ROCKINGHAM — Under the banner of “Trustees You Can Trust,” four candidates are running together as a bloc to fill the four forthcoming vacancies on the Rockingham Free Public Library Board of Trustees in the March 4 town elections.
The four candidates - Town Clerk Doreen Aldrich, physician Carol Blackwood, retired pastor David Gould, and attorney Ray Massucco - made their intentions known during a news conference on the library steps on Feb. 1.
Gould is running unopposed for a two-year seat on the RFPL board.
The other three will face Trustee Deborah Wright for the three other seats, all three-year terms. Wright serves as vice-chair.
Massucco, the only incumbent, was appointed by the Rockingham Selectboard last summer to replace former Trustee Steve Fuller, who resigned.
Current members Laura Senes and Elayne Clift will not seek reelection.
In a prepared statement, the four said they were joining forces in response to what they see as “the enormous discord, rancor, and erosion of trust generated by the board's actions over the past several years.”
While the RFPL is owned by the town of Rockingham, it is overseen by an elected board of trustees that is independent of the Selectboard.
The candidates said they are committed to working together “to restore sound, positive, civil and transparent leadership within the Library's Board of Trustees in order to serve the public interest.”
Massucco, who previously served on the RFPL board and once was its chair, has been one of the most persistent critics of the current board.
“Time after time over the past few years, the leadership of the board has operated as petty tyrants without authorization from the full board,” he wrote in a December letter to the RFPL Board. The rest of the Board majority abdicated their responsibility to serve the interests of the library and the community by continuing to allow them to do it.”
Massucco said that the “Trustees You Can Trust” slate represents “the change we need to turn things around before it's too late.”
Much of the turmoil of the past year on the RFPL board stems from the library's $3 million renovation project. Financial problems by the general contractor for the project, Baybutt Construction Co. of Keene, N.H., led to the firm's bankruptcy and the town and the RFPL being stuck with about $700,000 of unpaid bills to the project's subcontractors.
The financial turmoil was a contributing factor in the board's decision to fire Library Director Célina Houlné last August for insubordination and financial malfeasance, allegations that the former librarian has denied and addressed publicly.
Houlné has filed a civil suit against the trustees and the town alleging unlawful dismissal and seeks reinstatement, compensation for lost income and benefits, and payment for attorneys' fees.
The four candidates have not indicated that they would support reinstating Houlné if they are elected to the board, but said they would consider that option.
In an email to The Commons this week, Wright asserted that Houlné's “termination was just.”
Candidates' forum
Candidates will square off in a forum, which will take place in the lower theater in Town Hall on Monday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. The debate will be broadcast live on Falls Area Community Television, and Moderator Mike Smith said that as of Tuesday, all five candidates were expected to participate.
“It will be completely nonpartisan,” Smith said, noting that candidates will be permitted to hold signs and distribute literature at tables in the lobby, but electioneering will not be allowed in the debate proper.
The audience will be invited to submit written questions on index cards at the event. Smith also invites viewers to submit questions to [email protected], on FACT's Facebook page (facebook.com/pages/FACT-TV/92271372095), or as comments during the live stream of the program on the public access television station's website (fact8.com).
The forum will let the five candidates give opening and closing statements.
“We'll try to keep it to an hour,” Smith said,
FACT is also contemplating similar debates for candidates for the Rockingham Selectboard and for the Bellows Falls Village Trustees, “if this one goes well and we manage to get through it in a civilized manner,” Smith said.