Should addresses of elected officials be kept private?

A Portsmouth city councilor's request to have the addresses of elected officials removed from the city's website drew opposition from several current and former elected officials.

State Rep. Laura Pantelakos has served Portsmouth residents in the state Legislature for 41 years. That has long meant her home address and phone number have been posted on the state’s website, which is something, she said, that comes with the job.

“You ran for public office, they didn’t select you,” Pantelakos said during an interview this week. “So now you’re public property. If you don’t want that to occur, then you shouldn’t run for anything.”

City Councilor Nancy Pearson cited safety concerns when she recently suggested elected city officials' addresses be taken off the city website.

“We have contact forms for email, we have our phone number, we have an address here at City Hall if people need to send us something, I just think it’s a little outdated to have our home addresses posted publicly,” Pearson said, adding “as more and more women become elected officials, you enter into a safety issue with home addresses being published. ... At the heart of it, this is an equity issue.”

“Most women, myself included, have felt unsafe at one point or another,” Pearson further said. “I personally know Portsmouth women who will not speak at public meetings because of the requirement to state their home address into the public record.”

Pantelakos said she has never felt nervous about having her information available to the public, and the Democratic state lawmaker has been in “some really tough fights” over issues, including bingo and casino gambling.

“I feel if you’re a public official you ask the people to vote for you so your information should be public,” she said. “I’ve never had any problems. I might have gotten some phone calls I wish I didn’t get, but that’s it.”

She doesn’t see “any reason” that a public official should want to keep their address or phone number private.

“It’s very funny how people are about giving out addresses. People can get your address at anytime they want just by punching your name into the computer,” Pantelakos said.

State Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, D-Portsmouth, said Friday she also disagrees with Pearson.

“I think that part of the role of being a public official is that you’re public,” Fuller Clark said during an interview. “I think we as elected officials have an obligation to be transparent in how we can best be contacted. Not everybody has email, someone might want to write you a note. I’ve been in the business 25 years and I’ve never had a problem.”

Fuller Clark also said she believes City Councilor Josh Denton “overreacted” when he decided to pursue criminal charges and a permanent restraining order against a 72-year-old woman who he said threatened to run him over.

A judge recently denied his request for a permanent protective order against Mary McDermott, but she still faces criminal charges.

“There are times you are going to have uncomfortable conversations, but that comes with the job,” Fuller Clark said.

City Councilor Rebecca Perkins Kwoka said during a recent City Council meeting she agrees with Pearson’s idea.

“It’s always bothered me, and given now that we’re getting threats over public infrastructure buildings, which seems ridiculous, I think it’s old-fashioned, too,” she said.

Former state representative and Democratic congressional candidate Mindi Messmer of Rye believes sharing your address and phone number is “something you have to get used to as an elected official.”

She acknowledges she was unnerved when her name, photo and a picture of her home were posted on a neo-Nazi website shortly before the Democratic primary election in August 2018.

“It was unsettling, but anyone can just Google someone and get their home address,” Messmer said this week. “There’s not much you can do about it. Taking your address off a website really wouldn’t deter someone if they wanted to find you.”

Portsmouth Police Commissioner Jim Splaine has previously served as the city's assistant mayor five times. He also served in the state Senate and House of Representatives and received what he described as “some quite serious threats” in the 1970s.

He has always shared where he lives and has had people visit him at his home to talk about issues.

“I believe it’s important for the sake of transparency and constituent services for people to know where I live,” Splaine said.

But he also believes “any elected official should feel free or able to keep his or her home address private.”

“I feel secure but I get it in today’s world some people might not,” Splaine said. “If there is a concern by an elected he or she should have that option to keep their address private and we should respect that.”

But he acknowledged there is no better way for a public official to communicate with a constituent than in person.

“Twitter, Facebook, emails are very limited in their ability to communicate,” Splaine said.

Portsmouth City Councilor Rick Becksted pointed to prominent former female officials in Portsmouth, including late Mayors Eileen Foley and Evelyn Sirrell.

“I never heard of them having any problems. Why is it that a newer style councilor wants to come in and change everything in our city?” Becksted asked rhetorically. “If they want to keep their addresses off the website, don’t run for City Council.”

He added that when councilors are voting on $118 million city budgets or the McIntyre Federal Building redevelopment, people have a right to know where they live.

“It’s about transparency,” he said.

Portsmouth Assistant Mayor Cliff Lazenby is open to the idea of allowing elected officials to keep their home address private. He also said he doesn’t “doubt” there are people who don’t want to give their home addresses at city meetings.

“I can understand the concern about people being harassed or bothered,” he said this week. “I think it’s a real concern, it’s a shame.”

And, he said, he supports a “path for more people to participate in public input” without giving their address.

“I’m not sure how that would work but maybe their addresses could be verified somehow (privately),” he said.

He also acknowledged as someone who works in IT “that in practical terms it’s pretty easy these days to find people’s addresses whether they’re on the city website or not.”

“I think anyone can find an address pretty quickly if they want to,” he said.