By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
Two Portsmouth residents say City Councilor John Tabor broke state laws when it came time to hire a new auditing firm, and they now want him booted from the council. Tabor denies doing anything wrong.
Arthur Clough and Mark Brighton filed a lawsuit in Rockingham Superior Court asking a judge to remove Tabor from elected office, claiming that he illegally disclosed confidential information about city bids for service.
“By announcing the specific details of the Audit Committee’s process and the number and names of the bidders, which were under seal by vote of the committee, Councilor Tabor compromised the city’s ability to negotiate a favorable contract with the two potential firms,” the lawsuit states.
Clough and Brighton’s attorney, Joseph Plaia, declined to comment when reached on Thursday.
The lawsuit claims that Tabor’s illegal disclosure resulted in the city staying with its current auditing firm, Melanson CPA based in Merrimack, even though members of the auditing committee wanted to switch to Boston firm Clifton Larson Allen, or CLA.
Tabor is the former publisher of the Seacoast Media Group. Reached Thursday, Tabor said he did nothing wrong in the open meeting discussions about the problems he saw with the bidding process.
“This issue had several legal reviews in response to complaints by Brighton and Clough, and the city has found nothing that’s actionable. Everything I said at the meeting I had run by city legal staff prior to saying it,” Tabor said.
Brighton and Clough filed an ethics complaint with the city in April seeking to have Tabor removed from office, according to the lawsuit. Their complaint was reviewed by City Attorney Robert Sullivan and Mayor Deaglan McEachern. That review found no violation, according to the lawsuit.
Melanson has been the city’s auditing firm for close to 30 years. Brighton and Clough claim in a press release they issued this week that city officials have been undermining the Audit Committee in order to keep Melanson on the job.
“City Officials were quick to interfere in the process and to try to insert barriers to considering a different firm,” the pair state.
The pair claim the city should be rotating in a new outside auditor every five years as a matter of good financial practices.
According to the lawsuit, Tabor told the full City Council in March that the Audit Committee’s bidding process for a new auditing firm was flawed because, in part, a member of the Audit Committee exchanged text messages with one of the bidders. The lawsuit alleges that during his discussion about the text messages, Tabor revealed the names and number of bidders.
While the Audit Committee wanted CLA, Tabor and the City Council ended up backing a one-year contract with Melanson with the plan to send the contract out to bid again, according to the lawsuit.
Tabor, who is a member of the Audit Committee, allegedly violated state law again in October when he relieved the name and number of current bidders during an open meeting, according to the lawsuit.
The new bidding process is underway, and the City Council is expected to vote on a new auditing contract in January.