{"id":12191,"date":"2026-05-09T08:45:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T12:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/?p=12191"},"modified":"2026-05-09T08:45:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T12:45:24","slug":"town-legal-services-no-oversight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/?p=12191","title":{"rendered":"Town Legal Services, No Oversight?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Following up two posts Video: The Cost of Counsel: A Dispute Over Legal Policy<\/a> and Londonderry Fiscal Accountability and Misinformation<\/a> and specifically part of a statement made by Former Town Councilor John Farrell:

“All of this other noise has cost over 1 million unbudgeted software (500-650K),wage increases( 200-300K) and legal fees (200-300K)<\/strong> with no oversight or approval of the Town Council.<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Farrell was asked for his sources for the $200-300,000 claim he refused responding:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Keep using Chat GPT the facts remain the facts. The truth remains the truth the monies were spent without the knowledge of the voters and the Town Council period. I do my research the old fashion way.<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did not use ChatGPT for this one, instead I contacted the Town to get accurate numbers on legal fees. The graph below lists legal expenses for 2021 through 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Town Software can give a 5 year graph. The graph below is 2022 thru 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If we review the graphs it’s clear that actual expenditure fare exceeded budgets in 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026. It should also be noted that although the budget were roughly doubled yearly from 2023 to 2025 the actual expenditure as some have recently stated. The current expenditure for 2026 are minimally over budget, but the fiscal year does not close until July. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Farrell is stating “no oversight or approval of the Town Council<\/em>” below is the Town Council members for 2021 through 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2026 – Chair Ron Dunn; Vice Chair Shawn Faber; Ted Combes, Councilors Dan Bouchard, and Deb Paul<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2025 – Chair Chad Franz; Vice Chair Ted Combes; Councilors Shawn Faber, Ron Dunn, and John Farrell<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024 – Chairman John Farrell; Vice Chairman Chad Franz; Councilors Ted Combes, Jim Butler, and Ron Dunn<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2023 – Chairman John Farrell; Vice Chairman Joe Green; Councilors Jim Butler, Chad Franz, and Deb Paul<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2022 – Chairman John Farrell; Vice Chairman Joe Green; Councilor Jim Butler, Tom Dolan, and Deb Paul<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021 – Chairman John Farrell; Vice Chairman Joe Green; Councilor Tom Dolan and Jim Butler<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was there now oversite when John Farrell was on the Town Council? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councilors Deb Paul and Dan Bouchard attempted to reign in costs on March 4, 2026 (The Cost of Counsel: A Dispute Over Legal\u00a0Policy<\/a>), but were overruled by Councilors Dunn, Faber, and Combes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So who is hindering oversight?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related Posts:<\/strong>
Town Legal Services Invoices March 2026<\/a>
Londonderry Fiscal Accountability and Misinformation<\/a>
Video: The Cost of Counsel: A Dispute Over Legal\u00a0Policy<\/a>
Video:\u00a0Town Manager Responds\u00a0to Allegations of Fiscal Mismanagement and Dishonesty<\/a>
Town Legal Services\u00a0Invoices October 2025 Thru February 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following up two posts Video: The Cost of Counsel: A Dispute Over Legal Policy and Londonderry Fiscal Accountability and Misinformation and specifically part of a statement made by Former Town Councilor John Farrell: “All of this other noise has cost over 1 million unbudgeted software (500-650K),wage increases( 200-300K) and legal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12194,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12191\/revisions\/12194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}