Bedford Council Member Pushing for Possible Town Charter Changes. And We Want That Why???

Before getting into the subject of today's blog, I'd like to thank all of you who emailed me about being chosen by the NH Press Association as one of the state's top three bloggers. Since I did not know that I was being considered, the honor came as a nice surprise. And it was flattering to be chosen along with longtime journalists from the Nashua Telegraph and the Concord Monitor. My thanks to Patch readers of this blog for repeatedly taking the time to read it!

So, my blog today is about our newest Bedford Town Council member, Ms. Kelleigh Domaingue Murphy. To remain "politically correct", I'm not sure how I should refer to her since she started her Council term as Councilor Murphy, but then instructed everyone to call her Councilor Domaingue. I do not know if she has since instructed people otherwise.

Actually, I'm not quite sure either as to how one is supposed to say her first name. I'm told by longtime Manchester residents, voters, and political pundits that she has alternated between pronouncing her name as "KAYLEE" and as "KELLY". Whether that was due to her personal preference at a given moment, or was dependent on an attempt to establish rapport with different ethnic voters, I cannot surmise. But to be safe, I shall simply refer to her as Councilor K.

Well, Councilor K has been a Bedford town councilor for 7 months now. As loyal readers of my blog know, when she declared her candidacy for the position in January, I said much about that she was running after just starting her new role as a state representative representing Bedford. And I recall that I also mentioned that she had quickly given up her elected position on the Manchester School Board in order to run to be a Manchester alderman. And then she resigned from that elected position in short order with an announcement of her move to Bedford - - - an announcement with comments that were regarded as insulting and demeaning to her Manchester supporters.

So anyway, I've watched with interest Councilor K's double involvement in both the NH House of Representatives and the Bedford Town Council. 

Now because I'm not infallible, and because quite frankly I do not find Councilor/Representative K to be very interesting, I may be wrong in stating that her primary legislative involvement has been in 2 bills . . . one which she sponsored that would have financial rewards to her business if passed, and the other which she sponsored that would seem to be of great personal interest to her with regard to her own background. Since the majority of state legislation is decided by voice vote, we really have no way to measure how often she represented her Bedford constituency by voting on bills throughout the session.  Several weeks ago, Councilor/Representative K announced that she will be retiring as a state legislator when her current term ends. So, assuming that she'll still be going to the State House occasionally while she remains in office, we probably need to more closely watch her voting proclivities when the House goes back into session. Oh yeah, she did state that she was retiring as a legislator so that she can pay more attention to being a town council member. Better to be a "big fish in a small pond" than a small fish in a big one, I suppose.

So . . . what have we seen so far with regard to Town Councilor K? Aside from our confusion as to what name she should be called, we've learned that she gets up early every morning so does not appreciate late-running Council meetings; that St. Patrick's Day is a big day for the Murphy's tavern business, thus she opposes the Bedford Town Meeting being held on that date; that she misses most, if not all, events in Bedford generally attended by other Council members; and that she really, really, really likes being the Council member who reads the motions for votes at the Council meetings. We know that she's a big fan of lots of business signs and banners. And we've witnessed that she still doesn't know where many well-known and well-traveled streets in Bedford are located.

But now, all of a sudden, we see Councilor K making a lot of noise about the establishment of a Charter Commission to open up the Town Charter for lots of possible changes.

So why would this be??? There has been no intent shown for such by the other 6 Council members with lots more Town Council experience than her own. If there is a group in town pushing for such, word of it would surely be known town-wide by now, even if the effort was secret. Secrets don't last long in Bedford. There are no overriding issues or problems in town that suggest the need for a charter overhaul. And we can look to other places to recognize that it is not uncommon for dickering with a charter that overall works well to often result in fiascoes that create lots of new problems.

Is Councilor K's motivation to spearhead this an attempt to become better known or more relevant in Bedford? We do hear from people familiar with her that she envisions herself as the next Chairman of the Bedford Town Council. Will she attempt to fire up people on "nothing" subjects in order to obtain signatures to get a ballot question about a charter commission on the March town election ballot?

If Councilor K has loftier political ambitions, leading a "citizens' charge" and being a town council chairman would add two more line items to her political resume, and could suggest a stronger civic commitment than that which she has actually evidenced during her job-hopping political career.

Or does all of Councilor K's current Council activity finally explain why she decided to run for Town Council when she had not yet even remotely proven herself to us as a reliable representative of Bedford residents in the State House? I contend that Councilor K does not know enough about this town or its government to actually be able to speculate if any charter changes need to be considered. Did Councilor K seek to become a Council member to serve as a conduit for people with reasons to remain in the shadows who would somehow benefit from some charter changes? That's a question well worth asking. And thus, we should accordingly seriously question Councilor K's activities.

And bluntly, given Councilor K's previous record of abandoning ships, there's absolutely no reason to believe that she won't set sail out of Bedford sooner rather than later. "Champion of the people" she is not. Nor does she have a record of honoring her political commitments. When 6 other Council members who often disagree arrive at a joint conclusion that looking at the town charter is a necessary endeavor, then I'll say that such might possibly be needed. But until then, I regard Councilor K's very recent campaign for such as nothing more than political nonsense and prattle that will take time and attention away from much more important issues related to Bedford's future.  
  
Oh, and by the way, we really don't care that in Manchester, Councilor K can hang as many banners as she wants on her tavern business. Bedford is still a long way from St. Patrick's Day parties that start at 5:00 AM.