City Clerk Matt Normand swears in the Board of Aldermen during Manchester’s inaugural ceremonies at the Palace Theatre in Manchester on Tuesday. Alderman at Large Joe Kelly Levasseur was later elected chairman of the board.
City Clerk Matt Normand swears in the Board of Aldermen during Manchester’s inaugural ceremonies at the Palace Theatre in Manchester on Tuesday. Alderman at Large Joe Kelly Levasseur was later elected chairman of the board.
If the first 20 minutes of the 2024-2025 incarnation of the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen are any indication, Tuesday nights over the next two years could be interesting.
LEVASSEUR
Alderman At Large Joe Kelly Levasseur was elected chairman Tuesday at the first meeting of the newly sworn-in board. The session occurred after Jay Ruais was sworn in as mayor of the Queen City during inaugural ceremonies at the Palace Theatre (see related story).
Ruais voted in favor of Levasseur, breaking a 7-7 tie, but it was a vote on a followup motion that opened a window onto what the next two years could be like.
Ruais takes office with an evenly-split Board of Mayor and Aldermen. Republicans are Chris Morgan, Krissy Cantor, Ross Terrio, Ed Sapienza, Norm Vincent, Kelly Thomas and Levasseur. The Democrats are Dan Goonan, Pat Long, Christine Fajardo, Tony Sapienza, Jim Burkush, Bill Barry and Dan O’Neil.
With Ruais representing the tie-breaking vote per the city charter, Republicans have a majority on the board for the first time since 1998.
The mayor cast tie-breaking votes for board chairman in 2016 and 2018.
Tuesday’s 7-7 vote fell along straight party lines.
As is customary, a motion was made to make the vote unanimous to smooth over any hard feelings.
But that motion failed on a 7-7 vote, indicating how divided the board truly is.
During the Board of School Committee meeting that followed the aldermen’s session, Jim O’Connell was elected vice-chair for a second term, 8-7, over Karen Soule.
In that case, a motion to make the vice-chair vote unanimous passed on a voice vote.
Rules on public comment
A back-and-forth between Long and Levasseur also developed on changes to the board’s rules suggested by Long.
Long questioned why the rules mention 30 minutes of public comment, when in actuality that portion of meetings can go on for an hour or more, depending on how many people sign up to speak.
Levasseur and others pointed out the rules haven’t changed, the 30-minute rule simply isn’t enforced.
Long also questioned whether leaving in language saying all members of the public must sign in — giving their name and the topic they are speaking on — prior to the start of public comment should be left in the rules.
In recent years, once all speakers who have signed in have been given their three minutes on a topic, Mayor Joyce Craig would ask if there was anyone else present who wished to speak. If so, that person would be allowed to come to the microphone and asked to give a name and address.
Ruais backed the sign-in rule. “My intention would be if you want to speak, you will write your name down,” Ruais said. “If you haven’t written your name down then you’re not going to be included in speaking. I’d like it to be a crisp and efficient meeting.”
