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“A conflict of interest exists when an officer or elected official takes an action or makes a decision that would affect his or her financial interest, the financial interests of the officer or elected official’s family member or the interests of any organization in which the officer or elected official or the officer or elected official’s family member is an employee of the organization or a member of its governing body. For employment with the City of Concord and for other governmental entities, a conflict of interest shall exist when the matter before the Public Body involves the department for which the officer or elected official or officer or elected official’s family member is employed. A conflict of interest shall also exist for an officer or elected official whose family member is employed in the City of Concord when such family member is a member of a union in the City and the Public Body is discussing any collective bargaining matters in a non-meeting, under RSA 91-A:2, I (a), relative to strategy or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining.”

After Patch published the article about Brown’s apparent conflict of interest, Tyler Savage, a resident of Westbourne Road in Ward 5, filed a letter with the city clerk’s office requesting a board of ethics hearing against her.

While not getting into specifics, he asked for “disciplinary action” due to her “failure to recuse herself after being warned that she should recuse herself at the most recent council meeting,” as well as other issues.

“She has been warned not to do this and is breaking laws despite these warnings,” he wrote.

A couple of weeks later, another issue arose during a council meeting, with Brown refusing to recuse herself from voting on the police department’s budget.

During an exchange about the police portion of the budget, when challenged, Brown said she voted for budgets in the past and would not recuse herself. Danielle Pacik, legal counsel for the city, confirmed Brown did not recuse herself in 2023. She said it was at her discretion or the mayor’s discretion. Pacik added Deputy City Manager Matt Walsh eyed the minutes from the budget vote 2022, and Brown recused herself from compensation budget items and anything involving the Concord Police Department.

Brown and Champlin as well as other councilors, discussed the matter, and the mayor banned her from voting on the item. Brown challenged the rule, but the challenge failed after a 7-7 tie. Brown then recused herself from voting on the police budget and items related to the police.

At the first ethics meeting in 12 years earlier this year, members discussed five complaints against Brown and dismissed four of them despite evidence in the public sphere she violated the city charter, ethics, and code.

In her defense, Brown complained Savage “offered examples … directly lifted from a piece in the Concord Patch” and cited “no specific references” even though Patch articles have already gathered and published the investigatory materials, links, and other information confirming the suspension of violations.

In the Concord Monitor after the July meeting, Brown told reporter Catherine McLaughlin, “My husband doesn’t do details, typically. This was a street closure: that was the focus.”

In August, Brown confirmed the quote was accurate.

When asked if she could see how some would see her insistence on voting for the consent item, yes, involving street closures, but ones that require police details that her husband could benefit from, as a conflict, despite a prior promise to voters that she wouldn’t vote on things she would benefit from, and previously recusing herself, Brown chose not to answer the question.

Special duty-detail pay for Sgt. Wade Brown during his time with the Concord Police Department.

Husband Earned Detail Pay

As part of a right-to-know request by Patch, Jennifer Johnston, the director of human resources and labor relations, confirmed Sgt. Wade Brown, Stacey Brown’s husband, has earned detail pay during his nearly 16 years with the force.

This fact confirms her vote appears to violate the city rules despite a partial denial to a newspaper that her husband did not “typically” perform police details.

According to Johnston, Sgt. Wade Brown earned $ 1,490.38 in “outside duty detail-officers” special duty pay on six different occasions between 2013 and 2023.

Other Ethics Violations?

The consent agenda is just one perceived violation the councilor has been involved with during the past few years that the board of ethics will be eyeing on Monday.

In February 2023, Brown appeared to admit to attempting to hack into the human resources job application service, CircaWorks, during a discussion of job applicants with the city.

Brown said, “I actually spoke with someone from CircaWorks today,” and called it a “wonderful contract.” Later in the meeting, Brown thought HR should direct CircaWorks to send out job openings beyond Concord—something, it turned out later, they were already doing. When another councilor asked her what she was doing calling a city contractor, Brown said she wanted to know what they were doing and how it worked.

Johnston had to clarify inaccurate comments made by Brown.

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The mayor at the time asked Johnston how Brown could get so much false information from a city contractor. Johnston said an employee at the company contacted her about whether Brown was an employee of the city after receiving the call from Brown. She told the employee Brown did not work for the city. Johnston said the CircaWorks employee told her the only information given to Brown was how the system worked — not “specific functioning” by the city.

“I have the email,” she said. “That’s what he related to me.”

Brown attempting to gain access to CircaWorks or even requesting action by the human resources department on her own appeared to violate the city charter, No. 27, requiring her removal from office:

27. Noninterference by the City Council. The City Council shall act in all matters as a body. Members of the Council shall not seek individually to influence the official acts of the City Manager, or any other officer; or to direct or request, except in writing, the appointment of any person to, or removal from, office; or to interfere in any way with the performance by such officers of their duties; but they may make suggestions and recommendations. Any member of the Council violating the provisions of this section, as determined through procedures established in this Charter, shall forfeit the office.

After reporting on Brown’s activity, no one on the city council or the public decided to file a complaint against her.

The city’s legal department also did not respond to an email inquiring about the violation at the time.

Ethics Board Drops The Ball?

Because the ethics board has decided it will not investigate violation accusations, the complainant must have a complete investigatory dossier available.

This is a stumbling block for residents who are not investigators and may not know how to gather all the information to file relevant complaints against officials.

And even when they are filed, the board can ignore them.

For example, one of the complaints rejected by the board was Brown’s repeated violation of the open meeting law by carbon copying other councilors.

She had been doing it for years despite being warned not to. The issue came to a head just before the election last year when Brown denied it was a violation.

Legal counsel, however, said it was:

The ethics board chairman said not following the open meeting law was a state issue. But actually, it is not: city councilors take an oath to follow the state laws (see swearing-in of the mayor and councilors on Jan. 4, linked here, in the 16-minute range).

So, the violation was not a state issue but a local issue.

Then, there was the time the councilor attempted to violate the privacy of other councilors by requesting information about whether they had library cards:

Below is the library director responding to the inquiry:

Then, Brown inquired about the membership of councilors at the Beaver Meadow Golf Course…

If Brown is found to be in violation on Monday, the information will be presented to the city council, which will then act on the breach.

If the council votes to remove Brown from office, a special election would be required to replace her because the timeline does not appear to make the cutoff date for printed ballots for the November election.

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