Newmarket Town Manager's Ethical and Civic Responsibilites

A question of ethics and responsibility

Steve Fournier is the town administrator for the town of Newmarket. In 2015, Steve served on the Newmarket School Board Screening Committee along with Al Zink and several other Newmarket citizens.

During the past five years, the question of whether or not this committee voted to seal the nonpublic minutes of their meetings has been litigated in both Rockingham and NH Supreme Courts on multiple occasions.

The Newmarket school board has repeatedly informed the courts that the screening committee absolutely voted to seal these nonpublic meeting minutes, however, this was untrue. They did not seal their minutes; in fact, no minutes were kept.

Al Zink informed criminal investigators the minutes were not sealed, and Steve Fournier has informed me and school district attorney Barbara Loughman the minutes were not sealed. Yet, despite these two individuals’ claims, the school district continued to inform the courts the minutes were sealed.

My questions now concern the ethical and civic responsibilities of Steve Fournier, a high-ranking public employee, to take additional steps to ensure justice and prevent fraud upon the courts from continuing to take place, and the continued waste of Newmarket taxpayer funds in perpetuating a lie.

Steve absolutely knew every Newmarket citizen and employee who served on the screening committee with him. Did Steve have a moral and or ethical duty to ask his fellow screening committee members, to include Julia Leary, Greg Thayer, Anna Davenport, Sean Pine, Nancy Pagnotta, and others if the nonpublic minutes were sealed? I believe he did.

Calling out and reporting criminal and unethical actions of public officials is everyone’s responsibility. More so for public employees or officials.

Steves’s failure to further investigate what he knew was a lie to the courts and his failures to report this wrongdoing by the Newmarket School Board to state and local officials has cost Newmarket taxpayers many tens of thousands of dollars and caused immeasurable harm to many.

With all the harm done, it’s not too late for Steve to do the right thing. I am calling on Steve to immediately contact the NH Attorney Generals’ office of public integrity and report all that he knows. He needs to do the right thing today.

Jeffrey Thomas Clay