Concord City Councilor disputes ethics complaint over alleged conflict of interest

A California resident has filed a lengthy ethics complaint against At-Large City Councilor Amanda Grady Sexton, linking Grady Sexton’s role as a councilor and chair of the city’s public safety committee to her professional ties with the Concord Police Department.

The five-page complaint, filed by Claire Best, is wide-ranging but makes few arguments directly related to Grady Sexton’s role as a city councilor. Best’s accusations focus on her work at the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and contact with Concord Police, particularly in the criminal trial of Owen Labrie and related lawsuits against St. Paul’s School. Her complaint is attached to the online version of this story.

Best, who owns property in Moultonborough, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

“Concord PD site has long mentioned its close relationship with local non-profits,” the complaint concludes, “I believe that the NHCADSV is the main one of these. It seems like a liability and a conflict.”

The complaint doesn’t point to a violation specific to the city’s ethics rules, but Best makes multiple unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing by Grady Sexton and the coalition, including that the organization takes undue kickbacks from victim settlements, manipulates media coverage of assault investigations and previously doxxed Best because of her previous accusations.

“These statements are clearly defamatory,” Grady Sexton said Friday. “There have been literally six years of allegations of criminal wrongdoing that involve me and hundreds of other people that she believes are involved in a vast conspiracy that have no basis in truth.”

Best has opined about similar accusations in the past, including this fall during city elections. Grady Sexton said that she has confronted Best with cease-and-desist actions that have led to the removal of some posts online.

The public safety board chaired by Grady Sexton discusses issues around crime, first responder retention, downtown safety, homelessness and other issues referred from the council. While police and fire departments discuss program and budget changes with the committee, its recommendations are advisory. The city council as a whole sets that funding as part of the budget process.

Ward Five councilor Stacey Brown raised similar accusations at a city council meeting Monday night. It is among the reasons other councilors are considering a vote to remove her from her seat.

Brown did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Grady Sexton said she is confident she has no conflict of interest in her role as a councilor and found it “nonsensical” for Brown, whose husband is a city police officer, to support what Grady Sexton said were baseless claims involving Concord Police.

“If Stacey Brown is alleging that I have a conflict of interest and is working with Claire Best to make an official complaint that is speaking to the corruption they believe occurs or has occurred within the Concord Police Department,” Grady Sexton said, “it is hard to understand that Stacey Brown’s husband, who is employed in that department, wouldn’t have been aware or involved in that corruption.”

An ethics complaint against Brown, arguing she should not have voted on the closure of a street because it included a police detail, was dismissed in 2024. At the time, Brown criticized the complaint as politically motivated.

The Board of Ethics is a five-member appointed body that weighs complaints as they arise but does not take action on its own. Most of its members are lawyers, and their conclusions are passed on to the city council.

The board first considers whether complaints fall under their jurisdiction, make a clear claim under the ethics code and have merit before they formally take them up. Previous claims have been quickly dismissed for not outlining a specific conflict with city ethics rules. Grady Sexton will have a chance to respond in writing before the board convenes.

The code of ethics says city officials have a financial conflict of interest when they take an action or make a decision that could affect the financial interest of themselves, their family, or an organization where they or their family are employed.

Tension between Brown and other councilors has been rising in recent months in meetings and online, largely related to Brown’s questioning of city staff. She was removed from her committees by the mayor at the start of the new council term.

Other councilors have called foul at statements made by Brown in recent weeks on social media, including her pointing out that an illicit massage parlor near the state prison was in Councilor Jennifer Kretovic’s redistricted Ward Three.

In a statement online defending Grady Sexton, Kretovic rejected any affiliation with the illicit spa and called the “insinuation” of such “false, reckless, and defamatory.”

Kretovic declined to comment, citing “the likelihood of imminent litigation.”

“My focus remains on supporting colleagues affected by this conduct and continuing to serve our community,” she wrote in an email to the Monitor.

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