There was an overflow crowd attending the Londonderry Town Council Chambers during its Monday night, Oct. 21 meeting, with many community members speaking out against the way the resignation of Fire Chief Bo Butler was handled.
Butler tendered his resignation during the Monday night, Oct. 7, meeting.
The decision, Butler said, ultimately came down to his requirement to balance the budget, conflicting with what he thought was right, which was to have 13 firefighters per shift, after a warrant article passed in March with 70 percent of the vote, called for the staffing levels.
During Public Comment, resident Tara Myles was the first to speak, saying she has been a supporter of the Town Council and the Administration, while others have not.
“But my support is not unconditional, it is not without accountability. I support you today, because I believe you seek to do the right thing, and like me you don’t always get it right,” Myles said. “But also, like me, I hope when you don’t get it right you endeavor to make it right.”
Susan Dalessandro, another resident, said she never spoke at a Town Council meeting before, but wanted to show her support for the Fire Department.
As a resident on Mammoth Road, she said the number of sirens and emergency vehicles that go by her house have gone up “considerably.”
“If we can not support and staff our department in a level that is going to protect them what the heck are we doing as a Town,” Dalessandro said. “There is a cost to everything, there is a cost to being understaffed. Are you willing to pay that debt?”
Dan Bouchard, a former Londonderry Police Officer and current resident in town, pointed out that they have a bottom line budget.
“You got a bottom line budget. People in Town supported 13 firefighters,” Bouchard said. “Last meeting you saw all the firefighters in support of their chief who resigned.”
He also argued that they shouldn’t have lost Butler in the first place.
“We should never have lost Chief Butler, the rest of the Council should’ve been aware of what was going on,” Bouchard said.
Londonderry Police Chief Kim Bernard offered an explanation that the budgetary responsibility is the sole responsibility of the department head “plain and simple.”
“I blow my budget tomorrow I’m gone, that’s the facts, it’s the way it goes, it’s the law,” Bernard said.
It was also explained by Bernard, that they had to be creative when the six-month budget freeze was in effect last year.
“I had to cancel training, I had to stop a shipment of guns that we were trying to replace, I stopped hiring processes for four cops that we had in background at the time,” Bernard said, noting a number of things they had to do.
Former Town Councilor and the father of Bo Butler, Jim Butler, did not mince words when he spoke during the meeting.
“I want people to realize March is voting and if you don’t like them get them out,” Butler said.
Butler also added, “Chief Butler didn’t always follow the rules when it came to ‘what do you want me to say, what do you want me to hear’ the Town Manager he’s the one who’s supposedly operating in the Town he wants to bring development in and you know something our fire chief spoke the truth about the hospital that wanted to go up at the airport, and you know something he didn’t like it, and there’s the politics.”
“There’s a management problem in this Town and it needs to be fixed, and it stinks from the head down,” Butler said.
Brian Young, Vice President of Local 3160, the Londonderry Fire Department union said they would continue to be professional.
“Regardless of what is going on here we will continue to respond to every emergency and every call for service with the utmost professionalism,” Young said.
Young also argued there are some solutions to the budget situation they could look at by allocating savings from other areas.
“There’s some solutions, not just a problem, but some solutions to this problem,” Young said.
Town Council Vice Chair, Ted Combes, said they need to address funding during the budget season.
“We need to go through the next two months to develop how can we develop the right path forward so we can hopefully fix not just today but the next 10-, 20-, 30-years so we don’t keep coming into this financial issue that we are at right now not just for the fire department but for all the departments across the board,” Combes said.
At the end of public comment, a request was shouted from the audience, asking if they can have Bo Butler back as their chief.
“Not here to discuss that tonight,” Town Council Chair Chad Franz responded.
Franz also asked that people come to their budget hearings to help determine the needs of the residents.
“Regardless of how we feel, November 2 is when we start our process, and I ask you to come and help us collaborate so we can follow that process,” Franz said.
No decision was made on the whether Bo Butler would be back at fire Chief.