A redo of the tainted results of the illegal Budget Review Subcommittee meetings due to them not being properly noticed at ALL as demanded by NH’s Open Meeting Law, RSA 91-A.
Sorry, dudes, dudettes, and duds, no can do. We on the Gilford Budget Committee accidentally did that a couple times over the almost ten years I was on it. Both were truly accidental – and they were “Budget subcommittee” meetings as well in dealing with either the Municipal or School District budgets. Having recognized that mistake, what was the remedy that the Gilford Budget Committee came up with?
A complete do-over to ensure that we kept the Trust of our fellow townfolks and not be sued for doing the right things but doing them wrongly. We started from scratch as if those improperly noticed meetings had never happened. Everything was thrown out, new meetings scheduled and properly noticed, and apologies to the relevant department heads. It was called “Doing the Right Thing and Not Cutting Corners” even though we were under really tight deadlines. We made it happen and we made it work.
However, it looks like the Delegation is only concerned with meeting their deadlines and not Doing the Right Things, and it appears that they are willing To Cut Corners from a procedural basis to say “See, we did it!”. Again I got this email several different ways and note that she BCC’d everyone this time instead of her previous practice of just doing a CC so that we, the Public, could tell who was in on this:
———- Forwarded message ———
From: Debra A. Shackett <dshackett@belknapcounty.gov>
Date: Tue, Mar 7, 2023, 3:55 PM
Subject: Budget Review Committee
To: Debra A. Shackett <dshackett@belknapcounty.gov>The Budget Review Committee will meet on Monday, March 13th at 7:00 pm to ratify action taken at their previous meetings.
Debra
Debra A. Shackett,
County Administrator & HR Director
34 County Dr.
Laconia, NH 03246
(603) 729-1286
dshackett@belknapcounty.gov (new email address!)
A “re-do”. Sorry, you can’t do a “ratify” over materials and decisions that were not made in public session. It was already declared that all of those Budget Review SubCommittee meetings were illegal:
From: Debra A. Shackett <dshackett@belknapcounty.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, March 7, 2023 10:54 AM
To: Barbara Comtois <bcomtois2016@gmail.com>; Charlie St. Clair <bogart8321@icloud.com>; David Huot (dhuot03246@yahoo.com) < dhuot03246@yahoo.com>; dnagel59@yahoo.com; doug.wmstc@metrocast.net; Harry Bean <froggytouttaint@aol.com>; Juliet Harvey-Bolia <jharveybolia@gmail.com>; Matt Coker <mattformeredith@gmail.com>; Mike Bordes < mikebordes@gmail.com>; nikkimc1973@protonmail.com; Paul Terry <revpaul51@verizon.net>; Peter Varney <pvarney@atsnh.com>; rbbmere25@aol.com; Russ Dumais <sundeedumais@metrocast.net>; sayyes2smart@yahoo.com; stbogert@gmail.com; Tom Ploszaj <tom.ploszaj@gmail.com>; Travis O’Hara <travis.oas@gmail.com>
Cc: Glen Waring <gwaring.bcnh@gmail.com>; Peter Spanos <peterjspanos@gmail.com>; Steve Hodges (1steve7301@atlanticbb.net) < 1steve7301@atlanticbb.net>
Subject: meeting
Good morning,Because the Budget Review Committee meetings were not publicly posted, the Committee will have to schedule a properly posted meeting to ratify the action taken at the previous meetings. This should be done with enough time remaining in March to properly notice a Delegation meeting to follow through with last night’s agenda.
Once the respective chairmen set the meeting dates/times, you will be notified.
Debra
And not being publicly noted, those meetings WERE illegal. So who made this decision to “ratify”? Methinks it would have been Chair Harry Bean – he IS in charge, right?
This might well be the time to state that the NH Attorney General’s office has been contacted. This oughta be amusing!
What is the legal rational for doing “a ratify”? WHO said it was legit to make believe that any results were still legal even as the meetings weren’t? Is there a new addendum Clause that was added to RSA 91-A called “We Can Ignore Parts Of the Law Because We’re Stupid And A Sham Is Better Than Doing It Right” when I wasn’t looking? That “slapdash” is now the standard we should expect from our County elected Representatives?
Did that “legal advice” come from County Attorney Andrew Livernois who previously (and publicly) couldn’t keep RSA 24:9-d from being mashed up with RSA 91-A by Chair Harry Bean simply to get a desired political result (throwing off a conservative Commissioner the Gunstock Area Commission to replace him with a wild eyed Progressive Feminist)? Methinks he KNEW his opinion was wrong when I challenged Livernois on it, he stopped responding in trying to justify his work/written advice (IMHO, at about the same level of rigor of “Dr.” Jill Biden’s Education doctorate thesis that most academicians were “commenting” on it when it became a topic. I started to read it and realized how poor it was and gave up).
Who else were Harry Bean’s advisors? We’ve heard this tactic recently from former Gunstock Area Commissioner Gary Kiedaisch when he said he was on firm legal ground because “attorneys” said he was – and then never revealed who they were. Open and Transparent. Oh yeah, like NH State Rep Steven Bogert just did, too.
What is this – the tactic du jour by embattled politicians?
I’m afraid they are going to get a rude awakening.
Oh, and if you are looking to attend tomorrow night to demand that the Delegation DO THE RIGHT THING IN FOLLOWING THE LAW but know that we’re getting a “lingering N’oreaster” starting tomorrow night, consult the BelknapCounty.gov front page first. It is showing that the meeting is still on but that might change.
