KEENE, N.H. (MyKeeneNow) – After months of debate, the Keene City Council has voted to leave its rules regarding public communications unchanged, rejecting an amendment that sought to clarify how the council handles correspondence unrelated to city matters.

The original proposal last year would have amended the Council Rules of Order regarding communications, saying that if a communication was deemed not germane to the city it wouldn’t be put on the agenda for the mayor to accept as informational, but rather put directly into the councilors mailboxes for them to review.

Currently, the communications are put on the agenda and the mayor can accept them as informational. Any councilor can challenge the ruling and if that receives a second the full council takes a vote. If the challenge passes, the matter gets referred to a council committee for action.

The discussion, which has been ongoing since last year, was previously tabled and brought up at Thursday night’s meeting. Councilors revisited an amendment to the proposal by Councilor Michael Remy that would have formalized their current practice of accepting certain public communications as informational rather than taking action on them.

Remy argued that the proposed change would not alter the council’s existing procedures but would make them clearer to the public.

“It doesn’t actually make us do anything differently than we’re doing today,” Remy said. “It just makes it really clear to the public that if something is not germane, we can take it as informational.”

Councilor Randy Filiault contended that the amendment was unnecessary and that the current Rules of Order are sufficient. Filiault emphasized that the existing system allows for flexibility, as any issue can be considered if it secures eight votes, the majority of the 15-member council.

“The Rules of Order work,” Filiault stated. “Even if you change them, eight votes can still override it.”

Councilor Robert Williams, who had initially pushed for a rule change after a past procedural dispute, expressed frustration that the issue was still being debated.

“The public doesn’t want this. Why are we doing this?” he said. “There’s a lot of bad blood behind this. I think we should just let it die.”

In the final vote, the amendment failed 13-2, with only Remy and Councilor Bryan Lake voting in favor. Following this, the council was presented with a motion to direct the city attorney to draft a revised rule. However, after additional debate, the council unanimously rejected that motion as well, ensuring that no further work would be done on the proposed change.

The decision ends months of discussion on the matter and keeps the city’s procedural rules intact. With this vote, the council will continue to operate under its longstanding framework for handling public communications.