City Council drops Nichols matter

June Casagrande

The gloves came off, but in the end, nobody went for the KO.

Councilman Dick Nichols took it on the chin from fellow council

members Tuesday as colleagues railed him for telling planning

commissioners last month that “it looks like you’re taking money for

this one.”

“What bothers me is that you don’t get it,” Councilman Gary

Proctor said. “You don’t get the inappropriateness of how you sit on

a body that appoints planning commissioners, then you stand up in

front of the Planning Commission to speak, then you call up their

decisions in front of the council.”

Councilman John Heffernan said that Nichols’ comment was damaging

to planning commissioners.

“What you said carries more weight because you’re an elected

official,” Heffernan said. “It’s like saying I saw you come out of

the Four Seasons in the morning with a redhead.”

Nichols repeated his previous apology .

“My simile was totally wrong,” Nichols said. “I did not mean to

impugn anybody’s reputation. I’m very sorry that this happened.”

But Nichols didn’t stand alone. Eight residents spoke in his

support, or at least in support of dropping the matter.

“I think you have now made it clear that Mr. Nichols used poor

judgment,” said resident Madelene Arakelian, a 2002 City Council

candidate. “Give him another chance to go forward and to realize what

he’s done.”

The item on the council’s agenda was whether the council should

take any action either to condemn Nichols’ comment, to censure him or

to create a code of conduct to govern council members’ behavior.

City Atty. Bob Burnham reported to council members that he did

believe that Nichols’ comments amounted to an unfounded implication

that someone had accepted a bribe. But Burnham said his legal

research supported Nichols’ rights to make such comments at Planning

Commission meetings.

The discussion also included some criticism for Greenlight, the

slow-growth movement in the city. Heffernan, who was elected with the

help of the Greenlight Committee, reported that Greenlight leaders

had asked him to defend Nichols, also a Greenlight-supported

councilman.

“I patently refused to do so,” Heffernan said.

Councilman Tod Ridgeway said that the whole controversy should

reflect poorly on the local political group.

“The Greenlight people are the ones who interviewed him as a

candidate, endorsed the candidate and financed the candidate,”

Ridgeway said. “I really question the people who supported him.”

In the end, as midnight approached, council members agreed that it

was time to drop the matter. They voted unanimously not to take any

further action.

“I am content to end this evening and hope something good comes

out of it,” Mayor Steve Bromberg said.