By Paul Conyers
The Budget Committee came together on Wednesday night, Nov. 1, for its first November meeting with hopes to appoint a new member to fill a vacant seat during what is expected to be a busy month. By the end of the meeting, that appointment did not take place.
The process of appointing a new member began in October, but was delayed due to the second candidate’s availability.
Hudson resident, Victor Oates, of 77 Sousa Boulevard, read an email into the public record about what he called a “lack of transparency” in the nomination process, claiming Peggy Huard of 13 David Drive was not given a fair opportunity to present her case for the open seat.
“The rules were altered at the last minute,” Oates claimed. “Abiding by set rules and maintaining transparency isn’t just about ticking boxes, it’s about preserving the Committee’s integrity and trustworthiness in the community’s eyes.”
At least one applicant for the Budget vacancy could not attend the October meeting, leading to a delay in the appointment process. The earlier applicant, Carl Dubois, previously withdrew from consideration, leaving Huard as the only remaining contender for the vacancy.
Despite this, Huard claimed that “15 to 20” other people sent emails to the Budget Committee that most members never received.
“I think the rest of the Committee should be able to see the emails, to have them in the hands before making a decision,” said Huard.
She also wanted to know why emails sent to the Budget Committee weren’t available for review online. Huard has expressed concern over what she saw as wasted, unspent money at the October Budget meeting and back in 2022.
“I just want to respond to the lack of transparency according to people. We weren’t not transparent, we want to hear from everybody that put in an application in the same manner as you [Huard] did,” said Budget Committee Chairman, Norm Martin, responding to the concerns. He promised that “Nobody is pulling the wool over anybody’s eyes, nobody is being deceptive, and most of all, this Committee is not being deceptive, this Committee is prepared and ready to do its job.”
Martin also claimed that the 15 to 20 resident emails contained personal information and could not be released due to privacy concerns, although it was unclear why other members of the Budget Committee never saw the emails.
“When people want to come here to accuse us of violating policies and rules, then they should show us what policies and rules we supposedly violated,” added Committee member, Shawn Jasper. “We had people who applied for a position, they couldn’t be there that night, we put that off.”
While Huard was the only applicant, Jasper moved to keep the empty seat on the Budget Committee vacant.
“I think for us to be able to do a good job, any member of this board to do a good job, we can’t be coming to conclusions or shouldn’t be coming to conclusions until we have all the facts before us,” said Jasper. “This is not a mandate that we fill this seat and I don’t think it would be in the best interest of the town or this committee to fill the seat with this applicant tonight.”
In a seven to three vote, members chose not to fill the seat.
It was mentioned during the meeting that, according to the Town of Hudson Municipal Budget Committee Bylaws Section III Vacancies and RSA 32, the Budget Committee has 60 days to fill this position