The laws governing our society at all levels are both complicated yet simple when you begin to contemplate their meanings. Along with setting the rules on nearly everything that exists within a supposedly civilized society purporting to be based on what’s right and wrong, they also exist to provide limits as to how much a government can intrude into peoples’ personal lives, and the behavior under which it’s required to adhere.
Ask yourself whether when it comes to following the myriad of rules and regulations and complying with what’s required to be filled out– as an individual: IRS returns, license renewals, etcetera, or as a business entity: IRS returns, permit renewals, corporate filings—the government ever allows you to “almost” do it their way. What happens when you make a mistake? What happens when you exceed the posted speed limit? Do you get a pass because “that’s how you’ve always done it?” Of course you don’t. Generally, when a citizen violates the law, he or she pays a penalty.
But what about when the government itself breaks the law? Who pays a price? You know, like what citizens must do when they are caught in violation. Of course we all know the answer in most instances: “Fine for thee, but not for me.”
A ten year employee serving as the Belknap County Administrator and Finance Director has been fired. While the reasons have not been yet made public, one cannot assume this has happened because of anything good. Recall that this is the same administrator that was unable to answer my simple question back in March at the “public hearing” for the county budget. Me: “How many employees are we paying for with this budget, and please give me the breakdown between union and non-union.” The answer (caustically): “How am I supposed to know?”
Since that time, the county has found itself with a default budget over $400,000 less than what the County Convention had thought they approved, and had to undo a series of mistakes made in the process of borrowing money. All thanks to a little study and persistence on the part of a couple of citizens who discovered that Belknap County has an ongoing problem in that much of what it does fails to comply with the law. Some may say that this is no big deal, simply mere technical violations that in the end become “much ado about nothing.” If it ended there, perhaps some could make that case, though I would disagree.
Let’s not forget the County Convention’s closed-door procedure for the selecting of the Sheriff, a County Commissioner, and at least one Gunstock Commissioner, all using secret ballots—a practice that has since been ruled illegal. These are our elected officials acting on our behalf that are failing to follow the law. While some may claim that none of it is malicious, or causes any great harm in the big scheme of things, we don’t really know for sure. A common pattern with all of the violations by the county is that they all involve citizen access—or, more specifically, the denial of such.
Closed- door meetings. Secret ballots. Denial of the public’s right to speak at public hearings. Barring access to certain documents. Failure to use lawfully required citations for non-public session entry. On and on it goes. When you couple all of that with the effort involved for an ordinary citizen to even begin to conduct a careful and thorough study of the finances of his/her own government and how tax dollars are spent, you can see why things can go amiss, and nobody realizes it until it’s too late.
New Hampshire law states
“Any employee of a county institution who has served at least one year shall not be discharged, removed, or suspended from employment except for dishonesty, intoxication, immoral behavior or other misconduct, neglect of duty, negligence, willful insubordination, lack of cooperation, inefficiency, incapacity or unfitness to perform his duties, or for the good of the institution to which he is assigned.”
Obviously the former Administrator/ Finance Director was found to be conducting herself contrary to something on that list, otherwise the Commissioners could not have fired her. Besides whatever the ultimate details happen to be, the other question Belknap County citizens will want to know is “How long?” How long was whatever was going on going on? Had citizens been allowed and perhaps even encouraged to participate and look, might something have been averted? Sunshine is always a healthy elixir.
The Belknap County website tells us
“The county operates under the Commissioner (Executive Branch consisting of three elected Commissioners) and Convention (Legislative Branch consisting of 18 elected Representatives) form of government and provides services as authorized by state statue.”
It continues, noting,
“The three-member Board of Commissioners (as mandated by NH Statute RSA 28) are part-time elected officials responsible for overall supervision, custody and care of all county departments, buildings and land, and have budgetary oversight of all county expenditures. They are elected into staggered four and two-year terms by the voters of the districts each are assigned to. The annual county budget is prepared by the Commissioners and Departments Heads and submitted to the County Convention for final approval.”
That’s pretty much it, in a nutshell. That is how it works, and it all gets paid for by taxing our homes. When you consider the above mandate that they themselves provided, the bottom line is that when it gets looked at step by step as required by law, Belknap County doesn’t appear to have gotten ANYTHING right.