With a 3-2 vote, the Londonderry Town Council approved appointments for the Planning Board on Monday night. Of those appointed was former Town Councilor John Farrell.
Prior to the council decision, during a recent Planning Board workshop, members of the board discussed the appointment process.
At that meeting, Planning Board alternate Tony DeFrancesco said that the Town Council was making appointments to various boards and committees. He noted that in the past, the Planning Board brought forward its own nominations and made recommendations to the Town Council, particularly when moving alternates to full-time positions.
DeFrancesco added that when he learned about the new process, he sent an email, but didn’t receive a response on what steps to take.
This year, anyone interested in serving on committees or boards needed to apply to then be considered by the Town Council, which held its first round of interviews at the Nov. 17 meeting. It was noted that DeFrancesco’s term as an alternate member doesn’t expire until January next year, but had voiced wanting to move to full time.
The Planning Board wanted to accommodate Jason Knight’s request to be an alternate instead of a full-time position, which opened Knight’s full-time position. Current alternate Ryan Ouellette wanted to be moved up to a full time position along with DeFrancesco to the other full-member position, leaving only one alternate position open for a new person.
At the Monday night, Dec. 1, Town Council meeting, DeFrancesco was appointed a full time spot, however Ouellette was not. Instead former Town Councilor John Farrell was appointed as the final full time member. Meanwhile Knights and Ouellette were appointed as alternates.
Town Council Vice Chair and Planning Board Liaison Shawn Faber said he believes Ouellette is doing a good job but emphasized the importance of gaining experience as an alternate.
“I just feel with the experience needed for this Board, I think learning as an alternate is highly important,” Faber said.
He approved Knights requested to move to an alternate.
Councilors Dan Bouchard and Deb Paul voted against the slate of candidates. Bouchard expressed his frustration with the appointment, saying that Farrell, and another councilor, that is currently on the board, were responsible for a Land Use Change Tax agreement with Woodmont that was deemed to be illegal.
Bouchard said, “We got short changed on tax dollars and to appoint somebody to the Planning Board, that was involved in this is totally wrong and unethical.”
He was referring to the agreement document he had at the meeting.
During public comment, at the end of the meeting, resident Robin Stewart argued that Farrell was recently voted out of office and the Town Council should respect voters’ wishes.
“The Town voted out Mr. Farrell from office,” she said.
Another resident, Glenn Douglas, criticized the three councilors for not following the Planning Board’s recommendations, noting that if they had followed it, there would only be one alternate position to be filled.
Faber argued that the Planning Board recommended on voting for current members only.
Douglas responded that the board chose to ignore who the Planning Board wanted as their full-time members.