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The challenge of the mayors' Task Force on Efficiencies and Consolidations isn't merely to come up with ideas for saving money. The challenge is to come up with ideas that won't get shot down.
City officials, feeling the breath of a March 31 budget deadline on their necks, are looking for money, and their search has led them straight into the trash bin.
Aldermen don't get parking tickets. But Jack Brady does.
MAYOR Ted Gatsas has a new favorite phrase: "Imagine the possibilities."
ALDERMAN Jim Roy thinks the man in charge of Manchester's Office of Youth Services should be fired.
The name plate on the conference table said Mayor Frank C. Guinta, but the man in the chair behind it was someone else.
MAYOR-ELECT Ted Gatsas shares his predecessor's views about the city's public access TV stations.
JOE LAHR is well aware of rumors that MCAM, the public-access TV station he manages, is on the verge of shutting down.
With all the money Alderman Ted Gatsas was raising early on the in the mayoral race, it seemed this election was destined to be a record-smasher. The picture looks a little different now.
SCHOOL BOARD members Art Beaudry and Debra Gagnon Langton weren't getting much help from the Democratic Party, so they're getting an assist from the GOP instead.
One alderman noted, "I'll be honest with you: I don't know where most of the department heads live." In fact, roughly 40 percent of all Manchester department heads and city officers live outside the city.
IF REPUBLICANS gain some seats on the Board of Mayor and Aldermen this year, they'll probably want to raise a glass in toast of Fred Tausch.
Alderman and state Sen. Ted Gatsas' campaign for mayor continues to vacuum up money, recently at a rate of $1,000 per day.
In past primaries, two candidates would move on to the general election, and one would be recognizable as a Republican, and the other would be a Democrat.
Ted Gatsas has begun firing shots at Bobby Stephen, a chief foe in the quickly intensifying campaign for mayor, after quietly enduring weeks of heavy fire from his opponent's camp.
Superintendent Tom Brennan doesn't have all the answers, but he can safely say this about the new school year: "Things will not be the same."
Mark Roy is just getting around to posting campaign signs, three months after announcing his bid for mayor. Meanwhile, Ted Gatsas has put up about 1,000.
Manchester's City Charter places no limits on how much money a person or group can give to a candidate. It doesn't place any restrictions on who may donate, either.
When a superior court judge threw out the city's case against the proposed spending cap, one alderman declared the matter closed. Really?
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY recently went after Mayor Frank Guinta for not paying his sewer bill on time. You'd think they would have checked to make sure their own candidates were a bit more punctual.
Also, a new report by a state task force asserts that young people in the Granite State don't "connect" with the phrase "Live Free or Die." Some say the motto is "not a friendly, supporting message" and "something else is needed."
The drama begins tomorrow, when the first batch of candidates lines up at the City Clerk's Office for the start of the two-week filing period. Doors open at 8 a.m.
Mayor Frank Guinta found himself tangled up in the sort of mini-scandal that was just weird enough to earn mentions on several major political blogs, including The Huffington Post.
Mayor Frank Guinta found himself tangled up in the sort of mini-scandal that was just weird enough to earn mentions on several major political blogs, including The Huffington Post.
City Hall: Bars and Manchester politicians share long history
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By SCOTT BROOKS
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
Sunday, Jul. 5, 2009
 Scott Brooks has been covering Manchester politics since 2007. His
column can be found every week in the New Hampshire Sunday News.
E-mail Scott Brooks at sbrooks@unionleader.com
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AN ALDERMAN and a Congressional candidate walk into a bar . . .
Stop us if you've heard this one.
The joke of the week was on Mayor Frank Guinta, who found himself tangled up in the sort of mini-scandal that was just weird enough to earn mentions on several major political blogs, often under sensational and completely unfair headlines. How unfair? Try this one, from the Huffington Post: "Frank Guinta: GOP candidate implicated in drunken bar fight."
We've still got questions about Guinta's and Alderman Mike Garrity's wild night at the East Manchester Fish & Game Club, and no doubt, many of the details will be sorted out in the weeks to come. To the national press, though, which seems shocked, shocked! that a Congressional candidate would spend so much as a minute in some city bar, we have this to say.
Welcome to Manchester.
This is a city whose aldermen postponed a regularly scheduled board meeting so it wouldn't conflict with St. Patrick's Day.
►ON TV: New Hampshire Union Leader State House Bureau Chief Tom Fahey and City Hall reporter Scott Brooks will discuss the state budget and Manchester mayor's race today on WMUR's "Close Up" at 10 a.m.
It's a city that, two years ago, elected a bartender, Jennifer Peabody, to the school board and a bar owner, Kelleigh Murphy, to the board of aldermen. Now comes another election, and we've got one former bar owner, Keith Hirschmann, running for alderman, and another, Bobby Stephen, running for mayor.
For crying out loud, our City Hall is almost literally surrounded by bars.
"Hey, it's part of the fabric of a community," said Alderman Peter Sullivan, who likes to unwind after board meetings with a beer at McGarvey's or the Wild Rover. Sullivan's law office is located above a bar. Its owner is his landlord.
This is a city of private clubs, like the Fish & Game, but also the American Legion's Sweeney Post on Maple Street, where Alderman George Smith can be found five afternoons a week.
"Everybody has a private life," Smith said. "Even though they're politicians."
This is a city where union members get a new contract and go straight from City Hall to the Strange Brew to celebrate. It's a blue-collar town, a former mill town, built by beer-swilling immigrants who begat beer-swilling sons and daughters.
You know, Guinta himself used to be a bouncer.
There will be questions, sure. How did Tom English break his leg that night at the Fish & Game? Was Garrity out drinking with English, as English's family has said? More to the point, why didn't Garrity and Guinta stick around until the ambulance arrived?
Answers may be hard to come by, but if you're willing to settle for rumor and speculation, get yourself to downtown Manchester. There's a bar just around the corner.
HAND OVER FIST: State Sen. Ted Gatsas is on pace to shatter the city's campaign fund-raising record.
Gatsas' mayoral campaign held its first fund-raiser last week, pulling in $111,225 in one fell swoop. That's not a typo.
"It's a huge number for one event," campaign manager Samantha Piatt said. She estimates Guinta raised a record $310,000 in the entire 2007 campaign.
Finance committee co-chairman Sean Owen said he's aiming to raise between $300,000 and $350,000, all before the Sept. 15 primary. That way, he said, they can cruise into the general election without worrying about money.
Piatt said the campaign will probably roll out TV ads before Labor Day. Already, the campaign has sent out 20,000 surveys, at a cost of roughly $15,000, Owen said.
Gatsas' rivals won't say they're trying to keep up with him. Neither Stephen nor Alderman Mark Roy has held a fund-raiser yet, though both said they're confident they'll be able to raise "enough."
"I'm not worried about raising money," Stephen said. "I have been raising money successfully for charities for most of my adult life."
IT MUST BE RAINING: It's time, once again, for the aldermen to scoop some money out of the ol' "rainy day" fund.
Fiscal year 2009 came to an end last week with the city in a $3.5 million hole. It will be up to the aldermen to decide what to do about that, but Guy Beloin, the city's assistant director of accounting and reporting, said he believes it's inevitable that some or all of that money will come out of the "rainy day" fund.
That's not a good thing. Without money in the fund, the city could see its bond ratings downgraded, making it harder to pay for major projects.
There's $9.2 million in the fund right now.
"Any time you have to draw on it, it says the management side of the budget didn't meet expectations," Alderman Roy said.
The deficit might have been about $1.5 million if not for the newly approved state budget, which withholds revenue sharing from local communities. Manchester was expecting a $2 million check this September. That won't be coming now.
DEM VS. DEM: Alderman Jim Roy is facing some competition from within his own party.
State Rep. Nickolas Levasseur, a two-term Democrat, has decided to challenge Roy for the Ward 4 alderman's seat. The reason, he said, has less to do with what he thinks of Roy than with the fact that he wants to be an alderman, and, as he puts it, "This is the seat available to me."
"It's not an anti-Jim thing," Levasseur said. "It's a pro-me thing."
Roy said he was surprised to hear Levasseur was coming after him. "But he's welcome to," Roy said. "Obviously, anyone can do it."
Levasseur, a Trinity High graduate, is 25 years old and says he wants to inject some young blood on a board that's, shall we say, seasoned.
"With Kelleigh Murphy not running, there's a bit of an age gap," he said. "I'm definitely somebody who believes we need young progressive leaders in government."
For the record, Roy is 54. "And when I was 24," the alderman said, "I thought 54 was old, too."
NEW CHAIR: Committeeman John Avard has been picked to chair the school board's finance committee now that Doug Kruse has left the board.
Avard, meanwhile, has announced he will seek a second term on the board.
GOING FOR IT: After years of trying to change the system from the outside, education activist Kathy Staub is biting the bullet. She's going to run for school board at-large.
Staub said the focus of her campaign will be "student achievement."
"I've been told that if that is what I plan to talk about there is no way I will ever win," she wrote in an e-mail. "So be it. All I know is that a decade of arguing about money and pizza has gotten us nowhere."
Read Scott Brooks' coverage of Manchester City Hall during the week in the New Hampshire Union Leader. E-mail him at sbrooks@unionleader.com.
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YOUR COMMENTS
Hope this isn't a kiss of death coming from a Republican, but I find Nick Levasseur to be one the best Reps in the Manchester delegation, someone who truly puts benefit of the public ahead of any party interest. He's much more liberal than I am (I believe he favors an income tax), but he's the kind of public servant Ward 4 voters could be proud of as their alderman.
As to this lengthy thing on the bar room brawl, only a repoorter favoring Dems (as Scottie has long proven to be) could fail to mention that Democratic State Rep was also involved in the brawl! That's what I read not in Brooks column, but in the Express.
- steve vaillancourt, manchester
Mr Hilliard of Pembroke,
You should problably know that Alderman Garrity is a Republican.
Well, there goes that theory...
- John, Manchester
The Wild Rover is a "dive"?
Looks like Jack Alex opened a bottle or two before posting his comment!
- Richard, Manchester
Well, Guinta & Garrity are fortunate that they are not Democrats and having that fiasco covered by the UL. I mean is ther anybody who can't see through this spin?
- Bill, Manchester, NH
Scott, there you go again. You quote from the Huffington Post, a far left Democrat web site. Do you think they are going to say anything about the Demorat alderman that was more involved than the Rebublican mayor that appeared to be an onlooker ??
- Robert Hilliard, Pembroke
Jack Alex -- I'd wish you'd either get your facts straight or just shut up. Anyone who would consider either McGarvey's OR The Wild Rover a "dive" has either never set foot in the place(s) or has absolutely no idea what the term "dive" means...I'm betting the former AND the latter. Your comments here, again, show a complete lack of understanding not only the real world but being able to see more than just one side of situation -- yours! After reading some of your other clueless comments on these pages, I suggest you give up trying to read and go back to watching American Idiot full time. Let someone else do the heavy lifting and voting for you.
- Ray Pendergst, Newport News VA
Oh the days of FLO's where one could ride his motorcycle through and not look out of place. At least FLO's did one thing, if the police ever needed to find someone they were looking for it was like a one stop thing they didn't have to searching house to house, usually could find the subject of their search on the first try.
Alderman Peter Sullivan, who likes to unwind after board meetings with a beer at McGarvey's or the Wild Rover. Two of the city's biggest dives at least they are not as dusty as the Fish & Game Club.
American Legion's Sweeney Post on Maple Street, where Alderman George Smith can be found five afternoons a week, why doesn't this suprise me, and I guess I shouldn't be suprised its cheaper than the Rover or McGraveys. For my buddy George it's a chance to probably get out of the house.
As far as the "rainy day" fund goes right now its pouring cats n'dogs and waters coming over the dam. "Any time you have to draw on it, it says the management side of the budget didn't meet expectations," Alderman Roy said.
For the record revenues didn't meet up to expectations. People downgrading their cable, 2nd cars getting let go or not re-registered, folks going broke and not being able to afford their new boat or camper.
'there's a bit of an age gap," he said. "I'm definitely somebody who believes we need young progressive leaders in government'. I'm not sure if I can afford your progressive leadership sonny, my wallets pretty empty, see the Fed and State got to me first before I got out of the office.
'Staub said the focus of her campaign will be "student achievement"' Even though I think Kathy would end up being a big spender on the school board and I do respect her philosophy maybe more needs to be down to get parents involved in their childrens education. There should be parents at home with their kids after school to make sure homework is getting down, that there is supervision and discipline and parents should be held accountable as well is their kids.
- Jack Alex, Manchester
"It's time, once again, for the aldermen to scoop some money out of the ol' "rainy day" fund. Fiscal year 2009 came to an end last week with the city in a $3.5 million hole." Well of course the Aldermen will blame the people elected to the State for it, after all they didn't get a 2 mil. check. So what about the 1.5 mil. that's left. Oh that's right, the 2.9% tax increase was the aldermen's idea to say to the people they represent; "Hey we are fiscally responsible, we kept the tax increase from being more than 3%". Or the favorite line of theirs; "If you want quality services, tax increases have to happen sometimes." Tell me another one. The people of this city (hopefully) have had it with poor mismanagement of their tax dollars. After a tax cut, yes cut, in 2007 that was 1.7%, the people of Manchester were given a 4.7% tax increase in 2008 and another increase this year of 2.9% with still 3.5 mil. deficit. So adding insult to injury, the aldermen remind me of a story I read to my daughter, The little red hen. It goes something like this. As three farm animals don't want to waste their time helping bake the bread with the hen (Who will help bake the bread?, Not I said the farm animals) but when it comes to eating the bread, (Who will help me eat the bread? I will! said the farm animals). Just goes to show, the aldermen won't help to make this city better for everyone but they will be sure to take your money without another thought to the matter. Time for new leadership both in our school committee as well as in our city government.
Robert M Tarr
Candidate for Ward 5 Alderman
- Robert M Tarr, Manchester
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