ROCHESTER — City Manager John Scruton is being accused of trying to “intimidate” officials from Derry and Laconia in an attempt to dissuade them from participating in tonight’s information session on a proposed city tax cap.
Rochester Concerned Taxpayers Association Vice President Fred Leonard alleged in an e-mail on Tuesday that Scruton contacted Derry Town Administrator Gary Stenhouse and Laconia City Manager Eileen Cabanel, both of whom were scheduled to speak at the forum, with the intention of prompting both to cancel.
Cabanel did in fact cancel her appearance at the forum, stating the tax cap issue in Rochester seems too “politically charged” for her liking; however, former Rochester City Manager Stenhouse is still scheduled to present at the event, which will run from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the American Legion hall at 94 Eastern Ave.
“(I) want to know why the city manager would be calling the town manager from Derry and the city manager from Laconia and intimidating them into not participating in the Chamber’s tax cap forum on Wednesday night?” Leonard wrote in the e-mail that was sent out to Scruton, 11 of the 12 city councilors, and Mayor John Larochelle, among others.
“My understanding is, that the city manager from Laconia has now declined to participate as a result,” he continued. “Me and a lot of other people are growing tired of the action of Scruton … we want our council representation to consider strong punitive action (to include termination) against the city manager.”
According to Scruton, Leonard’s claims are completely baseless. Scruton said he called neither Stenhouse nor Cabanel attempting to “intimidate” them. What he did do, he said, was send an e-mail welcoming both to speak at the chamber’s forum and alerting them he knew of their involvement, an effort to make sure they were in line with policy governing the conduct of town and city managers.
“I am president of the New Hampshire Municipal Management Association and, to be on the safe side, I encourage young members to make sure they’re covered in events like this,” Scruton said. “One of our ethics guidelines says that you can’t go into another manager’s community to speak on an issue without letting that manager know.”
Scruton said his e-mail was sent simply to absolve both Stenhouse and Cabanel of that obligation by letting them know he was already aware of their involvement in the event.
Scruton forwarded a copy of his e-mail to Stenhouse and Cabanel to all recipients of Leonard’s initial e-mail, as well as to Leonard. The e-mail in question, dated Oct. 2, reads simply, “I am glad both of you are coming to participate in the Chamber forum. I write this just so there can be no issue raised under ICMA ethics code guideline for #2.”
The “ICMA ethics code guideline for #2” referenced in Scruton’s e-mail is the International City/County Management Association guideline, which states, “When members advise and respond to inquiries from elected or appointed officials of other local governments, they should inform the administrators of those communities.”
When asked if she believed Scruton’s intent was to intimidate her and Stenhouse into not speaking at the event, Cabanel took a long pause before answering.
“I wouldn’t call it intimidate,” she said. “All I can say is that e-mails can be read in many different ways, and sometimes it’s better to just pick up the phone and make a call.”
In addition to Stenhouse, Franklin Mayor Ken Merrifield and PolEcon Research economist Brian Gottlob will be the featured presenters at the event.
Both Merrifield and Stenhouse have direct experience with managing a municipality under a tax cap — Franklin has had a tax cap in place since 1989, and Derry for almost as long.
According to Chamber President Laura Ring, the chamber received requests from members asking if the chamber could provide any more information on the cap, which prompted the organization of this informational meeting.
“We wanted to help get information out there,” Ring said. “We’re asking each of our presenters to provide strictly factual data relating to their experience with a cap.”
When asked if she thinks presenters will stick to the chamber’s “strictly factual” guidelines, given the amount of heated debate surrounding the issue in recent months, Ring would only say that remaining factual is what the presenters have been instructed to do.
The information session will also be taped by Metrocast and rebroadcast on the Rochester Government Channel (Channel 26) sometime before the Nov. 4 election.