I received several interesting emails on Wednesday 3/8/2023. The emails appear to have been sent from Londonderry Town Council Chairman John Farrell and sent from a Hotmail email account that the Council Chair has used in the past .
From: John Farrell <******@hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 8, 2023 9:23 AM
To: John Farrell <******@hotmail.com>
Subject: Fw: Fw: Corruption in Londonderry
The first email received contained additional emails from Councilor Jim Butler, Town Manager Michael Malaguti, as well as emails from a resident that were sent to the Town Council.
Since the authenticity of the email cannot be confirmed, as of yet, the contents will not be published.
To check the authenticity of the email I forwarded the first two email headers, one of which is above, to the Londonderry Town Council and copied the Town Manager asking if these were legitimate emails sent by Councilor Farrell. The email to the Council and Town Manager was sent on 3/8/2023 and as of 3/16/2023 no one has responded to confirm of deny the validity of the email.
This following day I received three additional emails sent from the same email address. These emails appear to be emails that were sent by a resident to the Town Council that were subsequently forwarded, unredacted of personal information, to a blind copy email list.
I have confirmed that other residents of Londonderry have received the same emails. Since the emails contained information that appears only to be available to Town Council members I followed up with a second email to the Town Council and Town Manager on 3/9/2023. I asked if the Town of Londonderry email server have been compromised, again I received no response from the Town Manager.
Doing a little more research I found this on the Town website Internet Acceptable Use Policy the policy applies to:
This policy applies to all full-time and part-time Town employees and contractors, subcontractors, consultants, board and commission members, and anyone entrusted with the Town of Londonderry information.
Acceptable Internet Use Policy Section II Scope
In addition the Town of Londonderry Code of Ethics Section II C states:
No Community Official shall use town property, services, or labor personally, or make the same available to others unless such use is available to other residents upon request on equal terms.
Londonderry Code of Ethics Section II C
The emails that were forwarded were not public record at the time and were only available to Town Council members prior to being forwarded. The intent of the emails appears to be to damage the reputation of a town resident. Does the Ethics Code apply here?
At the January 23, 2023 Town Council meeting Councilor Farrell stated he does not read letters into the record. This was a misleading statement, see Town Council Chair Does Not Read Letters Into The Record While Councilor Farrell selectively reads letters, emails, and text messages into the record he may also be selectively forwarding emails. The intent of these emails appears in retaliation toward an individual who has spoken out and asked questions of the Town Council. It is very concerning that emails sent to the Town Council are now being emailed to a blind copy list which I believe violates the Acceptable Use Policy. Furthermore the fact that the Town Council Chairman and Town Manager are not responding to explain what is going on is unacceptable.
We hear the word ‘transparency’ used often at Town Council meetings. Where is the transparency here?
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