Ben-david Cone

Good morning, As a resident of Derry for the past 40 years, I stand against this bill for several reasons. First, while I am not knowlegable on the full history of laws in the state of NH, I beleive this bill sets an undue precedent of making laws specific to one municipality. I am unaware of any law the sets rules for only one town, is this the path the legislature should set itself forth on? Should the state endeavor itself to carve out rules for singular towns? Second, Derry has a unique structure to the management of town and schools. Our town has adopted a town council form of government. This structure gives the town council (7 members) full legislative and governing authority over town policy, budget, and organization. This does not allow taxpayers to vote for or admend the budget . Meanwhile our cooperative school district is a SB2 form of government. This allows our taxpayers to not only elect a school board of 7 , it also allows for multiple opportunities of public input and voter control in the process. This bill allowing the absorbtion of school district would effectivley remove the current ability of Derry taxpayers to participate actively in the budget process. Third, it Has been pointed out many times in the past how different the administration of town operations and school operations are. I believe the intent of seperation of the two in our laws and governing practices is an agknowlegement of this. The differences are so vast that past testimony in multiple committee hearings have included admistrative proffessionals that testified how nearly impossible it is to change careers between the two. This bill would add on to the resposibility of the town council a new administrative task that differs from the town rules and regulations. This would naturally lead to mistakes being made with potentially legel repercussions. Forth, while this bill prescribes manners in which the town could absorb the school district, it does not give any manner in which the transition could be reversed. This would potentially put the town of Derry in a position in which it would need further legislation at the state level to undo the consolidation in the event it does not work as inntended. Fifth, while I question the current motives , I beleive it to be an attempt to remove control from school board and place it in hands of current town council members. But, I ask, what will happen when another faction takes control of council? what is the recourse if the town council with full control of budget, without public recourse, decides it wants increase budget dramatically. while many in town love pointing out that the town has a property tax cap, they often forget that it can be over-ridden by the town council if they see fit. This would potentially put taxpayers in Derry in a situation where our schools are drastically under funded , or taxes exponentialy increasing. Our only recourse in this situation would be to vote out the town council one at a time, potentialy taking multiple years before getting budget back in control. Thank you for your time Ben Cone