Well, I’ve fallen behind on this. I THOUGHT that I had posted about my RSA 91A demand for GAC Commissioner Dr. David Strang’s emails. After all, he hasn’t resigned (although power-mad Commissioner Doug Lambert keeps holding to the false hope that he did); all Strang said (on video) were the conditions under which he would resign but the Belknap County Delegation never met them, so he hasn’t. Just like when Doug Lambert (of DGF Industrial) and Jade Wood (NH GOP Area 5 Vice-Chair) promised to resign if the Belknap Delegation didn’t met THEIR demands – and then chickened out (hubris power play and hypocrisy). But I digress without even making it out of the first paragraph but it is pertinent later on.
I had put in an RSA 91:A demand for Commissioner Dr. David Strang’s emails from his official GAC supplied email account as I knew that several things had transpired within that part of NH Government that would be interesting to me and other citizens. After all, the GAC IS a Government Entity and no less luminary than Commissioner Doug Lambert confirmed it in discussing that Gunstock Mountain Resort doesn’t pay NH Business Enterprise Taxes nor NH Business Profit Taxes. Thus, ALL of Commissioner Strang’s emails are legally Government records and subject to RSA 91A demands. So, at the end of August, I sent one in:
—— Original Message ——
From: “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
To: “Jade L. Wood” <JWood@gunstockcommissioners.org>; “dstrang@gunstockcommissioners.org” <dstrang@gunstockcommissioners.org>; “Douglas Lambert” <dlambert@gunstockcommissioners.org>; “Dconroy@gunstockcommissioners.org” <Dconroy@gunstockcommissioners.org>
Sent: 8/30/2022 9:19:42 AM
Subject: RSA 91A demand – Inbound and outbound emails from Commissioner Dr. David Strang’s official Gunstock Area Commission email accountCommissioners,
Please find, attached to this email, a Right To Know demand for all of Commissioner Dr. David Strang’s emails from February 1, 2020 through August 30, 2022 (end of day). It is reproduced below.
Kindest regards,
-Skip
Skip Murphy
Co-Founder, co-owner
GraniteGrok.com | Skip@GraniteGrok.com
Dominating the political Bandwidth in New Hampshire
Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A:4 (I) ), I am demanding access, within 5 business days, to the below enumerated governmental records. Otherwise, if this cannot be fulfilled that mandated window per RSA 91-A, please advise when the Responsive Records will be made available.
This request is for any emails involving Gunstock Area Commissioner Dr. David Strang’s official Gunstock Area Commissioner email account for the time period of February 1, 2022 through August 30, 2022 (end of day):
- Individual inbound and outbound emails to/from the email account(s) provided to Dr. David Strang part of his time being a Gunstock Area Commissioner.
The information for each responsive record shall include:
- TO fields, FROM fields – all addresses
- CC fields, BCC fields – all addresses
- DATE fields
- SUBJECT field
- The Body of the email itself
- Any and all attachments of any email message having such
Per RSA 91-A:4 IV(c) If you deny any portion of this request, please cite the specific exemption used to justify the denial to make each record, or part thereof, unavailable for inspection along with a brief explanation of how the exemption applies to the information withheld.
As you are aware, in 2016, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that a governmental body in possession of records is required to produce them in electronic media using standard common file formats: Green v. SAU #55, 168 N.H. 796, 801 (2016). Unless there is some reason that it is not reasonably practical to produce such, explain why it is not practical to comply.
Please also note, per RSA 91-A:4 III, III-a, and III-b, you are required to maintain the safety and accessibility of such responsive records. This also includes such responsive records (e.g., emails) which may have been deleted from respective Inboxes but are still available on the applicable email server or in your / email host backup system(s).
Please let me know when these records will be sent to me for inspection. You may email the responsive records to me at Skip@GraniteGrok.com. If the volume turns out to be substantial, I have already set up a Dropbox folder to use in uploading those responsive records.
Thank you for your lawful attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Skip Murphy
GraniteGrok.com
And the first of a pattern begins:
From: Skip <Skip@granitegrok.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 8, 2022 3:28 PM
To: Jade L. Wood <JWood@gunstockcommissioners.org>; David Strang <DStrang@gunstockcommissioners.org>; Douglas Lambert <dlambert@GunstockCommissioners.org>; Denise Conroy <DConroy@GunstockCommissioners.org>
Subject: Re: RSA 91A demand – Inbound and outbound emails from Commissioner Dr. David Strang’s official Gunstock Area Commission email account
Good afternoon,I have not received a response on my request on 8/30; RSA 91A mandates a response within 5 business days. I will add that my other RSA 91A, also sent on August 30, was received and responded to by Cathy White on September 2 and I consider that closed.
What is the status concerning Commissioner Strang’s email Right To Know?
-Skip
Skip Murphy
Founder, co-owner
GraniteGrok.com | Skip@GraniteGrok.com
Stall. Emphasis mine:
—— Original Message ——
From: “Douglas Lambert” <dlambert@gunstockcommissioners.org>
To: “Jade L. Wood” <JWood@gunstockcommissioners.org>; “Denise Conroy” <DConroy@gunstockcommissioners.org>; “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
Cc: “‘Tom Day'” <TDay@gunstock.com>; “‘Cathy White'” <CWhite@gunstock.com>
Sent: 9/8/2022 3:37:36 PM
Subject: Re: RSA 91A demand – Inbound and outbound emails from Commissioner Dr. David Strang’s official Gunstock Area Commission email accountCould you please re-send that particular request?
I thought all had been addressed. I do note several times you have claimed that you had not received things that had been sent. Perhaps you are getting many emails and it was lost in the shuffle- it happens to many of us. But please re-send it and I will look into it.
Not sure what you are talking about regarding the Strang “email Right to Know”
Perhaps you should send that directly to him. His resignation was accepted August 1st and he is no longer on the commission.
Doug Lambert
Chair, GAC
He’s not stupid – and not very transparent anymore (likeI’ve said, I miss the old Doug . And no, I didn’t get a bounceback so the email went through). But I decided to humor the humorless. Again, emphasis mine:
—— Original Message ——
From: “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
To: “Douglas Lambert” <dlambert@gunstockcommissioners.org>; “Jade L. Wood” <JWood@gunstockcommissioners.org>; “Denise Conroy” <DConroy@gunstockcommissioners.org>
Cc: “‘Tom Day'” <TDay@gunstock.com>; “‘Cathy White'” <CWhite@gunstock.com>
Sent: 9/8/2022 4:06:09 PM
Subject: Re[2]: RSA 91A demand – Inbound and outbound emails from Commissioner Dr. David Strang’s official Gunstock Area Commission email accountCommissioner Lambert,
Please find attached to this email my Right To Know demand for Commissioner Dr. David Strang’s emails. Please also find my original email with that Right To Know at the bottom of this thread.
Actually, in this post, above.
This Right To Know is not concerned with Dr. Strang’s status of whether he is or is not a Commissioner – that may be decided tomorrow in court.
The court date was pushed out – Strang’s hearing concerning Commissioner status will take place in October. Regardless, he has not resigned and Commissioner Lambert has about as much evidence to the contrary as he does his own resignation letter that he was “folding and unfolding” waiting for his 5pm drop dead time in trying to force the Belknap Delegation to remove Strang by that time. If he was intellectually honest, he’d admit to that. But he hasn’t.
However, that is all irrelevant. I’ve demanded emails of past govt employees and never had an issue in getting such from most govt bodies. So even though Commissioner Lambert knows all this, I decided to repeat The Law:
Regardless of that status, his emails (both inbound or outbound) are still considered to be valid government records under the color of Law and thus, subject to RSA 91A strictures. Like this one:
91-A:4 Minutes and Records Available for Public Inspection. –
III. Each public body or agency shall keep and maintain all governmental records in its custody at its regular office or place of business in an accessible place and, if there is no such office or place of business, the governmental records pertaining to such public body or agency shall be kept in an office of the political subdivision in which such public body or agency is located or, in the case of a state agency, in an office designated by the secretary of state.
III-a. Governmental records created or maintained in electronic form shall be kept and maintained for the same retention or archival periods as their paper counterparts. Governmental records in electronic form kept and maintained beyond the applicable retention or archival period shall remain accessible and available in accordance with RSA 91-A:4, III. Methods that may be used to keep and maintain governmental records in electronic form may include, but are not limited to, copying to microfilm or paper or to durable electronic media using standard or common file formats.
To this point of “electronic form”, the physical location doesn’t matter; onsite or outsourced to some provider (such as Microsoft 365), they are still subject to RSA 91A demands. I feel quite sure in stating that paper records belonging to Gunstock Mountain Resort are kept longer than even three months.
Kindest regards,
-Skip
Skip Murphy
Founder, co-owner
GraniteGrok.com | Skip@GraniteGrok.com
Dominating the political Bandwidth in New Hampshire
There’s more emails on this issue to be put up but this is long enough. Just know that his stalling tactic went to the next plateau in his next email.
