Shining the light into the dark corners…
In the NH Supreme Court ruling in our Right to Know lawsuit involving the illegal appointment of an Interim Sheriff by the County Convention (comprised of the elected House members of the county), the Honorable Court wrote, in part, that
"[P]ublic knowledge of the considerations upon which governmental action is based and of the decisions taken is essential to the democratic process." Carter v. Nashua, 113 N.H. 407, 416 (1973) (citation omitted). Where, as here, "a public body is appointing an individual to fill a position normally filled by an elected official, the reasons for allowing public scrutiny of the actions taken are even more compelling." Gannett Satellite Info. Net. v. Bd. of Educ., 492 A.2d 703, 706 (N.J. Super. Ct. Law Div. 1984). Such public scrutiny is of even greater import when the public body at issue consists of persons who by their very nature represent the will of the people, and, in their actions, are substituting their judgment for that of the people. Thus, the Convention’s decision to fill the vacancy by secret ballot contravenes not only the explicit legislative mandate against such votes, but also the fundamental purpose of the Right-to-Know Law "to ensure both the greatest possible public access to the actions, discussions and records of all public bodies, and their accountability to the people." RSA 91-A:1 (2001).
The bottom line is that an elected body cannot go into non public session at any point during the appointment process filling an elective position. With that in mind, consider the appointment of an Interim school board member by the Hillsboro Deering District board members last Thuursday, as reported in the Concord Monitor:
The Hillsboro-Deering School Board has elected a new member to replace the former chairwoman who resigned last month.
Richard Pelletier of Hillsboro was unanimously voted in by the four-member board to fill the fifth spot after nonpublic deliberations Thursday night. [emphasis added]
"Nonpublic deliberations"? Uh-oh! I’m pretty sure that the ruling by the NH Supreme Court applies in the same way to the appointment of an elected school board member as an elected sheriff.
I think that they have a BIG problem with this appointment, which becomes effective August 4th. Sorry, but Mr. Pelletier should NOT be allowed to assume his position, as the appointment isn’t legal, given the non public session deliberations. There is NO legal exemption allowing a closed door meeting for the appointment of a replacement for an elected position. Period.
I wonder how many times similar situations have occured through the years?
