GRA: Will of the Voters Ignored Again


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Will of the Voters Ignored Again
Georgantas voted out of office, then Planning Board puts him right back in

GOFFSTOWN - On March 14, 2006, incumbent chairman Richard Georgantas received a paltry 28.5% of the vote, losing his seat on the Goffstown Planning Board after 10+ years. The message voters sent that day was crystal clear - they wanted change in Goffstown government. This was evident not only by the Planning Board vote, but by numerous other mandates related to the Fire/Police merger, the Board of Selectman vote, and more.

So what did the planning board do? They blatantly ignored the will of the voters and circumvented Georgantas' ouster by simply appointing him back to the board themselves to fill the vacancy left by William Wynne's recent resignation. In addition, the board then listed Georgantas on the town web site as being an elected member, with a term (which is actually Wynne's) expiring in 2007 (see http://www.town.goffstown.nh.us/boards/planning.shtml). The board could have appointed alternates Tim Redmond or William Zackeroff to fill Wynne's position. But instead, they put Georgantas right back on the board. All that has changed as a result is that Georgantas sits at the table in a different chair.

The Good Old Boys network in Goffstown apparently remains intact.

In the days leading up to the election, Georgantas was mysteriously quiet in his efforts to get re-elected. He did not appear at the Candidate's Night, nor did he provide profile information to the Goffstown News or to VoteSmartGoffstown prior to the election as most other candidates did. Many residents we spoke to at the time interpreted this as simple arrogance on Georgantas' part, believing he felt his re-election was a "done deal".

In effect, it was, as it now appears Georgantas knew he would remain on the board regardless of what the voters had to say about it.

Apparently, Georgantas had no reason to be concerned about being re-elected, for as we now see, his ouster by the voters meant nothing. His own planning board saw to that. The result is that Georgantas remains a member of the planning board, and as can be seen during televised meetings, he is still running the board as he did when he was chairman.

On March 28th, Georgantas, along with new planning board chairman JoAnn Duffy and member Alan Yeaton, appeared before the Economic Development Council to address the council's concern over the planning board's rejection of numerous recent efforts to improve the commercial tax base in Goffstown. It was absolutely clear to anyone who attended or watched the meeting that Georgantas, not Duffy, is running the planning board, and he acted as chief spokesman and respondent to the Council's questions.

The voters told Georgantas to go home. The planning board told Georgantas to ignore the voters and simply sit in a different chair, the will of the voters be damned.

See related article:

Georgantas Voted Off Planning Board