Readers may remember that Nadeau was asked in November 2004 to resign his post leading the now-defunct East Derry Fire Precinct by the precinct's Board of Commissioners. Ostensibly, the move was intended to save the town money. But it ended up costing taxpayers a bundle.
Last year, a New Hampshire Superior Court judge ruled Nadeau was the "likely aggressor" in a "scheme" with former Commissioner Allan Lundblad to boost Nadeau's severance pay dramatically. By asking Nadeau to resign, the commission ended up paying him $89,000 in severance - an amount equal to nine months' salary. Judge Kenneth McHugh ruled that Nadeau knew on the day the commission asked him to resign that he had a new job offer at a Massachusetts fire academy. Had Nadeau given a month's notice and resigned on his own, he would have been due only three weeks' pay.
McHugh ruled that Lundblad, in concocting the scheme, violated his fiduciary obligation to taxpayers to spend their money wisely. He ordered Lundblad and Nadeau to repay the money. Lundblad, who received none of the actual payout, repaid $12,000. Nadeau, on the hook for the remaining $77,000, is appealing to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
In the first filings under that appeal, Nadeau's lawyer, Glenn Milner, argues that his client had no fiduciary duty to protect the financial interests of East Derry taxpayers. Nadeau, Milner said in his brief filed with the Supreme Court, simply asked for a severance package and was granted one by the Board of Commissioners. Nor is there any evidence that Nadeau was going to take the Massachusetts job.
The Supreme Court ought not to take this argument seriously. Any public employee, particular one like Nadeau, who was in a top management position, has an obligation to spend the taxpayers' money wisely. That means not stuffing one's pockets with as much loot as can be grabbed on the way out the door.
