I have ever seen in my 40 odd years as a resident of Claremont. Why is the city councilors all sitting on their hands and doing nothing about it?
Jim Sullivan (Monday, March 15 21 09:10 pm EDT)

Another very interesting City Council meeting!

Article appears on the News Flashes page of this website.
John J O’Connor (Monday, March 15 21 08:56 pm EDT)

500 pages of Council Emails ?
If that’s true, I wonder how many unauthorized meetings they had during this time ?
I think the city is Bluffing, 50 cents a page with a potential cost of $250 sounds like the administration is trying to discourage you from getting them.
Makes me wonder, what is in those Emails and what is the City Manager hiding?
Buy the Emails!!!!!!
Jim Sullivan (Wednesday, March 10 21 06:44 am EST)

Jessica, you are very welcome. Also, thank you for all the kind words, they are greatly appreciated. I wish you the very best for your business.
Jessica Miller-Ibey (Wednesday, March 10 21 05:59 am EST)

Thank you so much for saying something about the meeting on the 1st of March. I’m the owner of Brun Gardner Properties and I thought your article was very true in that Tracy Pope’s behavior was not becoming for Claremont and sad for any business owner that has to go before her.
Thank you for standing up and saying something as it helped tip the scales back to the positive for Claremont. People need to stand up against people abusing their power. She slandered my name as a business woman in very start of the meeting, with zero reason other than to try to destroy a successful businesswoman’s reputation that is new to town.
You are right that her live stream slander of an applicant could warrant a lawsuit some day. She slandered me as a business woman I believe at one point calling me as a bad one as I sat there on muted mic unable to say anything against her ranting.
I want you all to know that this is the only person that has been unwelcoming from the city. The rest are excited and happy we moved here and so for that I’m grateful. I’m also grateful to you for standing up against her blatant abuse of power with your well done article.
It shocked my husband and I both as behavior like this usually is not allowed to go on.
Its also a reminder that we all can be a part of deciding who gets what positions by getting involved in our local government by writing the Mayor and Govenor of NH about our issues.
I wrote the Mayor and did not hear back but Nancy from the Information office called me and she is fabulous and has been great to work with.
Thanks again, Jessica Miller-Ibey, owner of Brun Gardner Properties
Jim Sullivan (Wednesday, March 10 21 05:56 am EST)

Lawsuit settled! Details on the News Flashes page of this website.
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, March 09 21 09:07 pm EST)

School Ballot Results from today's voting can be found on the News Flashes page of this website.
Adam (Tuesday, March 09 21 09:47 am EST)

Great news that we will now be able to get the Merit plan back the increases they missed in the years the City gave union employees raises and merit plan zero. 5% to start will be a step in the right direction.
Special (Monday, March 08 21 08:32 pm EST)

I'm not sure why but pope has thought she was something special for a long time nothing but a clerk who thinks she is something get her out thanks for helping but no thanks
Ray (Monday, March 08 21 11:41 am EST)

Claremont does need a city grant writer to oversee the department specific writers and fill in the gap for the departments without their own. Somebody needs to be ensuring Claremont receives all available applicable federal funding. Especially in this current climate with a brand new stimulus bill in the works.
Shawn (Monday, March 08 21 06:34 am EST)

It is because the city councilors all talk a good game but they really do not care about what Claremont citizens really need like better roads and a lower tax rate. All they care about is pay raises for city staff and tax breaks and special favors for the special interests that they cater to with our money.
Richard (Monday, March 08 21 05:47 am EST)

I do not understand how high ranking executives in the city government can keep their jobs when they do them so poorly? The city councilors were elected to do what is best for the citizens of Claremont. How can our elected city councilors all choosing to casting a blind eye to all of this flagrant insubordination and obvious incompetence be what is best for Claremont?
Guy (Sunday, March 07 21 09:10 pm EST)

How dare you criticize Tracy Pope, didn’t you know she is a kidney transplant survivor?
Not that that matters, but I’m sure people will mention it to explain her behavior and garner sympathy.
People like her feel they can say anything they like because no one would dare criticize them because they had a near death experience.
Being sick doesn’t allow you to be disrespectful.
Ken (Sunday, March 07 21 08:32 pm EST)

It looks like the city's financial books are in disarray. Mr. Morris is responsible for his staff's shortcomings and he should be cleaning house and hiring new people that can do the job. Posting money coming in only twice a year is nuts. The city collects about 600K a year and the money is deposited only twice a year is crazy. It is lazy bookkeeping, with a lazy city manager doing nothing about it.
Ray (Sunday, March 07 21 04:53 pm EST)

Tracy Pope should resign from the Zoning Board. If not then the Councilors should kick her off.
Jim Sullivan (Sunday, March 07 21 11:13 am EST)

Three new articles published today.

1) Out of control!

2) Morris' answers to finance questions.

3) School Budget Vote on March 9.

All three articles are on the News Flashes page of this website.
Adam (Friday, March 05 21 08:57 am EST)

Well the union cards are in and have been given to the city manager. now we just wait for the Vote.
John J O’Connor (Friday, March 05 21 07:26 am EST)

Jim... I’m sure this bill will be re-written multiple times before being passed but the bottom line, it will eventually pass.
Claremont should get out in front, for a change, and spearhead the Tiny Home movement.
The Honorable Frank Guathier first mentioned Tiny homes to me back in 2016, he would be a great resource of information because I know he did some in-depth research on this subject.
Jim Sullivan (Thursday, March 04 21 08:33 pm EST)

The legislation as written would allow self-contained water and solid waste systems for tiny homes and that would supersede Claremont regs. I agree that tiny homes should be allowed but the legislation as written should not be passed by the legislature. It needs a rewrite to fix a few flaws within it.
John J.O’Connor (Thursday, March 04 21 07:00 pm EST)

Jim,
Sanitation is important and I can only assume if a Tiny home is set up in a residential neighborhood and not in the wilderness, the unit would be hooked up to city water and sewer.
Why does the city want to limit the locations? Sounds like property prejudice to me.
Newly constructed Tiny Homes would be an asset to any Claremont community.
Jim Sullivan (Thursday, March 04 21 09:19 am EST)

John, City Officials are concerned with the wording in the pending legislature that if it became law and Claremont allowed tiny homes in the community under this new law then the City would have to allow tiny homes anywhere in Claremont that allows single-family homes. Claremont Officials want to control where tiny homes would be allowed within the community. There are some other issues as well, such the proposed law allows self-contained solid waste units within the property instead of making the owner hook up to City water and sewer utilities if available.
John J. O’Connor (Thursday, March 04 21 08:18 am EST)

I’m trying to understand the controversy in regards to Tiny Homes.
As I understand it, the construction requirements for these Tiny homes will still be the same as new construction. Plumbing and electrical codes must be adhered to. Construction materials must be up to the strict code requirements as new construction so why is there an issue ?
The construction of Tiny Homes would be an economic boom for New Hampshire and would help solve the workforce housing issues in Claremont.
So what am I missing?
Dirtbag al sharpton (Wednesday, March 03 21 07:57 pm EST)

Al Sharpton is a looser glad to see that Firestarter scumbag chime in
Donk (Wednesday, March 03 21 07:50 am EST)

Being as we want to be hip and current with the times,perhaps we should consider rainbow colored city vehicles
We would also highly encourage trans-gender personnel for open positions within the police,fire,and DPW

I think promoting such a stance would really put us in favor as far as federal and even state grants while on the subject of grant writers
We could even get out there on the cutting edge and encourage the super morbidly obese to certain positions
Another to consider are our newly minted into sobriety from our sober living facility,I think ex-drug addicts would make for fantastic police
Al Sharpton (Wednesday, March 03 21 07:11 am EST)

Rebecca.... only a racist and bigot would say something like that.... so which are you ?
Rebecca (Wednesday, March 03 21 01:59 am EST)

Putting a Museum of African American History in Claremont NH is the equivalent of putting a Jewish holocaust museum in the Lakota Sioux Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The building would be better used for a business therefor creating jobs and bringing in tax revenue, not a tax exempt museum pushing a
agenda.
What a dream (Tuesday, March 02 21 09:43 pm EST)

This group of councilors and the manager will make it so nice you can leave your needles and drugs at the free county beds for scumbags and cross the one way street with the painted rainbow sidewalks to eat on the new sidewalk that we will be paying for in our tax bill and after walk to the museum real classy place I'm glad it includes all except the poor stiffs that will be paying the bill all these groups get what they want at the dime of us who go to work to give them the money to blow on these pipe dreams
Archie (Tuesday, March 02 21 08:43 pm EST)

Everyone must support the BLM museum or they will be labeled a racist!
The beautiful museum will be a big hit (Tuesday, March 02 21 08:17 pm EST)

Our city is doomed with this nothing more than a manager of a small department store running it a guy who knows nothing about anything but trying to put out a fire that doesn't qualify him to manage anything OBVIOUSLY
John J O’Connor (Tuesday, March 02 21 08:31 am EST)

The City Council is acting like a disorganized dictatorship. After receiving numerous warnings from the Council, the Mayor has consistently expanded her self made duties causing turmoil, negative reactions and hurt feelings for her fellow council members.
The released tape of the financial meeting gave the citizens a look behind the scenes. They saw the Mayor and Assistant Mayor conspiring to mislead the public and council to appease the City Manager.
Makes me wonder what is being said by these two when the doors are closed and the cameras are off ?
Lisa (Tuesday, March 02 21 07:52 am EST)

Sounds like a nonprofit organization. If they are just renting space then that is great. If they buy the building then it would take another building off the tax rolls in the TIF district and further increase the deficit. That would not be a good deal for the taxpayers. It all depends on what they are doing.
Pam (Tuesday, March 02 21 06:21 am EST)

Ran into an old acquaintance at the Walmart yesterday who works for City Planning with an office at the Visitor Center.

I was told that a Bethel AME-initiated "Blacks In New England History Museum" is planned for one of the mill buildings here.

Folks from Mass are sponsoring it.

www.maah.org
MAAH.org | Museum of African American History |

WOW!
Fact Check (Monday, March 01 21 08:11 pm EST)

Human factors and ergonomics researchers have found that bright yellow vehicles are less likely to be involved in accidents.
Red may be the traditional color of fire engines, but human factors and ergonomics research finds that lime-yellow fire vehicles are less likely to be involved in accidents.
Findings
Picture a fire truck and you are likely to see red — fire engine red. But when it comes to safety, human factors and ergonomics research paints a different picture. Much of what we know about human factors and ergonomics relies upon psychological studies of human visual and auditory perception. This research shows that because the color-transmitting cones in our eyes don't work well in the dark, some colors are easier for us to see at night. We are most sensitive to greenish-yellow colors under dim conditions, making lime shades easiest to see in low lighting. A 2009 study by the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), a division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), also concluded that fluorescent colors, including yellow-green and orange, are easiest to spot in daylight
Nathan (Monday, March 01 21 02:41 pm EST)

Ed Morris is a disaster as a city manager. It is painfully obvious that he does not have the experience to do the job and our elected councilors should do the right thing by the citizens of Claremont and terminate his employment posthaste.
Erica Sweetser (Monday, March 01 21 01:49 pm EST)

I apologize for my typo. I'm on my phone and can't seem to edit my comment. But I actually pride myself on not picking sides within the council chamber.
Erica Sweetser (Monday, March 01 21 01:47 pm EST)

Tom,

Perhaps you are unsure of what side I am on bevause I don't think my job is "picking a side". We should be critically thinking about every situation rather than trying to be one side or another. Some may view that as a bad thing, but I don't see my job as being part of one side or another. It should be on Claremont's side.
Todd (Monday, March 01 21 12:11 pm EST)

Red DPW vehicles? Has Ed Morris lost his flipping mind? Fire trucks are red not DPW vehicles. The city manager is even a bigger doofus than the last one the councilors hired.
Linda (Monday, March 01 21 11:43 am EST)

I really like Jim Sullivan’s idea about shutting down the transfer station and transferring the savings over to the street paving budget. To me that is a win-win because it eliminates a money-losing proposition at the transfer station and increases the spending on street paving and that is something everybody in Claremont wants to see happen because the road conditions are horrendous.
Tom (Monday, March 01 21 10:40 am EST)

There definitely seems to be two factions, Morris and Lovett and Damren and then the rest on the other side. The only one I am not sure about is Sweetser because she is all over the place with her public comments.
Richard (Monday, March 01 21 09:04 am EST)

I'm not surprised that our city leaders are at odds with each other. What Allen Damren, Charlene Lovett and Ed Morris did by planning to withhold important information from the city councilors and the public was a betrayal that can never be forgiven.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, March 01 21 07:34 am EST)

Two new articles published today.

1) City Officials continue to squabble.

2) Money-Saving Suggestions sent to the Council.

Both articles are published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Alex (Saturday, February 27 21 10:44 am EST)

The collusion to hide damaging information about the consultant’s city employee compensation study that involved the city manager should have been grounds for his immediate termination. Instead, the councilors accept a halfhearted apology that seemed very insincere. The voters need to face it; they have elected a spineless city council that is incapable of making difficult decisions. They need to be replaced in November.
Ted (Saturday, February 27 21 07:30 am EST)

Why are the councilors keeping the city manager? How many chances is a guy supposed to get before he does enough screw ups to get fired? The nine councilors we have today are a travesty and a disgrace.
Adam (Friday, February 26 21 12:19 pm EST)

Good news that a majority of the Merit plan Employees have signed Union Cards to force a vote for a union. That should prevent the years of skipping over the non union workers for raises.
Richard (Wednesday, February 24 21 09:17 am EST)

If the $39,299 assessment for Norm St. Aubin's property is correct because of the rebate then the board of assessors approved a property assessment change that is more than 666% lower than what it really is. That is not a small error just like the over 18% over-assessment of the Goodfellas property is not a small error either. It seems as if several people do not know how to do their jobs and that includes the city manager and the members of the city council, who are allowing this farce to continue.
Kevin (Tuesday, February 23 21 07:48 pm EST)

Maybe all city employees, councilors and board members should be enrolled in a mandatory ethics class. With all the colluding and questionable decisions it seems to be the answer because it's unlikely that any of these public officials are going away anytime soon.
Jill (Tuesday, February 23 21 06:55 pm EST)

Terry's right. In my opinion Mr. Kennedy did not do the right thing and keeping quiet about his conflict. As an owner of the abutting property he should have disqualified himself from the vote. There is no other way to look at that.
Terry (Tuesday, February 23 21 05:02 pm EST)

I just read the latest article and that most certainly is a conflict of interest. Mr. Kennedy should have said something and not voted on this settlement agreement. I do not know how they would have given the Goodfellas property owners their settlement agreement but that is a problem that the city should have handled. Mr. Morris is just not doing his job.
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, February 23 21 03:10 pm EST)

New article.

Conflict of interest or poor judgment?

Article is published on the News Flashes page of this website.
tony (Tuesday, February 23 21 01:06 pm EST)

Great to see the union cards have been rolling in!
Steve (Tuesday, February 23 21 10:24 am EST)

The Sullivan Report is having no problem finding inherent incompetence within the city administration. Claremont has a finance department that seems incapable of basic accounting and math skills. An assessing department with similar problems with an assessing expertise and math skills. The staff responsible for filling out the forms in both departments in those in management responsible for reviewing those forms to make sure they are accurate overall not doing their jobs. Councilors and assessing board members are also not doing their due diligence by reviewing the documents and comprehending what they are saying because if they did they would see the errors and in the assessing board’s case they certainly would not approve barefaced errors in the assessing staff should not be recommending those errors for approval. Mr. Morris hired an inexperienced director of public works when the department already had an inexperienced assistant director of public works, which will probably result with poor management decisions somewhere down the road. I watched the planning board meeting last night and Scott Osgood the city planner is a disaster. I watch the meetings regularly and he is never prepared for any of the agenda items in the same is true for the zoning board meetings that he also attends. This is not a hobby for him this is a paid position and does not seem up to the job. Last night they brought back a new item to add to the capital improvement plan, the City Hall dome renovation project that will cost nearly $800,000. The planning board and just reviewed and recommended the entire plan to the city councilors and they passed the plan item at their last meeting or the one before that. Now this project has to be added to the plan. If it wasn’t for the meeting minute taker, Mr. Osgood would have struck again with his ineptitude and nothing would’ve been done. Mr. Osgood just spoke about the addition but he never requested that the planning board review the project and set a priority number and then create a recommendation and pass on to the city councilors for their approval as an addition to the capital improvement plan. Mr. Morris was no help either because he said nothing about the necessity to do that until the meeting minute taker spoke up. Mr. Morris is a numbskull too and he has a bunch of numbskulls working for him in different departments.
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, February 23 21 09:13 am EST)

The Eagle Times has been publishing online editions on their regular schedule. I read today's online edition this morning. Have you tried refreshing your browser?
Do your job !!!!!! (Tuesday, February 23 21 08:55 am EST)

Is the Eagle Times still in business ? The online edition has not changed since Friday
Charles (Tuesday, February 23 21 08:43 am EST)

What got me was all the different property assessments for Norm St. Alban’s small acreage lot. Is it $23,000 like the meeting minutes read? Or on the other hand is it $27,520 like the administrative abatement list reads? Or is it $39,299, which would have to match the cash payout that the assessor recommended and the board of assessors rubberstamped? Who knows? Unfortunately, it seems that the highly paid assessing consultants and the board of assessors does not care. Will the councilors do anything about this or will they just look the other way and ignore the problem as they are doing with the terrible conditions of our roads and for so many other problems they do not want to address.
Rick (Monday, February 22 21 03:11 pm EST)

The Sullivan Report raised a good point about the over-assessment of the old odd fellows building by over 18%. Located in the Downtown TIF District that is always requiring a cash infusion from the taxpayers, if you are an unscrupulous city official it would make sense to over-assess the buildings in the district to increase revenues to lower the annual ask for money from the taxpayers to balance the books for the district. It is unprincipled but I can see why it would be done because assessments are of subjective and if the officials city officials are caught, the city leaders can always say they made a mistake without ever suffering repercussions. In the sick twisted world of bureaucrats they would consider that a win-win proposition.
Brian (Monday, February 22 21 12:27 pm EST)

It seems to me that the assessing consultants are telling and showing the Board of Assessors one thing when it is really another thing entirely. Just as Mr. Morris was doing when he colluded with the Mayor and Assistant Mayor to withhold important information about the pay raises from everyone else. The finance office is also distributing false information. This seems to be a widespread problem within Mr. Morris’s administration. Is this widespread gross incompetence or intentional disinformation? The Council’s do-nothing approach is not working for the best interests of the citizens of Claremont.
Mike (Monday, February 22 21 12:20 pm EST)

What is Ed Morris doing all day in his role as city manager? The finance office is a shambles. The Sullivan Report article shows the unassailable proof that the city’s financial books are poorly kept and filled with errors. Ed Morris hires a director of the public works department, who has absolutely no experience. I am sorry, but managing a few municipal buildings as an employee of a public works department hardly qualifies someone to manage an entire public works department the size of the one in Claremont. It sounds like Ed Morris hired a friend who needed a high-paying job. Now we learn, also thanks to the Sullivan Report, that the assessing office is also as poorly managed as the finance department as their documents and property assessments are filled with errors as well. It is obvious to citizens, those of us who pay extremely high property taxes, that Ed Morris is not up to the job and the longer he remains the worse the city government will become. The city councilors should have already taken action but they constantly languish whenever they need to make a decision without guidance from the city administration. Presumably, it will be up to the voters in November to elect new leadership that will be capable of making the necessary decisions to reset our local government for success.
Katherine (Monday, February 22 21 09:48 am EST)

I remember Mr. Hamilton, the contract assessor speaking before the city council during the discussion phase of creating this assessing board and Mr. Hamilton made it quite clear that those appointed would have to possess above-average intelligence and require some intensive training to be able to perform the job in their quasi-judicial role as board members. I agree with Robert that the board members seem incapable of reading comprehension and simple math, as do the two consultant assessors, which does not bode well for either the assessing department or the city taxpayers. Another disaster courtesy of Claremont’s inept city manager Ed Morris.
Robert (Monday, February 22 21 09:36 am EST)

It sounds like the board of assessors and the assessing consultants hired by Mr. Morris our dreadful city manager are all asleep on the job. Assessing is meticulous work and it seems that none of these individuals possesses basic reading skills or is capable of rudimentary mathematics. One would think that both would be prerequisites for the jobs and appointed positions these individuals hold.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, February 22 21 06:49 am EST)

New article published today.

Good day for Claremont Goodfellas & another grossly erroneous Morris Administration document discovered!

The article is published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Tom (Monday, February 22 21 06:46 am EST)

Chris, that may have been true in the past when things have changed. The Progressives have controlled Claremont for many years and have practically taxed the working class in this community into near bankruptcy. Their hubris and greed seem to know no bounds. People can only be pushed so far and many in this community have reached their limit. They are beginning to wake up and see the damage the Progressives have caused to our great community. I firmly believe that if good people rise up and apply for city council seats for the November election that they will defeat most of the incumbents who have turned their backs on the general populace long ago. The removal of the Progressives from public office is the only recourse average citizens have to regain control of their municipal government and bring back true representative government.
Chris (Sunday, February 21 21 08:56 pm EST)

Yada, yada, yada... it’s the same shit over and over again. Every election you people are always screaming for new blood on the council only to see the same ones get re-elected and mostly unopposed.
When will you people realize this site does not represent the majority of the citizens but only a small amount of cave people.
Sarah (Sunday, February 21 21 11:01 am EST)

I wholeheartedly agree. The majority represents the special interests and not the average citizens of Claremont. If we want true representation, we need new leadership as the present-day leadership has utterly failed us all.
Janice (Sunday, February 21 21 09:53 am EST)

It would be great to have every seat on the city council challenged with someone new. Many of the present-day members have been there for far too long making the city council stagnant and complacent, as they no longer do the work of the people.
Tom (Sunday, February 21 21 08:11 am EST)

I read an article in today’s Valley News that 14 candidates have applied for five open seats on the Hartford Select Board. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we have a large number of candidates run the City Council in November so the voters would have some real choices.
Carl (Friday, February 19 21 02:52 pm EST)

It looks to me like Lovett, Damren and Morris are practicing selective honesty. It makes me wonder how long they have been doing this. The finance committee meeting is only the first time they actually got caught doing it.
Pete (Friday, February 19 21 09:29 am EST)

I cannot believe how incredibly stupid and arrogant our mayor, assistant mayor and city manager are. Saying the things that they said on the meeting that was filmed is truly idiotic. They were so confident that the meeting would never be released publicly that they let their arrogance drive their actions. I am glad that Dale Girard showed some integrity and try to sway the other three to do the right thing and reveal this information to councilors in public but while everyone knows that, you cannot fix stupid it is also true that you cannot fix corrupt because that fix must come from within.
Jim Sullivan (Wednesday, February 17 21 05:22 pm EST)

Confirmed COVID-19 cases at Disnard Elementary School, Claremont Middle School & Stevens High School.

More details on the News Flashes page of this website.
Diane (Wednesday, February 17 21 12:33 pm EST)

How can anyone ever trust Mayor Lovett, City Manager Morris and Assistant Mayor Damren after what they have done? The city councilors may not be able to force Mrs. Lovett and Mr. Damren out of public office but they can certainly vote together and terminate Mr. Morris to give the members of the public a sign that the city councilors can be trusted by not protecting their employee when he or she does something inherently wrong. That would at least instill some confidence to the public that our local government is not entirely corrupt and beyond salvaging.
Steve (Wednesday, February 17 21 11:46 am EST)

The finance committee meeting video is proof positive of the corruption at City Hall. Heads should roll instead of hefty raises doled out.
Matt (Wednesday, February 17 21 07:25 am EST)

If the actions of these three fine upstanding citizens Lovett, Damren and Morris was so above board and proper then why were city staff members only willing to comment about how justified and matter of fact those actions were so long as they did so under the protection of anonymity?
Tony (Tuesday, February 16 21 02:49 pm EST)

Wow, the vote to give 2.5% but skip the retroactive portion was quick. Do they think they merit plan employees can’t add? So the union employees get the entire year worth of increase but they short the non-union. Hell they have skipped years of increases for non-union and never made it back up to them. Get ready to pay real wages soon Claremont.
Jeremy (Tuesday, February 16 21 02:45 pm EST)

Mrs. Lovett and Mr. Damren and Mr. Morris would have done well to remember the old adage “Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive.” It would have spared them a lot of public embarrassment and the ruination of their reputations.
Roger (Tuesday, February 16 21 02:09 pm EST)

Mr. Morris does not deserve to serve another day as city manager of Claremont.
Tom (Tuesday, February 16 21 12:31 pm EST)

The councilors simply see us as a means to a political end; most of them are as phony as a three-dollar bill. Maybe with the next election we can turn out enough of these councilors to change things. Damren’s retirement from the council will be a big step in the right direction because in my opinion he is one of the biggest snakes in the garden as shown on the videotaped finance committee meeting. It exposed the true selves of Damren, Lovett and Morris as people who should not be in positions of power.
Kaitlyn (Tuesday, February 16 21 09:40 am EST)

Ed Morris’s lack of experience, knowledge and professional skills making him a poor choice for city manager. His ethics are also in question as are those of Charlene Lovett and Allen Damren. It is time for a change of leadership.
It’s time for them to go !!!!!!! (Tuesday, February 16 21 09:24 am EST)

It’s time for the Mayor and Assistant Mayor to resign from their positions.
They have violated the trust of the people and can no longer be trusted to be an advocate for the citizens of Claremont.
Brenda (Monday, February 15 21 02:04 pm EST)

What is up with the downtown TIF district? In six months it raises $4890 and change but spends $598,173 and change when the district is constantly broke and has to borrow money each year from the taxpayers just to stay afloat. It sounds like the books are being cooked and maybe that forensic audit Councilor Stone wanted might not be a bad idea for the TIF district.
Michael (Monday, February 15 21 11:30 am EST)

The accounting books for the city are a hot mess. I do not understand why the city manager, the finance director, the city treasurer and all of the city councilors do not read these reports about the city's finances. This is their job and they cannot work up the initiative to do it. I looked at the documents that Jim put on his website and these questionable entries are glaring. Anyone reading these documents would easily see them. I think it is time to clean house at City Hall.
Carl G (Monday, February 15 21 08:27 am EST)

I just read the Sullivan Report article today. It is beginning to appear that every city manager we hire fall short of managing the city departments. I am beginning to wonder if the city departments are not a good old boys club that has a cleverly designed agenda capable of pulling the wool over the managers eyes. Although there’s not much excuse for a manager not noticing problems and lends to the fact that the managers could possibly be inexperienced in noticing these problems. I would like to blame this on hiring committees but it has been reported on here several times that the finalist picked by the hiring committee was changed by the council and the top pick was not chosen. It looks like we need a manager that manages departments instead of a manager that is managed by the departments. Especially for the pay scale that we are paying in such a small and depressed community. A properly managed city managed by a capable and transparent manager could put negative reports from the Sullivan Report to rest in a hurry. That is if the Sullivan Report could come up with something negative to report on.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, February 15 21 06:30 am EST)

Two new articles published today.

1) City Finance Report shows huge discrepancies and disturbing information!

2) Tensions run high at the February 10, 2021 Claremont City Council meeting!

Both articles are published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Tony (Thursday, February 11 21 03:26 pm EST)

The video meeting is unnerving. To see people that I have known for years act in such a despicable manner is quite disturbing. There is just no forgiveness for their actions. Their reputations are ruined and justifiably so. Charlene and Allen have violated the public trust and that can never be reclaimed. Mr. Morris’s actions deserve only one action of recourse from the city council and that is his immediate termination.
Ron (Thursday, February 11 21 02:33 pm EST)

I watched the February 1 finance committee meeting and what Mrs. Lovett, Mr. Morris and Mr. Damren did is an open and shut case of an inexcusable act. I have no idea what the councilors may have done at their impromptu called private meeting to doubtlessly discuss the city manager’s future with the city of Claremont but if he was not terminated for this inexcusable act then I will have lost all respect for all of the councilors. I agree with the Sullivan Report that public censure for Mrs. Lovett and Mr. Damren are in order as it is unfortunate that there is no recall provision in the city charter to remove either of them from public office as that is what each of them truly deserve. While Mr. Damren will not be seeking reelection to his council seat, Mrs. Lovett probably will and she will need to be voted out of office. I hope someone with some moral character will choose to run for mayor. Someone like Debora Matteau perhaps?
Jim Sullivan (Thursday, February 11 21 07:16 am EST)

Kipp Ryan the founder and one of the moderators of the local What's Up Claremont Facebook page recently wrote the following on his Facebook page when posed with a similar question essentially asking who the Claremont School Board candidates would be on the ballot.

"3 uncontested candidates. Josh Lambert, Heather Whitney, Steve Horsky".
Wondering (Wednesday, February 10 21 05:32 pm EST)

Anyone even know when school board applicants are announced?
Jim Sullivan (Wednesday, February 10 21 01:58 pm EST)

Two articles published today.

1) Claremont Budget Deliberative Session over in 12 minutes.

2) Spin control in full swing regarding municipal employee pay raises.

Both articles are on the News Flashes page of this website.
Donk (Friday, February 05 21 05:14 pm EST)

Morris is trying to cheat the people of Claremont out of their money.We already pay the highest taxes in state asshole.
Go work somewhere else
Rodney (Friday, February 05 21 03:26 pm EST)

I firmly believe that the three amigos Lovett, Damren and Morris have all got to go. A public apology will not be enough because plotting and scheming to deceive the public and the other councilors is unforgivable. I saw it on video and that you cannot un-see. There is no way they can claim this is fake news. They did it and they should have to pay the consequences for their reprehensible actions.
tony (Friday, February 05 21 01:58 pm EST)

Not sure why all the fuss about the compensation report. If the council does nothing, then all the rest of the workforce will have learned that the way to get actual raises is to be part of a Union like Fire and Police. Game over, you will be paying more anyway.
Bob (Friday, February 05 21 11:06 am EST)

John O'Connor This is not a one off. This has been going on for years, all the way back to when they first took their respected positions. When the mayor speaks to a topic on the agenda at the beginning of a meeting and a councilor says "we can't talk about this it is ion the agenda" and they mayor does not stop talking and the councilor then says "why are we breaking the rules" and without any hesitation the Asst. Mayor says "because we can" and the mayor continues the rest of her statement on the topic. That tells you everything you need to know abou the Mayor and her Asst. flunkie!!!
John J O’Connor (Friday, February 05 21 07:57 am EST)

Before everyone jumps on “ they must resign” bandwagon, let’s give them a chance to explain.
After watching and re-watching certain portions of the meeting, I was left with the impression that the Mayor and Assistant Mayor assume the citizens of Claremont are “too” stupid to understand or maybe they wouldn’t agree with the decisions of this committee or the actions of the City Manager.
My advice, come clean.
Most politicians say and do things they later regret and they get all jammed up because they tried to cover up their actions when a simple apology would have solved the problem.
So before people sprint to a rush of judgment, give the Mayor and Assistant Mayor a chance to explain their insulting behavior.
David (Thursday, February 04 21 04:04 pm EST)

I viewed the finance committee meeting that everyone is talking about and saw the Mayor, Assistant Mayor and City Manager say things that they would never say in public. It was unbelievable to watch but absolutely true because the video proves that it is all true. The public can finally see how these people think and act for real. I have great respect for Councilman Dale Girard. He showed great restraint and he valiantly tried to convince Charlene Lovett, Allen Damren and Ed Morris about the necessity of transparency when dealing with government affairs. They did not care. These three should not be holders of any public office or any government position of any kind. It is as if they have no conscience or capacity for shame whatsoever. Claremont deserves better leadership. I hope for Claremont’s sake that the councilors fire Mr. Morris tonight at their nonpublic meeting. He has broken the public’s trust, as have Charlene Lovett and Allen Damren. The longer the councilors wait to take firm action against Mr. Morris, the worse things will deteriorate and the more the public’s trust in their city leaders will wane.
Copy&Paste (Thursday, February 04 21 03:12 pm EST)

This is a copy and paste but true
Slick Move
(Sunday, January 31 21 03:36 pm EST)
Members of the hiring committee were shocked when the council flipped on the top pick for manager. Looks like the committee had it right and another bad move by the council.
Ryan (Thursday, February 04 21 12:44 pm EST)

We need more elected officials like Dale Girard, is just that simple. Honesty, ethics and a sincere desire to represent everyone and everyone’s best interests is what is needed with Claremont’s municipal government and with the school district and the county government. Morris, Lovett and Damren have all got to go.
Donk (Thursday, February 04 21 12:13 pm EST)

Can we please show this pretender Morris the door?

I don't even mind paying the next manager more, just as long as he/she represents the taxpayers of Claremont and NOT the public unions.

Hats off to our new councilor
Aiden (Thursday, February 04 21 12:06 pm EST)

Wow what a fantastic article, great job guys. I cannot believe the mayor the assistant mayor and the city manager are all that incredibly stupid saying those things when they are being recorded. I know they thought they were not being watched and the meeting would never be shown to the public but still that is just sheer arrogance and stupidity at work. I know Damren will not run again for council. The voters should redouble their efforts to throw Charlene Lovett out of public office. Hopefully, someone will run against her in the next election. Mr. Morris should be fired by the council without hesitation and without question and I hope that will happen at their nonpublic meeting tonight. There I have said my piece.
Jim Sullivan (Thursday, February 04 21 10:01 am EST)

Two new Special Reports.

Full details on the News Flashes page of this website.
Fresh Air (Wednesday, February 03 21 04:35 pm EST)

I sure Dale Girard sticks to his guns. Nothing like having a business man on the council.
Reporter (Wednesday, February 03 21 03:28 pm EST)

To clarify The Eagle Times report of $37,158 for merit pay raises, that figure came from the Finance Committee’s letter to the council in January (see January 27 council meeting packet). Additionally, that figure only applies to the current fiscal year. The Finance Committee stated a “a slight increase” next year.
Donk (Wednesday, February 03 21 01:41 pm EST)

We can now say with confidence that our city manager is a complete piece of shit.
Guy (Wednesday, February 03 21 01:15 pm EST)

It’s amazing what people will say when they don’t think their comments will not be heard by others.
I now understand why the Assistant Mayor announced, 9 months ahead of time, that he will not be seeking re-election.
It’s time for the Mayor and Assistant Mayor to step down now. They have lost trust of the people.How can anyone believe anything that comes out of Mr.Morris’s mouth.
Trust takes a lifetime to build and a second to lose.
Jim Sullivan (Wednesday, February 03 21 11:14 am EST)

Special Report!

Finance Committee meeting exposes Merit Plan pay increase scheme cover-up!

The article appears on the News Flashes page of this website.
Donk (Tuesday, February 02 21 02:07 pm EST)

I mean inebriated indigenous person
Donk (Tuesday, February 02 21 11:51 am EST)

Dave, we already pay enough property taxes to maintain the roads.It's the other things we're wasting money on that's the problem.$48,000 for a consultant to tell us we don't pay enough seems very wasteful to me.
Membership fees that truly pay for most of the cost for the community center would help.I can see subsidizing is somewhat, but not to the degree that we are with most of the taxpayers of the city unable to use what they're paying for.Looks unconstitutional to me,but I'm no expert.
O'Connor is right about the roads being pleasing to the eye making people more apt to buy.Schools being in good shape is another big attraction.This doesn't mean more money for teachers,this means good upkeep on buildings.
I think tearing down the blighted eyesore buildings would be a big plus.This Pleasant Street bond would have been much better used in getting the blight and the streets looking good.rather than whatever the hell they're trying to do.Does anybody even know what their aim is?
Jim has already exposed the huge lack of parking spaces and the true costs of this bond being a lot more than was pitched.This,along with the fact we know that these kind of projects always require more cash infusions has me worried.Morris has this on his plate to fix and he has the Gall to ask for more money for the employees makes me wonder about this mans intelligence.Somebody should tell him we're in the midst of a pandemic.Hardly the time to start spending like a drunken Indian.
Steve (Tuesday, February 02 21 10:36 am EST)

I am thrilled that Allen Damren is quitting at the end of his term. I wish he would quit now. Perhaps he is sensing a political storm brewing with all of these financial troubles that are all coming to a head that the city council and the city manager are all ignoring. I believe massive increases in property taxes aren’t coming because budget cuts are never an option with the likes of Nick Koloski and Charlene Lovett and others on the Council. Many of them talk a good game but that’s all it is talk.
Richard (Tuesday, February 02 21 10:07 am EST)

Dennis the councilors are just going through the motions because the only thing that most of them are interested in is pushing forward a political agenda to benefit their friends and political allies. The only thing the rest of us are good for in their eyes is paying for everything.
Dennis (Tuesday, February 02 21 08:42 am EST)

I am so disappointed with all of the councilors just quietly letting Mr. Morris get away with all this bullshit. He is arrogantly insubordinate to many of them when he dodges questions just like President Biden’s new press secretary or gives vague answers that mean little or nothing. He doesn’t provide information to the councilors when he is asked and sometimes he has to be asked multiple times before he finally gives them something. If I did that where I worked I would be canned in a heartbeat and I would deserve to be. I do not understand why the councilors are just so casual about Mr. Morris’ obvious shortcomings, his lack of experience and his unprofessional management style.
Jeff (Tuesday, February 02 21 08:00 am EST)

Let us not forget Jim Sullivan says he is checking into this whole bond payment recommendation to take care of the almost $800,000 deficit that Mr. Morris and his pinhead subordinates caused. Mr. Morris is claiming it is a solution when it is just another problem in the making. There is the whole illegality of using water and sewer money for things that is not supposed to be used for and probable illegality of spending the money way in advance of when the money is even due. Then there is the possibility that their plan was to take more money out of the water and sewer funds than they were supposed to for them to bridge the funding gap without telling anybody they were taking too much money. It could be that there are even more deficits coming up down the road after seven years. I am guessing no one outside of city staffers have seen the bond payment schedule because the councilors are all too lazy and complacent to ask for a copy, look beyond what they are shown and told and work up the energy to do a little homework to figure things out. This could be why Jim Sullivan wants to see it. I think most people in Claremont know that most if not all of the councilors are lazy and stupid and they have no incentive to do a better job. When Jim Sullivan looks at the bond payment schedule, he may find more deficits and who knows what else. More and more people in Claremont are figuring out that Mr. Morris and the city staff cannot be trusted. The same is true for many of the councilors too.
Tom (Tuesday, February 02 21 06:24 am EST)

I cannot believe that a city manager can screw up as much as Ed Morris has and still keep a job. Mistake after mistake after mistake and the city councilors just sit there meekly doing nothing about it. What is wrong with Claremont? The city council is what is wrong with Claremont. The taxpayers need to fix this in November when they vote for a whole new city council.
Dave (Monday, February 01 21 09:24 pm EST)

Spending more money of the roads is a good thing, but raising taxes to do it is not. Spending elsewhere in the city budget must be cut by an equal measure to accomplish this. The councilors must stop treating the taxpayers like their own personal ATM Machines. I am glad to see that Allen Damren is stepping down at the end of the year. He is a terrible representative because he only represents special interests and only wants to increase bureaucratic spending, he never supports tax cuts. Then, most of the other councilors never do either.
John J. O’Connor (Monday, February 01 21 08:31 pm EST)

Erica, don’t acknowledge the trolls. If they don’t have the courage to use their God given name, they don’t deserve a response much less an explanation.
I agree with you that the tax situation is perilous, I have always felt you have to spend money to make money and out roads need a serious infusion of cash.
Eye appeal is buy appeal, if investors don’t like what they see as far as infrastructure is concerned they will not invest. Why invest in a city that won’t invest in itself ?
Erica Sweetser (Monday, February 01 21 07:11 pm EST)

Neil, I also specifically said that spending needs to be targeted. As in spend it in ways that lead to increased revenue for the city. The more revenue you have the less you have to get from taxes. To do things like fix all the roads everyone complains about. I agree that useless spending that increases the tax rate is just that. Useless. I have 2 jobs, am on 4 boards, plus the council, homeschool my kiddo and go to school myself. As a single parent. So I don't think lazy is a term I would aim at myself. If you ever want to chat about what you would like to see more or less of in the city please feel free to email me.
Erica Sweetser (Monday, February 01 21 06:54 pm EST)

Neil, Unfortunately I have pretty severe allergies. A few weeks ago I had an allergic reaction and the mask made it impossible to breath through the reaction. So I removed myself from being around people as I had to get the mask off. Not because the meeting didn't go my way.
William (Monday, February 01 21 05:20 pm EST)

I'm glad to see that Damren is going at the end of this year. It's about time and I would like to see other incumbents do the same, especially Nick Koloski and Charlene Lovett. They have all been on the city council for far far too long.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, February 01 21 03:57 pm EST)

Assistant Mayor Allen Damren publicly announces that he will not run for reelection to a Claremont City Council seat!

Details on the News Flashes page of this website.
Donk (Monday, February 01 21 03:04 pm EST)

This Pleasant Street clusterf**k is the Morris equivalent to Santagate's TIF that wound up being bailed out every year by taxpayers.
Next thing you know he'll want a bridge named after himself.

FOOL ME ONCE,SHAME ON YOU

FOOL ME TWICE...
Mark (Monday, February 01 21 01:52 pm EST)

Boy, almost $30 million for that capital improvement plan sounds very excessive. It looks like the Department Directors put everything into this plan including the kitchen sink. So much for fiscal restraint in the Morris administration.
Susan (Monday, February 01 21 12:32 pm EST)

Ed Morris has proven how bad a city manager he is when he attempted to convince the councilors to use the pandemic reimbursement money for boiler repairs. That was some shady stuff and if it was not for Debora Matteau speaking up he may have gotten away with it. Now the latest expose on the Sullivan Report reveals another shady plan to withdraw large amounts of water and sewer cash reserves to bail out the $5.8 million bond repayment snafu by Ed Morris and his subordinates. The legal questions alone should have caused Ed Morris to hit the pause button and then there is the mathematical problem of withdrawing more from the water and sewer cash reserves than what the Claremont water and sewer ratepayers will all over 20 years for the downtown project. Now that the public knows the truth, will Debora Matteau or another Councilor show some bravery and talk up about this at the next city council meeting? Or will this all be swept under the rug until six years from now when some of the municipal bond payment will have to be paid by the taxpayers? Or will whomever is in charge then just sweep it under the rug by adding it to the budget in another don’t ask don’t tell maneuver by city officials? It is incidents like this that causes the public to distrust government officials as much as they do. It is a shame that our city officials cannot just be honest with the citizens of Claremont.
Phil (Monday, February 01 21 11:05 am EST)

Mayor Lovett seems obsessed with increasing Section 8 housing in Claremont. This will set disastrous policy for Claremont. More families living in those type of apartments are a burden on social services and the school district and apartment buildings that do not bring in enough property tax revenue to pay for all the city and education services the tenants suck up. This is not a viable economic strategy for Claremont. This policy only helps to developers who rake in large amounts of public funds to build these apartments, get tax breaks, and then reap big profits once the tenants move in. Mayor Lovett and her cronies are working for the developers not the citizens of Claremont and they all need to be thrown out of public office in the next election.
Kevin (Monday, February 01 21 08:09 am EST)

I was surprised to see that the councilors did not give James Contois a second to his off the table motion for the merit plan raises. That had to be a slap in the face to the city manager as I think this makes three or four times at least that the majority of the councilors have rejected his salary increase proposals. You would think that Mr. Morris would take the hint but he just keeps plugging along as if he is hoping to wear enough of them down to win a majority vote of big raises for all of the city employees. Allen Damren is for sure a real piece of work. He scolds the councilors for not casting a second to Mr. Contois’s motion when he could have made the second himself. I am surprised that none of the councilors pointed that out to him. Are they all that stupid or are they all afraid of him? On the other hand, are they taking political correctness too far to the point that it is interfering with solid judgment on city issues? I think the councilors all need to find their voices or find the door and leave for good.
Neil (Sunday, January 31 21 04:25 pm EST)

Erica Sweetser is out of her depth. When she ran for election, she said she wanted to control the property tax rate and push it back down to give working families a break. Now that she is in power, she wants to spend tons of money on road repairs. I know they are needed but Claremont families cannot afford new taxes right now on top of the high taxes we already have. The councilors need to find another way to pay for these road repairs. They can start by casting aside this crazy idea of giving big raises to city employees. If any of them are unhappy with the pay scale then they can always look for work elsewhere just like everyone else in the private sector can. I also do not like the way she is kowtowing to Morris about the donation policy. It is the Council’s job to look over the shoulder of their one employee the city manager to make sure that he is doing a good job. If she is too lazy to do her job or go home and hide when the meeting does not go her way then she does not have the work ethic or the temperament for the job of city councilor. She is a good meal server, maybe she should stick with that instead.
Slick Move (Sunday, January 31 21 03:36 pm EST)

Members of the hiring committee were shocked when the council flipped on the top pick for manager. Looks like the committee had it right and another bad move by the council.
William (Sunday, January 31 21 03:24 pm EST)

Morris and his staff made a blunder of almost $800,000 figuring out the yearly bond payment amounts. Then the same idiots make another blunder of almost $230,000 with their so-called solution that does not fix the problem. A strategy that might be just as illegal as the recommendation Morris and his staff made to the council about how to pay for the boiler. It is time for the councilors to wake up and smell the coffee and fire Morris before he messes things up for the city even further.
Matt (Sunday, January 31 21 01:03 pm EST)

If another job search is imminent then I hope this time the Council gets it right and stops listening to Madame Mayor and her brownnosing henchmen Allen Igor Damren. Claremont needs professional management not wannabes looking to climb the career ladder. I will not go to the obvious firefighter joke about Morris; well I guess I just did.
Renee (Sunday, January 31 21 11:47 am EST)

It is looking like Ed Morris’s days at City Hall might be numbered. It looks like there are enough of the city councilors who are displeased with his disgraceful job performance that the councilors cannot come to a consensus about a pay raise. Not a good sign for Mr. Morris’s future.
Alex (Sunday, January 31 21 11:15 am EST)

I thought Morris acted shady with the salary compensation study with their use of New Hampshire communities that do not stack up to Claremont as a good comparison example. The whole study seem purposefully skewed to validate large raises for all the city employees and that seems to include Morris too. Then we have the JSL deal, the sober house pilot deal and the boiler fiasco with the city manager trying to sweet talk the councilors to pretty much do something dishonest with the COVID-19 aid money. Now this new problem with the $5.8 million bond and the lies we were told that it would not raise the property tax rate. Then he says all fixed the city will take the money from water and sewer funds and we find out from the Sullivan Report that it is not been fixed as there is nearly a quarter of $1 million deficit and it could be more. I have a feeling the other shoe is going to drop when Mr. Sullivan gets that information from the city about all of borrowing finances. I do not trust Morris at all.
Steve (Sunday, January 31 21 10:34 am EST)

I think the Sullivan Report article raised a bunch of good questions about the possible illegality of using water and sewer funds prematurely to bailout the city’s general fund for the renovation project and the dispatch upgrade project that has nothing to do with water and sewer concerns. The councilors should have asked to see the bond payment schedule and they should have approved that final decision instead of leaving and into incapable hands of Mr. Morris. Then there’s the same with the pay raises and Mr. Morris’s attitude and his continued push to make the pay raises happen at the cost of over $1 million a year to the taxpayers. I believe it has arrived at the point of gross insubordination and incompetence and with everything else that has happened it is time for Mr. Morris to be terminated from his position as city manager.
Brian (Sunday, January 31 21 09:41 am EST)

One hell of a mess with the $5.8 million bonds for the downtown project and the dispatch center for the cops. Morris and his motley crew of imbeciles screw up the math and underestimate the first seven years of bond payments by nearly $800,000 and to try to save their skin Morris says no problem they will take the money out of the water and sewer savings accounts. The nitwits on the council say that’s okay it’s a great idea and that’s that. None of those doofus figured out that the great plan that Morris the inexperienced city manager cooked up with his motley crew calls for taking more money sucked out of the water and sewer savings accounts than their fair share of the project costs. I’ll bet that Morris thought he had at least six years before the shit was going to hit the fan on this screw up instead of less than six days. He didn’t figure on the Sullivan Report exposing his incompetence and cover-up plan that won’t work because it still leaves a big deficit and it might not be legal in the first place. Morris must know by now that the councilors are all as dumb as dirt because he keeps taking advantage of it. I will admit the councilors are getting a little smarter. They did not fall for his spending plan for the boilers with the Covid money that could have gotten the city in big trouble later with the state and federal government if they audited how Claremont spent the money. Why would any of the councilors trust Morris anymore after all the crap that he’s pulled is beyond me.
Jim Sullivan (Sunday, January 31 21 08:03 am EST)

New article published today.

January 27, 2021 Claremont City Council meeting synopsis.

Another Claremont Taxpayer bailout may be looming!

The article appears on the News Flashes page of this website.
Keith (Friday, January 29 21 10:30 am EST)

The sober house complex in the old Eagle Times building is just sounding more and more like a really bad idea. With all the problems with the finances and the shaky rental income situation with the scatterbrained policy of allowing the ex-inmates to avoid paying rent by volunteering somewhere is nuts. It just seems to me that this program is going to be a burden to the Sullivan County taxpayers because of inadequate revenue and to the Claremont taxpayers with the loss of property tax revenue. A bad deal all around for the taxpayers but more bureaucracy expansion of the County government for the tax-and-spend bureaucrats.
Donk (Wednesday, January 27 21 04:31 pm EST)

The unions will never go to a 401k style pension plan,at least not until the pensions are reduced from the funds having gone broke.

What should concern Claremont citizens more than anything is a city manager with democrat leanings.This is man sitting at the table representing us at contract time with the unions.What I've seen thus far is that he is not representing our best interest at all.It's quite the contrary in fact.Hiring consulting companies to try to squeeze every last penny out of taxpayers for increased compensation to our employees is the opposite of what I would expect from a manager.If his performance is being reviewed I wish someone would let him know who he actually works for.When I paid my taxes I didn't include a direction for a blanket study of the compensation of the public employees.
While the public employees may not make quite as much as their counterparts in the private sector,which at this point is quite debatable considering their pensions and health insurance that we in the private sector could only dream of.They also enjoy far more holidays and job security that pretty much ensures that they will not miss a paycheck throughout their entire career.To me,that's worth a lot.Like I said in an earlier posting,if you are not happy with the level of compensation the humble people of Claremont are offering,you are free to expand your horizons and move on.I would be more than happy to give you a reference to your potential future employer.We are not a wealthy town as many on the compensation comparison list enjoy much greater incomes than the citizens of Claremont.We can afford what we can afford.Telling you that we can pay you as much as the wealthier towns would be lying to you and lying to ourselves.
We can afford what we can afford.
The same goes for the education side of our tax bills.If student population continues to drop to the degree that it has,then so too should the overall costs to the taxpayers.
Bob (Wednesday, January 27 21 01:50 pm EST)

The unions need to go to a 401k style retirement and get rid of pensions. This will save a ton of money in benefits for the city and school district
Rick (Wednesday, January 27 21 07:21 am EST)

I am opposed to this school deliberative session plan that puts all of power into the school board members because you know they will never cut the budget ever. It will either get rubberstamped approved by the voters or the default budget will kick in there will be no other options.
Thiswillworkwhenpigsfly (Tuesday, January 26 21 04:40 pm EST)

In the end, it would be cheaper for the County to pay the rent on apartments for the newly sober convicts whose families have turned their backs on and have no friends they haven’t f**ked over.
Has any completed a cost analysis ?
Donk (Tuesday, January 26 21 02:59 pm EST)

Has anybody calculated what the health insurance premiums are going to cost for our sober living turned over a new leaf people living in the Sobriety House?
They will have to have minuscule co-pays and deductibles like our underpaid public employees.
Have they drawn a decent smoking lounge in the plans,with outdoor heaters and comfortable furniture?
Tracy (Tuesday, January 26 21 02:17 pm EST)

The councilors have to stop listening to Mr. Morris all the time because he is a real idiot and they need to start applying common sense to the city’s problems.
Steve (Tuesday, January 26 21 10:09 am EST)

I saw on WMUR that the mayors and school administrators sent a letter to state leaders demanding more school aid because the school aid funds are decreasing. Mayor Lovett said the enrollment in Claremont is down 4.6% and the lunch money aid is down 2.4%. She was complaining that Claremont saw a reduction in school aid. Well, the school aid is calculated by the student population so less students means less school aid. It is simple math and it seems that Mayor Lovett and all these mayors and school administrators cannot understand that. Because of the pandemic, many parents are pulling their kids out of school so fewer kids should mean the need for less money. It just goes to show that these bureaucrats are never satisfied and will always want more and more government money no matter what the circumstances may be.
Donk (Monday, January 25 21 01:43 pm EST)

Nobody will hire anyone that has drugs and thievery in their backround.
It takes all of a minute to find them all radioactive
Glenn (Monday, January 25 21 01:13 pm EST)

I can’t wait to find out what kind of sweet deal the Goodfellas got for their building assessment. There always seems to be some kind of deals cooking up at City Hall that the public would most definitely never know about if it wasn’t for the Sullivan Report.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, January 25 21 11:49 am EST)

Kevin, on August 26, 2020 all nine City Councilors at that time unanimously approved Resolution 2021-10, a $4.8 million municipal bond to finance the Rethink Pleasant Street Downtown Renovation Project.
Kevin (Monday, January 25 21 11:43 am EST)

Does anyone know if all the councilors voted for the bond for the downtown Pleasant Street project?
Karen (Monday, January 25 21 10:15 am EST)

It looks like the sober house project’s finances are pretty shaky just like the renovation plan for the County Home that fell apart all on its own because of terrible management and planning.
Todd (Monday, January 25 21 09:13 am EST)

I’m glad Mr. Ferland spoke up to at least try to get the school district some cheaper electricity to help lower our taxes a little more. Nancy Merrill does not give a crap about Claremont because she does not live here. I think she lives somewhere in the Lebanon area. Mr. Morris does not give a crap about Claremont either even though he does own a small home here on Grove Street. He is going to be a short timer if the councilors get a clue about his terrible management style and crappy job performance. Although I do not think Charlene Lovett and Allen Damren would ever want to admit that they made a mistake pushing for the hiring of Mr. Morris. Both of them have made so many mistakes all they ever try to do is cover them up and try to make Claremont look like everything is wonderful when the opposite is true in some ways.
William (Monday, January 25 21 06:45 am EST)

I think the only deals that Mr. Morris knows how to negotiate are bad ones for the citizens of Claremont and great ones for the other party wanting to make the deal the first place. He gave pay raises already to all the union employees when the union contracts were stalled under the three previous city managers because Mr. Morris with the city council’s assistance rolled over and gave the unions practically everything they wanted. Now he wants to sweeten the deal with huge raises for all of the city workers including himself. He makes a great deal with the Barretts for the JSL building, a big property assessment reduction and a cheap sales price of only $5K. Negotiated another great deal for the County with a very cheap payment in lieu of taxes sweetheart deal that delays payments for one year and he really cut the price down for three years and then probably no payment in lieu of taxes or any other taxes in the future. Now they say Mr. Morris may negotiate with our newest city councilor a land rental deal where our new city councilor is going to plotz his shiny new airplane hangar up at the city airport. Mr. Morris and Nancy Merrill said that the lease was supposed to be whenever the property taxes were for the dimensions of the land but then they later said they were going to negotiate a lease price. I did not know that property assessments were negotiable. I guess I missed that lesson in civics class. This solar powered lease deal and the deal for electricity for the city may save us some money on taxes but Mr. Morris should have made a bigger push to sell more of that electricity to folks in Claremont. Cheaper electric prices for businesses and residents might appeal to other businesses and folks to come move here. A great economic development opportunity wasted. Mr. Morris is too busy working to strong arm the city councilors to vote in big raises for all the city employees to do the job he was hired to do. It is time for another city manager.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, January 25 21 06:12 am EST)

Two new articles published today.

1) Another change regarding Sullivan County Sober House.

2) Steel Mill Solar update.

Both articles appear on the News Flashes page of this website.
Tony (Sunday, January 24 21 01:40 pm EST)

Charles don’t forget about the paving plan cooked up by Jeremy Clay the inexperienced assistant public works director not to be confused with Alex Gleeson the inexperienced public works director. That cockamamie plan only fills potholes and lightly skim coat’s most of the roads just once in like 25 years. Talk about a disaster in the making it the councilors just about with themselves when they heard the plan because it gave them the excuse they wanted not to put about $1.5 million a year into street paving. Don’t forget even though they are complaining they still want to give big raises to the city staffers when they’re not giving public money to their friends.
Guy (Friday, January 22 21 08:11 am EST)

Mr. Morris is above his head in his current position. I’m sure he is doing his best but sometimes doing your best isn’t good enough.
Brad (Friday, January 22 21 07:35 am EST)

I watch the council meeting and I distinctly remember that it was councilor Matteau that asked the tough questions about the boiler. She is the one who made Mr. Morris squirm. Councilor Koloski did ask questions but his questions are never probing or tough. Councilor Koloski generally asks easy to answer questions or blase comments. I think he does it to get attention because he suffers from low self-esteem. Does Councilor Koloski asked questions, yes lots of them but his questions usually do not change the outcome of anything. It's quality not quantity.
Jim Sullivan (Thursday, January 21 21 03:34 pm EST)

Charlie, I respectfully disagree. I do remember Mayor Lovett stating an opinion that Call Call Firefighters should have been included in the Compensation Study, which they were not. Mayor Lovett is only one City Councilor and it would take a majority vote of the Council to include Call Firefighters into the study by giving the City Manager a direct order to do so. Otherwise, Lovett would have given an illegal order to a cCity Employee and be subject to dismissal from the Council. As far as the last Council meeting is concerned, the pay compensation proposal was strictly for the Merit Plan Employees, which has absolutely nothing to do with the Call Firefighters. Councilman Koloski abstained once again without needing to do so because there was no conflict of interest. In my opinion, he was simply looking for political cover to avoid making any decision that could raise the ire of some of his constituency and possibly damage his reelection chances in November. As always, I call them like I see them.
Charlie (Thursday, January 21 21 02:21 pm EST)

Mr. Sullivan your incorrect about Koloski and the need to excuse himself from pay raise discussions. You are correct the charter allows him to serve as a call firefighter. I have watched the meetings in detail. On more than one occasion the Mayor has requested call firefighter information and noted it should be included. It was noted call firefighters should have been spoken to and interviewed in the study. Call firefighters recieve hourly pay based on responses to calls and training plus a stipend. You would miss these details as you are too blinded by your dislike of Koloski. I know as I actually asked the City. It also clearly states a member should recuse if there is a perceived conflict of interest. Members of any board can also recuse for any reason no reason given if they chose. Bottom line is if he didn't excuse himself you'd write about it and if he did you'd write about it. I can tell by when you praise something on here done by his actions you don't include his name. This time around it was applying the brakes on the boiler conversation. I know as I watched it.
Charles (Thursday, January 21 21 12:04 pm EST)

I don't understand how the city council could so blindly give approval to a big multimillion dollar project that does not have a decent parking plan and they may not even have a single new parking space but they are stripping away half of the parking spaces downtown between Pleasant Street and School Street. It is the dumbest thing I ever heard. Mr. Morris is a loser of the city manager and the city councilors are protecting him by not holding him responsible for and management.
Larry (Thursday, January 21 21 09:50 am EST)

I am dismayed by the school boards negligence in reviewing the new school budget with zeal. The city councilors are not much better and the city manager is a disaster as his primary focus is on pay raises for everyone with the possibility of himself as well. His questionable management philosophy would have our roads go back to the time of the old West with dirt roads and all of us driving around wagons or on horseback as our road race continue to be ignored without a viable maintenance plan. The community center failed to meet the promise of a $100,000 per year taxpayer subsidy and based on Sullivan Report articles the taxpayer subsidy is continuing to grow with each passing year. City Hall and other publicly owned buildings continue to decay without proper maintenance. The councilors act like the school board and just pass whatever is put under their noses with little or no changes made.
Jim Sullivan (Thursday, January 21 21 07:03 am EST)

Excellent question Mike. I was thinking along those same lines, which is why in a few days I am going to submit a request for information so I can obtain a copy of the meeting minutes, which the City has not been posting on their website, as well as other documents from that meeting that will now be considered as public record. In regards to the parking situation for the Rethink Claremont Revitalization Project, the plans for the project show the city obtaining 40 parking spaces from Claremont Goodfellas Property LLC, 8 parking spaces from Bank of New Hampshire and 8 parking spaces from Cline Penneth M Family Trust, located adjacent to the Municipal Parking Lot on Broad Street. That totals 56 parking spaces and according to the parking plan for the Rethink Claremont Revitalization Project, 112 new public parking spaces must be created. Meaning that the parking plan, if you can actually call it that, is 56 parking spaces short, a 50% deficit. It may actually be a 100% deficit if the Morris Administration cannot obtain those 56 parking spaces from the private property owners. I checked not too long ago and at that time, there still was no agreement reached with any of the three property owners. The Morris Administration is being very vague about this ethereal parking plan.
Mike (Thursday, January 21 21 06:44 am EST)

Jim, doesn’t the city need to acquire a considerable number of parking spaces from the Claremont Goodfellas property? I remember reading that in one of your website’s articles. Is this settlement agreement to keep them happy or perhaps it is a component of a secret deal for the city to acquire those parking spaces?
Karen (Wednesday, January 20 21 05:08 pm EST)

Thank you Jim for looking into what is going on in Claremont. If it was left up to the Eagle Times and the E ticker nobody would know anything except what government leaders want us to know and the truthfulness of that is very questionable. The news reporters of today do not seem to have any ethics.
Jim Sullivan (Wednesday, January 20 21 03:59 pm EST)

Brad, I read every public notice and I did see the proposed settlement agreement for the Claremont Goodfellas' 2019 property tax assessment on the Claremont Board of Assessors meeting agenda for today. According to the Vision Government Solutions website, in 2019 their property assessment increased from $429,400 up to $475,800 a little less than an 11% increase. That is apparently what they want an abatement on. By comparison, for tax year 2020 the property assessment dramatically dropped from that $475,800 figure down to $412,000, a 13% decrease and a property assessment that is $17,900 lower than it was back in 2018. I intend to send in a Right to Know request for a copy of the meeting minutes and other documentation that I can obtain in a few days, once the meeting minutes will become available to the public. I will report what happened once I receive the information. Property assessments in Claremont seem to have no rhyme or reason. I also agree with you than public transparency in regards to municipal government actions is nowhere near what it should be.
Brad (Wednesday, January 20 21 03:40 pm EST)

I was interested in watching the Claremont board of assessors meeting scheduled for today at 2 PM. I am interested in the Claremont Goodfellas proposed settlement agreement. At least that is what the agenda read. There is no live feed on the Claremont Facebook page as there are for other meetings. The board of assessors meetings do not air on CCTV. Meeting minutes for the board of assessors are not current on the city's website as the last meeting minutes available are from the end of June of last year. Government transparency does not seem to be a high priority with Mr. Morris and his workers. I wonder if another sweetheart deal for friends and the administration is happening today during this public news blackout?
Ray (Wednesday, January 20 21 11:29 am EST)

At least the councilors showed a little bit of brains when they collectively said hold it on the boiler repair. I agree with Mr. Sullivan, it is totally nuts for the city manager to even suggest spending government money earmarked for one thing on something else entirely and assert that it is proper because the finance director gives her blessing. Mr. Morris urged the city councilors to authorize a reclassification of those COVID monies, something which I think is illegal because it certainly sounds as if it is illegal. I completely agree with the action steps taken by the city councilors to seek a legal opinion and I agree with Mr. Sullivan’s suggestion for the city councilors to request written permission from a properly authorized government official before taking further action. Mr. Morris should be terminated for incompetence among other things
Adam (Wednesday, January 20 21 09:51 am EST)

I am happy Dale Girard got the nod. He is a hometown boy who has done much good for the community quietly behind the scenes. He is the exact opposite of drama queen, limelight seeker Nick Koloski and that is a plus.
William (Wednesday, January 20 21 08:26 am EST)

I read something in the Eagle Times today about the Deliberative Session virtual meetings that will be held Claremont and Newport. People in Newport seem to be more engaged in the budget process. They are complaining about the part of the new deliberative session rules adopted by both school boards that take the power away from the public to change the dollar amount of the budget and puts it directly into the hands of the school boards, who let’s face it won’t do a damn thing about changing a thing. It guarantees high-priced budgets and high property taxes and rigs the system in favor of the school administrators and school board members who favor tax-and-spend policies. The legislation expires at the end of this year but that does not mean that the legislature will not expand it if they are pressured by school administrators around the state of any lobbyists they might hire make this change permanent. This pandemic has really rigged local politics against the taxpaying public. Meetings held online that is a bigger obstacle for public input and in Claremont some committees and boards are advertising meetings without the meeting agenda so the public has no idea what they may be working on or if they want to participate. The latest example is the Claremont Development Authority as advertised in today’s Eagle Times. The pandemic is being used as an excuse to build up additional walls to close off public transparency and that is a very worrisome thing.
Time to Go (Tuesday, January 19 21 09:51 pm EST)

If Mary had any decency or moral fiber, she would admit to herself she is not able to do her high paying job anymore and retired.
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, January 19 21 11:36 am EST)

I just checked, the Eagle Times finally posted today's edition.
Matt (Tuesday, January 19 21 10:28 am EST)

Eric, I have a different theory. I think there are too many public officials with too much of a focus on a political agenda such as Black Lives Matter, transgender issues, Democrat versus Republican and other issues that should not be handled on a local level. There are other avenues to deal with these issues but not at the city council or school board level. Other things need to be focused on and in my humble opinion they are being ignored. Maybe these issues are not sexy enough for our elected officials but they are important.
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, January 19 21 10:21 am EST)

I called the Eagle Times about an hour and a half ago and the lady I spoke with had no idea about the status of today's edition. She said the publisher and the editor were in a meeting, so I simply asked her to let them know that today's edition not been posted on the website. I just checked at 10:15 AM and still no edition for today nor any new articles on the Eagle Times website.

John, thank you for the nice complement. I do remember Mary saying during the budget review last May that she intended to retire within about two years. So her retirement is drawing near but I sincerely doubt that Ed Morris will push her out the door any sooner than she wants to leave.
John J O’Connor (Tuesday, January 19 21 09:36 am EST)

You can get more useful information from a “school newspaper “ then you can from the Eagle Times.
Great insight Jim, seems no one knows what Mary’s job consists of except Mary, she has made herself extremely valuable.
Last time I looked, the financial director wasn’t getting any younger, she is obviously suffering from a medical issue (not the first time) and no one else can do her job.
This is a recipe for disaster.
Its time for Mary to retire !
Eric (Tuesday, January 19 21 08:56 am EST)

It seems that most people who run for local government office in Claremont these days have a political agenda or they are trying to social climate in some way. They are doing it for themselves and not for altruistic reasons or a desire to help the community of Claremont become something better than what it is today. I believe that is why Claremont is in the sad situation that our terrific community finds itself in today.
Michael (Tuesday, January 19 21 08:23 am EST)

I did not like how all of the CDBG grant application requests for 2021 were all used up the very first meeting of the year. There is a $500,000 limit each year and the two applications together add up to $600,000 so I am guessing that because they said up to $300,000 each that somebody is going to have to scale back their request and it may be both applicants. What I do not like is that it seems that the only people able to get these grants in Claremont are close friends and colleagues of the councilors and the administration. Influence peddling and backroom deals seem to be the business model for City Hall these days just like Tammany Hall in the bad old days of New York City.
Steve (Tuesday, January 19 21 07:53 am EST)

What's going on with the Eagle Times? It's 7:55 AM and still no online newspaper edition for today. There is not even any new articles in the news section of the website. Did everybody who works at the Eagle Times forget to set their alarm clock or has the newspaper folded up again for a second time?
Chris (Monday, January 18 21 05:32 pm EST)

Roger, You may want to do your homework on "Joshua Lambert". A vote for Lambert is a vote for increased spending and higher taxes.
Roger (Monday, January 18 21 05:20 pm EST)

Kaitlyn someone named Joshua Lambert is running for the school board. I saw a post on Facebook. So there will be at least one new candidate for the job. I have no idea who he is but he has my vote because the school board members are not doing their elected duty of closely reviewing the budget. You cannot tell me that there is nothing that could be cut from a budget that is nearly $38 million. These school board members are just refusing to do because they do not want to reduce the budget at all.
Donk (Monday, January 18 21 03:35 pm EST)

These people continue to work out special tax deals or having properties completely removed from the tax rolls.This is all while asking for even more money and benefits.
GREED IS KILLING CLAREMONT
Jim Sullivan (Monday, January 18 21 03:07 pm EST)

I would like to thank everyone for your kind words. Emily, to answer your question it took me about 10 minutes to put that table together. I use voice activation software with my computer and I know how to find information on the Internet very quickly, which saves me a lot of time.
Emily (Monday, January 18 21 03:00 pm EST)

Jim thank you for the COVID information. It was very startling but important information for everyone to know about. Our city leaders have told us for so long now that Claremont is doing fine, nothing to see here. Once again, we have been lied to. As you always show, it is always about the numbers and I do not know how long it took you to research this information but I am glad you did because it tells us that we all need to do a better job of staying safe until everyone is vaccinated and this pandemic is eventually brought under control. Mr. Morris is either lazy, stupid or he feels the need to politically spin everything to make things look better than they truly are. I no longer trust the man and I think the council would be wise to terminate his contract.
Keith (Monday, January 18 21 02:56 pm EST)

I did watch the council meeting and I noticed that the councilors did not utter a complaint about the missing financial reports. Not one out of the eight city councilors. The point was driven home nicely about the apathy of the Claremont school board but the apathy also seems to have spread to the city councilors. Everyone just seems to be going along to get along as if they all do not care about what is occurring that is not to the benefit of the general public. It appears the average citizenry does not have elected representation anymore in Claremont.
Laura (Monday, January 18 21 02:12 pm EST)

No finance reports indicates that the city councilors are all in the dark about what is going on with the current budget. Is that intentional? Is something wrong that Mr. Morris is trying to hide from everyone especially from Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Maranville? Loved the gone fishin sign by the way, a nice comedic jab that was very appropriate
Chris (Monday, January 18 21 01:06 pm EST)

The Sullivan Report made an excellent point about the missing finance reports. If this was not an intentional ploy to keep the city’s finance reports out of the public eye and away from the councilors and the city treasurer is unable to perform such an easy task then perhaps she is not qualified for the job. People get sick and Mary Walter is no exception. It is not her fault that she needed surgery or time for convalescence. I am blaming Mr. Morris for being so lackadaisical in his managerial style if you can even call when he does managerial. It is my understanding that he is paid far more than any other city manager in the history of Claremont and that includes Mr. Santagate. Let’s be real here Mr. Morris is no Mr. Santagate by any stretch of the imagination. He came to the job with little experience and he never managed a city of Claremont’s size before. So why is he commanding such a high salary?
Craig (Monday, January 18 21 12:13 pm EST)

Mr. Morris’s attitude and job performance is abysmal. He obviously does not like Mr. O’Hearne and it seems that the feeling might be mutual. That does not give Mr. Morris a free pass when it comes to misleading statements about public record availability. I trust Mr. Sullivan’s take on the subject because he uses the right to know law to get his hands on public documents more than anyone in Claremont. I remember when Mr. Santagate was city manager and how he used to complain often about Mr. Sullivan’s inquiries into city affairs. Claremont needs a good watchdog and since Mr. Folta has retired from the scene, Mr. Sullivan seems to be the only one we have left willing to look out for the common man and common woman because our city councilors are surely not doing that. It seems all of the city councilors have been compromised one way or another and it looks like it is the same way with the members of the school board and the county delegation.
Dan (Monday, January 18 21 11:31 am EST)

I noticed the same thing when reading the Sullivan Report article that all the public giveaways seem to go to friends and associates all with their hands out for something. Claremont is becoming a lot like a modern-day version of Tammany Hall, one of the most corrupt local governments in US history. Our city councilors seem to be willing collaborators.
Kaitlyn (Monday, January 18 21 10:49 am EST)

Mr. Sullivan you made some very strong points about the school boards terribly behavior. The one big thing they are supposed to do every year is thoroughly review that budget proposal with a fine toothcomb. It looks like this year they are only giving a cursory look to a four-page budget executive summary written by Richard Seaman. That brings public official laziness and rubberstamping to a completely new level. The taxpayers should be outraged by their callous behavior. I hope new school board candidates will apply because I will vote for them over any of the incumbents and I would suggest that everyone else to the same.
Richard (Monday, January 18 21 10:21 am EST)

The expression on Sweetser’s face when Matt Mooshian did not win the councilor’s seat said it all. She looked visibly depressed. I am wondering if that is why she made that lame excuse, went home and broke her promise to return to the virtual meeting. I have never met the woman but I am wondering if she had a temper tantrum because she did not get her own way. She does not strike me as leadership material. It is not because she is a woman, her gender has nothing to do with it, her attitude and job performance is the problem.
Jeff (Monday, January 18 21 09:59 am EST)

Rebecca Vinduska’s comments do not surprise me. I know there are many city employees who are decent people but there seems to be a majority consumed with greed. They do not care that people are struggling right now because of the Covid crisis or how much they have to pay for their property taxes or if they will lose their homes because they cannot afford to pay the high taxes anymore. All these city employees seem to care about is more money in their pocket and to hell with everyone else. I am glad the councilors are pushing back on this issue although I can see that Mayor Lovett and Assistant Mayor Damren want to give the raises no matter what because they care more about their special interests than they do about the rest of the citizens of Claremont. I hope both of them are voted out of office in November along with Councilor Koloski who is avoiding the issue for political reasons and any other councilors that may support the large outrageous raises recommended by the city manager and his handpicked consultant.
Tom (Monday, January 18 21 09:16 am EST)

Great article about the council meeting. I noticed that the meeting had a common thread running through it. Friends and nonprofit organizations with close political ties to the city and its leaders all having their palms out to accept public funds or something else that would directly benefit either themselves or their organization and the city councilors gladly granting their desires with public funds or public resources each and every time except for the merit plan people. I really do not like how business is conducted lately in Claremont. It was bad before but it is getting worse now.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, January 18 21 09:07 am EST)

Two articles published today.

1) January 13 Claremont School Board meeting synopsis.

2) January 13 Claremont City Council meeting synopsis.

Both articles are published on the News Flashes page of this website.
William (Saturday, January 16 21 02:30 pm EST)

Wow our illustrious Mayor Charlene Lovett sure can politically spin with the best of them. I watched the Council meeting from the comfort of my home and I was amazed by her version of events that placed a positive government friendly spin on every item she touched upon inside her weekly article. The woman clearly has her head somewhere up in the clouds and she wants to bring everyone else up to a similar altitude where the air is thin and one cannot think clearly. I look forward to reading the Sullivan Report’s more down-to-earth realistic version of events that transpired during the city council meeting.
Jim Sullivan (Friday, January 15 21 12:06 pm EST)

New article.

Remote Learning extended within the Claremont School District.

Published on the News Flashes page of this website.
John J. O’Connor (Tuesday, January 12 21 08:31 am EST)

Great article Jim, the SAU should be sending you a W2 for doing their job.
Travis (Tuesday, January 12 21 08:18 am EST)

What is up with the Eagle Times not reporting the right news by reporting a property tax rate reduction of $.60 without explaining that $.10 of that reduction is from the state government and has nothing to do with the Claremont school board or Mr. Tempesta or anyone on his administrative staff. That is shoddy reporting and it is deceptive as hell. It sucks that people have to pay to read the Eagle Times and folks cannot trust what is printed in the newspaper. What it amounts to is fake news. The so-called journalist should be ashamed.
William (Monday, January 11 21 04:05 pm EST)

I read an article that sparked my attention on Granite Grok. That article was entitled, the proper use of per-student cost. I suggest everyone finds and reads it. The gist is that the present day cost per student is stacked with a lot of add-ons that are not really necessary. The author suggests taking the student costs from 1995, pre-Claremont lawsuit, and multiply that with the cost of living since then and you will come with a total of about $8000 per student. Then have school administrators and school boards live within those means and deduct from the budget all the other wasteful spending. It would certainly drop the property tax rate a whole bunch and with so many people financially hurting because of the Covid crisis, it sounds like an idea worth investigating. I know we talk about city officials showing some leadership I think it’s time for school officials to show the same thing.
Craig (Monday, January 11 21 01:43 pm EST)

I just wanted to say that I always appreciate reading the Sullivan Report articles. The articles always well researched and I like how we are shown the documents so we can see where they pulled their facts from. If the Eagle Times and E-Ticker did that with the articles they publish then most of the time they would be showing pictures or drawings of the anuses of government officials because that’s where many of the so-called facts for their fake news seem to come from.
Todd (Monday, January 11 21 12:00 pm EST)

I think the city, the schools and the county are all being run right into the ground by a large group of imbeciles that were either elected or hired by the imbeciles the voters elected. It is too bad that Moe, Larry and Curly are deceased because as incompetent as they were on screen they would be a step up from whom we have running the show today.
Ron (Monday, January 11 21 10:39 am EST)

I wonder what the folks in the SAU office do all day long? They are certainly not doing their jobs because they are not paying attention to what they are supposed to be doing. It wasn’t too long ago that there were a lot of school staffers not paying attention on the lunch program collections or getting paperwork into certain government agencies on time and that cost the taxpayers a lot of money. We have school principals and staffers at the high school not doing their jobs and their negligence now has the school district in court. Now state aid is cut more than our local school big shots thought it would be and nobody at the SAU office seems to have a clue about a thing. Mr. Sullivan finds out about it and is once again ahead of the curve in front of everyone else. If the schools were managed by professional administrators then things like this would never happen.
Christine (Monday, January 11 21 10:11 am EST)

I just saw this on Facebook and I had to check the article out. I am new to Claremont but I have to tell you I glanced at several of the articles on this website and I really like what I see and I will be a regular reader from now on. I subscribed to the Eagle Times but in just a few short weeks I see that they do not put much effort into reporting the news and they recycle news articles for several days to fill their daily editions. I also have looked at the e- ticker news and I am not all that impressed with that publication either. It looks slick but the content is heavily slanted towards pro-government views. The biases are obvious and unpalatable and I will never read their publication again because I am not into fake news.
Bob (Monday, January 11 21 09:50 am EST)

I appreciate seeing the handout from Mr. Seaman. I found it very interesting reading. I think shenanigans may be afoot with the special ed trust fund money and I sure am glad to see that Mr. Sullivan is looking into this matter because the school board members are sure not doing the jobs they were elected to do and that is to represent we the people’s best interest. I noticed that the budget expenses are over $1.5 million less but the dollar amount needed to be raised by property taxes is going up by over $500,000. Not exactly a great showing for our school leaders.
Gail (Monday, January 11 21 08:43 am EST)

When rigid Richard Seaman was the chairman of the school board he was very good at glossing over facts and trying to quickly pass spending motions without any real review of anything. In my opinion that is just his work habit style and he is doing the same thing as the school’s finance director. I’m not surprised he left things out. What I am surprised about is how he and the superintendent missed the big October change of state aid. I find it hard to believe that the state would do that without sending notifications to each school district. Is the SAU office in such disarray that mail is lost or important emails are not read? Under the previous superintendent, the SAU office was in a shambles. Is the same thing happening now?
Brad (Monday, January 11 21 08:32 am EST)

A deficit of over $365,000 is a heck of a lot of money. How the heck did Richard Seaman miss this? I hope you are all paying attention and realizing that if Jim Sullivan hadn’t noticed a problem with the numbers that this deficit never would have been noticed until much later in the school year and then school leaders would have an even worse problem on their hands. I think the superintendent bears some responsibility too. He is supposed to be staying on top of things too. This is the problem with the school district nobody ever takes responsibility for anything and nobody is ever held responsible for anything. We still have a principal and other staff members at the high school that turned a blind eye when a special education student was in trouble and they are both still employed with the school district. That situation did not change when the family filed a lawsuit against the school district. With no one being held responsible for their actions there is no professionalism and there is no protection for our students. Heads should be rolling but all our school board members are doing is burying their heads in the sand and doing nothing. They are not showing any leadership at all.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, January 11 21 06:29 am EST)

New article.

Unexpectedly State Aid for the Claremont School District significantly drops for 2021 & 2022! Creating big deficit for FY 2021 and possibly FY 22 as well.

Article published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Jim Sullivan (Sunday, January 10 21 09:20 am EST)

Sorry, I do not know which School Board Members are up for reelection this year. Their elected terms are not stated on the SAU #6 website. I suggest that you call the SAU #6 office tomorrow and I am sure they will tell you.
Wondering (Sunday, January 10 21 07:59 am EST)

Jim, do you know which school board members are up for reelection right now?
Dr Paul (Friday, January 08 21 10:10 pm EST)

Pam has Koloski’s DNA all over it.
Jim Sullivan (Thursday, January 07 21 02:05 pm EST)

SAU #6 Officials issued a public notice regarding remote learning that will begin tomorrow. The notice is published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Bob (Thursday, January 07 21 11:19 am EST)

Pam: typical you name call, it is the only thing you have, I could care less about your original post and since the only thing you understand is name calling and degrading of people I would have to say you are one of those Liberal left wing nut jobs who never take responsibility for their own words and actions play the victim and blame all their problems on some one else, if you want to see a real idiot look in the mirror!!
Jim Sullivan (Thursday, January 07 21 09:06 am EST)

Two COVID-19 reported within Claremont School District.

Article published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Robert (Tuesday, January 05 21 03:54 pm EST)

Pam,

Since when does Mark Limoges sit on the police commission? Sounds like you are clearly uneducated and have an ax to grind. Maybe you should try posting factual information if you want to sound credible.
John J, O’CONNOR (Tuesday, January 05 21 01:41 pm EST)

Pam... if you had any balls you would post your real complete name so Mr.Stone , Mr. Belisle, and Mr. Limoges could sue you for slander and libel.
But since your a coward, I wouldn’t expect you to do that.
Remember, free speech isn’t always free, there is a cost for everything.
Pam (Tuesday, January 05 21 12:49 pm EST)

Steve,

Please explain to me the topic of my original post - which is now gone or shut up.

Since Sullivan is your God tell me, exactly what document are you referring to that Sullivan has that disputes my post and proves that this site is very, heavily anti-Koloski - posts which he NEVER deletes

Since you can't you are jousting with windmills

Kiss Kiss
Pam (Tuesday, January 05 21 12:44 pm EST)

BoB

Why are yo Trumpanistas so obsessed with butts?

Also, please tell me the original topic which was deleted or shut up because you are ignorant.

BTW NOT A PRIVATE PAGE - NO SUCH THING WHEN THERE IS NO PASSWORD REQUIRED lol rube
Bob (Tuesday, January 05 21 11:37 am EST)

Pam: "WEAK" and if you don't like this site so much and it's owner may I suggest you start your own site and collect all the facts and refute any evidence posted here with proof. Oh and by the way this is a private page and all the name calling and degrading of the owner of this page does not make you virtuous or grant you any special rights to post what ever you want and then call it censorship when it is removed. Get your own page so you can write whatever you want. Nobody listens to buthurt people ranting like a child who can't get their way.
Steve (Tuesday, January 05 21 11:30 am EST)

Pam, give it up. Jim never writes anything that he can't back up. Read his articles, they are all sourced with documents. Let it go.
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, January 05 21 11:09 am EST)

Pam or whoever you really are that is a very simple question to answer.

Claremont 4 Real published an article on August 20, 2019 entitled "The “Sullivan Report” Slurs Claremont4Real -Due To A Forum Full Of Stoopid Rubes" with a picture directly underneath of what appears to be two hillbillies. I kept a copy of the article. The entire article was about poor Nick Koloski being blamed for the "City's woes" and how great his restaurant is. The article also credited me for deleting the comments that went too far making allegations that could not be verified. Essentially doing the same thing that I'm doing to you "Pam" as has been always our policy from the very beginning. Fortunately this is something I rarely have to do as most people who comment do not cross the line. Hopefully you will see this as a learning experience because I do not like to delete anyone's comments.
Pam (Tuesday, January 05 21 10:26 am EST)

Hey Sullied Man,

I just went back and reviewed.

The Claremont 4 which doesn't have a single "pro-Kolosky" article as you wrote just below.

Prove me wrong and post the link.

You can't. You are projecting.

What you run is an "incredibly supportive website" of all things anti-Kolosky.

Projection is an early sign of dementia - I suggest you get a proof reader/fact checker...
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, January 05 21 09:49 am EST)

To Pam or whatever your name is since according to your email information (that is never shown on the website) you are somehow affiliated with the apparently defunct Claremont 4 Real website that was incredibly supportive of Councilor Nick Koloski. The reason why I deleted both of your comments is because there is no proof that anything you're claiming is the truth. However to be perfectly clear I am not calling you a liar because what you state may be true, I simply don't know and there is no way to verify it. Since you state that your intent is to contact Councilor Nick Koloski, my advice is for you to reach out to him directly either by his City Councilor Councilor email address found on the City of Claremont website or call him at his restaurant when it's open later today. You could also contact the Claremont Police Department with your concerns. Those are the proper channels to use. Please with all due respect,do not post those unfounded accusations here again because I will only have to delete them again. Thank you.
The Mayor Knows (Tuesday, January 05 21 08:27 am EST)

The entire City Council is either too stupid to see the problem or they are the problem.
The Mayor is extremely involved in the day to day operations of the City, she has been seen in City Hall on an almost daily basis.
I want to know what she knows and when did she know it because there is no way she was not aware of this 300k slush fund, her silence on this issue is an indicator that she knows a lot more then she is letting on.
I’m sure she will plead ignorance but no one will believe it because of what a control freak she is.
My only hope is maybe one of the newer Councilors will step up and DEMAND action be taken but I won’t hold me breath.
Seems they all share the same brain.
Nathan (Monday, January 04 21 11:01 pm EST)

I think it is time for a forensic audit of the two TIF Districts as Mr. Sullivan suggested. I also think it is time for the councilors to show some leadership, transfer that $300,000 and change into the city’s general fund accounts, and spend the money on road paving. I know $300,000 will not go to to far but it will be better than what we have put aside in the budget now, which is practically nothing because of bad councilor leadership.
William (Monday, January 04 21 05:23 pm EST)

Read an article from the Center Square about a report done by the Tax Foundation that they entitled, Where State Unemployment Compensation Trust Funds stand in December. The source data for the report comes from the US Department of Labor. The report lists all the states in the union and New Hampshire is not looking too good. The net trust fund balance is $123,072,715 as of December 17, 2020. Through the week ending December 12, 2020 there were 20,743 beneficiaries receiving an average weekly benefit of $346. I did the math and the fund will run dry into deficit spending in 17 weeks. I know that will be some money replenishing that trust fund but let’s be realistic just how much do you think New Hampshire brings in each week when they are paying out on average $7,177,070 each week. Things are not looking good.
Don (Monday, January 04 21 05:02 pm EST)

As long as you have folks like Nick Koloski and Charlene Lovett and Allen Damren on the city council, it will be nearly impossible to make any good changes because they are there to only support the wishes, the desires and the greed of special interests with political influence. No one else to them matters. We are beneath their notice except when they want our vote at election time then afterwards they forget all about us again for two more years.
Teri (Monday, January 04 21 03:28 pm EST)

I would like to see the councilors transfer that $300,000 out of the Downtown TIF accounts and put that money towards road paving for this spring. Forget about the low traffic roads such as Franklin Street and fix up the higher traffic roads for the taxpayers who are paying a very high tax bill every year to support a city with a very small population.
Tom (Monday, January 04 21 02:35 pm EST)

It looks to me as if our city leaders created an off the books slush fund for themselves that already has over $300,000 in it. I wonder if the money is still there or if the loot was embezzled and split up between one or more shady characters.
Gary (Monday, January 04 21 12:21 pm EST)

Claremont city government has always been shady but it has gotten much worse over recent years. Mr. Morris does not like government transparency and the city councilors are aiding and abetting by not holding Mr. Morris's feet to the fire and making him act as a professional city manager. Pathetic leadership leads to pathetic and unsatisfactory results. I do not see anything changing for the better until maybe next year and that depends on the November election results for the city council.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, January 04 21 10:04 am EST)

To Just Asking: The Council packet for the January 13 meeting is not available yet. It will not appear on the City website until sometime on Monday, January 11 at the earliest and then it will only be available for a very short timeframe. If you want to read it I suggest you download it onto your computer before it disappears. You will also notice that the PDF will say reduced, suggesting that certain documents are not made available to the public. More of the Morris Administration's "public transparency".

To John O'Connor: Thank you for the kind words they are greatly appreciated. I agree that a focused forensic audit is in order not only for the Downtown TIF District but for the River Road TIF District as well. Millions of dollars passed through those accounts and in my opinion, several questionable accounting practices took place such as the River Road TIF District collecting more money than it needed to meet expenses for several years and then lending those funds totaling $2,979,745 to the Downtown TIF District, which was never repaid. I have found no state legislation that allows that practice. Based on my research of the state legislation TIF funds collected must be spent on expenses for that TIF District only not some other one. Yet the municipal government did it anyway.
John J. O’Connor (Monday, January 04 21 08:52 am EST)

Good work Jim.
All this time I thought you were slacking or in semi- retirement, little did I know how in-depth you were getting with the city finances.
As our former City Manager was fond of saying, “ this doesn’t pass the smell test.” It might also explain why during an extensive nationwide search for a new City Manager, the best and brightest candidates turned down the position. Leaving Claremont no choice but to select the runner up, twice!
It’s time for the City Council to listen to Councilor Stone and hire a Forensic accountant to finally get to the bottom of all this.
If you know a felony has been committed and you don’t report that felony, you have committed a felony.
Words of wisdom for all our elected Officials.
Just Asking (Monday, January 04 21 07:21 am EST)

Anyone want to share how one gets the Council Packet off the new and improved city website.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, January 04 21 06:54 am EST)

New article.

Finally some answers regarding Claremont's Downtown TIF District.

The article is on the News Flashes page of this website.
Steve (Thursday, December 31 20 05:02 pm EST)

Mostly Uncensored used to be cutting edge with truth reporting and editorial cartoons that showed our government leaders and their actions for what they really are. Lately except for the Sullivan Report articles that are posted there it is a wasteland of mediocrity. I've been very disappointed with page for some time as it seems to be taking a pro-government direction. Maybe some of the government leaders are influencing this new direction.
Jen (Thursday, December 31 20 03:31 pm EST)

Maybe Mostly uncensored has drank the same Kool Aid as Eagle Times, and E Ticker news, and is getting kick backs for not exposing all that's wrong with Claremont.
Come on Mostly uncensored, and not follow the pays of the other Claremont news sources.
Rick (Thursday, December 31 20 02:13 pm EST)

I see that NASA is looking to the New Hampshire business community for help with their next moon mission. Maybe we could send the entire City Council and Mr. Morris to the moon and call it an exploratory economic development fact-finding trip but make it a one-way voyage only. That would certainly be a boon for Claremont. Cheers everyone and have a Happy New Year.
William (Wednesday, December 30 20 11:56 am EST)

Something else that has been missing on Mostly Uncensored is more about the new unqualified director of public works. The man has no credentials or work experience at all in regards to the position he was hired for. Managing buildings for a public works department is a far cry from managing the largest department in our fair city. What does this new director know about street maintenance, cemeteries, recycling and the operation of water and wastewater treatment facilities? Absolutely nothing but he seems to be an unemployed friend of the city manager so it's okay for Mr. Morris to hire an ignorant candidate to this high paid position and the councilors do absolutely nothing about it. Amazing. We have the worst management in New Hampshire for our city and county governments and the school administration is not all that stellar either. I remember years ago when Mr. Santagate said he would hire the best of the best for Claremont's municipal government. Today we seem to have hired and elected the worst of the worst.
Bob (Wednesday, December 30 20 11:30 am EST)

That's why I'm a fan of Mostly uncensored. The one who runs that page isn't affraid to post anything. Very surprised that Mostly uncensored has'nt been posting more on this Morris character, and the current City Council.
Janice (Wednesday, December 30 20 10:01 am EST)

I am appalled by the behavior of the city councilors. Mr. Morris is out of control with his unprofessional behavior and actions. His willingness to give special treatment to certain individuals at taxpayers expense and connive and manipulate to give city employees enormous salary raises to the detriment of all other city services is in my view more than sufficient grounds for his termination. However I do not see this group of councilors working up the nerve or the energy to fire Mr. Morris. City services will continue to deteriorate in quality while our tax burden increases until a change of leadership is made. I believe next November is when the entire city council is up for reelection, I suggest we as voters make a New Year's Resolution to replace all of them.
Joe (Tuesday, December 29 20 07:53 pm EST)

Everyone is looking but only a few, a very small few, too few to make a difference, care.
Unfortunately.
Tom (Tuesday, December 29 20 01:32 pm EST)

It sickens me to see how Ed Morris conducts business at City Hall when nobody is looking. Back room deal after deal benefiting friends and colleagues seems to be Mr. Morris’s modus operandi. A quick review of recent events all reported in the Sullivan Report is all that is necessary to create an unassailable case that even the most gung ho, diehard, true believer city councilor such as Nicholas Koloski for example could not shake the confidence of with lies or half-truths or innuendo. The selling of the Junior Sports League Building with the large property assessment reduction dramatically lowering the annual property tax bill presumably requested by the interested buyer and the low $5,000 bid price handed in by that buyer, the only bidder. The corrupted municipal employee compensation study with unrealistic municipal community comparators preapproved by high-level municipal employees with a conflict of interest, culminating with an outrageous set of conclusions and recommendations. Manipulation of data to reach predetermined conclusions regarding senior citizen exemptions and veterans tax credits to maintain current income and asset levels not changed in I believe the article reported for 12 years to contain increased expenditures to divert taxpayer funds to increase municipal employee compensation. Manipulation of data to reach predetermined conclusions regarding a dramatically revised and obviously unrealistic road-paving plan that cuts costs in half to divert taxpayer funds to increase municipal employee compensation. Funds spent to demolish a downtown building directly benefiting a local developer of low-income housing. This same developer received millions of dollars of public funds with assistance from the city of Claremont’s municipal government. Sullivan County officials announce their intention to purchase the former Eagle Times building and subsequently receive a very large property assessment reduction, and an extremely generous three-year term payment in lieu of taxes agreement with a one-year deferral and apparently free infrastructure upgrades courtesy of Mr. Morris and the taxpayers of Claremont. Mr. Morris also hired a new public works director that seemingly has no practical job experience and possibly a friend of Mr. Morris from his days working as town administrator for Wethersfield Vermont. All the while, our nine elected city councilors meekly sit and say or do nothing. One can only imagine what will happen next and what those actions will cost Claremont taxpayers.
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, December 29 20 07:41 am EST)

Some sobering news regarding Sullivan County Sober House.

Article published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Steven (Monday, December 28 20 08:57 pm EST)

Dale Girard would be an excellent choice but let’s be honest, if he is chosen, his wife would be pulling his strings.
Seat (Monday, December 28 20 08:51 pm EST)

I hear Dale girard was putting his name in the hat for kiers at large council seat but being a business owner who has obligations of keeping people employed and figuring out budgets im sure that we will push him aside and get this fuck stick mooshian who is a looser
Richard (Sunday, December 27 20 09:20 am EST)

Guy, it is not a rumor, the e-ticker news announced that Matt Mooshian placed his name in for consideration for the open city councilor seat. It also announced a list of 20 citizens endorsing his appointment. There were a few familiar names on that endorsement list resigning councilmember Abigail Kier, former school board chair, firefighter Brian Rapp, state representatives Gary Merchant and John Cloutier, former state representative Ray Gagnon, from the chamber director Shelley Hudson and his close friends Sam & Trish Killay. The others I am not acquainted with. I do not trust this particular collection of councilors and I believe Mr. Mooshian is their fair-haired golden boy so to speak and will receive the nod of approval from the majority of councilors. It would not surprise me if this succession were prearranged before Abigail Kier announced her resignation because I doubt the Kier’s decision to move to Washington DC was on the spur of the moment.
Guy (Sunday, December 27 20 08:24 am EST)

Patrick Adrian is a moron and a puppet for the city and county administrations.
His articles are barely readable, he can hardly string together coherent sentence’s and this is what passes for a journalist.
Rumor has it that Matt Moonshine has submitted his name for considering to be the next At-large City Councilor, wouldn’t it be nice to have a councilor without a personal agenda?
Matt Moonshine is a local community activist, who if appointed, will waste the city’s and Councils time with a national agenda that has no bearing on the day to day activities in Claremont.
Hopefully there will be other candidates to choose from.
Mike (Saturday, December 26 20 10:01 am EST)

I don't know if you caught the latest from reporter Patrick Adrian in the Eagle Times. He praises county officials for keeping tax increases low and starting new programs at the same time. The truth is county officials, the delegation and county manager, spent millions of dollars in cash reserves built up by previous county managers and delegations who were all wiser and more professional than the nincompoops we have today. Now the cash reserve is at bare-bones minimum where it needs to stay to maintain county policy of cash reserves so future increases in spending will now all go on the property tax rate. This is not leadership it is sheer lunacy thanks to the imbeciles we have in power today. Their inapt leadership has put the county government in a precarious financial position with no way out except to increase taxation.
Jim Sullivan (Thursday, December 24 20 11:06 pm EST)

Happy Holidays to all of our loyal readers.
Mike (Thursday, December 24 20 05:17 pm EST)

something else to consider is the unemployment rate in Claremont. For October it was 3.6% and while it is true that it is dropping the last time it was at 3.6% was way back in 2015. This is not the time for government officials to be footloose and fancy free with taxpayers money. It's a shame that our public officials do not feel that way as they continue to spend like there is no tomorrow on things that really add no value to the populaces general well-being and quality of life.
Erik (Thursday, December 24 20 03:05 pm EST)

Claremont's population for 2020 is stated at 12,945, a small uptick of 13 citizens over last year. That is still a 1,002 decline of population since 1990. That is still a 7.2% drop in population. There is no way to sugarcoat this, Claremont has been in a steady overall decline. I do not know why Caroline did not use the 2020 population number instead of the number from 2019 but it does not change the overall truth of the matter. Claremont is in a state of decline and the property tax burden is in all probability the primary cause. Claremont's tax-and-spend government leaders, county, city and school are destroying this community with their liberal spending policies that seem to do nothing to improve the quality of life in our community but instead seems to be geared toward enriching the lives of a selected few special interests instead. These fools running our local government branches into the ground make the Grinch and Ebenezer Scrooge look like pikers.
Duh (Thursday, December 24 20 01:28 pm EST)

Caroline, how do you look at numbers in 2020 and presume Claremont didn't gain population while looking at Claremont numbers from before that?
Caroline (Thursday, December 24 20 11:39 am EST)

A fresh research report published by the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire found that New Hampshire’s population grew by 5,500 people between the months of July 2019 & July 2020, the largest population increase in New England. Claremont New Hampshire did not benefit one iota from this population upsurge. United States Census Bureau data clearly illustrates Claremont’s dwindling population from 13,947 in 1992 only 12,932 and 2019. A decline of 1,015 citizens or declared as a percentile over 7.2%. I postulate that Claremont’s exorbitantly high property tax rate, which is the highest throughout the State of New Hampshire, and the corresponding tax burden as the driving force for Claremont’s continuing diminishing populace.
Jim Sullivan (Wednesday, December 23 20 06:20 am EST)

Goshen Tuition Agreement Update.

Published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Donk (Tuesday, December 22 20 03:25 pm EST)

Perhaps the new owner of the JSL Building could take the time to shovel his sidewalk.People are having to walk in the street,including women with baby carriages.If the city is so short on revenue perhaps they could impose fines for unshoveled properties not done after 3 days?
Owning a house,building,or business carries with it responsibilities like cutting grass and shoveling sidewalks.
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, December 22 20 09:15 am EST)

New article. Synopsis of December 16 Claremont School Board meeting.

Goshen Tuition Agreement may not be as lucrative as it seems.

Remote Learning Students receive over 75% less interaction time with their Teachers.

The article is on the News Flashes page of this website.
Janice (Monday, December 21 20 11:35 am EST)

I agree with Mr. O'Connor. The taxpayers of our fair community pay a fairly hefty price for property taxes when you compare Claremont's per capita income to its property tax rate and the burden that places on the taxpayers. It is not a matter of enough money as Claremont's budget is well over $17 million. I believe it is a matter of priorities that are improperly set by the city manager and the city council. I did a little quick research and see that the city leaders only allocated $650,000 for the paving of our city streets. An amount far too small to maintain Claremont's roadways with any measure of success. The day after the snowstorm my husband and I had to run some errands and Mr. O'Connor is accurate with his assessment of the condition of Claremont's roadways. The state plow drivers did a magnificent job whereas the city plow drivers to the horrible job. I had to drop something off at my brother's house off of Maple Avenue and Maple Avenue was in tragic condition. I have lived in Claremont by an entire life and have never seen the roadways so poorly plowed. The sidestreets were even worse. I do not know if this is because of a weak, inexperienced management team, insufficient funding or both but if this is any indication of this management team's work product then this does not bode well for our future.
John J. O’CONNOR (Monday, December 21 20 09:54 am EST)

And another thing.....
You mentioned the DPW budget. Claremont has the highest tax rate in the state, is having clean, plowed roads too much to ask for ?
Residents are constant told there isn’t enough money in the budget for road construction or repair but it’s a crime if there is not enough money to plow the streets in an acceptable manner based on the taxes being paid by its citizens.
John J.O’Connor (Monday, December 21 20 09:41 am EST)

Duh (great name),
My upper valley and lake region travels took me all over , including Danbury (46inches).
The state roads were impeccable, fantastic job, plowed down to the pavement. Local roads had snow on them but you can see they had been plowed multiple times.
There are roads in the Maple Ave. and Bluff areas that look like a plow has never been down the street.
Duh, I suggest you drive around and see for yourself, pick up some cheese and we can “whine” together.
I’m just saying what a majority of Claremont’s residents are thinking .
Duh (Monday, December 21 20 08:49 am EST)

Well John, I do believe Claremont got considerably more snow than anyone, except Croydon. If you look on the upper valley FB page people are hitching about Lebanon's roads, which have a considerably higher road budget than Claremont does. But sure, we'll go with your whining.
John J. O’Connor (Sunday, December 20 20 08:44 pm EST)

It’s award season and in the spirit of giving I would like to give Claremont’s DPW the award for having the “worst” roads in the upper valley.
They also received recognition for having the “worst” secondary roads, not only in the upper valley but the lakes region also.
I spenta considerable amount of time this weekend driving through these areas , I am very satisfied with the decision to give Claremont’s DPW these awards since I drove these roads extensively and witnessed the conditions first had.
Claremont’s roads were deplorable.
Great start for the new DPW Director, hope you learned something from this disaster.
Tony (Saturday, December 19 20 05:55 pm EST)

I see Councilman James Contois is up to his favorite pastime again of kissing asses. This time the recipient is Councilwoman Abigail Kier as she is moving to the Washington DC area. Contois is constantly kissing the asses of everyone with praise whether it is deserved or not. It is so sickening to watch on TV and if I see his name on a letter I will not read it. My wife did and told me what was in it. I hope he doesn't win reelection next time round.
Bob (Friday, December 18 20 04:31 pm EST)

Just so everyone knows the JSL is full of Asbestos and Lead and needs to be cleaned our before the good ole boy can produce food in it. I think an email to NH DES is in order.
Henry (Friday, December 18 20 11:38 am EST)

It does not surprise me that Nick Koloski would support censorship because he is so pro-administration that he wants everything controlled. It greases the wheels for when Nick will want another big favor from the municipal government. When I read the part about when Nick flip-flopped on his position repeatedly sounds about right because Nick needs everyone to love him because of his warped fragile ego.
Shawn (Thursday, December 17 20 03:16 pm EST)

Jeff Barrette placed a short video tour of the JSL building on Facebook. I expected to see a very rundown building but instead I saw a building in remarkably good condition. I remember when the city administration swore up and down that the building was about to fall in on itself and needed to be closed down for public safety reasons. That does not look to have been the case. The same excuses were given when the outdoor pool was permanently closed. I remember Councilor Nick Koloski swearing that the physical condition of the JSL building was dire and he supported the administration’s position to close the property down. It seems that was a lie. I have never had much faith in Nick Koloski, as I believe he has sold his soul to the city administration in exchange for large favors every now and again. I am pleased that Mr. Barrett’s businesses are thriving but I am displeased with the knowledge that the city administration and the city council gave away an asset in such good condition so cheaply. An asset that was not as much in disrepair as we were led on to believe. In my estimation the public was lied to once again by people we have misplaced our trust into.
Christina (Thursday, December 17 20 01:30 pm EST)

It is atrocious how the city councilors are treating the elderly by maintaining an exemption income limit set 12 years ago. Prioritizing pay raises for city employees by ignoring everything else is not a proper plan of action to move our city forward. Mr. Morris seems to have motives that are not in the best interests of Claremont’s citizenry. Our city councilors elected by the people need to represent the people but they are failing to do that as well. Road conditions are not what they should be and failing to allocate proper funding each year is not a solution. The hiring of an unqualified public works director compounded with the earlier hiring of an unqualified assistant public works director is not a situation that will create good outcomes. Mayor Lovett and the other members of the city council are failing their constituents by continuing to listen to an unqualified city manager, who is setting the wrong priorities for Claremont.
Hugh (Thursday, December 17 20 12:35 pm EST)

Deb M,
No need to pull the gender card.
People listened to Mr. Feelen because he is an educated attorney and you’re not.
It has nothing to do with your gender. You belittle all women when you act so petty.
If you want to be treated like an equal, act like it and not a petulant child.
Patricia (Thursday, December 17 20 12:14 pm EST)

It is dreadful that the school board has not terminated the employment of Stevens High School Principal Patricia Barry and other school officials named in the civil suit. It is painfully obvious that all of them failed in their duty to protect this special education student. Their ambivalence to the entire matter should not go unpunished. I also think it is pointless for the school administration to hire expensive attorneys to convince a judge to grant them an immunity they do not deserve. I know the taxpayers are going to have to pay a settlement but it is not because of the student but because of the poor decisions made by school officials interested only with covering up matters instead of addressing them head-on. I am beginning to doubt school official’s judgment and their dedication to student safety. Fighting a losing battle in court at a high cost to the taxpayers in legal fees does nothing to assuage that doubt.
Katie (Thursday, December 17 20 11:01 am EST)

I wonder if the new owner of the Oscar Brown Block will raise the rent on Tavern on the Square to pull extra revenue out of the building. I understood that the last owner was not into long-term leases.
Deb M (Thursday, December 17 20 09:46 am EST)

Just for the record, one of the nine city councilors did in fact bring this very issue up at the previous city council meeting when this rail trail issue was first brought to the council. I made the exact same points as Mr. Feleen made, but they fell on deaf ears. I guess when a man says the same thing, it lends more credence Go figure. But, yes, thank you to Mr. Feleen for doing this. At least it was heard this time.
David (Thursday, December 17 20 09:36 am EST)

James Feleen did an amazing job giving every city councilor and the city manager a firm proverbial kick in the butt to stop them from making a tragic mistake that could have cost Claremont taxpayers nearly a quarter of one million dollars. Further proof that Ed Morris is unqualified to be the city manager of Claremont. His inexperience is really showing, as is the stupidity of Claremont’s nine city councilors.
Jennifer (Wednesday, December 16 20 01:46 pm EST)

I just read an interesting article from the NH Business Review entitled the coronavirus and property tax abatements. The article explains how property assessments work, the three methods used to assess property value and why property owners should consider filing for a property tax abatement in the coming year. I think every property owner should read the article.

https://www.nhbr.com/the-coronavirus-and-property-tax-abatements/
Glenn (Wednesday, December 16 20 09:37 am EST)

I wish our elected councilors would pull their heads out of the sand and set proper priorities instead of wasting time on foolishness like citizen’s letters, mask ordinances and social causes. The Sullivan Report article made an excellent point about the big issues all being ignored by the Claremont councilors. If they have no idea what to do then maybe, they should resign to give someone else a shot at getting it right.
Trish (Wednesday, December 16 20 08:29 am EST)

I agree with everything you expressed Guy, but I do think the real test will come with his budget proposal in regards to long-overdue road paving and other infrastructure improvements. Will Mr. Gleeson propose a legitimate budget or will he do the bidding of his boss Mr. Morris, the man who we owes his high paid job to when he is obviously unqualified for the position. What I mean by that is will Mr. Gleeson propose a budget with little or no paving and other infrastructure improvement work to make room in the budget for extraordinarily large pay raises for all city employees. I do not have any faith in this management team or the councilors who are sitting back and allowing this to happen.
Guy (Wednesday, December 16 20 07:18 am EST)

Mr. Morris isn’t going anyplace. He could burn down the city and still keep his job because firing him would make Claremont look like a bunch of fools after hiring and firing their last City Manager.
Hiring a DPW Director, with no real DPW experience is not a good sign. It shows he is trying to surround himself with “friendly” faces, probably to lessen the fact that neither one deserves the position they hold.
With the first major snow storm about to hit the region, it will be interesting to see how well the roads are plowed with such an inexperienced director.
Carolyn (Wednesday, December 16 20 06:00 am EST)

I cannot believe that the city councilors have not put Mr. Morris in his place. Mr. Morris continues to never have a firm answer to any question. He is always evasive with his answers and the information he gives is at best ambiguous. Mr. Morris does not possess a lot of professionalism and that in all likelihood stems from his vast inexperience and ignorance.
William (Tuesday, December 15 20 07:06 pm EST)

I appreciated the Sullivan Report’s expose about the elderly exemptions; I am appalled at how Mr. Morris and the consultants who work for him are manipulating numbers and information to defend their position to maintain 12-year-old income limits. This seems to be a part of a greater plan to crush those in Claremont with low incomes. Those who live in manufactured housing hit with a 150% or more property assessment increase this year is probably another component of this plan. This is the very good example of gentrification. Then Mr. Morris is scheming to put more dollars into the pockets of all municipal employees while making life harder for everyone else and at least some of the councilors all seem to be on board with this. Our city government seems broken beyond repair.
Craig (Tuesday, December 15 20 05:33 pm EST)

The property assessments are a mess. The roadways are a disgrace and the city manager and the councilors refuse to put aside enough money to maintain them the right way. We have a city manager obsessed with humongous pay raises for all the employees at the cost of everything else and now he is hiring someone who may be a friend to run the public works department and this guy has no experience at all. Managing buildings for a DPW department is not the same as managing the whole department. That pretty much qualifies him to be a property manager that’s about it.
Rick (Tuesday, December 15 20 05:11 pm EST)

The DPW manages the biggest slice of the municipal budget pie and Morris just put it in the hands of someone who has no real experience in public works. I also remember the article about Jeremy Clay and his background and if I remember right, he only worked for a oil company as a dispatcher before coming to Claremont. The Council is letting Morris run amok and F everything up in the process. From the top down the Claremont municipal leadership sucks.
Steve (Tuesday, December 15 20 03:55 pm EST)

It sounds like the city manager may have hired an out of work friend to be the public works director instead of hiring someone experienced and qualified. I remember reading an earlier Sullivan Report article about the assistant public works director and I did not see any career and education background that would fit a public works position for that guy either. I do not see great things coming from the new public works management team when you add in an inexperienced city manager like Mr. Morris.
To3posts@jims (Tuesday, December 15 20 03:38 pm EST)

Tom be careful clicking on links. You could be forwarding your IP address.
Donk the council should have taken the hiring committees recommendation for a manager. They have past up some good ones in order to keep the dark side covered up
Nick is Teflon full of sh** and it don’t stick.
Donk (Tuesday, December 15 20 03:06 pm EST)

Forget Koloski,he's nearly harmless compared to this guy Morris.The IRS will probably get Koloski in the end.
Morris hires his bud from Weathersfield with no experience and wants to give him an immediate raise.He wants raises all around and doesn't give a shit if the streets revert back to dirt.
More Money! More Money! Never enough
Todd (Tuesday, December 15 20 01:57 pm EST)

Koloski is such a snake changing the minutes like that. It is too bad none of the councilors had the guts to stand up to Koloski and say hey that is not what happened. Ethics and courage do not seem to be this council’s strong suit.
Tom (Tuesday, December 15 20 01:54 pm EST)

I think Councilor Nick Koloski is leaving comments on the public forum under assumed names or having someone else do it for him.

Today is a good example. One of the comments from Pam was edited by Mr. Sullivan by his removing one of the paragraphs. The other comment left by Pam also today has her name colored in purple and that suggested to me that it might be a link. When I clicked her name I was transferred to the Claremont4real website where the person or persons behind that website should their identity or identities and rally hard to reelect Nick Koloski back to the city Council.

As far as the most current comment on this public forum, I believe the writer is all wet. I watch the meeting on CCTV and I have read the article recalling that meeting on the Sullivan Report and I have to say that I did not see anything in the article that was contrary to what occurred during the meeting. I also appreciate the in-depth research and extracted truth because our elected leaders on the council are either extremely ignorant or collaborating with the administration to keep the taxpaying public in the dark about as much that is going on as possible. I see no political spin in the Sullivan Report articles, what I read is a factual account of what occurred, documented proof that is mostly hidden from the public and yes there is their opinion but that is not hidden from anyone. Reading the opinion does not mean you have to agree with it. The Sullivan Report does the best job informing the public about government events in Claremont.
Poor Jimmy (Tuesday, December 15 20 01:20 pm EST)

Poor Jimmy. Nicky got you all worked up. The irony of a guy who runs a fake news website named after himself who was a 1 term Councilor that was voted out as citizens though you were a joke talking about someone wanting to be in the limelight is so very laughable. Your counterpart AJ the self proclaimed professor, green beret assasin, fake police officer is also not missed in the hilarity. Thank you as always for spinning each meeting for those who don't watch.
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, December 15 20 10:59 am EST)

Three new articles published today. Get your favorite beverage and sit down and relax because there is a lot of interesting information here today.

1) Claremont School District seeks dismissal of civil case.

2) Brown Block sold.

3) December 9 Council meeting synopsis.

Articles published on the News Flashes page of this website.
John J. O’Connor (Tuesday, December 15 20 08:46 am EST)

I’m shocked at the school districts position on this issue, it was my understanding they have a “zero tolerance “ policy in regards to sexual abuse between a teacher and student.
How dare they attempt to manipulate the court system.
When the former Mayor was caught smooching, he was reprimanded, so the powers that be were well aware that an act of sexual misconduct had occurred between a student and teacher and their course of discipline was to “reprimand” instead of termination or at the very least change his daily assignment.
The school district knew there was a problem and the problem escalated.
Shame on all those involved!
Pam (Tuesday, December 15 20 08:13 am EST)

In November, Angela H. Leslie, the plaintiff, filed a civil suit in District Court alleging that numerous school officials, including Stevens High School principal Patricia Barry and Stevens High School Life Skills program instructor Kelly Fontaine, were aware of former Claremont mayor George Caccavaro’s sexual misconduct with a female student when she had attended Stevens.

The suit names, in total, George Caccavaro, Patricia Barry, Kelly Fontaine, the Claremont School District, SAU #6, and 10 others presently unidentified as defendants.

Editors Note. For the first time in a very long time I had to remove the original comments and repost an edited version. I deleted the last short paragraph because it made an unsubstantiated reputation ruining claim.
Pam (Tuesday, December 15 20 07:41 am EST)

Barry took inadequate measures when notified of a separate incident involving Caccavaro before the Christmas break in 2019, when Stevens High School teacher Fred HIll allegedly witnessed Caccavaro lean over K.L. and kiss her forehead. According to the police affidavit...

Watch your children around those Barrys
John J.O’Connor (Monday, December 14 20 04:30 pm EST)

Thanks Jimmy.. I’m sure this was a very well kept secret considering the recent mask ordinance she had just proposed.
I wouldn’t expect you to make any recommendations or endorsements but I’m sure that won’t stop your many loyal followers from voicing their 2 cents( that’s about all it’s worth).
I look forward to the article.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, December 14 20 04:02 pm EST)

John, none of our excellent inside sources had any idea that Councilor Kier was going to resign. It seems even many of the Councilors did not know before she announced it that evening. It seems only a few people knew. It will be part of the article published tomorrow regarding the recent Council meeting. We will not be making any suggestions regarding who should be appointed.
John J.O’Connor (Monday, December 14 20 02:20 pm EST)

The Sullivan Report and their minions must be on vacation, not one comment about Councilor Keir quitting or suggestions about a replacement.
Jimmy, you’re losing your edge, back in the day you would have reported it before it was announced.
Any suggestions for her replacement?
Spot on (Tuesday, December 08 20 01:52 pm EST)

Terri couldn't agree more the council has real issues they could work on but seem to choose busy work talking about masks and xmas displays and censorship please deal with real stuff I think the problem is they just don't really know how not trying to be rude they just don't know how
Ray (Tuesday, December 08 20 01:52 pm EST)

This whole assessment thing has the stink of government corruption.
Terri (Tuesday, December 08 20 10:18 am EST)

I am against a mask mandate with fines. I am pleased that this topic is off the city council’s meeting agenda. I think the city council should leave things just as they are because the governor’s mask mandate is enough. We do not need our elected city councilors acting as if they are big brother or big sister and fining citizens.
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, December 08 20 08:13 am EST)

Good question Andy. We reported on October 6, that the Peterson Building was sold to the developer under the business name of Monadnock Mills LLC for $1,200,000. The City Manager states in his report to the Council for Wednesday’s meeting that these agenda items are now scheduled for the Council’s January meeting.
Andy (Tuesday, December 08 20 05:29 am EST)

I wonder why they pulled the plug on the two agenda items about the big apartment project at 29 Water St.? Is the project off the rails already?
Lynn (Monday, December 07 20 05:43 pm EST)

I wonder what the heck this fund transfer for compensation is about. Will the city staff get raises somehow without us knowing about it?
Ned (Monday, December 07 20 02:35 pm EST)

Is the Department of Ed having problems budgeting or projecting future budgets with valuations that look like someone just threw a dart at a board full of random numbers?

Make sure you tell the Feds or the state people not to drink in the Topstone building,unless they'd like a side of asbestos dust in their drinks.The locals may not mind but I bet they would.
Charles (Monday, December 07 20 01:26 pm EST)

Shenanigans are definitely being played with the property assessments. All Claremont property owners should file a property abatement request in January and inundate the assessing office in a blizzard of paperwork. If the city has to hire more consultants to process all of the abatement requests and go hat in hand the Council asking for more money to pay for it then maybe we can get a fair reassessment of all the properties in Claremont without any political influence.
Jeremy (Monday, December 07 20 11:21 am EST)

The number that struck me was the CDA’s industrial land portfolio devalued by 55% at the same time as industrial land values are increasing across Claremont. Whom the hell does Morris and his minions think they are kidding?
Steve (Monday, December 07 20 10:42 am EST)

How can anyone think that the property assessments are legit? Manufactured housing up 169% since last year and utilities assessments way up too as it has been every year since the city hired the utility assessment consultant. The city should be using the DRA utility assessments instead for they seem to be a lot fairer because unlike the ethically challenged city administrators the DRA does not have a political agenda they simply have one goal in mind and that is setting the property assessments fairly.
Diane (Monday, December 07 20 09:41 am EST)

I think the CDA land values are seriously out of whack and were reduced to save the CDA money on their property tax bill because they went so deeply into hock to pay for the Farwell and Pleasant Street Restaurant Building remodels. That little gem came from an earlier Sullivan Report article if you remember. In my humble opinion, the Morris Administration is extremely unethical in their business dealings and the city councilors are enablers for allowing these things to happen.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, December 07 20 08:08 am EST)

New articles published today.

1) COVID-19 case reported at Claremont Middle School.

2) Masking the truth – the hidden proposed fees!

3) Several changes made to December 9 Council meeting agenda.

4) Claremont 2020 Property Assessments – Part #3.

For details go to the News Flashes page of this website.
Robert (Sunday, December 06 20 02:58 pm EST)

It sure seems that the property assessments in Claremont are intentionally manipulated at least in some cases. Fair property assessments does not seem to be the goal of the city manager’s business model for Claremont’s municipal government, the sharp property assessment changes to manufactured housing and utilities tells you that. The city councilors have a sworn duty to oversee the actions of the city manager and indirectly his staff as they rate the city manager’s job performance. They are monumentally failing in that duty as the administration is running rampant with no real oversight except for what is reported here on the Sullivan Report. The absence of legitimate checks and balances is also an absence of realistic accountability and government transparency and is a recipe for disaster. Sadly, that is the current state of affairs for Claremont’s municipal government.
Tom (Sunday, December 06 20 11:41 am EST)

The city councilors do not speak for or represent all of the people of Claremont. These days it seems they use public funds and their elected powers to feed their selfish needs and desires as well as those of the greedy special interests whom they serve.
Dan (Sunday, December 06 20 10:20 am EST)

I thought Mr. Morris would be a good city manager but it seems with every new city manager the quality of the hire is worse than the previous hire.
Marie (Sunday, December 06 20 08:59 am EST)

We all know that the voters have a very bad habit of not electing the sharpest minds in Claremont. The four members of the school board who voted against the recommendation for remote learning for two weeks are in my view self-absorbed, self-centered, extremists. When the voters elect terrible leaders they should expect terrible decisions and terrible consequences. The Devil is now collecting his due.
Keith (Sunday, December 06 20 07:20 am EST)

I think of all the scandalous things that have happened over the last few years and I cannot help but wonder if our city officials are accepting bribes. Impossible to prove I know but it sure would explain all of these unexplainable decisions that are made.
Libtard (Saturday, December 05 20 04:01 pm EST)

Craig is a snowflake bitch
Craig (Saturday, December 05 20 09:38 am EST)

The school board made the wrong call by not following the Superintendent’s wise advice of remote learning for two weeks after the Christmas vacation. Lots of families will not act in a safe manner because it is Christmas, this will be worse than Thanksgiving or any of the holiday because it is Christmas. It is just not students that I am referring to but staff members as well. I think many of us are going stir crazy and we want to see our relatives face-to-face and a lot of hard choices will be made this holiday. I happen to agree with the Superintendent that this was a very prudent suggestion given the extraordinary circumstances of this widespread illness that is surging. I hope the school board will reconsider.
Donk (Friday, December 04 20 04:08 pm EST)

Isn't it about time we buy some new fire engines?
The ones we have must have over 10,000 miles on them and the new models have smart phone features.
Kevin (Friday, December 04 20 03:48 pm EST)

It’s interesting that Sunapee’s share of the county’s expenses goes down while Claremont’s goes up. I think it has to do with the shenanigans played with the property assessments and by having Claremont’s property value rise it causes Claremont taxpayers to pay an unfair share of the county’s expenses. This way we pay our fair share and subsidize other communities. Merry Christmas to them, bah humbug for us taxpayers in Claremont. Morris and his cronies really are the Grinch’s that stole Claremont’s Christmas and sucked out the happiness for the other 364 days in a year too. You’re a mean one Mr. Morris etc., etc.
Matt (Friday, December 04 20 02:02 pm EST)

I hadn’t thought about it that way Cody but you’re right. I’m surprised Mayor Lovett, a veteran herself, is standing for this. Or is this something else that she’s going to cast a blind eye to because it does not fit in with her political agenda.
Cody (Friday, December 04 20 12:02 pm EST)

I think there was a cheap shot by city manager Ed Morris against the veterans blaming them for the property tax rate increase or at least the city’s portion of it. Jim and AJ did a great job showing there were plenty of other expense increases to pick from if the finger of blame needed to be pointed at a target, which it really did not. Ed Morris just showed his inexperience and some juvenile behavior by targeting veterans and publicly casting shame upon them.
Travis (Friday, December 04 20 11:44 am EST)

Reading the article about the property tax rate reminds me of the old adage figures lie and liars figure. It seems to be the case with the city and the county governments. The schools used to be that way but it seems to have gotten better under new management.
Caitlin (Friday, December 04 20 09:58 am EST)

In my opinion, the e- ticker news is nothing more than a propaganda machine for the local governments. Fact checking and balanced reporting do not seem to be part of their business model. One-sided pro-government, pro-liberal agenda reporting is there niche and the reason why I never read it anymore. There is enough fake news in the media without intentionally looking for it by reading that publication.
Jim Sullivan (Friday, December 04 20 06:38 am EST)

Two new articles published today.

1) Claremont's 2020 Property Tax Rate set.

2) Claremont School Board nixes two week remote learning proposal.

Both articles are running the News Flashes page of this website.
Todd (Thursday, December 03 20 10:51 am EST)

Donk, it would not surprise me if this alleged accountant who wrote that creative fiction about Nick Koloski wasn't really Nick Koloski himself. With his ego, he seems to be the likely author.
Donk (Thursday, December 03 20 10:11 am EST)

Some accountant,you don't even know how unemployment insurance works.You have to have paid in for 2 quarters in last year to be eligible.
I guess the liens and the ground water tests are fiction as well.I don't have any particular beef with Koloski,I just don't like people that game the system for their own gain.
I pay taxes and I pay them in full.Meanwhile Topstone gets this free ride and I have no idea why.Topstone building is undervalued by a mile as far as assessment and to me that is corruption plain and simple.
In the end Koloski will die poor anyway.He has paid very little if anything into Social Security and has no pension.Old age gets us all in the end.
Jim Sullivan (Thursday, December 03 20 07:01 am EST)

Two more COVID-19 cases reported in Claremont School District.

Details on the News Flashes page of this website.
Donk is a fool (Wednesday, December 02 20 05:38 pm EST)

Donk, not sure who you are but your constant attack on Koloski is unfounded. You sound like a spoiled brat that didn't get their way. I know the family and your information is simply bullshit. They owe no taxes that have not been paid. If one doesnt pay employee or state tax they get shut down. Oh damn, guess you are wrong again. If they did they would not be open as no goverment agency allows that. By the way I am in accounting. How would you have any idea what anyone collected for unemployment? Did you cash or write the checks? On top of that if they did collect that is what the Governors order and law allows for any NH small business. You try to spin it like its Koloski exclusive. So you are saying Koloski has never worked for any employer besides himself his entire life and payed in? Again false bullshit. Additionally the building they are in is not toxic despite your claims of such. Sweet fire Bbq according to EPA reports is. Of course we don't speak of that as its not Nicks. Learn to read. I have worked at the annual holiday meals and distributed food. You don't know a 1/2 of what they do and those that are actually involved are not tarnishing his name. They reap praise. Credit for all they do is given to those that give. Its in every post online but of course pointing that out would go against your painted fake picture. You clearly just have some personal issue Mr. J. Honestly you just look like an asshole.
Robert (Wednesday, December 02 20 01:48 pm EST)

I think Mr. Morris’s employment with the city needs to be terminated for sure. All he seems interested in is giving pay raises out to all the city employees that will probably lead to a big pay raise for himself. All of this to the detriment of our roads, the growing retirement fund deficit, our deteriorating city buildings and to the taxpayers who will have to pay more money in taxation because of Mr. Morris’s bad management that seems to have the full support of a majority of brain-dead city councilors.
Keith (Wednesday, December 02 20 09:36 am EST)

I think property tax rates are going to go way up after PSNH wins their court case. I am guessing the court case was delayed because of the COVID-19 issue. I think this is a lost case for Claremont and the only unknown thing is how much the taxpayers will pay with increased taxes to pay back PSNH what the city administrators overcharged them. I think Mr. Morris and Mr. Hamilton should both be fired and the utility appraiser’s consulting contract be canceled
Cheryl (Wednesday, December 02 20 08:02 am EST)

I think city leaders want to swap out mobile home parks with housing developments and they are using the inflated property assessments done this year on the mobile homes to tax people out of their mobile homes. It is really dirty pool but it has to be expected with whom the voters have placed in power.
Donk (Tuesday, December 01 20 03:33 pm EST)

Is there a way to have the state investigate these gigantic disparities in assessments and actual worth?
These aren't small misses.Do any watchdogs exist in New Hampshire?
Dave (Tuesday, December 01 20 02:43 pm EST)

I’m just sickened by the sweetheart deals given to the hydroelectric property owners. Charlene Lovett, Allen Damren and Nicholas Koloski are bad news for Claremont. They and the others who set the legal precedent to do this should have listened to Attorney Taylor and never have done it. Now a few special interests are reaping big profits at Claremont taxpayers expense. That is all most of our Claremont representatives on the city council are good for, help the special interests to the detriment of the taxpayers. They do not care about us.
Jennifer (Tuesday, December 01 20 01:13 pm EST)

Donk, as I see it the problem stems from the Claremont voters and who they continue to elect to public office. Many of whom are shady characters who have their own private agendas that are contrary to the public good. Claremont has always been somewhat corrupt in my personal opinion. Also in my opinion, it has become far worse with the current leadership both in the administration and on the city council. Secret deals quietly negotiated behind closed doors, giving away city property for a song, big property assessment reductions for those who are politically well-connected, tax breaks for owners of hydroelectric facilities, pay raises for the entire city staff, steadily increasing the public subsidy for the Claremont Savings Bank Community Center and a steady stream of public funds for certain local developers seems to be the order of the day. The same leaders all intentionally cast a blind eye to the accelerated deterioration of our local thoroughfares, public buildings and they also ignore other problems like the retirement funding deficit and the large disparity of property assessments for several of the local utilities that will cost local taxpayers considerable dollars in the future.
Donk (Tuesday, December 01 20 12:27 pm EST)

I just can't help but wonder if the State has investigators that can/will examine the huge disparities in the DRA assessments and that of this consultant?
This one man,through either incompetence or direction of city management can cost all of us millions.
All this money and nothing to maintain the roads.What can the people do to get done what we need done? All this while you speak of huge raises for everyone.You people are insane!
Chris (Tuesday, December 01 20 10:53 am EST)

Terrific article guys. Anybody who thinks the property assessments in Claremont are accurate is certifiably nuts. These utility assessments are way off. I was thinking the other day about residential property devaluation and it just does not make sense when the residential real estate prices are holding steady or going up and selling like hotcakes. Something is up. We all know how shady the city leaders are so maybe there is one of more real estate developers out in the wings somewhere waiting to snatch up some land cheap for housing developments.
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, December 01 20 08:53 am EST)

2020 Property Assessments – Part #2.

This article is published on the News Flashes page of this website.
John J.O’Connor (Tuesday, December 01 20 07:57 am EST)

Bob,
You sure there are enough conservatives in Claremont to actually make a difference and if so, why haven’t they come out to vote before ?
Bob (Monday, November 30 20 07:13 pm EST)

You get what you voted for...there were several conservatives running for council last election BUT the conservatives did not get out and vote and the dem's voted in the left wingers , if you want change in this city GET THE CONSERVATIVES OUT TO VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!
John J O’Connor (Monday, November 30 20 05:35 pm EST)

Mike,
I have been an outspoken supporter of the Sullivan Report and I do appreciate the knowledge and information it provides.
People constantly complain here about our elected officials, they repeatedly state that new blood is needed, yet they are always re-elected.
I firmly believe new blood is needed and richly deserved on the council but unfortunately that is not the case.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, November 30 20 03:45 pm EST)

I have received several private emails from readers asking when the second part of the assessing article will be published. Since I courteously replied to all of them, I thought it was only fair that I would let everyone know that the article will be published tomorrow morning.
Mike (Monday, November 30 20 02:33 pm EST)

Ladies, in Mr. O’Connor’s defense, he did say that he appreciates the public information. Where I strongly disagree with him is his cheap shot about this website not being a political catalyst. As it has already been pointed out, the goal of this website is public transparency and public education, which it has always done an amazing job with for many years. Mr. O'Connor's latest statements strike me as that he is speaking to the comments made by readers of the Sullivan Report about their distaste, dislike or distrust of city officials and how the elections do not seem to oust too many of them out of office. That I happen to agree with but there is two overarching reasons for that. Public apathy combined with low voter turnout for local elections and few realistically viable candidates choosing to run for public office greasing the way for incumbent reelection.
John J. O’Connor (Monday, November 30 20 02:16 pm EST)

Lisa,
I am certain they have achieved what they set out to do, but that is not the point.
The point is, year after year, election after election, all you see on this site are comments denouncing the current City Councilors and demanding change, only to come election time and the same people get re-elected.
This site does not hold the political pulse of the city, never has, never will.
Barbara (Monday, November 30 20 01:16 pm EST)

I agree. The Sullivan Report is a great news source for local government goings-on. I enjoy reading their exposes because they are the only journalists who dig into the facts and show the actual proof in their articles. No fake news here. The other reporters working the beat in this area are in my opinion very lazy and simply fill space in their publications with whatever they are told from officials from the local government agencies and accepting what they are told on blind faith alone. Hardly the work ethic of true journalists.
Lisa (Monday, November 30 20 12:11 pm EST)

Mr. O’Connor, I never thought of the Sullivan Report as a political activist website. If you look at the Sullivan Report’s mission statement on their homepage, you will read that the goal of former councilors Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Maranville is to inform the public, nothing more. In my humble opinion, they have achieved that goal many times over.
Karen (Monday, November 30 20 10:57 am EST)

I see that senior exemptions are back on the agenda for the city councilors December meeting. I have a few friends who work for the city and they tell me that it was because of the Sullivan Report article from last week about the property assessments and the senior exemptions that this issue is to be revisited. It is my understanding that the slap in the face from the article that motivated this action was the part informing the public that our elected representatives on the city council have not increased senior exemptions for 12 years, when the veterans received a substantial increase last September it was I believe. Mr. Shaw’s comments encourage me to write in today because he is correct that the actions of Mr. Morris and many members of the city council is shameful and not representative of the many fine people of Claremont.
Alan Shaw (Monday, November 30 20 09:47 am EST)

The property assessments just do not make sense. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to how the property assessments are set and there does indeed seem to be a political agenda with many of these property assessments. City government officials seem to be helping some friends and colleagues and attempting to force out through higher, unjustifiable property taxation low-income citizens living in mobile homes. It is shameful. Mr. Morris only seems interested in granting huge raises for city staff members and himself and he is willing to hurt anyone else in the financial sense to pay for these large raises. Mr. Morris seems nice enough but he looks like it is a facade as he acts like Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch all rolled up into one and the city councilors who support Mr. Morris in these unspeakable endeavors are acting like his evil elves.
John J. O’Connor (Monday, November 30 20 07:56 am EST)

“Replace them”.... I’ve have heard that tired line ever since this website began and nothing ever happens.
Let’s be honest, every election I keep hearing the same thing and every election incumbents keep getting re-elected in record numbers.
I appreciate the city wide information this site provides but being a political catalyst, this page is not.
When Socialists and sanctuary city enthusiasts keep getting re-elected it’s further proof this page has become obsolete to the voting public.
Todd (Friday, November 27 20 01:53 pm EST)

Stupid is as stupid does and boy oh boy is this City Council populated with stupid. The only way to fix this stupid bunch is to replace them.
Greg (Friday, November 27 20 10:45 am EST)

I agree with you Karen about the secret gentrification plan going on with some of the city leaders. Heard the poor downtown and in other low-income apartments while freeing up land where mobile homes presently are for housing developments. There is probably even one or more developers waiting in the wings for the land to open up. Our shortsighted leaders will see new housing as more income for the city but what it really does is increase the cost for schools and for the city too. Depending how many kids are in the home to how much of a lawsuit will be for the community. More people does not lower the property tax burden it does the exact opposite.
Dave (Friday, November 27 20 07:52 am EST)

Nice try Guy but I do not think your diversionary tactic will work. Nick nor anyone else is untouchable and the only way to remove him from public office is through educating the public to the truth about Nick Koloski. I don’t doubt for a minute that we will be seeing his goofy face in the newspaper about his taking credit for donating toys that other people donated to him and he only distributed them or maybe his annual thank you meal at his restaurant for city employees and volunteers on boards and stuff. If it wasn’t for his close friendship with Damien Fisher most of his BS would never land in the press. Facebook yes, press no.
Guy (Thursday, November 26 20 08:47 pm EST)

Donk,
Well said but no one cares. Nick has consistently been re-elected overwhelmingly and he will continue to do so as long as he wants.
So stop wasting your time, Nick untouchable and we are going into his biggest media, holiday season, expect to see his picture in the paper .
So Donk, spend your time attaching the socialists on the council, they don’t have nearly the support Nick does.
Donk (Thursday, November 26 20 01:07 pm EST)

When customers at Nick's restaurant/bar pay the rooms and meals tax of New Hampshire Nick is just putting it in his own pocket.Why did you think he has all these liens against him?
He also runs his business that didn't pay any taxes for 8 years.Then he managed to get those taxes wiped clean.Meanwhile you will kick some poor person out of their trailer for $2 grand.Then you'll spend $3 grand in taxpayer money just to have the trailer hauled off and junked.You want to talk about mean,it doesn't get any meaner than that.
Nick is a business owner.Business owners don't receive unemployment benefits when business sours or is shut down.This isn't the case with Nick.He's managed to collect unemployment checks since this all began,including the $600/wk. Federal supplement.He gets these checks despite never having contributed one red cent to the unemployment insurance fund.
He continues to sell food and drink out of a place that has been found to be full of toxic carcinogenic pollutants.In a building that is full of asbestos.I won't even go into the fire code laws that are not even enforced on this building.
You are surprised that people are angered that the laws only apply to them? Certain people skate tax free and regulation free forever,never being subject to any of the laws that protect the public.This guy sitting on the council is one big middle finger to all of us little guys.How the rest of the council isn't apawled at this behavior and insisting that sitting councilors adhere to laws and taxes is beyond me.
Deb M (Wednesday, November 25 20 04:52 pm EST)

Donk, are you speaking of Nic? He owns a home in Claremont, so he certainly does pay taxes.
Donk (Wednesday, November 25 20 03:32 pm EST)

Deb, I have no idea who you are talking about.It's Polish fella that I speak of.He's a little lite in the loafers but I don't think he identifies as female.With 87 possible gender identities these days who knows?
I don't want to be mean to anyone anyway.I just don't have any more money for the delusional civil servant blue blood class.How much have I paid as an individual taxpayer for the so-called community center? I haven't even stepped foot in it,because I can't afford it.I would say making people pay for something they cannot use sounds just a tad bit unconstitutional.
Cheryl (Wednesday, November 25 20 02:57 pm EST)

Deb M, when I read Donk's comments I thought that he was referring to another councilor of the opposite gender than the councilor to whom you were referring to. Am I right Donk? Please set the record straight.
Deb M (Wednesday, November 25 20 02:49 pm EST)

Donk, just for clarification, that particular councilor does in fact pay property taxes through her rent. Every renter does, so its not exactly fair to be making that comment. Its also not fair, and frankly, down right mean spirited, to knock her profession. She's a hard working single mom who is supporting herself, and not relying on public assistance, so I find it bullying behavior for you to make such comments. Stick to the issues, and not personal attacks. Its not becoming.
Karen (Wednesday, November 25 20 02:48 pm EST)

Simple Mark, it is called GENTRIFICATION! Gentrification usually leads to negative impacts such as forced displacement, a fostering of discriminatory behavior by people in power, and a focus on spaces that exclude low-income individuals and people of color. Claremont's elite, snooty city leaders want to push these people into the low-income apartments they are creating by working hand in hand with certain developers they throw stacks and stacks of public funds at. Do not forget many of the councilors support sanctuary city status for Claremont.
Donk (Wednesday, November 25 20 02:25 pm EST)

Just look at the condition of the streets of Claremont.Compare the incomes of local taxpayers to that of Claremont civil servants.We have a sitting councilor that doesn't pay taxes and serves food and drink on top of a toxic waste dump site,nobody does a thing.
It sure looks like third world to me already.

You tell me to clean up my property.You must be one of the ones from the city that told me that I need a permit because I have 22 cars on my property that are part of my salvage auto parts business.They also have a problem with the 4 families that I have living in camper trailers on the property without being hooked up to water or septic/sewage.You come on down to try to get rid of us.You know my address 232 Sugar River Drive.You kick us out you better have 4 apartments waiting for us.Just take the cost out of your raise money.

LIVE FREE OR DIE- RIGHT
Mark (Wednesday, November 25 20 12:21 pm EST)

I was taken aback with the 170% increase in trailer property assessments from last year till now. What the hell is up with that?
Barbara (Wednesday, November 25 20 10:51 am EST)

I cannot get over how out of whack the property assessments seem to be. I think games are being played at city hall.
Matt (Wednesday, November 25 20 09:13 am EST)

The Lebanon city manager and their city council have the right idea regarding cutting back on expenses during this pandemic. Morris and his cronies on the council do not care about any of us citizens who are struggling just to get by until things turn around. All they want to do is cement their political futures with government handouts to city employees, developers and anyone else within their political circle.
Todd (Wednesday, November 25 20 04:49 am EST)

Jim Contois did a fantastic job explaining why the city staffers are already well paid and they do not need the big raises that Mr. Morris is asking for with the bullshit study that he manipulated the data for with the towns that were picked to compare Claremont to. Maybe some of the paid positions are too low but not all of them. No way is that true. Tony are you or one of your relatives a city staffer?
tony (Tuesday, November 24 20 12:34 pm EST)

Well Donk you go ahead and set the pay scales in the basement and when the positions are open and services are suspended you will have your wish. A true third world city to live in.
Donk is a dipshit (Tuesday, November 24 20 11:32 am EST)

Donk, you pull this shit out of your ass bud. Clean up some of your property and stop spreading ramblings online.
Deb M (Monday, November 23 20 02:33 pm EST)

Just for clarification, this last poster, "Deb", is a different poster than me. From now on, I'll post under Deb M.
Mike (Monday, November 23 20 02:00 pm EST)

Anybody noticing that any building that local government or local government officials is interested in all gets a big reduction in their property assessment? The JSL building, the old Eagle Times building, the Odd Fellows building owned by the Goodfellas. Just like the Topstone building a few years ago. How can anyone look at this and say that the property assessments are on the up and up?
Deb (Monday, November 23 20 12:45 pm EST)

Wow what a great article today. The property assessments in Claremont are totally screwed up. Anyone who reads this article will come to that conclusion unless they have a pro-city bias like many of the city councilors do who are blind to everything that's going on in front of them. Look at manufactured housing, mobile home trailers and the overall property assessment valuation for those properties goes up almost 170% in 12 months when the rest of the residential buildings and land all went down in value during a real estate boom. These property assessments are total bullshit. What is the Morris administration up to?
Jim Sullivan (Monday, November 23 20 07:13 am EST)

Claremont's MS-1 Document reveals several surprises. Part #1.

Article published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Donk (Saturday, November 21 20 10:24 am EST)

I just want to say this.Who is the boss here,and who is the employee?
If the city workers don't like what we pay they are free to move on to any one of that list of cities on our comparison and beyond.We set the pay scale,not them!
Jim Sullivan (Friday, November 20 20 09:50 pm EST)

New article.

Another COVID-19 case reported at Stevens High School.

More information published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Deb (Friday, November 20 20 03:03 pm EST)

Also, regarding your point about elderly losing their homes since they can't pay taxes, there is a deferrment program available that does not get much attention, however, it is available. Basically, if qualified, seniors have their taxes deferred until they pass away, then the estate pays back the taxes.
Deb (Friday, November 20 20 02:59 pm EST)

Donk, I agree with your point about the comparator towns not being fair, and I mentioned that at our last meeting. I also agree that we have infrastructure needs, particularly paving, that are a priority of mine. I do believe anyone can do a 91-A to request any public document, and emails between the city manager and consultant are indeed available to the public. The council has just begun the process of discussing the compensation study. We have a long way to go before anything is actually implemented. I would suggest anyone who wants to weigh in do it at a council meeting, and not just on this site. you can also email me directly too, or the entire council. our emails are on city's website.
Donk (Friday, November 20 20 02:51 pm EST)

Thank you for your service Deb,and thank you for communicating with us,it shows you care when it's not election time.
Please let Mr. Morris know that we never requested he spend $48,000 on a pay study skewed toward the high side by selecting richer towns for comparison.
Please let him know that if he doesn't have the money to properly pave and maintain Claremont streets,we certainly don't have additional millions of dollars for pay and retirement pensions.
Tax deeding struggling elderly homeowners to enhance pay pkgs. certainly is not the will of Claremont taxpayers.We would prefer less services to making people homeless.
I do know that the consultant must have asked Mr. Morris which direction he wished the pay for employees to reflect.Selective towns and accounting gimmickry make any desired outcome possible.

I was wondering if a right to know request could be made with inquiry pertaining to email or any other form of communication between Mr. Morris and this consultant?
I was thinking of taking up a collection to hire this consultant once again by local taxpayers.This time we would wish the findings to reflect that we are over paying our manager and public workers.At the very least I would like to make any and all future comparisons be based on Claremont's per capita income at it's core.This seems the fairest measure to me.I'm sure councilor Koloski would agree considering he is unable to pay taxes of any kind,including property tax,rooms and meals tax,unemployment insurance coverage,and possibly FICA and workmans comp insurance for his own employees.
poor thing
John J. O’Connor (Friday, November 20 20 07:59 am EST)

Deb,
Thank you for responding to numerous posts. It has been known for years that members of the City Council are loyal Sullivan Report followers, it’s refreshing to see a Councilor respond to their constituents.
Hopefully some of your fellow Councilors, in the future, will have the guts to respond to the taxpayers on the Sullivan Report, where all opinions are respected and no ones statements are blocked.
Donk (Friday, November 20 20 07:54 am EST)

Pajama Patrol, by welfare do you mean that restaurant/bar that screamed for unemployment benefits without contributing anything into the fund?

Do you mean the restaurant/bar that has a lien for not paying the rooms and meals tax?

Or do you mean the restaurant/bar that doesn't pay property taxes,so doesn't care how much we pay our employees?

Huh, I was thinking of the same business on all accounts.How could anyone get away with so many wrongs? I wonder...
Pajama patrol (Thursday, November 19 20 09:30 pm EST)

Don't pick on the scumbags in pajamas they have feelings just because they have no fucking jobs and live on our dime with our excellent welfare system we probably bought the Jammies for these scum
Deb (Thursday, November 19 20 04:26 pm EST)

Donk, I understand all your points, and I try very hard to keep the burden on taxpayers in mind when making my decisions.
Donk (Thursday, November 19 20 04:18 pm EST)

It doesn't matter who you vote for Deb,Claremont is poor,in fact among the poorest cities in the state.
Aside from that I have to drive over an aborted street repair that couldn't get done because we gave the money to a consultant to look at why we don't pay as much as much richer towns.woops
The fact is,we don't have any more money to give the people that already make more money than we do.
speaking of a moot point...
Jim Sullivan (Thursday, November 19 20 03:48 pm EST)

Agreed, an Ordinance in Claremont is now irrelevant. Governor Sununu's Statewide mask mandate will apply to all indoor public spaces as well as outdoors when social distancing isn't possible.
Deb (Thursday, November 19 20 03:36 pm EST)

Sanunu just announced a statewide mask mandate! So, maybe our ordinance will be a moot point.
Jim Sullivan (Thursday, November 19 20 03:09 pm EST)

Deb,

Council Rule Number 52 clearly states, "Any member of the Council who might be shown to have clearly prejudged an issue or have a conflict of interest on an issue before the Council, places that issue in doubt and the City at great legal risk, therefore he or she should not take part in discussion or voting on the issue". That is a statement of undeniable fact!

This is a rule that the Claremont City Council enacted and a rule that all Claremont City Councilors are duty bound to uphold. If the Councilors do not like the rule then they need to change it and suffered the political consequences of doing so.

The Claremont City Council is Claremont's legislative body and a majority of the body has the right to make rules and regulations that are stricter than NH State law.

So Deb, your assertion does not hold water. All Councilors will have to abide by that rule or show the public their contempt for the Council Rules and for the public.

No matter how you try to wordsmith or politically spin this to your liking, Council Rule Number 52 is crystal-clear and there is no wiggle room!
Deb (Thursday, November 19 20 02:57 pm EST)

Well, Donk, just to clarify, there have been zero votes on implementation of the compensation study yet. So, again, before you go trashing us, wait till there is an actual decision made. And, just for the record, when you say "we" you should clarify that "we" in your case are the folks who follow and support this site, and they are, at best about 25% of the voters (who show up to vote) in Claremont. The majority of voters in Claremont support the city council, who were elected by "the people". Your candidates rarely win, and there's a reason for that. The majority of Claremont voters don't agree with you.
Donk (Thursday, November 19 20 02:44 pm EST)

Taking OUR MONEY to give it to underworked and overpaid already employees are NOT the volunteers we want.
I want a volunteer that can talk layoffs not raises.
Deb (Thursday, November 19 20 02:33 pm EST)

Read this article: https://www.nhmunicipal.org/town-city-article/local-officials-making-decisions-understanding-conflicts-interest-and

It fully explains the legal application for "prejudgment". Clearly, Mr. Sullivan has misinterpreted how this practice would be applied to the mask ordinance discussion. Prejudgement does not apply in legislative issues, only on quasi-judicial issues where "juror standards" are applied. It's unfortunate that he does not take the time to really understand issues before he writes his "exposes" and tries to trash citizens who volunteer their time to try to improve this community.
Jean (Thursday, November 19 20 12:35 pm EST)

If the councilors follow their own rules then they will not be able to vote on the mask ordinance.
Craig (Thursday, November 19 20 10:27 am EST)

Excellent article with a great twist. I did not know about the prejudgement rule and now that I do I completely agree that several of the councilors must refrain from voting on the mask ordinance. So many I believe that there is not enough councilors remaining to have a vote at all. The only way the councilors can now hold a vote on this mask ordinance is if they break their own rules. What a conundrum.
Jim Sullivan (Thursday, November 19 20 08:58 am EST)

New article.

Mask Up Claremont Campaign underway.

Articlepublished on the News Flashes page of this website.
John J. O’Connor (Thursday, November 19 20 07:48 am EST)

Since we’re at it, let’s enact an Ordinance that forbids people from wearing pajamas in public.
That would do more for the image of Claremont then mandatory mask wearing.
Bob (Wednesday, November 18 20 03:39 pm EST)

You would think that slick Nick Koloski would have been the one interviewed by WCAX. Because according to ole Nicky he is the mastermind behind the whole mandatory mask wearing plot. But oh wait; he does not have a position on this at all. Yeah right.
Tom (Wednesday, November 18 20 02:35 pm EST)

I saw an interesting news clip on WCAX about Claremont and how the city council was going to soon decide on a mask mandate. I thought it was interesting that the only interview from a local official was that of Councilor Amanda Kier, one of the people who has been pushing this mask mandate for a long time. I wonder how she knew to be at the right place at the right times so she could get her face on TV?
Gary (Wednesday, November 18 20 10:20 am EST)

The Newport school district sure has a mess of their hands and it is going to cost the taxpayers in Newport $3.90 more on their property tax rate. Yikes! I hope the folks running things in Claremont with both the city and the schools do a better job with their budgeting. I do not have a whole lot of faith in our elected officials so fingers crossed.
Pam (Wednesday, November 18 20 08:08 am EST)

When I watched the meeting, it sure looked to me like Debora Matteau wanted to impose stiff cost penalties for anyone who does not wear a mask. It sounds like she is hunkered up in her home all the time afraid to go out in public so why the hell does she care. Just because she is terrified, it doesn’t mean everyone else is. Life goes on.
Matt (Tuesday, November 17 20 10:29 am EST)

I think the masks should be left up to the private businesses. If they require a mask then wear one or go somewhere else. It is as simple as that.
Chris (Tuesday, November 17 20 08:34 am EST)

If any of the councilors support the salary increase they should never be elected to any public office ever again. The people need to let the likes of Lovett, Damren and Kier and any other councilors who support this salary increase know that we can no longer afford their tax-and-spend, sanctuary city, represent only the special interests, socialist political agenda.
Todd (Monday, November 16 20 04:24 pm EST)

They don’t call him slick Nick for nothing.
Julie (Monday, November 16 20 02:43 pm EST)

Nick’s actions during that November meeting speak volumes about his lack of character.
Henry (Monday, November 16 20 01:26 pm EST)

Nick Koloski showed cowardice twice in one evening. He recused himself from the salary raise for the city employees controversy with a specious reason that the Sullivan Report shot full of holes. Later in the same meeting, Nick Koloski pulled a similar cowardly stunt with the mask mandate by apparently falsely claiming to be the mastermind behind it and then claiming that he does not have a position on the issue because he only wants to have the discussion with the council. Nick Koloski was talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time on both issues. Anyone who would put his or her trust in such a man is an idiot.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, November 16 20 11:39 am EST)

Nick or whomever you are you need to read the article more closely. It states that City Manager Ed Morris said during the Council meeting that Call Firefighters were neither part of the Consultant's Compensation Study nor Morris' Implementation Plan. That means there are no planned raises for Call Firefighters so there is absolutely no conflict of interest for Councilman Nick Koloski whatsoever. Koloski is just using this lame excuse to avoid having to make a decision on this controversial issue. Make no mistake, Nick is playing politics and as per usual he is doing it quite badly.
Jims Mom (Monday, November 16 20 10:32 am EST)

If Koloski had not recused himself you would have been bitching about that Jimbo. You can't have it both ways. I watched the meeting and a compensation study suggests raises so the charter does not highlight its ok to vote on giving ones self a raise. The charter says its ok for city councilor to be a call fireman. A call fireman is a part time hourly employee. That aside rule of thumb when in doubt step aside. That it ethical regardless of how you want to spin it with your fake news. Budgets and department funding is different.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, November 16 20 09:12 am EST)

New article published today.

November 12, 2020 Claremont City Council Meeting Synopsis.

Article appears on the News Flashes page of this website.
Agenda of the left at work in claremont (Friday, November 13 20 09:12 pm EST)

We are surrounded by idiots police could never conduct enforcement of masks they can't enforce heroin pills cocaine or weed lol what a joke bring it on you ignorant fools trying to push that agenda on us you fucking morons I can't wait for the first cop to try and write a ticket mandated from this ignorant council to me we will generate some Supreme Court case law out of that stop ill guarantee you that much
Donk (Thursday, November 12 20 12:17 pm EST)

They didn't have enough money to pave Sugar River Drive.They probably spent $3000 to cut notches in the street.2 Mos. later they had to fill all of the notches.How much did this cost?
At the same time we had $45,000 to pay a consultant on pay that no employees were complaining about.
Now we need #1.2 million for raises for employees.

SO WHERE DOES THE MONEY TO PAVE SUGAR RIVER DRIVE COME FROM,BAKE SALES?
Greg (Wednesday, November 11 20 11:44 am EST)

The city manager and the city councilors are out of their minds. They support a $4.8 million Muni bond to revitalize a failing downtown, give away city buildings and millions of dollars in public funds to politically connected developers but they cannot spend hardly anything on fixing our crumbling roads. Now the councilors want to spend about $1.3 million to stuff into the pockets of the city employees, who support them at election time if they happen to live in Claremont, while picking the pockets of the Claremont taxpayers to do it. As city governments go, Claremont’s is the worst.
Ron (Wednesday, November 11 20 06:41 am EST)

I watched the council meeting of November fourth because of the Sullivan Report coverage of the pay scale and salary increases. I was glad when Andy O’Hearne stuck to his guns and finally got an answer about how many merit plan employees were only paying 7% of their health insurance premium. Morris said there were only a few and it turned out being 26 top paid employees, a heck of a lot more than a few. This is why city government officials cannot be trusted ever.
Shawn (Wednesday, November 11 20 05:42 am EST)

These pay raises that Mr. Morris wants to pay out are huge. The finance director gets a 23% pay raise. She is not making chump change now. A lot of the others will be given between 12% and 36% in salary increases. Now with this new tier plan cooked up by Mr. Morris and his staff, the beneficiaries, the employees in category one will see a 63% pay raise in 10 years. Mr. Morris seems to be shuffling up the numbers as fast as a pea in a shell game. No one around here in the private sector is receiving anywhere near that amount in pay raises, if they are even getting any pay raises at all. Mr. Morris is out of touch and his spending proposals are out of control. If the city councilors go along with this cockamamie idea then at the next election we as voters must clean house and vote out of elected office all of the city councilors who approve Mr. Morris’s pay raise plan.
Don (Wednesday, November 11 20 01:28 am EST)

Even if Mr. Morris’s alternate plan is put into action, it will still be very expensive for the taxpayers. Just look at Tier 1, those employees will get a 16% raise over two years above and beyond the pay raises they are scheduled to receive with their current employee contract. In 10 years they will see a 63% increase in their salary above and beyond that current contract. Who the heck gets those kind of raises these days anywhere around here? The answer, nobody. With Morris’s master plan, all of the city employees make out great and the taxpayers are screwed again.
Jessica (Tuesday, November 10 20 06:52 pm EST)

Newport has a COVID case in their school district and all schools are shut down for the rest of the week for safety reasons. Claremont has two cases in one week and it is business as usual. Who is protecting our kids?
Sarah (Tuesday, November 10 20 12:59 pm EST)

Great idea. But to fire Ed Morris I believe the public will have to convince at least five city councilors to terminate his contract. If people are as outraged with his spending ideas like I am then they need to call their councilors and strongly complain and remind the councilors that they work for the public and not the special concerns and interests. His salary raise increase plan is so beyond rational thinking. Plus he is hiding the cost by not doing the math or presenting any solid numbers. The Sullivan Report is doing the math and doing a great job informing us about how Mr. Morris wants to take advantage of all of us and raise our taxes at a time when financial restraint should be the order of the day.
Donk (Tuesday, November 10 20 12:36 pm EST)

HOW ABOUT WE FIRE MORRIS!?
Anita (Tuesday, November 10 20 12:33 pm EST)

I remember reading the part in the article about how Mr. Morris picked two cost-of-living yardsticks and averaging them both together so that he could eke out an extra one half of 1% to give to city staff larger annual raises. Talk about greed and a complete disregard for the overtaxed Claremont taxpayers.
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, November 10 20 11:03 am EST)

Two new articles published today.

1) Second COVID-19 case reported within the Claremont School District.

2) Is a Morris Administration bait and switch in the works regarding the implementation plan for city employee salary increases? Wait until you see how much Morris' implementation plan has changed in just a few days! Hint, salary compensation increase percentiles have risen dramatically!

Both articles are published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Kevin (Tuesday, November 10 20 08:07 am EST)

I read in the Valley News today that the city manager of Lebanon is proposing three full-time employee layoffs, not hiring some of their seasonal recreational staff and cutting their city budget by $1.1 million from infrastructure projects to keep the tax increase lower for their FY 2021 city budget. What is the city manager of Claremont doing instead? Proposing a $5.8 million municipal bond for a downtown infrastructure project that many would say is unnecessary except for the water and sewer pipe part of it and proposing a $1.3 million increase in pay salaries for city staff members. The city manager will probably get a pay raise in this deal. Talk about a tale of two different cities. Lebanon is managed fairly well. Claremont is run by a city manager and councilors who are only interested in spending oodles of money to pander to special interests like favored developers and city staff members.
Lisa (Monday, November 09 20 12:46 pm EST)

I noticed on the partial list of positions that were considered underpaid that the farmers market coordinator made the list as being underpaid by 26%. I thought that the farmers market coordinator was grant funded and her salary and any of the compensation that she receives in that none of it was to be funded by the taxpayers. Was that another bait and switch orchestrated by city officials on the unsuspecting taxpayers?
David (Monday, November 09 20 11:23 am EST)

William, very well written commentary. I would just like to piggyback a few thoughts on top of what you wrote. I like statistics, I know how easy it is to skew statistics to a predetermined outcome, and I believe that is exactly what Mr. Morris achieved by the choice he made in regards to the municipal communities used for comparison. Claremont’s median house price is the lowest and our community’s median household income was the lowest except for the community of Franklin, which could be considered an outlier. The other communities are not good comparators but they were used to create a predetermined and I believe erroneous conclusion of 87% of Claremont’s employees being asserted as grossly underpaid. I do not believe that conclusion for a second and neither should any other taxpayer in Claremont.
William (Monday, November 09 20 10:40 am EST)

City manager Morris is one hell of a piece of work. He acts like a moron but I think that is only an act at least somewhat of an act. I do not think he is very knowledgeable about how to be a city manager as one of his predecessors not too long ago, Guy Santagate. I do think he is smart enough to play dumb so that the councilors do not ask him any tough embarrassing questions on camera. The councilors are not playing dumb they just are and I believe Mr. Morris knows it. Mr. Morris wanted pay raises all round to gain the support of the city employees so he could retain his job unlike Mr. McNutt. I also think this is a ploy to pressure the councilors to give Mr. Morris a big pay raises to keep the pay differentials what they are now. Therefore, Mr. Morris convinced the councilors to rubberstamp pass the hiring of consulting for $45,000 to write a study that would guarantee the outcome conclusion to be that almost everyone working for the city is extremely underpaid. Of course, the taxpayers will not swallow that pile of bullshit with the city councilors certainly will at least a voting majority of them will. So now, when looking at nearly $1.3 million added to the payroll costs of the city over two maybe three years so Mr. Morris can appease the masses who work for him and the taxpayers get it in the neck again with even higher property taxes. This is not right but this is how Claremont government business is conducted these days. Well-connected people cleanup at the taxpayer’s expense, while our roads and city buildings continue to rot from intentional neglect.
Donk (Monday, November 09 20 09:21 am EST)

How about a consultant that compares paving plans for city streets?
You took my paving money and paid it to some asshole consultant.It really makes me sick paying taxes at all considering the state that Sugar River Drive is in.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, November 09 20 08:40 am EST)

Two new articles published today.

1) Confirmed COVID-19 case at Disnard Elementary School.

2) Special Claremont City Council meeting regarding municipal pay & classification study presentation & implementation plan vague on specifics!

Articles published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Bill (Sunday, November 08 20 04:24 pm EST)

I always thought if you worked for the city, you made a little less in take home pay but made it up with medical benefits and retirement .
Now, they want it all.
Scott (Sunday, November 08 20 12:21 pm EST)

I do not understand why reasonably intelligent people would even consider paying city staff members these large salary increases ranging between 12% and 35%. Right now we are all living through a horrible pandemic that has devastated the local and national economies. Raising property taxes to pay city staff members, who in my opinion are already fairly well-paid, is insanity. I do not work for the government but I do have a fairly good job but I am not receiving annual pay raises that even closely match with Mr. Morris and his $45,000 consultant is suggesting. I doubt anyone else in the private sector is receiving pay raises at this phenomenal level as well. Remember, the city staff members all received a pay raise with their latest contracts that were all approved over the course of the last year, which coincides with Mr. Morris's first year as city manager. Pay raises are already guaranteed and these phenomenal pay raises will be on top of that. The average Claremont taxpayer cannot afford Mr. Morris's proposal. Claremont already has the stigma of having the highest property tax rate in the entire state. Enactment of this proposal will only make matters worse in that regard. Any city councilor who would vote to enact such a proposal has no business representing the average citizens of Claremont.
Matt (Friday, November 06 20 03:18 pm EST)

Our city councilors and city manager have all of their priorities ass-backwards. Putting more money in employees pockets is not going to do anything for our crumbling roads and municipal buildings that are very much in need of repair. I believe city manager Ed Morris is only thinking of his own pocket because the report says he needs a raise too without revealing how much he is supposedly underpaid. I do not know how much he is receiving pay but I know it significantly more than Guy Santagate received and I think we can all agree that Ed Morris is no Guy Santagate, not even close. To pay so much money for a novice city manager is nuts but our city councilors did it without blinking. Just as they were very quick to authorize a $4.8 million municipal bond to fix up a downtown region to pave the way for more low income housing for Claremont’s future sanctuary city. As I said at the beginning of this commentary our city councilors and city manager have all of their priorities ass-backwards.
Todd (Thursday, November 05 20 10:43 am EST)

Some of the councilors like Debbie Matteau and Nikki Koloski talk a good game but that is all it is talk. They say they understand that we have a pandemic going on, families are hurting, and then with the next breath they vote to spend more money to appease the insatiable appetites of special interest groups with our tax dollars as if money is no object. Most of the people on the council are two-faced hypocrites.
Linda (Thursday, November 05 20 10:03 am EST)

After reading the Sullivan Report, article I watched part of the meeting online about the JSL building and it was nice to see councilors be engaged in an issue for a change. Usually they are just going through the motions of approving everything Mr. Morris wants them to approve without asking too many questions or councilors as for example Jim Contois, who lavishes praise on city employees or others for simply showing up and doing their jobs. I believe in giving credit where credit is due but he is just kissing every tush he can find and he is not the only one. Nick Koloski, Abigail Kier, Charlene Lovett, Allen Damren and Debbie Matteau are all pretty good in the sucking up department as well. It is sickening how they pander to the special interests to the detriment of everyone else and I am referring to the taxpayers who have to pay for all their spending initiatives that seem to benefit only a select few.
Greg (Thursday, November 05 20 09:41 am EST)

This solar company option agreement has all the earmarks of another sweetheart deal just like the JSL building. Both of these are on Morris. The Topstone sweetheart deal was on the former city manager and former city assessor consultant but the rest of the city’s administrative staff is all the same in the planning and finance departments. A few of the faces may change but the shady goings-on continues.
Kevin (Thursday, November 05 20 08:55 am EST)

That is certainly true, the voters are now reaping what they sowed and that is out of control spending with pie-in-the-sky downtown revitalization plans, huge raises for all the city employees, sweetheart deals for public officials, developers, foreign businesses and anyone else with political influence with local government officials. The taxpayers of Claremont are suffering the consequences of higher taxes and a crumbling infrastructure because of the liberal leadership that the voters foolishly elected to the city council.
Charles (Thursday, November 05 20 07:51 am EST)

Oh don’t worry the city staffers and the city manager are all going to get their huge pay raises because the moron voters of Claremont keep electing tax-and-spend liberals to the city councilor seats.
Donk (Wednesday, November 04 20 05:18 pm EST)

Sugar River Drive couldn't get paved this year due to a lack of money.
Finding money to contract a company to tell me that I'm not paying my employees enough wasn't a problem?
Fuck You Morris!
Michelle (Wednesday, November 04 20 03:48 pm EST)

More typical Claremont corruption. Funneling public funds from the public trough to as many special interests as possible and that includes city employees . With the Zoom meetings, there is little or no resistance because most people have no access to the meetings. Covid was a blessing in disguise for these politicians who like to work in the dark unseen. Thank goodness, the Sullivan Report is on the ball acting like our public watchdog.
Donk (Wednesday, November 04 20 02:33 pm EST)

They did the same thing as Claremont in Detroit and Chicago.We can all see what a fantastic template that can work by.2/3 of Detroit population is gone forever.They did however leave the ones that count on public support for their very survival.Illinois,and Chicago in particular is experiencing a mass exodus.Dig into the numbers of who is actually leaving and things look even more dire.It's the people with wealth and high income that are the ones relocating.Retired teachers,firemen,and cops are also all leaving due to taxes being too high.
While the high earners in Claremont left years ago for the most part what's happening is the erosion of home values.This will exacerbate the mill rate and send Claremont's rate into the stratosphere.Why is a consulting company comparing public employee wages without looking at the full picture?
WE HAVE THE LOWEST PER CAPITA INCOME IN THE ENTIRE STATE AND OUR EMPLOYEES REFUSE TO EVEN SEE IT.
Chris (Wednesday, November 04 20 01:57 pm EST)

I did a little homework looking up the FY 21 city budget for this year and I added up all of the salary budget lines for all the city departments and came up with a total of $6,123,812. Then I divided the $1,284,483 consultant recommended salary increases and it totaled 21%. That is how much of an annual increase in just salary that Ed Morris and his prized consultant want to stick the taxpayers with so that his subordinates can get a big raise. I can only imagine how much of a big raise Ed Morris is asking for in his secret sessions with the councilors.
Tom (Wednesday, November 04 20 12:18 pm EST)

City Manager Ed Morris is out of his mind if he thinks the people of Claremont are going to support almost $1.3 million of salary increases to the rank-and-file city municipal staffers. It is unheard of.
Rachel (Wednesday, November 04 20 12:11 pm EST)

City councilors will be meeting tonight to review and decide upon their next steps with the municipal employee compensation study. City Manager Ed Morris, a career firefighter with little management experience, is pushing hard for additional pay raises even though union employee contracts have been signed and are still valid. It seems Mr. Morris just wants to line all of the city employee’s pockets with more money. I also have a sneaky suspicion that once all of the pay levels are increased that he will say that he needs an enormous pay raise too so to maintain the distance between his pay and everyone else’s. This has all the appearance of a large money grab at taxpayer’s expense with absolutely no benefit for us the taxpayers but plenty of benefit for the municipal employees.
Donk (Wednesday, November 04 20 12:04 pm EST)

Morris knows that his true constituency are the employees of the City of Claremont.If he takes care of them he has a job for life.Also,if all of them get pay raises so too shall he.
If the city employees don't like the pay they are free to move on to greener patures.I don't think that we will have a problem attracting replacements at the current pay and benefit structure.I would say we should have a look at the new guys at the sober living facility,they couldn't do any worse than what we already have.

Close and winterize the community center until a vaccine has been delivered to all,probably 2022.
Brad (Wednesday, November 04 20 11:42 am EST)

It looks like Mr. Morris gave away the candy store with this alleged negotiation with Steel Mill Solar LLC. No favored nation clause to make sure Claremont’s city government and the taxpayers get the best price possible. A 50% property assessment reduction on the largest parcel of land that the solar company wants to lease. All vague noncommittal terms and a total absence of anything resembling solid legal clauses. In case you are wondering how I know I looked the document up on the Registry of Deeds website and read it for myself. Short, sweet and nothing there just about sums it up. The city is required to do all kind of things and it seems that the solar company gets off scot-free. I also don’t like the idea of the solar company being able to pass off the rights of the property to anyone else they decide that is an affiliate of theirs. A secret partnership could be reached at any time with an entity we as a community may not want to do business with and we as a community is stuck because Mr. Morris already signed our rights away. Moreover, for what? Who the heck knows because no dollars and cents or any other type of payment is included in the agreement. I would also like to know what happened to the city generating their own solar power. That was supposed to be part of the deal. Was that just a nonstarter to sweeten the deal to get the Council to break out their rubber stamps, vote yes and not ask any difficult or any potentially controversial questions as they always do? Heck of a way to run the city.
Jim Sullivan (Wednesday, November 04 20 07:28 am EST)

Official Claremont local election results are published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, November 03 20 01:36 pm EST)

Special Report!

Hold onto your wallets! Council to consider Municipal Pay & Classification Study Presentation, outrageously expensive recommendations & possibly approve Implementation Plan during their Wednesday, November 4 special meeting!

Article published on the News Flashes page of this website.
Chris (Tuesday, November 03 20 08:06 am EST)

Thank you Jim and AJ for reporting about the Steel Mill Solar LLC negotiations going on behind the closed doors of City Hall out of sight and out of mind to everyone it seems but the two of you. You uncovered several disturbing things. Anyone of them by itself might be explained away but together it shows a very disturbing pattern of behavior, especially on the heels of what has now become a controversial sale of the Junior Sports League building to a county official. As with the JSL, there is another situation of a significant property assessment reduction just before the property is put into use by an outside entity. I am wondering if this is going to affect the payment in lieu of taxes price changing it in a downward direction. Then there is the matter of the missing meeting minutes on the city website and important clauses that should have been included in the option to lease agreement that were missing. Needless to say I do not trust Ed Morris and I am beginning to wonder who he is really working for because it does not seem to be the people of Claremont. I am wondering the same thing about the city councilors.
Jim Sullivan (Monday, November 02 20 01:41 pm EST)

Two new articles published today.

1) City Manager Ed Morris signs vague Memorandum of Option to Lease with Steel Mill Solar LLC.

2) October 28, 2020 Claremont City Council Meeting Synopsis.

Both articles can be found on the News Flashes page of this website.
TRUMP 2020 (Monday, November 02 20 08:05 am EST)

TRUMP 2020 go vote we can't let the snowflakes win bad enough we have tons in our local government fucking that up
Poor jeff got us taxpayers again (Friday, October 30 20 07:40 pm EDT)

In a position for the county he was paid a annual salary for !!!
Jeff is a sorry excuse
John J O’Connor (Friday, October 30 20 07:55 am EDT)

What people are forgetting is Jeff had a ton more information on the JSL because of his position as a County Commissioner.
Jeff, as a Commissioner, did extensive research into the JSL for the county when the county was considering the JSL for its Sober living house.
He has access that others considering purchasing the building didn’t have. He had access to paperwork others didn’t have and lastly, he had access to city administration that others don’t have and because of this access he was able to request and receive a new evaluation on the JSL.
If have to ask yourself, would the average investor have the same privileges and access ?
Keith (Wednesday, October 28 20 01:53 pm EDT)

In Claremont sweetheart deals like this has become business as usual. Especially since Charlene Lovett became Mayor and her right hand henchman Allen Damren became Assistant Mayor.
William (Wednesday, October 28 20 01:24 pm EDT)

Jeff Barrett can howl at the moon, crying foul until the cows come home. It will not matter. This deal stinks to high heaven and everybody who has read the Sullivan Report articles damn well knows it. I am so sick and tired of this BS happening in Claremont. I thought Mr. Ed Morris would be someone different. Someone honest with some honest-to-goodness ethics. I was wrong and now I think it is time for a new city manager once again. Maybe this time the councilors will for once show some good sense and hire a professional firm to do a nationwide search of qualified ethical candidates.
Todd (Wednesday, October 28 20 12:55 pm EDT)

Don, the way you feel about the Morris Administration is the exact same way that I feel about the city councilors. With all of these disturbing things that the Sullivan Report has uncovered and published the actual proof for is all of us to see and then for the city councilors to ignore the truth and do nothing about it says one thing to me and that is that the city councilors are just as corrupt as the city administrators.
Don (Wednesday, October 28 20 12:44 pm EDT)

Tragically, this is how business is conducted in Claremont these days. It is sad when there is not anyone honest enough on the city council to cry foul and stand up for the hard-working citizens of our fair city. Instead, our local officials have the mindset of which one of our buddies can we help out today with taxpayers money or assets or both and screw over the ignorant taxpayers in the process. Then they all lie about it by cherry picking what they tell the citizenry with their whitewashed version of their actions in the hopes that the citizenry never finds out the truth. If it were not for Jim Sullivan and AJ Maranville, two former city councilors, we would never know the truth about any of the dirty rotten things that routinely happen at City Hall and at the school district and in county government that our despicable local government leaders all try to cover up.

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