Yep, another Right To Know. Yep, another “thing” with the Belknap County Delegation, and now it’s about our taxes paid out over admitted illegal Budget Review meetings. The County told us this themselves:
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.
That email effectively admits the Delegation’s violation of RSA 91-A:2, II (excerpted, emphasis mine):
II. Subject to the provisions of RSA 91-A:3, all meetings, whether held in person, by means of telephone or electronic communication, or in any other manner, shall be open to the public ..Except in an emergency or when there is a meeting of a legislative committee, a notice of the time and place of each such meeting , including a nonpublic session, shall be posted in 2 appropriate places one of which may be the public body’s Internet website , if such exists, or shall be printed in a newspaper of general circulation in the city or town at least 24 hours , excluding Sundays and legal holidays, prior to such meetings.
NOT ok that Chair Harry Bean and his passel of Right To Know Misfits didn’t Follow The Law in the first place, and I proved it here by asking for financial records and copies of the ads placed for Delegation meetings. The results showed that only two Notices had been placed and none of the Budget Review subcommittees.
Now, most politically aware folks here in NH know that our State Reps and Senators get $100/year + mileage (and “Leadership” can be a smidge more). Did you know that Reps attending Delegation meetings of any type also get paid for them? Yesssir – $25/day plus mileage. That’s what they get for LEGAL meetings.
Should they be paid for ILLEGAL meetings? So, to get the appropriate background, I issued yet another Right To Know – the payload:
This request concerns any payments made to Belknap County Delegation members for attending any improperly noticed, thus illegal, meetings during the time period specified above. While members are due compensation for LAWFUL meetings, per RSA249-ee (emphasis mine):
24:9-ee Compensation for County Conventions. – Members of each county convention shall receive from the county treasury a sum not to exceed $25 per day for actual attendance at meetings of their respective conventions and an allowance for travel expenses to and from the place of meeting at a rate per mile not in excess of the rate allowed by the United States Internal Revenue Service to be set by a vote of the respective county convention. They are not entitled to receive any compensation or mileage for attending such meetings when such meetings are held at the state house in Concord on a legislative day.
And
Thus, I am demanding that the Belknap Delegation / Belknap County Administration provide the following Financial Records:
- Any documentation submitted to the Chair | County Administrator | other County staff by each member signifying a request for such payments per RSA24:9-ee for attending the now declared illegally called Budget Review Committee meetings.
- The expenditure transaction history from any and all General Ledger accounts used to pay each attending Delegation member of the now declared illegally called Budget Review Committee meetings for specified $25 attendance fees and travel allowances.
- Copies of any remittances to such attending members for their attendance (e.g., cash, check, ACH, Paypal, Venmo, or other electronic payment system) for the now declared illegally called Budget Review Committee meetings.
They seem to think so, especially with Delegation Chair Harry Bean leading the way. All that has to happen is that a form with the details must be filled out by each Rep and signed by that Rep by the end of that day of the meeting – there is no oversight by anyone (Chair, Vice-Chair, the County Administration). The “Honor System”.
County Administrator Deb Shackett sent the information back the next day and the following received payments:
- NH State Rep Harry Bean (R-Delegation Chair)
- NH State Rep Steven Bogert (R-Budget Review Subcommittee Chair)
- NH State Rep Matt Coker (D)
- NH State Rep David Huot (D)
- NH State Rep Julia Harvey-Bolia (R)
- NH State Rep Mike Bordes (R)
- NH State Rep Travis O’Hara (R)
Reminder – we are a Dillon’s Rule State. That means that only those actions set out in duly enacted legislation. That means you can’t just make up or rationalize “stuff” that seems to be covered (but really outside of the written law). Only that which is explicitly listed | enumerated in Laws are allowed. Everything else is prohibited.
They’ve admitted that the meetings were illegal (“were not publicly posted“).
Even a cursory examination of the verbiage (see above) says “meetings” in RSA 249-ee doesn’t cover illegal meetings else “illegal” would have been in the language. It also doesn’t state “all meetings” which, depending on one’s intent and a broad intent, might cover illegal meetings. Maybe.
These BudReview meetings were illegal by the simple mandate of RSA91-A: post notices properly or you can’t have the meeting. Ditto for RSA24:9-D. It just seems that these folks just believe they are above / outside the Law – it’s the only conclusion I can come to.
There is no provision RSA24 for payment for attending illegal meetings (or aborted, or canceled, or other adjectives for “other than legal”) as the above email infers by stating the reason for a “redo”. None of those Representatives should have been paid for any of those three BudReview meetings. But they did.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who watches the watchers?
So where is the Leadership on this? Both the Delegation Chair (Harry Bean) and Subcommittee Chair (Steven Bogert)? Where is the ethical leadership in all this – or just a case of feeding from the trough because no one would complain? Honor, much?
Apparently, only this lowly blogger is going for the details and who is wondering WHY I HAVE TO DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE? If the Delegation has overwatch responsibility over the County Budget, shouldn’t THEY be doing the Right Things in the Correct Way?
Corruption? Malfeasance, Cutting Corners (heh! “Chair Cutting Corners Bean” – I just culturally appropriated a Trump tactic here. With Bean having been a huge Trump supporter, he shouldn’t mind, right?).
Honesty should prevail instead of an attitude of either “dang, we got caught”. Or, as it was reported to me, that Delegation Chair Harry Bean said, upon being approached by NH State Rep Barbara Comtois (not part of the Subcommittee but part of the Delegation) that “ratifying” the tainted results from the illegal meetings (again, not properly noticed so the Public didn’t know about them) with others around the two of them:
“So sue me”
REALLY, Harry? What a condescending attitude. Unfortunately, too many of our public servants have decided to morph into being our Public Masters and have engendered that attitude knowing that few citizens have the time and the financial wherewithal to undergo that laborious and expensive task. It’s at attitude that screams “SCREW YOU!” to we regular people and a complete indifference to right and wrong. Good to know, Harry Bean, good to know.
It also screams “Don’t get in my way”. So, how MUCH, Harry, are you going to raise our taxes on us, again? That number of 35% stuck in my mind
And my craw as a taxpayer.
Trust?
Yet again, it’s another indication of a lowering (or complete dissipation) of standards and morals. It seems that, with this crew, it’s a case of “whatever we can get away believing nobody’s looking”. And wait until my post about HB357, NH State Rep Steven Bogert, and Belknap Sheriff Bill Wright shows up.
Wrap all those bolded adjectives above and I ask: who of those folks will be the first to return that “illegal meeting” money? What’s the over/under that ANY of them will?
