Preston Young: Councilors Hildreth, Soucy now exposed for trust breach

To The Daily Sun, 

As the citizen who filed the RSA 91-A request that exposed Councilors Jon Hildreth and Bob Soucy’s violation of New Hampshire’s Right-to-Know law, I cannot stay silent now.

The 91-A documents I received prove that both councilors broke the law in their handling of matters tied to the Planning Board and the Appointments Subcommittee. This is not a technicality. It is a direct breach of the open-government principles that every elected official swears to uphold. At last night’s city council meeting, numerous members of the public stood up and demanded that Hildreth and Soucy immediately remove themselves from any further involvement in Planning Board appointments until the full council addresses the violation. Their voices were clear, respectful, and rooted in the facts.

Laconia’s residents have every right to expect that the people overseeing appointments to one of our most important boards will follow the law themselves. Continued participation by these councilors after a documented violation only deepens public cynicism and risks further flawed appointments. The full city council now has a simple, responsible choice: vote to recuse Hildreth and Soucy from the Appointments Subcommittee without delay. Anything less tells the community that transparency is optional.

This issue will not fade. Voters in Wards 1 and 2 will remember who defended open government and who did not when they cast ballots in the next municipal election. I invite every Laconia resident who values honest, accountable leadership to contact their councilors, attend the next meeting, and make their voices heard.

Laconia is better than this. Let’s prove it.

Preston Young

Belmont