Well, well, well, Concord has a budget surplus

The Concord Monitor is reporting this morning that city government will have a $1.4 million budget surplus at the end of the year: ["Concord ends fiscal year with $1.4 million"].
Don't miss the big point here: If the auditing is correct on this, city officials never needed the 3 percent increase they placed on taxpayers earlier this year. In fact, if you look at the math [1 percent tax increase is equal to $290,000], property taxes in Concord should have been decreased this year by about 2 percent.
Yes, folks, you should have received a tax cut, not an increase, not unlike Manchester and other places are getting this year. Throw in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings I and others found earlier this year ["Monitor endorses 3 percent or higher tax increase ... "] and it would have been even higher than 2 percent. We're in the middle of the greatest economic crisis of our lifetimes. It's time for municipal government to be right-sized to reflect that crisis.

First Charter Commission meeting

I was unable to make the first Concord School District Charter Commission meeting due to a work commitment but I heard it was a rather slightly sleepy affair, with the board mainly focusing on procedure business. Eight of the nine members were present along with a handful of residents and a couple of school officials in the audience. No media outlets attended the meeting (they don't work on Fridays, don'tcha know).
Former School Board member Betty Hoadley was elected chairwoman, former Concord Mayor Mike Donovan was elected vice-chairman, and former School Board member Martin Honigberg was elected as clerk.
There was some discussion about whether or not the elephant in the room - the scope of the Charter Commission's work - should be batted around, but that was tabled until all members could be in attendance.
The next meeting, scheduled is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 30, and will be the first of two public hearings, requesting input from residents about the issues. A second one will be held in January.

Meeting moved to Nov. 19

I received late word last night that the School Charter Commission meeting has been rescheduled to Friday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m. The meeting will be held at the District's office at Dewey School. Leaders of the commission will be elected and schedule set for future meetings.

School Charter Commission meeting Wednesday

The Concord Monitor is reporting that the first meeting of the School Charter Commission has been set for Wednesday, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m. The meeting will be held at the District's office at Dewey School. Leaders of the commission will be elected and schedule set for future meetings.

Note to readers

A quick note to readers, especially those who leave comments. For whatever reason, the system that alerts me to comments being posted online is not working. The settings haven't changed; they are the same as my other blogs, which seem to be working. But, for whatever reason, they aren't working. I'm going to shut the notification process off and see how that works.

Congrats to the winners!

I'm really behind on things, due to work deadlines. However, here is a link to the Nov. 2, 2010, election results: http://www.onconcord.com/concordv2.asp?siteindx=E20,14

Guess which Charter Commission candidate works for Chris Rath's husband's law firm?

So, fair readers, I got another hot tip at the polls today, too late in the game to really do anything with, but what the heck ...
Guess which Charter Commission candidate works for School Superintendent Chris Rath's husband's law firm?

Add "Jeopardy" music here ...

William Ardinger, the Ward 5, 6, 7, candidate who is married to Kass Ardinger, the Concord School Board president, works at Rath, Young, Pignatelli! Wow, indeed.
I don't know why I didn't think to Google the guy before but I just didn't.
Just goes to show you, the fix really is in these days and there is wayyyy tooo much incestuousness in Concord politics.
Future tipsters: Next time, please send this tips along BEFORE the election!

Endorsed candidate's wife works for the Monitor

I got a little tip this afternoon that Peter Ellinwood, one of the candidates in the Ward 1, 2, 3, 4, School District Charter Commission race, might have an in at the Concord Monitor that helped him land the newspaper endorsement ... His wife works there.
I couldn't believe it, but my source said, "Google it." Sure enough, there is a Suzanne Ellinwood writing for the Monitor. I went and checked my copy of the voter's list and there she is.
Talk about conflicts of interest. This race is so incestuous it's crazy.