Goings-on at City Hall don't bode well for a free press, or our democracy

From left, Rochester Attorney Terence O'Rourke, Mayor Paul Callaghan and City Manager Katie Ambrose (Courtesy photos)

ROCHESTER - Evil incarnate inside City Hall manifested itself on Jan. 19 when The Rochester Voice was threatened with arrest for trespassing while attempting to cover a public Right to Know meeting inside the office of City Manager Katie Ambrose.
The meeting was arranged by Strafford 1 State Rep. Cliff Newton, who invited Rochester Voice editor Harrison Thorp to come to the meeting to cover it for his some 40,000 readers.
When Thorp entered the city manager's office through an open door, Ambrose immediately asked Thorp if he'd been "invited" to the meeting.

"Yes I invited him to report on the story," Newton said.
Ambrose then remarked that she thought this was going to be a "private meeting."
Newton replied that never did he say he wanted a private meeting, and his words hold up. Neither in his public remarks during a recent City Council workshop where he called for the meeting, nor in a letter hand-delivered to Ambrose that night does he specify he wants a "private" meeting.
Consider this. Why would anyone seeking transparency in government want a "private" meeting to discuss the Right to Know law. That is anti-intuitive and nothing short of preposterous.
After that City Attorney Terence O'Rourke said it would be inappropriate for Thorp to be there because the city has "pending litigation with Mr. Thorp."
The litigation he is referring to is the city's appeal of the state's Right to Know Ombudsman's Office, which refused to rule in favor of the city, which wanted to disenfranchise The Rochester Voice from Right to Know protections granted in state statute 91-A.
The appeal, which was first filed in Merrimack Superior Court, has now moved to Strafford Superior Court to make court appearances more convenient for both parties.
After Thorp spent several minutes urging the city to be transparent and allow him to report on what was supposed to be an open and public meeting O'Rourke got up from his chair, strode within six inches of Thorp and said, "The city manager has asked you to leave. Now you have to go."
Thorp paused a moment and then said, "Trespassing?"
"Yes," O'Rourke said.
Not wanting to escalate the situation into police involvement, we then left.
Rochester Police Capt. Todd Pinkham said on Friday that if we had refused to leave an arrest could have occurred involving either a hand summons or physical arrest.
A criminal trespass statute states that anyone who "Enters and Remains In any place in defiance of an order to leave or not to enter which was personally communicated to him by the owner or other authorized person."
"Attorney O'Rourke is an authorized person and did ask you to leave," Pinkham noted. "Whether or not you feel you were justified to be there would be the defense you would have to prove in court, however you were asked to leave by someone who had the authority to ask you to leave."
During the whole time The Rochester Voice was pleading its case to cover an important meeting on the city's corrupt Right to Know policies, Rochester Mayor Paul Callaghan stayed mute just like he did in August during a City Chat with the Mayor at the James W. Foley Memorial Community Center.
During the chat The Rochester Voice asked Callaghan to explain his behavior during two earlier City Council meetings.
Specifically, he was asked to explain two things:
First, why, on April 18, did he ignore a motion on the floor of the City Council to stop his then deputy mayor, Pete Lachapelle, from delivering a vitriolic speech against three councilors. Anyone who views the video at the 1:24 mark can clearly watch as one councilor makes a motion to halt Lachapelle's speech and another seconds the motion. At this point a mayor would normally ask for discussion followed by a vote, but Callaghan said nothing. Moments later Lachapelle says, "May I continue?" and Callaghan says "Yes."
Second, Why on July 11 did he allow Lachapelle to speak to an agenda item regarding an ethics complaint against Lachapelle that was submitted by then-City Councilor Steve Beaudoin, who felt aggrieved by Lachapelle's April 18 speech. Due process calls for the councilor who submitted the agenda item to be heard first, since he submitted the request, but instead, Callaghan gave the podium over to Lachapelle, who was accused of violating the ethics policy that, ironically, he had shepherded through as the codes and ordinance chair.
In reply to this writer's question, Callaghan said angrily "I'm not answering your questions. This is not the forum."
"When is the forum?" The Rochester Voice asked.

"This is not the forum," the mayor repeated.
"When is the forum?" The Voice repeated.
After a couple of uncomfortable moments for all, Democrat State Rep. Chuck Grassie attempted to switch topics and Callaghan gladly complied.
At the end of the chat, The Rochester Voice sought out the mayor for an answer on his forum remark.
"When's the forum, you said this wasn't the forum, when's the forum," this reporter said.
"This isn't the forum," the mayor chirped.
"When is the forum?" we asked again.
"Have a nice weekend," the mayor said as he walked away.
So Ambrose and O'Rourke both lied about saying it was supposed to be a private meeting, and Callaghan did nothing to stand up for the public's Right to Know.
In fact they literally shut the door on the press.
This is how you lose your democracy to a totalitarian state.

- HT