12-18-2013 News

Last night was one of angry outbursts, consequential decisions and interesting maneuvers in the Manchester area as the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen and Hooksett School Board saw dramatic confrontations during their final regularly scheduled meetings of the year.

In Hooksett, John “Angry Elf” Lyscars and David “The Pariah” Pearl were overrun by what could only be described as an orchestrated effort by Board Chair Trisha “The Gavel” Korkosz, Cheryl “BT” Akstin and Phil “Dumbo” Denbow to not only approve a ten year tuition contract with Pinkerton Academy, but also designate it as their high school of record, approve a tuition rate that’s six hundred bucks a year more than Manchester’s, adopt an enrollment agreement (just in case the voters trash the deal in March) and direct Superintendent Charles “Chucky the Super” Littlefield to assign all eighth graders to Pinkerton without defining the criterion by which parents could choose any of the other high school options.  The Gavel restricted board members from addressing the motion just twice by imposing Roberts Rules of Order to limit debate.  The Pariah and Angry Elf asked for the motion to be separated into each of its four parts and that discussion not be limited, but to no avail.  As the approximately fifteen minutes of debate drew to a close, Lyscars stood with his hands over his head demanding to speak for the Hooksett children, insisting he was going to stand there until he was recognized to speak.  He repeated that demand on three occasions and, during The Gavel’s call for the vote, talked over the proceedings, reminding everybody that just a month ago this board rejected virtually the same contract unanimously and demanded to know how an additional year before ninety percent of Hooksett’s children would be required to attend the school improved the deal.  The high school issue was moved up on the agenda and came to order after a raucous public comment session when supporters of the Pinkerton option that passed last night hammered the Angry Elf for everything from notes he sent them in Christmas cards to inflammatory social media posts.  Later in the meeting, BT Akstin moved to strip The Elf of his school district email account because she said he was violating board policies and his emails were creating a legal liability for the district.  Lyscars scoffed at the suggestion Akstin was worried about legal matters given their actions with Pinkerton put them squarely in Manchester’s legal cross hairs.  Pearl noted Akstin didn’t actually cite any policies and how they were violated.  Korkosz read off a list of policies allegedly violated, but denied Lyscars the ability to address the charges.  In the end, they spent as much time on Lyscars emails as they did the Pinkerton motion before voting, three to two, to take it away.  Lyscars response?  “I can be reached at Lyscars 4 H S B @ gmail dot com, I will not be silenced!”  Oh yeah, they also made a bunch of motions that added more than half a million dollars to their budget so they could go to Pinkerton.  We’ve linked to our live blog of all the fun from this news read at Girard at Large dot com and we have video of the fifteen minutes of debate allowed on the Pinkerton contract, including Lyscars standing with his hands over his head demanding to speak for the Hooksett children.  It is must see T V.

News from our own backyard continues after this.

Things were no less settled in Manchester last night as contentious debate surrounded everything from the mayor’s desire to spend up to twenty five thousand dollars on lawyers to intervene at the Public Utilities Commission over P S N H‘s case on L E D street lighting.  Mayor Ted Gatsas first raised the issue in his interview with Girard at Large last week.  The city currently pays a whopping thirty cents a kilowatt hour, well more than three times the residential rate, for street lighting plus it pays P S N H four hundred bucks every time it changes a light bulb.  Gatsas gaveled the meeting to recess after an outburst from Alderman at-Large Joe Kelly Levasseur who didn’t take kindly to a look he was getting either from Gatsas or Ward 10 Alderman Phil Greazzo, who took exception to the report produced by the city solicitor’s office which concluded that while Levasseur did use his office to obtain information, they believed the information obtained was public record.  Greazzo asked how they could take Levasseur’s word about a lapse given he’s quote “been documented telling lie after lie” end quote and the solicitor also produced a letter saying there’d been no lapse in coverage.  Levasseur erupted later in the meeting during discussion with Fire Chief James Burkush over his projected budget shortfall and some ideas on how to manage it.  Levasseur accused the mayor of bullying the chief time and again and picking on the Fire Department, demanded to know by what authority the mayor was issuing directives to the chief do and yelled at Gatsas to let the chief manage his department.  At the end of the meeting, an almost contrite Levasseur praised, yes praised, both Police Chief David Mara, who earlier told the board about the department policy requiring two police officers be present when speaking with Levasseur so that there are witnesses, and Assistant City Solicitor Tom Arnold for their victory in the Stephen Coco arbitration case…you know the one Levasseur said the chief mishandled and probably wanted Arnold to litigate because of an allegedly bad track record on those cases?  Yeah, well they’re heroes now and have earned accolades from Alderman Joe  Kelly Levasseur.  Ha!  Wonder where those comments came from…We’ve linked to our live blog of the meeting for your entertainment.

That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is straight ahead