Aitken: Is Granfield Fit to Serve?

Bedford NH

24 February, 2022

9:45 AM

Description

Among those who have filed to run for Town Council in Bedford is William Granfield. Granfield was once assigned to the Think Tank Outreach Committee for the Master Plan Update. The purpose of this committee was to engage the residents of Bedford in the rewrite process. At the same time he was serving on the Historic District Commission. The Bedford Residents Association was formed as a taxpayer watchdog group. The group took issue with the fact that the town hired urban planners from out-of-state (Tennessee) who were proponents of the "new urbanism" movement. Despite the fact that the town manager announced that these planners had "no agenda", in fact, Brian Wright the principal employee of TPUDC, was a protégé of Andrés Duany, who himself founded the new urbanism movement. Apparently, even though Mr. Granfield thought it was acceptable that actual outsiders were having an influence on the way our town would develop in the future, he at the same time made the false claim that BRA members were not really from Bedford and thus they had no right to have any input. (Keep in mind he was someone who was appointed and tasked with the idea that he was to get more people involved.) He then attacked the founder of BRA on Facebook with an unprovoked, profane diatribe in private messages. His eight hour rant was laced with false accusations, name-calling, and profanities. His conversation devolved into the most vile and uncalled for language she had ever heard, to the point where she felt unsafe to say who she was. He then took to his own blog repeating many of his false claims in an attempt to defame her and other BRA members. Complaints were filed with the town and subsequently Granfield was either forced to resign or resigned voluntarily from both boards. Clearly Mr. Granfield has demonstrated his acrimony toward 1,300 bona fide residents of Bedford. This kind of attitude should deem him unfit to serve on the Town Council.