Kicking and screaming as hard as they can, there at Gunstock Mountain Resort! The heart of the issue? Power – and the ability to do what they want, when they want, and how they want.
That they are only a subdivision of the State and not a real “company” makes it even worse. And as I’ll be putting up stuff going forward, I’ve got receipts!
In this case, its all about “presentation”. An old trick/technique where stuff that SHOULD be updated, like a website, isn’t. Like with the NH GOP website back in 2013/214 when Walt Havenstein was their nominee for Governor and Scott Brown (husband of Gail Huff who is now running for US Congress from NH’s CD-1 ) was running for US Senate. That year, the Delegates to the NH GOP voted for a stronger plank concerning unborn babies – much more of a pro-life stance. Problem was that both Havenstein and Brown, contra the NH GOP Platform.
After the Delegate vote, the Platform on the NH GOP website didn’t change for MONTHS to reflect the change. I implored Matt Mowers to update it (he’s now running for US Congress for the second time in CD-1) as he was the Executive Director of the NH GOP. Lots of unanswered calls and emails but when I did get answers, it was along the lines of “we’re busy campaigning for our candidates” even though he AND I knew it was literally a 3-minute update. In fact, I offered many times to update – as well as a bunch of other folks who were “website savvy” as well.
It didn’t get changed until they both lost their races by substantial margins. IMHO, because Scott Brown was seen as both a carpet bagger and anti-2A guy (based on his actions while being a Massachusetts politician AND for me, bragging about how he started voting more with Democrats than Republicans as his Senate term was ending to prove his “bipartisan” cred. And with Havenstein, it was his refusal to apologize for joining in with Democrats in slurring the TEA Party movement as teabaggers. He alienated the Liberty and Freedom / Conservative wing of Republicans – and paid a heavy price for it.
So, with that background, what goes around, comes around and this time with the NH governmental agency, wholly owned by the subdivision of the State known as Belknap County, called Gunstock Mountain Resort: failure to properly and promptly update their website because of political changes they don’t like. At this point, given what I now know, I lay this at the feet of Gary Kiedaisch (Vice-Chair and has assumed the title of Acting Chair, Gunstock Area Commission (“GAC”) ) and Tom Day (General Manager /Prez) of Gunstock Mountain Resort.
As I reported yesterday, Rusty McLear has been removed, by the Belknap County Delegation (that has oversight over the GAC) from the seat that he did not legally hold as of March 16th and his “squatter” seat is now open for vacancy:
Can’t get more plain that that, right? Yet, his name is still listed as a Commissioner. Stubbornly holding onto the idea that if GMR Sr. Mgt doesn’t have it changed, McLear is still a Commissioner? I even had a “to do” over it with Tom Day (GMR’s GM) that started after he denied that he was going to give me the information I demanded in an RSA 91:A demand (GMR’s budget at the General Ledger line item – just like the Town of Gilford has and the Gilford School District has (among others). Abstracted (but can supply the full emails if I need to) and emphasis mine:
From: Skip <Skip@granitegrok.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2022 9:33 PM
To: Tom Day <TDay@gunstock.com>; Gary kiedaisch <garykinusa@gmail.com>; Peter Ness <petergness@yahoo.com>; Jade Wood (gopjade@outlook.com) <gopjade@outlook.com>; davidstrangmd@yahoo.com
Cc: Cathy White <CWhite@gunstock.com>
Subject: Re: [External] Budget
Note: I have removed Rusty from this response as he is not a valid Commissioner – Belknap County Delegation Chair Mike Sylvia’s words of yore do NOT trump the black and white letter of State Statute (RSA 399:4). His email of today has sprung out into the wild and now contraindicates what you’ve been quoting for a while (along with Gary Kiedaisch) and is now aligned with State Statute. Change my mind.
It does put you into a bit of a logical conundrum – insisting he was right in this regard when Rusty was confirmed even as you and your staff have made sport of him over the subject of Succession – that shows intellectual dishonesty via cherry-picking. Or is it that you prefer the Strong Man style of governance – for that’s where it, if taken to its ad nauseum limit, leads to. We either stand as a Republic on the Rule of Law or we are lawless; you can’t have it one way in one moment and another in the next moment. But I digress…
While you think of Gunstock as a company, it is legally just a mere political subdivision of Belknap County which is, in turn, only a subdivision of the State. Being a Public Sector entity, GMR is not a “commercial” entity – only the facade of being one. Thus, that exception is off the table; it is yet just another government body providing a service (like the DMV) when all is said and done.
Thus, there is nothing “proprietary” even if you believe your focus is out-competing other ski areas. If that was REALLY the case, and you believed in yourselves that you could, all of you would have made the offer to either lease it from the County or offer to take it private and reap the reward. Having done neither leaves you in the state of just being yet another Government agency – no less but no more and still subject to all statutes thereof as well as the expectation of good governance providing the greatest amount of openness and transparency.
Jade has a great line in this regard on her email signature – ask her what her email tagline says (or said if it has been removed). Instead of striving for that openness and transparency, you slammed the rhetorical door. Wrongly.
If you are all that paranoid that I’m just going to turn around and just hand it to other ski areas, you need assistance. That action wasn’t even on my radar – yet you assumed that it is was but without any evidence behind that reasoning; not my purpose. I have RTK’d other subdivision’s budgets with no pushback at all – so what are you hiding (as Occam’s Razor has left me with no other option)?
Thus, my RSA91:A demand stands and I await the fulfillment of it.
-Skip
Skip Murphy
Co-Founder, co-owner
GraniteGrok.com | Skip@GraniteGrok.com
Dominating the political Bandwidth in New Hampshire
—— Original Message ——
From: “Tom Day” <TDay@gunstock.com>
To: “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>; “Gary kiedaisch” <garykinusa@gmail.com>; “Peter Ness” <petergness@yahoo.com>; “Jade Wood (gopjade@outlook.com)” <gopjade@outlook.com>; “davidstrangmd@yahoo.com” <davidstrangmd@yahoo.com>
Cc: “Cathy White” <CWhite@gunstock.com>; “Rusty McLear” <rusty@meredithbaycorp.com>
Sent: 3/18/2022 12:56:31 PM
Subject: RE: [External] Budget
Don’t really know what you are rambling on about.
But as I stated before I am not sharing my budgets.
Rusty is cc’d on this. Not up to you to tell me who is a valid commissioner.
Tom Day
President and General Manager
Also note, however, that “Open Position” listing. Sorry, but that position HAS been filled – by a valid vote of the County Delegation and was duly sworn in – Dr. David Strang, M.D. from Gilmanton. They are upset because of ideological difference (Day and Kiedaisch) on how Gunstock Mountain Resort should be run – you know, according to The Law for governmental entities. So, instead of taking it like men, they’re having tantrums like 6 year olds pounding the floor in a figurative sense (I’m not around so I don’t know if it is true in a literal sense).
From Treehugger to Gunstock Mountain Resort, it always seems that the Left is always trying to make strawman arguments – and a big part of that is putting words into your mouth that you never said:
—— Forwarded Message ——
From: “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
To: “Tom Day” <TDay@gunstock.com>; “Gary kiedaisch” <garykinusa@gmail.com>; “Peter Ness” <petergness@yahoo.com>; “Jade Wood (gopjade@outlook.com)” <gopjade@outlook.com>; “davidstrangmd@yahoo.com” <davidstrangmd@yahoo.com>
Cc: “Cathy White” <CWhite@gunstock.com>
Sent: 3/19/2022 8:40:21 AM
Subject: Re[2]: [External] Budget
>> Rusty is cc’d on this. Not up to you to tell me who is a valid commissioner.
I told you to do nothing of the sort – merely advising you that the County Delegation made that decision. You may take that anyway you want.
And by the way, the clock is still ticking on my other Right To Knows – the Law requires responses from the Gunstock Area Commissioners to whom the RSA91:A demands were directed.
You are merely their employee and serve at their sufferance.
-Skip
But while this is an existential threat to their way of governance (the addition of David Strang bringing a much more lawful, Conservative voice to the GAC, it’s not the biggest problem they face.
I just LOVE, as Doug posted, RSA 91:A – the greatest tool we citizens have in holding our government officials accountable to US! And for all his bluster, Tom Day is merely a Government employee. And Mr. Day doesn’t like it. Just WAIT for another one coming up soon
