Port City ethics probe was a total sham says city councilor who was exonerated

Clockwise from top left, Rochester City Councilor Jeremy Hutchinson, Portsmouth City Councilor Esther Kennedy and longtime Rochester City Councilor David Walker. (Courtesy photos)

ROCHESTER - The city of Rochester is on a fast track to establish an ethics commission that could remove elected officials for malfeasance, but the longest serving City Councilor and a Portsmouth official who says she was railroaded in a sham investigation by that city's ethics board warn the process can quickly devolve into petty partisanship and political grandstanding.

Portsmouth's ethics commission found City Councilor Esther Kennedy guilty of an ethics violation because last summer she wrongfully registered the name for a nonprofit that would be in line to receive CARES ACT funding.

But Kennedy on Tuesday said the group, in fact, wasn't properly registered as a nonprofit.

"PopUP NH was (posing) as a nonprofit, but they were not registered as such and were going to use CARES ACT funds, which would be wrong," she said. "So I registered the popup name to show they had not done that."

Kennedy noted that she had offered to release her registration to the name if the group filed paperwork for the nonprofit status.

The ethics investigation began on the accusation of former Portsmouth City Councilor Nancy Pearson and accused Kennedy of having an interest in the outcome, Kennedy added.

The four-member ethics board found her guilty by a unanimous vote in September, but the City Council voted 6-3 to fully exonerate her after she laid out her case during a special meeting in October, Kennedy said.

The day after the vote the Portsmouth Herald quoted Pearson, whose complaint fueled the ethics probe, as being "unfazed" by the vote.

"Luckily, the swift, unambiguous, and unanimous decision of the independent Ethics Board still stands. Esther Kennedy is guilty of committing an ethics violation and that will always remain true in Portsmouth," she told the Herald.

Rochester City Councilor David Walker, who has been serving since 1995, said the potential for partisanship and politically motivated "witch hunts" worry him the most when it comes to establishing such a commission.

"This kind of thing can get political in a hurry," he said on Tuesday. "That's my worst concerns. We don't need to have partisanship, and it can get political real fast."

Walker also echoed City Councilor Chris Rice's sentiments at an earlier City Council meeting that ethics complaints shouldn't be based on incidents that occurred prior to taking elected office.

"We shouldn't have past sins be a predicate for a witch hunt," he said.

Councilor Jeremy Hutchinson called for the establishment of an ethics commission on March 2, saying the city "lacks a clear reproducible fair and transparent mechanism to address complaints brought to the City Council by residents and member of the public."

Hutchinson said that past conduct of a city official prior to holding elected office should also be subject to an ethics commission probe.

He added that under current ordinance and charter language, "obvious vulnerabilities exist in the adjudication of complaints made against city officials."

Hutchinson during the meeting made a motion to suspend the rules so that the previously undiscussed measure could be brought to a full council vote, but didn't get a second.

Codes and Ordinances Chair Pete Lachapelle, who along with several councilors appear open to the commission's formation, will begin the process of fashioning an Ethics Board ordinance at its next meeting on April 1.

Walker said beside the actual writing of the ordinance the City Council has to make sure they have the authority to not only remove City Council members but also members of the School Board and the Police Commission.

The council also discussed the need for four-year staggered terms for all three bodies so that institutional memory is not threatened with the removal of any office holders.

The ethics commission as discussed would also apply to city board officials who were not elected but appointed.

It would not apply to city employees who are governed under a separate ordinance.

Dover, Somersworth and Portsmouth all have ethics commissions but the Port City is the only one to have had to convene to address a complaint.

For Kennedy, being dragged through the ethics commission mud for months leaves a bitter taste in her mouth.

"I am very disappointed," she said. "People were saying I had a financial conflict of interest that benefited me, which I didn't. People were mad I was trying to make a point. I feel bad if anybody else has to go through it."

She said the Portsmouth process is flawed and has to be tightened.

"In many ways this was politically motivated," she said, adding that Pearson had recently lost her seat on the Portsmouth City Council.

"It was very traumatic, however I knew I was right and I had a lot of support," she said, "The ethics committee now has no credibility at this point."

Kennedy said that in Portsmouth the group that investigated claims of her alleged malfeasance comprised four city officials from different boards, all whose names were picked out of a hat.

She said she would advocate for an additional five members of the public to complete a nine-member board. She also said an ethics commission should have standing members, not ad hoc members selected upon the receipt of a complaint.

Hutchinson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.