ATKINSON – Two residents who claim police Chief Philip V. Consentino bullied people into removing their names from a warrant article petition are preparing to sue the chief and the board of selectmen.

In a notice sent to the town by attorney Charles Douglas, residents Leon Artus and Gary Brownfield claim Consentino, 68, harassed and intimidated residents into removing their names from a petition that would have changed the chief position from part time to full time and raised the job’s minimum qualifications.

Artus and Brownfield collected signatures for the petition.

During Saturday’s deliberative session, voters overwhelmingly supported an amendment to the warrant article that restored Consentino’s hold on the position.

Had the warrant article passed in its original form, the town would have been required to hire a chief with at least a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and 15 years of experience in law enforcement.

Consentino, who has been chief for 40 years, said neither he nor his second-in-command could meet those requirements and that he was specifically targeted by people trying to get rid of him.

Douglas, however, claims Consentino is responsible for a pattern of civil rights violations made even more serious by the chief’s position in town.

“He’s got a gun, a badge, a cruiser and a bunch of armed men working for him called the police department,” Douglas said. “It’s not like he’s the town librarian.”

Douglas said his clients are seeking monetary damages and an injunction against any further intimidation.

He said he planned to formally file the lawsuit by the end of this week. The lawsuit will also name the current board of selectmen and former selectmen Jack Sapia and Francis Polito, Douglas said.

Neither Artus nor Brownfield would comment on the lawsuit.

Sumner Kalman, the town’s attorney, did not return messages yesterday.

ATKINSON — Leon Artus thinks police Chief Philip Consentino has been intimidating residents who support a warrant article that could cost the chief his job.

He feels so strongly about it he is preparing to sue Consentino, selectmen and the town of Atkinson.

Artus, founder of the Atkinson Taxpayer Committee, said he never had a problem with Consentino until earlier this month when he was collecting signatures for a petitioned warrant article that would put Consentino out of a job. The article directs the town to hire a full-time police chief — with a bachelor’s degree and 15 years experience.

Consentino is a part-time chief, limited to 25 hours a week. He said he is the lowest-paid member of the Police Department, with an annual salary of approximately $21,000.

Artus also was involved in collecting signatures for a warrant article that would expand the town’s elderly affairs services, another department headed by Consentino. The chief is not paid for his work as elderly affairs director.

Artus’ attorney, Charles Douglas, said he plans to file the lawsuit next week. Douglas, a former state Supreme Court justice, said filing a notice of intent is the first step in the process and he did so on Wednesday.

“The letter summarizes what will be in the suit,” Douglas said.

Douglas sent a letter to selectmen this week, claiming within hours of the two petitioned articles being delivered to the town office, Consentino “was calling elderly signatories to demand an explanation as to why they had signed petitions which might impact his long hold on the Police Department and Elderly Affairs Office.”

Douglas’ letter claims Consentino’s actions violated Artus’ civil rights. He goes on to say Consentino used his position as police chief and elderly affairs director to intimidate citizens into silence.

Consentino could not be reached for comment yesterday.

But it’s not the first time these claims have been made since the petitioned articles were submitted.

Two weeks ago, Consentino said he did contact three people who signed the articles to question why they wanted him out of a job. But he denied intimidating anyone. That same day, he said, he received a letter from an elderly resident, thanking him for his help during the ice storm. Consentino said he was surprised to see her name on a petition that would oust him from his job.

Artus said yesterday the articles aren’t targeting Consentino.

“This is about moving the Atkinson police department into the 21st century,” Artus said. “If he can’t qualify for the job — he’s had it for a long time — let someone else who’s qualified do it,”

Consentino is a 40-year veteran of the Atkinson Police Department, a former three-term selectman and the director of elderly affairs.

The elderly affairs article is intended to expand the program and allow it to benefit more citizens, according to Artus. There is nothing in the article that would remove Consentino from his job as its director, he said.

Douglas’ letter also takes selectmen to task for not reprimanding Consentino.

“The town’s inaction constitutes an established pattern and practice of ratifying and complying with Chief Consentino’s flagrant violations of Atkinson residents’ civil rights,” Douglas wrote.

Selectmen William Friel and Fred Childs said last night they had not seen Douglas’ letter. But they also said Artus has never come to selectmen to complain about Consentino.

Letter: Forced changes in elderly fund no improvement

To the editor:

This letter is in response to your editorial of Nov. 17. I would like to set the record straight for the second time with your paper. I previously came to your office and explained the process of how the Elderly Affairs Department and the Police Departments Donation/Equipment fund worked. I will again advise you of the process that has been in place since 1994.

You mention in your editorial the word “transparency” of the funds we received and how those funds were spent. Let’s set that record straight. Whenever the Police Department wanted to use funds from our Donation/Equipment fund, the selectman were required to hold a public hearing during their regularly scheduled meeting. During this posted public hearing, I advised the selectmen exactly why we wanted to take funds out of this account. The selectmen then opened the public hearing to the public to see if they had any questions on how or why these funds were being requested. At the conclusion of that public hearing, the selectmen took a vote to authorize the withdrawal of these funds.

Once a receipt was obtained for the items requested, that receipt was turned into the town’s bookkeeper and she then produced a check. That check was sent to the Board of Selectmen for another approval prior to the funds being expended. That is open and full transparency. At least once a month, a resident would come to the bookkeeper’s office to look over all of the receipts that were paid out of the Police Departments Donation/equipment fund.

That again is full and open transparency.

Now let me tell you how the new approved system is working. All funds received into the new Atkinson Police Charitable Fund are no longer open to scrutiny by the public, because, under direction of the attorney general’s office, we were required to open a nonprofit charitable trust that is not open to public scrutiny under the right to know law. We are not required to advise anyone how these donations are going to be spent, or provide any receipts for these expenditures. This account no longer has full transparency as it did prior to the separation.

You also stated that I was the only person who decided how these donations were to be spent. That was not true. Any senior that needed assistance only had to ask the Police Department and we then provided them with the assistance they requested. Now that these funds are under the control of the charitable fund, we will adhere to the state laws governing a nonprofit charitable fund. Under the guidance of the attorney general’s office, we set up a board of directors. They are Philip Consentino, president; William Anderson, vice president; Robert Neill; treasurer, Roger Culliford, secretary; and Richard Magoon, recording secretary. All of the directors are members of the Atkinson Police Department’s Elderly Affairs Division. Most seniors would rather go without than to go to the Town Hall and fill out a 15-page life history form just to get a one-time assistance with an oil delivery. That is why so many seniors know that they can always come to the Police Department and get the help that they need. So nothing really has changed except we are no longer transparent.

There will no longer be any public hearings advising the residents of how these donations will be spent. You will no longer be allowed to look over all of the receipts and slips indicating what these funds were used for. Remember, this new charitable trust was set up by the N.H. attorney general’s Charitable Trust Division. We did not request to take the transparency away from the public; this was done against our wishes.

As far as separating the Police Department from the Elderly Affairs Department, this is a lose-lose situation for the town. We now have to turn over the full responsibility of the two old police cruisers and the new wheelchair van to the Elderly Affairs Department.

Who is going to maintain these vehicles? Who is going to pay for all of the repairs? All of these expenses were paid through the Police Department’s Donation/Equipment Fund. This can no longer be accomplished, because these vehicles are no longer under the control of the Police Department. Who takes the calls from seniors looking for rides to the doctors? Who houses all of the medical supplies? Who helps seniors when they have a problem with Medicare or a contractor that did not complete a job? That’s right, the Police Department. The Elderly Affairs program cannot provide the services to our seniors that we do without the interaction of the Police Department.

Can you tell me is this new separation and new charitable fund going to help the residents of Atkinson or is it now going to reduce or completely dissolve the Elderly Affairs program? Please get your facts straight prior to printing your editorials.

PHILIP V. CONSENTINO

Police chief
Director of elderly affairs
President of the Atkinson Police
Charitable Fund
Atkinson, N.H.

The Atkinson, N.H. Police Department and Elderly Affairs Program are now officially separate.

It’s about time.

It has been years since residents began questioning both the ethics and the legality of police Chief Philip Consentino also being the director of elderly affairs, controlling various donation accounts to both departments and personally selecting who gets money from them.

It has been months since the New Hampshire attorney general said the practice was illegal.

But it took until this past week for the Board of Selectmen to sign off on a plan to separate the two departments, which includes numerous rules and regulations to comply with state law. Consentino will continue as volunteer director of the elder program, but must answer to selectmen.

Consentino argued for years that there was nothing wrong with the way he collected and spent donations to the Police Department and for elderly assistance.

And he has remained popular in town, particularly among senior citizens.

Consentino has conducted a donation drive each year, sending out solicitations on police letterhead.

The money collected is distributed among the Special Senior Fund, the Atkinson Police Department Donation/Equipment Fund and the DARE fund.

But popularity does not trump the law. Terry Knowles, assistant director of the AG’s charitable trust unit, recommended that besides separating the jobs of police chief and elderly affairs director, that a system be established for determining who receives money.

So the board of directors of a new nonprofit, the Atkinson Police Charitable Fund, will administer disbursements and issue annual, public reports on account balances and activity.

Finally, the drivers who perform services for elders — a group of retired men — will stop wearing police uniforms.

Consentino deserves credit for his civic activism, but it will be better for him — and for those he says he wants to serve — for the management and distribution of charitable donations to be transparent and decided by a set of standards, not the discretion of one individual.

ATKINSON — The town’s portion of the tax rate is going up — 21 cents per $1,000 of valuation — for the first time in years.

The state Department of Revenue Administration confirmed the tax rate at $14.86 per $1,000 of valuation last week, selectmen Chairman Paul Sullivan said. That’s a 76-cent increase over last year’s rate.

The owner of a $300,000 home would see a $4,458 tax bill under the new rate, a $228 increase.

“We wanted to keep it down,” Sullivan said. “We took $450,000 from the general fund and applied it to help with the tax rate.”

That’s something the selectmen have done before, Sullivan said. This year they left a balance of $899,200 in the general fund for anticipated expenditures and to make sure they retained at least a 5 percent savings for the future, he said.

The town’s portion of the tax rate is $2.15 per $1,000 of valuation, up from $1.94. The local school rate increased 67 cents, from $9.02 to $9.69.

The state education component dropped from $2.28 to $2.16. The county rate remained steady at 86 cents per $1,000 of valuation.

ATKINSON — Town officials have asked the state Public Utilities Commission to deny Hampstead Area Water Co.’s application to borrow money from the state.

The motion was submitted by town attorney Sumner Kalman last week. But Selectman Bill Friel said this week they need to follow up with more detailed objections as to why an interconnection between Atkinson and Hampstead would not be in the best interest of the public.

Today was the original deadline to file as an intervener with the Public Utilities Commission, but the commission has now extended that cutoff to the end of the month. Two residents — Carol Grant and John Wolters — have also filed to intervene, according to the commission.

The water company applied for a $1.1 million loan to connect Atkinson’s water system with Hampstead’s over the summer. If the loan is awarded, 15,000 feet of pipe would be laid between the two towns. First, the Public Utilities Commission has to allow the water company to take the loan and increase its rates.

But now Atkinson officials are saying that can’t happen. A 1,185-acre increase in the Hampstead Area Water Co. franchise area would hurt a valuable water resource in Atkinson, which the town has a duty to protect, the motion said.

Selectmen’s Chairman Paul Sullivan said the selectmen have a list of questions they wanted to ask Harold Morse, the water company president, before submitting the rest of their intervener motion to the state.

Morse had asked to be on the selectmen’s agenda Monday night, but canceled just prior to the meeting’s start.

“He decided he wasn’t coming,” Sullivan said. “I certainly wanted to give him an opportunity to talk.”

Selectmen are checking with Kalman as to the appropriate way to respond to the Public Utilities Commission.

Morse has not returned phone calls from The Eagle-Tribune.

For years, Atkinson, N.H., police Chief Philip Consentino has argued there was nothing wrong with the way he collected and spent donations of money for the Police Department and assistance to the elderly.

Now, the New Hampshire attorney general disagrees.

The attorney general’s office said in a letter to town officials that five donation accounts under Consentino’s control are being managed illegally. The office’s charitable trust unit wrote that the violations were likely due to ignorance of the law and said that the management of the accounts must be brought into compliance with the law.

Consentino has been a focal point for public criticism due to his multiple roles in town affairs and his handling of the accounts. In addition to police chief, Consentino serves as director of elderly affairs. He once also served as a selectman and was reprimanded by a Superior Court judge for presiding over meetings in which police or elderly affairs matters were discussed.

But Consentino is also popular, particularly among the senior citizens he serves as elderly affairs director.

Consentino conducts a donation drive each year, sending out solicitations on police letterhead, wrote Terry Knowles, assistant director of the charitable trust unit. The money collected is distributed among five funds — the senior donation fund, “Life is Not Done Group,” Police Department equipment, DARE and police funds.

The money is spent at the chief’s discretion, with the approval of the selectmen. Consentino will make withdrawals from the fund for anything from flowers to fuel assistance for a senior.

There are several problems with this, according to Knowles. First, the chief has sole discretion in selecting who gets money. Knowles recommended that the jobs of police chief and elderly affairs director be separate and distinct and that a system be established for determining who receives money.

Also, Knowles wrote that the accounts need to be placed under the control of the Trustees of the Trust Fund, who would then control who may make authorized disbursements. The trustees would also issue annual, public reports on account balances and activity.

Consentino’s methods may have worked well when Atkinson was a sleepy farming town. But it is now an increasingly prosperous residential community, among the fastest-growing in the state. Atkinson officials must act on this report and bring their charitable fund management into the 21st century.

ATKINSON — Town officials said they are overburdened by right-to-know requests that are too broad to easily research.

Selectmen want to know if they are legally required to do lengthy research to fulfill the blanket requests, according to selectmen’s Chairman Paul Sullivan.

The town has sent a response letter to each request, but those making the requests said they aren’t getting the information they want — and they don’t think they ever will.

Some requests have been for copies of minutes from each meeting during which a specific topic was discussed, Sullivan said. The time it takes for staff members to go through each set of minutes and look for a specific topic costs the town money, he said.

“We need to figure out if this is our obligation to research,” he said.

It’s not, according to Bill Chapman, a Concord attorney who specializes in right-to-know law. Government bodies are required to fulfill reasonably described requests, he said.

“If we look at it from just a common sense basis, to say all minutes where a particular matter has been discussed is not reasonably describing it,” Chapman said.

The person filing the request should ask for copies of minutes from specific meeting dates, he said. Or, since agencies are required to keep all minutes on file, the person asking should be able to look through years of minutes themselves, he said.

“The purpose of the right-to-know law is to not only honor the public’s right to know, but also to not put undue burden on the governing body,” Chapman said.

He said he doesn’t recall a case where the words “reasonably described” were challenged. But those who file right-to-know requests in Atkinson have not been satisfied with the town’s answers, and one resident said he’s ready to challenge officials on it.

Leon Artus said between his committee — Atkinson Taxpayers for Fair Evaluations — and others, more than 30 right-to-know requests have been filed in town since the beginning of the year. He said many of those requests are “in transition” now because he didn’t get the answers he wanted.

“Never have, and obviously never will, until it’s taken to a higher authority,” he said.

But selectmen maintain they are following the law.

Selectman Bill Friel said requests need to be more specific.

“This one also asks for some conclusions for us to answer, which isn’t part of the right-to-know law,” he said.

Large green, black and white Right to Know Law signs are now posted around Town Hall, reminding residents of what they can and cannot request.

The town is required, by law, to respond to the requests within five business days. But with requests for all public mentions of a certain subject, such as assessing, there isn’t time for interim Town Administrator Craig Kleman to do lots of research, especially in that time frame, the selectmen said.

Since he arrived in April, Kleman said he has worked on four right-to-know projects. The requests ranged from meeting minutes to information on personnel files, which cannot be publicly released, he said.

“It’s a very time-consuming process and, you know, you want to make sure you are really answering the spirit of the right-to-know law,” he said.

Kleman said he couldn’t estimate how long he spends on each case nor the total amount of time he has spent.

Atkinson PD Seeks 6th Full Time Officer – January 2, 2008

Atkinson PD Finds Gun – December 24, 2007

Atkinson PD Loses Gun – December 22, 2007

Atkinson Town Clerk Resigns – December 12, 2007

Blogs Help Residents Stay Informed – November 2, 2007

Sign Jeopardizes Atkinson Community Center – October 24, 2007

Atkinson Selectmen Take No Action Regarding Complaints About Police Chief – October 16, 2007

Atkinson Police Chief Faces Complaints For Alleged Harrassment Letters – October 14, 2007

Atkinson Police Chief Battles Over Blog; Sends Alleged Harrassment Letter on Town Letterhead – October 2, 2007

Consentino Objects to Scenic Road Designation – July 10, 2007

Consentino Violates State Law – June 28, 2006

Judges Dismisses Polito vs Atkinson Lawsuit – March 14, 2006

Consentino Challenges Court Order – January, 2006

2005 SUV Dispute Settled – 2005

Chief Should Set Good Example – November 15, 2005

Acciard Has No Vendetta – September, 2005

Selectmen Impose Gag Order on Town Information – August 15, 2005

Consentino Blocks Vote on Vietnam Honor Roll – August, 2005

Selectmen Stick Around After Meeting Concludes – July, 2005

Loosen the Gag in Atkinson – July, 2005

Consentino Threatens Library Trustee – June, 2005

Vietnam Honor Roll Battle Shows No Signs of Subsiding – June, 2005

Police Second-in-Command Promoted to Lt – June, 2005

Engine Still Running on SUV Talk – May 8, 2005

You Can’t Take the Police Chief Out of the Selectman – May, 2005

Consentino, Judges Order Won’t Change a Thing – May, 2005

Police Car Lease Questions – April 13, 2005 (TBA)

Chief to Face Trial – April, 2005

Selectman Admits Mistake OK’ing Police Vehicle – 2005

Court to Selectman On Recusing – 2005

Consentino Should Focus on One Job at a Time – 2005

Chief Protests Denial of $1300 in Pay – November 30, 2004

Dispatcher Claims He was Replaced After Filing Grievance – 2004

Resident Files Suit Against Chief – October 26, 2004

Ethics Board Moves to Clear Its Practices – August 25, 2004

Consentino Faces Conflict-of-Interest Injunction – July 28, 2004

Consentino Defends Right to 3 Hats – May 11, 2004

Ethics Panelist Revives Debate – May 4, 2004

Budget Panel Leader Offended by Chief – April 22, 2004

Conflict Questions Unresolved – April 13, 2004

Debate on Tenure Policy Resurrects Conflict Fight – April 7, 2004

Police, Chief at Odds Over Pay – March 30, 2004

Atkinson Wages Annual War on Leaders Conflicts – February 24, 2004

Trick-Or-Treat and Papers Please – October 24, 2003

Chief Says Candy is for Town Kids – October 1, 2003

Resident Asks if Ethics are Enforced – March 1, 2003

Consentino is Doing Too Much – March 1, 2003

State and Consentino Discuss Hours – May 23, 2000

Town Silent on Chief’s Latest Flap – March 21, 2000

Time for Chief to Go – March 16, 2000

Chief’s Work May Be Halted – March 2, 2000

Town Split Over Chief – January 12, 2000

State to Chief – Stop Intimidation – December 29, 1999

Chief Pledges Vow of Silence – August 24, 1998