Council hearing restored

According to ConcordTV, the second half of the March 10 Concord City Council meeting has been restored on the channels' Web site. There was a technical problem with the encoding software and "was not intentional in any way," according to Executive Director Julienne Turner.
I will say that streaming video of the government meetings is a great feature to be offering residents. Not only do they not have to pay for cable now and still get municipal meeting coverage, but the consumer of the video can choose when they want to watch it and not be handcuffed by when the meeting airs on the channels.

Monitor adds podcasts

In a step towards modernization and multimedia, the Concord Monitor announced yesterday that it would be adding podcasts to its Web site in an effort to get more information out to readers. Podcasts are digital audio recordings which can either be played on a computer or downloaded into a digital audio player like an iPod or Sansa. Executive Editor Felice Belman announced the addition in a column, saying that it would be an opportunity for writers and editors to share a bit of what happened behind the story.
This is not the first foray into audio for the Monitor. The newspaper has recorded and posted its editorial roundtables with presidential candidates in the past.
It is nice to see that the Monitor is expanding this feature so that readers who are a part of the digital age of media can get a bit more than just want is currently on the Web site and in the print edition. It does not make up for time-consuming investigative reporting which is badly needed in our state and community. But it is a nice new feature for readers of the Web site.

BTW, did anyone else see the city budget story yesterday in the Monitor? I only had time to skim it. Multi-million dollar deficits and taxes going up by about 5.4 percent. So much for zero sum budgeting.

Glad I don't shop at Hannaford's

About an hour ago, the Union Leader reported the following:

The Hannaford Bros. supermarket chain has announced thefts of customer credit and debit card numbers from hundreds of its stores. About 1,800 cases of reported fraud are linked to the security breach.

However, I do shop at other stores. Maybe it is time for me to figure out some other way of paying for groceries other than the debit card.

Underage Drinking Prevention: National Town Hall Meeting

The Concord Substance Abuse Coalition and the Capital Region Community Prevention Coalition will be hosting a meeting at the Rundlett Middle School library on Thursday, April 3 at 6:30 p.m. as part of a national effort to combat the problem. Speakers include Deb Samaha of Concord Hospital Injury Prevention; Parent Dolly Flanders; Concord Police Lt. Greg Taylor; and a representative of Concord High School. The discussion will be moderated by Alan Robichaud.
For more information, call Jennie Stewart-Boldin at 223-2023.

Gibson's gets a blog!

Michael Herrmann over at Gibson's Bookstore now has a blog for his store: [Gibson's Bookstore].

City administration to investigate possible wrongdoing by CCTV, former Councilor Rogers

The Concord City Council voted on Monday to have the city administration investigate possible wrongdoing by employees of CCTV, now called ConcordTV, as well as former Councilor and 2007 Mayoral candidate, Kathy Rogers.
In a letter to the Council, resident Rick Watrous requested that the Council have the city's administration finish the original investigation he requested, as well as look into Rogers' influence over the proceedings when she was chairwoman of the Rules Committee. Rogers, who has a program on ConcordTV with her pug dog, has been connected to the cable access center since its inception and even remarked that she helped create the channels during her mayoral race.
One charge also remains before the Rules Committee: Whether Doris Ballard used her position as an at-large city councilor to attain a full-time job at CCTV.
"I thank the council for your patience but I believe that important questions remain to be answered," wrote Watrous, who is also the former executive director of CCTV.
Some of those questions include whether or not Rogers violated council rules by chairing the investigation in which she had a personal interest; whether Rogers misinformed the council, concealed, or suppressed evidence, or otherwise misdirected the investigation; whether Rogers withheld evidence concerning her own nonpublic weekend use of the channel's studios; whether Rogers instructed the Concord Police Dept. to investigate Watrous concerning a public document that he submitted to the Rules Committee and whether she violated city charter in this action.
Other questions include whether or not CCTV employees tampered with public or private documents under the investigation by the Rules Committee and whether those employees or board members provided false testimony to the committee; whether CCTV employees provided false information to the police concerning Ballard's employment contract; whether Ballard used her at-large city council position to attain full-time employment at CCTV; and whether the full-time position which Ballard attained - Outreach and Development Director - was ever advertised to the public and if so, how many candidates applied for the position.
At the end of the meeting Monday, Mayor Jim Bouley asked for a motion on the request and sat silently waiting for a response.
Eventually, at-large Councilor Dan St. Hilaire moved for approval [St. Hilaire is also a County Attorney and sat on the Rules Committee during the process].
During the comment phase, Councilor Keith Nyhan, Watrous' Ward Councilor and a former CCTV board member, said he would vote against approval saying the issue has been "beaten to death like a dead horse."
Councilor Candace Bouchard, who is also a state representative on the Heights and replaced Rogers on the council, agreed with Nyhan [Bouchard is also a former CCTV board member].
Ward 2 Councilor William Stetson, a former board member and treasurer for CCTV, moved to table the item indefinitely, a move which was seconded by an identifiable female councilor.
Bouley said while he agreed with the comments that the issue had been beaten to death, he wondered what impression it would give others who had difficult issues to bring up before the council if the request was rejected.
"I find myself in an awkward situation," he said. "What do you do? I would like to see it go away as well ... but who knows in this case."
St. Hilaire said he believed the action should be approved because of the outstanding issue about the conflict of interest issue with Ballard's employment which was tabled by the Rules Committee in 2007.
"Despite what we feel about this issue, there was one item tabled," he said.
Councilor Dick Patten, who has a program on ConcordTV called "Around Town," used the Rule 6 out in order to not give an appearance of a conflict of interest.
The vote to table was then rejected by voice vote.
Nyhan then seconded St. Hilaire's motion, noting that if there was a point of order that was not pursued, it should be dealt with.
The request was then approved by the council by a voice vote.

Sidebar: Interestingly, the second section of the council meeting containing debate over the letter was not posted on the ConcordTV Web site. However, both the first and second sections of the Feb. 11 meeting were posted online. One has to wonder whether this is censorship of that portion of the hearing or just a mistake. An email has been sent to ConcordTV employees to find out why the second section was not posted.

More snow? Oh come on

Hey Mother Nature, wasn't it me who was begging you just a few days ago that I had had enough of the snow? Now they're telling me on the news that there is going to be more snow. Even just a few more inches is too many inches at this point. Although, it looks like Concord will break a snow record this year so I guess that is kinda cool ... no pun intended.

Where does the time go?

Just a quick note for some of my regular and irregular readers. Due to Mother Nature's rainstorms last week, as well as family and work stuff, I have been completely preoccupied and unable to post anything. There is a lot of stuff to write about but I just don't have the time right now [Boy, doesn't that statement say a lot? Tony doesn't have the time to "write" ... hah!]. Seriously though, I'll be back with more stuff on Wednesday.

Concord schools close

A few hours ago, the Concord School District closed all the schools for Wednesday due to the danger of heavy snow on top of the school buildings. According to some Rundlett students, there are roof issues on the building. The issue repairs needed to the building was also brought up at last night's school board meeting, according to a source.

R.I.P. Rep. Mike Whalley

I just heard on WMUR-TV Channel 9 that state Rep. Mike Whalley, R-Alton Bay, passed away today of cancer. When I was a radio journalist covering the State House in 2005, I would often be in the Elections Committee where Whalley was the chairman. I talked with him a number of times and when I was in his committee, he was always a gracious host. Whalley played hardball politics which sometimes rubbed people the wrong way. However, he was a good chairman and ran a tight committee. He will be missed. Best to his family in this tragic time.

Update: PolitickerNH.com is reporting that Whalley died from a brain tumor.