Former Portsmouth Mayor Sean Dunne wants a do-over of the vote at last week’s city council organizational meeting that saw four out of the six members of Portsmouth City Council vote to replace him as mayor. In fact, he said friends and relatives of some council members could face subpoenas and depositions if it doesn’t happen.
Dunne said he had concerns about a Facebook post discussing council business and a series of phone calls violating open meeting laws. “Has anyone ever heard of round robin? I’m trying to be a mediator and not encourage any scorched earth or nuclear approach to this. It sounds to me more like a procedural technicality.”
Dunne then went on to quote “a couple of definitions that the Attorney General’s Office supplied me with” about the definition of a public body and what constitutes a meeting. “A majority of the members of a public body who are discussing or deliberating business.” The former mayor also spoke on what constitutes a discussion.
He continued by saying that to comply with the Open Meetings Act, there must be appropriate notice that the meeting is happening to the public and that minutes must be taken at the meeting.
“The reason I asked council if they had heard of the phrase round robin is that based on all the different discussions in our community, well phone calls, leading up to our organizational meeting.”
Dunne equivocated council members talking to each other one at a time to discuss the same topic (presumably replacing him as mayor) as holding serial meetings to circumvent the public meeting laws. Dunne cited a 2017 incident with Portsmouth City Council and said that violating the Open Meetings Act would invalidate the vote.
Dunne said that members of the Portsmouth community already knew what the outcome of the organizational meeting would be. “They knew what the vote would be and exactly how it would work prior to the start of Tuesday’s meeting. Members of council were called. I believe the city manager was called to discuss it.”
Dunne said there could be “one simple remedy” and “one not-so-simple remedy” to the issue. “Ways that could be addressed is an injunction like in 2018 where depositions and subpoenas could be filed. It could take a lot of time, there could be a lot of negative press.” The former mayor went on to say that family and friends of those who might have discussed their plans to vote against him could be subpoenaed as well. “It would just all be a mess.”
Dunne said there were some people who were angry and wanted him to pursue that route, but he would rather not do that. “What I would suggest is a simple reset of the vote. Resetting the vote wouldn’t prohibit the same outcome from happening. It’s a case of process. That’s what I would appeal for. We could set a date for 5:30 prior to the next meeting. People could agree or disagree with the outcome, but they can’t disagree with the process.”
Other council members moved on to discuss other city matters such as warming stations, concerns over a homeless camp, construction on Coles Blvd causing issues for EMS workers, and the new elementary school in Sciotoville before adjourning without discussing the issue raised by Dunne.
