PUBLIC RECORDS CRITICAL ANALYSIS
A Pattern of Neglect in Public Service
Elizabeth Barrett, Esq.
School Board Member, SAU 52
City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Right-to-Know Request: RTK-2024-0000026
Report Date: April 17, 2026
Based on Legal eDiscovery email records obtained via public records request.
Executive Summary
This report presents a comprehensive critical analysis of email records produced under Right-to-Know request RTK-2024-0000026 concerning Elizabeth Barrett, Esq., a School Board Member for SAU 52 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The emails, spanning from January 2024 through November 2024, were produced through a Legal eDiscovery process.
The records reveal a deeply troubling pattern that began almost immediately after Barrett’s appointment and persisted throughout her tenure. Within weeks of being named the School Board’s liaison to the Recreation Board in January 2024, Barrett was already missing meetings and losing track of basic scheduling information. Over the course of eleven months, the public records document at least four completely missed meetings across three different public bodies, two instances of arriving late, repeated last-minute cancellations and rescheduling requests, a persistent push to avoid in-person attendance, an admission of not understanding her own role, and a failure to keep track of meeting schedules and distributed materials.
Most critically, the records show that Barrett’s excuses followed a repetitive and formulaic pattern — cycling through “family emergencies,” “family matters,” “health issues,” traffic, and scheduling conflicts — raising questions about whether these were genuine impediments or a pattern of convenient excuses for an official who had overcommitted herself to more boards and committees than she could responsibly serve.
1. Overcommitted From the Start: Too Many Boards, Too Little Time
The public records reveal that Barrett simultaneously served on or participated in an extraordinary number of boards, committees, and negotiating teams. Based solely on the emails produced, Barrett was involved with:
The Portsmouth School Board (SAU 52) — her elected position and primary obligation.
The Portsmouth Recreation Board — where she served as the School Board’s designated liaison.
The Safe Water Advisory Group (SWAG) — a City of Portsmouth advisory committee on water safety issues.
Clerical Negotiations (Touch Base) — labor negotiations between the school district and clerical union employees.
PACE Union Negotiations — separate negotiations with the PACE union, involving outside legal counsel Tom Closson.
School Board Redistricting — redistricting meetings that conflicted with her negotiation commitments.
This level of commitment is significant. Barrett was spread across at least six different bodies, each with its own meeting schedule and preparation requirements. As the records demonstrate, Barrett was unable to fulfill these obligations reliably. Rather than stepping back from some commitments, she chose to remain on all of them while routinely failing to show up, arriving late, asking for virtual options, or canceling at the last minute.
2. Early Warning Signs: Problems From the Very First Months
2.1 Appointed January 2024 — Already Missing by February
On January 15, 2024, Brian French notified Todd Henley (Recreation Director) that “Liz Barrett will be the new liaison from the School Board.” Barrett was informed that the first meeting would be January 25, 2024 at 6:30 PM. She responded enthusiastically on January 16: “Thanks, Brian! Already on my calendar 🙂 Looking forward to working with you, Todd!”
However, by March 18, 2024 — just two months into her appointment — Barrett was already emailing Rich Duddy and Todd Henley to report she had missed the February 21 Recreation Board meeting. Her email stated:
“Hi Rich, I had some health issues and missed the last rec board meeting. Could you please let me know when the upcoming meetings will be? Could you also please send me the minutes from the last meeting. They are not posted on the city website.”
In a follow-up to both Todd Henley and Rich Duddy, she expanded:
“Hi Todd and Rich, I forwarded an email I just sent to Rich. However, now that I’m looking, I don’t see the minutes from the January meeting posted on the city website. Could either of you please forward me the minutes for the January and February meetings and please let me know when the next meeting dates are.”
This is remarkable for several reasons. Barrett had been on the board for barely two months and had already: (1) missed at least one meeting, (2) did not know when the next meetings were scheduled, (3) had not been monitoring the city website for meeting minutes, and (4) needed to be brought up to speed on two months’ worth of business. For a School Board liaison whose role is to bridge communication between the School Board and Recreation Board, this level of disengagement so early in her tenure is highly concerning.
3. Chronic Pattern of Missed Meetings
The records document a series of meetings that Barrett either missed entirely or withdrew from. What is particularly notable is the timing of her cancellation notices and the repetitive nature of her excuses.
3.1 Recreation Board Meeting — February 21, 2024 (MISSED)
Barrett missed this meeting entirely, citing “health issues.” She did not notify the board before the meeting. She only disclosed the absence on March 18, 2024 — nearly four weeks later — when she emailed asking for minutes and future dates. This suggests Barrett went almost a month without any contact with the Recreation Board regarding her absence.
3.2 Recreation Board Meeting — June 25, 2024 (MISSED)
On June 25, 2024 at 6:47 PM, Barrett emailed Rich Duddy and over a dozen board members and city officials:
“My apologies. I had a family emergency come up and had to be elsewhere. Please send me minutes for the meeting once available. My apologies.”
The meeting was scheduled for 6:30 PM. Barrett’s notification came at 6:47 PM — seventeen minutes after the meeting had already begun. The agenda included substantive items: budget approval, pickle ball rules, basketball court reviews, introduction of a new board member (Amy-Mae Court), and summer meeting scheduling. Barrett missed all of it. Her request for minutes after the fact — rather than advance notice of her absence — became a recurring pattern.
3.3 Safe Water Advisory Group Meeting — June 27, 2024 (MISSED)
Just two days later, on June 27, 2024 at 6:41 PM, Barrett sent another last-minute cancellation, this time to the SWAG committee:
“My apologies. I had a family matter I need to tend to and I’m not going to make it tonight. Please feel free to reach me by text or email if needed.”
The SWAG meeting was scheduled from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at City Hall. Barrett’s notification was sent at 6:41 PM — eleven minutes after the meeting’s start time. This represents two missed meetings in three days across two different public bodies, both with notifications sent only after proceedings had already begun. The excuse shifted from “family emergency” to “family matter” — a subtle but notable downgrade in urgency that suggests a pattern of convenient excuses rather than genuine crises.
4. Chronic Tardiness and Late Arrivals
4.1 Recreation Board Meeting — October 16, 2024 (LATE)
On October 16, 2024 at 5:52 PM, Barrett emailed Rich Duddy about a Recreation Board meeting (6:00 PM at the Senior Center):
“Hi Rich, There is a crazy amount of traffic right now with the accident on 95. I might be delayed getting there.”
While a highway accident is not Barrett’s fault, the pattern is significant. This was not an isolated incident but another in a long line of meetings where Barrett could not arrive on time or at all. Moreover, Outlook flagged her email with a warning: “You don’t often get email from [email protected].” This suggests Barrett was not a regular correspondent with the Recreation Board chair — further evidence of limited engagement.
4.2 Clerical Negotiations — October 29, 2024 (LATE)
On October 29, 2024 at 10:00 AM, Barrett sent a terse one-line message to Tom Closson (outside labor counsel) regarding a scheduled negotiation session:
“Was held up in another meeting. Heading that way now.”
This was a Touch Base-Clerical Negotiations meeting — a formal labor relations session involving the City’s HR Director (Kelly A. Harper), legal counsel, and school district administrators. Being late to a negotiation because of “another meeting” demonstrates poor time management and suggests Barrett was double-booking herself across her many commitments. When you serve on six different bodies, meetings will inevitably conflict — but the responsibility for managing those conflicts falls on Barrett herself.
5. Last-Minute Scheduling Disruptions
5.1 Clerical Negotiations — October 28, 2024 (Same-Day Reschedule)
On October 28, 2024 at 1:43 PM, Barrett attempted to reschedule a same-day meeting that had already been coordinated among multiple parties:
“Hi, Pip and I are just seeing this. The school board has a redistricting meeting this afternoon and we were hoping to be present for that. Could we schedule this for before our meeting tomorrow?”
This email is damaging on multiple levels:
She admitted she was “just seeing” the meeting notice. A negotiation involving outside legal counsel, the city’s HR director, and multiple school district officials was apparently not on Barrett’s calendar or radar. Kelly Harper (City HR Director) had already set up a Microsoft Teams meeting with a specific agenda: “To discuss our proposals back and answers to theirs.” Barrett had not seen or engaged with any of this.
She tried to reschedule a multi-party meeting at the last minute. By 1:43 PM on a day when multiple professionals had already organized their schedules, Barrett asked to move the meeting to the next morning — inconveniencing everyone else involved.
She expressed confusion about her own role. Later that day at 5:34 PM, Barrett followed up: “I’m not sure what to do here but can be available at 10 if that’s helpful.” For a School Board Member participating in labor negotiations, admitting you don’t know “what to do” raises serious questions about whether Barrett was prepared for or understood her responsibilities in these proceedings.
Kelly Harper responded: “I will be unavailable at 10. I will see you all at 11.” Barrett’s disruption forced the city’s HR director to adjust her schedule. Tom Closson also had to confirm separate availability. Barrett’s lack of preparation created a cascading scheduling problem for everyone else.
6. Persistent Push to Avoid In-Person Attendance
A recurring theme throughout the records is Barrett’s desire to attend meetings virtually rather than in person. While virtual attendance has legitimate uses, Barrett’s repeated requests suggest an unwillingness to make the effort to physically be present for her public duties.
6.1 Recreation Board — September 17, 2024
When the Recreation Board chair flagged that quorum was at risk (only 5 of 9 needed, with 3 already absent), Barrett responded conditionally:
“I plan to be there but my son may need to miss a practice because of the timing (the team just started). It would be helpful, in the future, to allow for attendance by zoom to ensure all members the chance to be there. Most other Boards in the city do this.”
Rather than committing to attend when quorum was in jeopardy, Barrett: (1) made her attendance conditional on her son’s sports schedule, (2) used the quorum crisis as a lobbying opportunity to push for Zoom, and (3) implicitly criticized the board’s existing policy. Todd Henley later confirmed that virtual attendance was not normal practice for the Recreation Board — it was only being set up because engineers needed to present remotely and Henley himself was out with COVID.
6.2 PACE Negotiations — November 26, 2024
On November 26, 2024 at 8:48 AM, Barrett asked the PACE negotiations team:
“Could this be a zoom or teams meeting?”
This came after attorney Tom Closson had already organized the meeting as an in-person session at the School Board Conference Room at City Hall. Barrett’s request forced the entire group to pivot — Closson, Haynes, Harper, and others all had to weigh in on whether virtual would work. The meeting was ultimately converted to Zoom to accommodate Barrett. This pattern — Barrett requesting virtual attendance and others adjusting to accommodate her — demonstrates that her inability or unwillingness to attend in person created ongoing disruption for her colleagues.
7. Broader Signs of Disengagement
7.1 Not Knowing the Meeting Schedule
Barrett’s March 18, 2024 email revealed she did not know when future Recreation Board meetings were scheduled, despite having been a member for two months. She asked Rich Duddy: “Could you please let me know when the upcoming meetings will be?” A board liaison who doesn’t know when the board meets cannot be effectively relaying information between the School Board and the Recreation Board — which is the entire purpose of the liaison role.
7.2 Not Monitoring the City Website
In the same March email, Barrett complained: “They are not posted on the city website” and “I don’t see the minutes from the January meeting posted on the city website.” Whether or not the minutes were posted, Barrett’s reliance on the website (rather than direct engagement with the board) suggests she was not actively communicating with fellow board members or the Recreation Director between meetings.
7.3 Failure to Receive or Follow Up on Materials
On October 16, 2024, Barrett emailed Patricia Haynes about bereavement leave: “I didn’t receive the attachment here when forwarded.” Kelly Harper had distributed a compilation of bereavement language from other contracts with suggested language. Barrett was unable to review this material because she either didn’t receive or didn’t follow up on the attachment. In a negotiation context, failing to review the other side’s proposals is a significant preparation failure.
7.4 Admission of Not Understanding Her Role
Barrett’s October 28 statement — “I’m not sure what to do here” — in the context of clerical negotiations is perhaps the single most revealing line in the entire production. As a member of the management-side negotiating team for the school district, Barrett should have understood: what the meeting was about, what her role was, and what decisions needed to be made. Instead, she expressed uncertainty and offered her availability tentatively, as though she were an optional participant rather than a core team member.
8. The Excuse Rotation: A Pattern of Convenient Reasons
Across eleven months of records, Barrett deployed a rotating cast of excuses. Viewed individually, each excuse is understandable. Viewed collectively, the pattern is troubling:
| Date | Excuse Used | Meeting Missed/Affected |
| Feb 2024 | “Health issues” | Recreation Board (entirely missed) |
| Jun 25, 2024 | “Family emergency” | Recreation Board (notified 17 min late) |
| Jun 27, 2024 | “Family matter” | SWAG (notified 11 min late) |
| Sep 17, 2024 | Son’s sports practice | Recreation Board (conditional attendance) |
| Oct 16, 2024 | Traffic / accident on I-95 | Recreation Board (arrived late) |
| Oct 16, 2024 | Technical issue (missing attachment) | Bereavement negotiations (unprepared) |
| Oct 28, 2024 | “Just seeing this” / redistricting conflict | Clerical negotiations (same-day reschedule) |
| Oct 29, 2024 | “Held up in another meeting” | Clerical negotiations (arrived late) |
| Nov 26, 2024 | Preference for virtual attendance | PACE negotiations (format change forced) |
The excuses cycle through health, family, traffic, scheduling conflicts, and technology failures. No two consecutive excuses are the same. The effect is a public official who always has a reason for not being where she is supposed to be, but who never seems to address the underlying problem: that she has taken on more responsibilities than she can handle.
9. Impact on Others and Public Business
Barrett’s conduct did not occur in a vacuum. Her absences and disruptions created tangible problems for other officials and for the conduct of public business:
Quorum risks: The Recreation Board required 5 of 9 members for a quorum. When Rich Duddy flagged in September 2024 that three members were already absent, Barrett’s conditional response added uncertainty. Had Barrett not attended, the board may not have been able to conduct business.
Wasted professional time: Barrett’s October 28 same-day reschedule request forced outside attorney Tom Closson, City HR Director Kelly Harper, and school administrators Patricia Haynes and Pip Clews to all re-coordinate their schedules. Closson confirmed at 5:42 PM; Harper said she couldn’t do 10 AM. Barrett’s lack of planning consumed everyone else’s time.
Format changes for accommodation: The November 26 PACE negotiations meeting was converted from in-person to Zoom specifically because Barrett requested it. Other participants had already planned to attend in person at City Hall.
Missed votes and decisions: Barrett’s absence from the June 25 Recreation Board meeting meant she missed votes on budget approval, pickle ball rules, basketball court allocation, and summer meeting scheduling — decisions that affect Portsmouth residents. Her absence from the June 27 SWAG meeting meant she missed discussions on safe water policy — a public health matter.
Communication gaps: As the School Board’s designated liaison to the Recreation Board, Barrett’s absences created a gap in the information flow between two public bodies. When she didn’t attend Recreation Board meetings, the School Board had no representative present to relay information or concerns.
10. Complete Incident Timeline
| Date | Meeting | Issue | Excuse | Key Detail |
| Feb 21, 2024 | Recreation Board | MISSED | Health issues | Disclosed 4 weeks later; didn’t know schedule |
| Jun 25, 2024 | Recreation Board | MISSED | Family emergency | Notified 17 min after start; missed budget vote |
| Jun 27, 2024 | SWAG | MISSED | Family matter | Notified 11 min after start; 2nd miss in 3 days |
| Sep 17, 2024 | Recreation Board | Conditional | Son’s sports | Quorum at risk; lobbied for Zoom |
| Oct 16, 2024 | Bereavement Neg. | Unprepared | Missing attachment | Could not review materials |
| Oct 16, 2024 | Recreation Board | LATE | Traffic on I-95 | Warned of delay 8 min before start |
| Oct 28, 2024 | Clerical Neg. | Reschedule | Redistricting conflict | “Just seeing this”; “not sure what to do” |
| Oct 29, 2024 | Clerical Neg. | LATE | Another meeting | Terse one-line notice to attorney |
| Nov 26, 2024 | PACE Neg. | Format change | Virtual preference | Forced entire group to switch to Zoom |
11. Conclusion
The public records obtained under RTK-2024-0000026 paint a clear and consistent picture of Elizabeth Barrett’s conduct as a public official during 2024. From the moment of her appointment in January through at least November, Barrett demonstrated a pattern of behavior that raises fundamental questions about her fitness to serve in the multiple roles she assumed.
She missed meetings — and when she did, she often notified participants only after the meetings had already started. She arrived late to others, citing competing meetings she had double-booked. She disrupted established meeting plans by requesting last-minute virtual accommodations or same-day rescheduling. She admitted she didn’t understand her role in at least one formal negotiation. She failed to keep track of basic information like meeting schedules and distributed materials. And she deployed a rotating series of excuses — health, family, traffic, technology, scheduling — that, taken individually, each sound reasonable, but taken together reveal a public official who was consistently unable or unwilling to meet her commitments.
The citizens of Portsmouth elected Barrett to the School Board and entrusted her with representing their interests on multiple additional bodies. The public records suggest that trust was not well placed. Barrett’s overcommitment led to underperformance across the board, and her colleagues — city officials, attorneys, HR directors, board chairs, and fellow members — were repeatedly left to absorb the consequences of her absences, tardiness, and disorganization.
Disclaimer
This report is based solely on the email records produced in response to Right-to-Know request RTK-2024-0000026. It reflects only the information contained within those records and does not represent a comprehensive review of Barrett’s full tenure or performance. There may be additional context, mitigating circumstances, or records not included in this production that could alter the characterization of any individual incident. This report presents the factual content of the public records as produced and draws reasonable inferences from those records. Readers should form their own conclusions based on the primary source documents.
