So, as regular readers know, I covered a lot of the “Gunstock Incident,” in which the Democrat founded, funded, and led the political action committee, Citizens for Belknap, tore asunder the Conservative Belknap County Delegation. Sadly, there were a number of Republicans that merrily joined in with that effort for a political purpose.
Sure, they disavowed, by word, that they were a part of that PAC, but they surely carried out the mission. Even after the Incident came to a conclusion, the CfB and its Republican allies (mostly RINOs, and I have the stats to back that up, including Mike “Hate Parental Rights” Bordes along with Travis O’Hara).
Harry Bean is certainly one of them, IMHO. He deliberately broke many of the friendships he once had as he “shifted” his political alliances for mere political gain (and complained when they would no longer talk with him – a self-made victim). Then he decided to break our friendship in the Belknap County Superior Courthouse parking lot – the last in his string.
Fine, such as it is but in doing so, he became just another politician to me, as decisions have consequences. And he’s made a few whoppers with respect to those decisions, thus my filing of an Ethics complaint against him, with additional posts on the complaints here, as well as my oral testimony before the NH Legislative Ethics Committee hearing last Friday (my written testimony is here).
Harry Bean was called to speak next:
If you don’t have the time to listen to it (21 minutes), let me summarize this self-victimization by the Chair of the Belknap County Delegation:
- Right off the bat, he admits that he broke the Law as he laughed it off. Like I said in my testimony, isn’t deliberately breaking the Law unethical by definition? Even in his off-handed way, it was an admission of guilt. What will / what did the Committee think of that?
- My new name is “him” (no big surprise).
- He perverts the meaning of his oath, which does NOT state that he represents the people. Here is that oath again:
“I, Harry Bean, do solemnly and sincerely swear and affirm that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all duties incumbent on me as STATE REPRESENTATIVE according to the best of my abilities, agreeably to the rules and regulations of this constitution and the laws of the state o New Hampshire. So help me, God.
It means that what he does is proscribed in Law. But, knowing Harry, I don’t think he give it much thought.
- Takes solace (and “blame deflection”) in that he’s a high school dropout and tries to use that as a chit.
- Then he referenced the Belknap County Attorney Andrew Livernois in trying to blame him for his “calling the Gunstock meeting” troubles. I submitted the email thread I had with Livernois concerning “that advice” to the Ethics Committee – it can mostly be seen here. where it was clear he deliberately left out the most important pieces of RSA 91-A and 24:9-d. I had also told Harry about those missing pieces and repeated that during my testimony.
- Paraphrase: “I had to get something DONE” (re-opening Gunstock)
- A conflict of interest? From his testimony, now know that Bean’s personal attorney, Paul Fitzgerald, is also the attorney for the County when earlier, he refused to tell us.
- He admits to having “serial communications” with other Delegation members, thereby breaking RSA 91-A AGAIN; see 91-A:2-a Communications Outside Meetings:
I. Unless exempted from the definition of “meeting” under RSA 91-A:2, I, public bodies shall deliberate on matters over which they have supervision, control, jurisdiction, or advisory power only in meetings held pursuant to and in compliance with the provisions of RSA 91-A:2, II or III.
II. Communications outside a meeting, including, but not limited to, sequential communications among members of a public body, shall not be used to circumvent the spirit and purpose of this chapter as expressed in RSA 91-A:1.
But then, again, Harry admits he doesn’t read the Law that governs his behavior (and apparently, doesn’t listen, either). It is also clear that Harry looked at hearing from constituents not agreeing with him as “intimidation.”
- NH State Rep (and former NH State Supreme Court Justice) Bob Lynn asks Harry about the advice. Did Lynn actually read the Law concerning Meetings?
- “Not my job” with respect to making sure that the Budget Subcommittee meetings were properly noticed.
- Dumped on Deb Schakett for not doing it.
- Dumped on Travis O’Hara for not seeing that those meetings weren’t properly noticed, and he dumped on her as well, even as the Law requires him to:
24:9-d Notice. – The clerk of the convention, or his or her designee, shall mail to each member of the convention a notice stating the time, place and purpose of further meetings at least 7 days before the day of the meeting and shall cause to be published a like notice at least 7 days before the day of the meeting in a newspaper of general circulation in the county. Mailing such notice is not required during any session of the general court, if the notice is printed for 2 legislative days in the journal of the House of Representatives.
Not the County Administrator. The Clerk of the Delegation. More on this later.
- Again, the “cabal” didn’t advise him in advance of the failed meeting notices (“I didn’t know” defense).
- Back to Gunstock’s illegal meeting – the end (300 people showed up) justifies breaking the law (political expediency). I enjoyed the revisionist history in that Harry didn’t correct the Ethics Committee when asked that he was NOT legally able to call the special (Aug 1) meeting and then happily stated that he had expected that the Delegation Chair Mike Sylvia was going to run the special meeting. Again, only Sylvia had the statute authority to call an emergency meeting not Harry. Mike Sylvia correctly saw that this was a manmade political event not rising to the level of an “emergency” and didn’t call it.
Why would Harry then tell the Committee that he was surprised when Sylvia declined to go to a meeting that Sylvia didn’t call but that Harry did contra RSA 24:9-d’s plain words that it had to be a seven day notice?You know, if Harry had bothered to read the actual Law and not done a mashup of the two, I would have never filed the complaint containing the Gunstock Incident part. Simple as that.
Let me end with two things:
- Harry believes that I am part of some cabal that is just out to get him. He’s wrong – all I care about is that our elected representatives Follow The Law regardless if it is Friend or Foe. Screw up, and I’ll do something.
- He starts a common theme in his testimony that was followed by the Delegation Clerk, Travis O’Hara, and the person I can’t name due to Confidentiality strictures: I’m not responsible because I know nothing so I can’t be held accountable.
Years ago, when I started my third term on the Gilford Budget Committee, he was on it. He introduced himself as a [redneck] hillbilly. I objected to that a number of times that it was wrong, and I didn’t believe it. Do you know something years later? I was the one that was wrong about him being a hillbilly. He was right, after all.
