I had a three-way email discussion with Steve and another person very well conversant with NH Politics, and that person floated over a Presser that the Gunstock Area Commissioners sent out after Wednesday night’s GAC meeting (for which I’ve already posted the video here at the ‘Grok).
I thanked that person who then had this “ask” probably because unless you are mired in this up to one’s chest like I am (reformatted, emphasis mine), you’d not know:
Thomas’ coverage on InDepth combined with Grok stuff has been interesting to watch. That reporter deserved to be cuffed, but I’m curious about the software sale allegation. Here’s what I’m not getting though: What is all the fuss about? What was Silber et al doing to make the hacks walk? You didn’t let us sit with you? SMH… I would bet they were making pretty good green for a part-time gig, right?
Given how fast things have progressed, I returned with a quick summary of what the Sr. Gunstock Mgt has been angling for along with Gary Kiedaisch and the former Commissioners. There is a lot more there under the surface layers or the narrative that they and this Citizens for Belknap PAC took to the media (old and social).
Very few are aware of their machinations.
The second legal report by Preti-Flaherty cleared Ness of any wrongdoing on the software. I pretty much figured as much in talking with him before he became the Chair.
This whole thing has been a political putup worthy of Saul Alinsky to get rid of any Commissioners that weren’t “their kind” and it’s all tied to a possible hotel investment scheme. That’s why the Citizens of Belknap PAC is trying to Otherize the Belknap Delegation to gain control of who gets appointed to be the next Commissioner (filling Kiedaish’s empty seat). Out-organized, out-planned, and out-executed. Ness may well be a good accountant and lawyer but he sucks at politics and got out-maneuvered at the beginning. I’m not sure there’s a path to get inside the opposition’s OODA loop now.
…This stems back, also, when Silber, Strang, Abare, and Terry decided it was time for a replacement for Belknap Republican Chair Alan Glassman a year ago and created a slate of NH GOP Delegates in the County that would vote him out and the old style Establishment squishes (note: I had no part in it as I had stopped going years ago). It was rumored that Tim Lang, Travis O’Hara, and Mike Bordes were going to be part of a new exec board under Glassman.
Cue: ramping up the “revenge music.”
Plots within plots within plots. Other than making good appointments of new Commissioners that had started to ask hard questions and challenge (HARD!) what the Sr. Mgt were telling them (at times, refused to give the Commissioners info that was asked for).
Translation: we don’t want to deal with these “interlopers” that are forcing us to take our attention from OUR goals as “a company” (they hated that I kept reminding them that they are just a subdivision of the State that made snow). Remember, I had submitted Right To Know demands that I had to FIGHT to get answers to. So they started to throw political mud against the wall hoping something would stick.
All that happened was that Sr. Mgt was relegated to the front row of the public seating area until called to the table reserved for “the speaker” and GAC sat alone at a different table. Like how we used to do the Budget Committee in Gilford (called either the TA or Super [Gilford School District Superintendent] and dept heads to come to a podium when needed).
It was a pretense that served their purpose. Petty.
The mass walkout by Sr. Mgt was the big turd thus far in hopes that the Commissioners would meekly cave and “pretty please, we can’t take all the bad names and press you’ve orchestrated, so come back.” Bad guess so far, but more on this later as I digress.
Mea culpa – I missed a couple of steps! I forget the legislative bill they put in as a nuclear option, HB1397, that would have severed control of Gunstock completely from the Belknap County Delegation AND the Belknap County Commissioners (not to be confused with the Gunstock Area Commissioners). The intent was to make sure that Gunstock would be its own island. It was clear that when I started to pay attention, they were indignant that others were starting to question what was going on, and HB1397 was their way to shut that down.
Then a BIG misstep when that bill failed – then Commissioners Gary Kiedaisch, Rusty McLear, and Brian Gallagher now all “prior” Commissioners either by overstaying their terms (the latter two) or outright quit (Kiedaisch) by suing the Delegation in a preemptive move to claim victimhood that the Delegation was picking on them (claiming that the Delegation was going to remove all three – and NO one in the Delegation had ever brought it up).
And the person’s questions continued:
Glassman has always been friendly to me…I missed a lot. I recall the hotel idea being floated a while back. But what’s the end game? What is wrong with Gunstock prospering if it doesn’t cost the taxpayers anything (or does it). I have friends who go to Soulfest and ski and have a really great time there. I have only driven by the place. This is an honest question. I have found the Belmont rep to be intriguing. But I’m not understanding the upheaval.
So, back to the well for me to supply more info:
As a Conservative, he [Glassman] was always an Establishment guy – a “Republican’s Republican for the Sake of the Republican Party” (you’re welcome to use that meme!) and always excused those that bent the rules (like wanting to have Alida Milham, years ago now, run to be voted onto the NH GOP Committee EVEN THOUGH I pointed out she broke the rules by endorsing two Democrats over a Republican in a single race).
End game: you have Brian Beihl, formerly the deputy director of the very Progressive Open Democracy NH “advising”/organizing/strategizing/running the Citizens for Belknap PAC – the entity behind all this.
Short term – discredit the Commissioners by this walkout and hopefully have to quit (depending on and using their sense of “honor” against them) in this Saul Alinsky-style stunt (I mentioned, on video, Saul Alinsky out maneuvering Chicago Mayor Daley over O’Hare airport – this is similar).
Midterm – replacing the Conservative members of the Delegation that vote Conservative Commissioners [onto the Commission] so they can move forward their “new” Master Plan.
End game – getting investors that would fund the new hotel and the new sitdown restaurant at the top of the mtn (think Rusty McLear and Alex Ray) and make money themselves as part of that investor group. The fallacy is that they believe they can make this little mountain, surrounded by Conservation land, into a Destination resort instead of a “day skis” for locals.
Result: Costs will drive Belknap County residents off the mountain as it will become too expensive.
Going back to Soulfest – Sr. Mgt HATES Soulfest and pulling this two weeks before it is scheduled will affect 10K visitors. It is being used for a political point (and I haven’t written this just yet) to make the GAC back down. https://granitegrok.com/blog/2022/03/gunstock-mountain-resort-so-this-is-what-tom-day-rebecca-lapense-and-robin-rowe-think-of-a-large-gunstock-christian-customer-soulfest.
A PR disaster is artificially made for financial gain.
Steve pitched in with this:
Good idea for a great headling and story – “A PR disaster artificially made for financial gain.”
Gunstock Management Walkout Isn’t About Principal It Is About Personal financial Gain – So, What Does Gov. Sununu Get Out of It?
And What does Gov. Sununu get out of it?
- Sununu supported the state eval committee that can overturn local zoning decisions.
- He came right out and backed the Sr. Mgmt.
- He wants the wrong republicans removed so this investment can go forward.
- Who in the investor group is padding his wagon?
- Does he get anything else from this?
I didn’t have the time to answer those really good questions – I’ll do that a bit later on. And I’m going to address this as well. Stephen Hepburn, a radical Progressive transplant from Scotland, put this up on the Gilford Community Page (pointed out to me by yet somebody else as I’m not on Facebook):
There’s a real back story to this – being pieced together from several sources that point to this being an act of hope combined with desperation. It will be a short but fun read.
Oh, the remark by me about Ness being out-maneuvered and may not be possible to get “inside the OODA loop”? I have received some VERY recent information that I may have been completely wrong on this.
This will be a VERY interesting week coming at us.
