Letter: Some candidates do deserve blame for settlement

To the editor:

With the ink barely dry on the $800,000 Heidi Drive settlement agreement, the supporters of the road abandonment are now bobbing and weaving and trying to avoid blame. 

Judi Staven protests in her letter that she left the meeting early due to illness and she “wasn’t even there” for the final vote to abandon. But the official minutes for the Jan. 27, 2011 abandonment hearing confirm there was a “motion by Mr. Kesson, seconded by Ms. Staven, to abandon Heidi Drive.” That motion remained on the table and was never withdrawn, despite a second, redundant motion to abandon made by Liz Pedro and seconded by Paul Kesson after the hearing resumed on Feb. 7, 2011. This is historical record. I know, because I was there as a member of the Town Council. 

Another letter says Conni Harding shouldn’t receive any blame for the abandonment because she was a “private citizen without any Portsmouth Town Council voting power at the time.” 

On her website, however, Ms. Harding touts her activism with the Preserve Portsmouth group and how she personally has “stopped” many land development projects. Conni Harding was a major proponent of the Heidi Drive abandonment, as was David Gleason (who picked up the abandonment baton from Karen Gleason when she left the town council). That’s why the Glen Ridge Alpaca Farm, on its Facebook page, praised Ms. Harding and Mr. Gleason and endorsed them both for town council two years ago, declaring that it’s “because of these individuals that our farm is here today!” 

It is because of these individuals — Liz Pedro, Paul Kesson, Judi Staven, Conni Harding and David Gleason — that Heidi Drive was abandoned and the taxpayers now have to pay an $800,000 settlement to R.I. Nurseries. They deserve to be blamed. Don’t reward them for their egregiously poor judgment. 

Michael Buddemeyer

73 Potomac Road

Portsmouth

Editor’s note: Mr. Buddemeyer has been a Town Council member since 2010. He is not running for re-election.