I have just been made aware of a change to HB 1002 that has been proposed in order to charge taxpayers $25.00 an hour for any 91a request that goes over 10 hours. This would cost citizens a minimum of $250 and perhaps more to file for information that they are otherwise legally entitled to, with virtually no oversight as to how a municipality would determine the possible time frames needed to support such costs.
I would like to respectfully request that this Bill be KILLED.
It is my understanding that many of you from our Londonderry delegation recently met at Town Hall and although the town of Londonderry did not broadcast this, I’m willing to bet 91a was no doubt a topic of conversation.
As you are no doubt aware, 91a has largely been used to circumvent providing information to Citizens unless they file such a request and compel the town to release it. If the burden of 91a requests on our municipality is a concern to you, perhaps the town of Londonderry should set up an online repository where citizens can easily access documents that are requested or of interest to other citizens.
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I believe I specifically discussed this issue with speaker Packard and Senator Carson at a sit-down dinner at the Coach Stop Restaurant back in September of 2023, in which both of these parties expressed more concern over my accountability efforts jeopardizing their re-election as opposed to any concern over the lack of transparency issue that I have raised and am raising again. It was disheartening to hear that you were not on the side of Citizen transparency back then, and it is disheartening to see that you are not on the side of Citizen transparency now.
Article 1 Section eight of the New Hampshire state constitution clearly enumerates that the operations of government should be transparent accessible and responsive, and this bill places an unconstitutional burden to government fulfilling that constitutional requirement.
This is uniquely and particularly a concern for Londonderry, as a court of law recently declared the town and town manager to be frivolous in regards to their compliance with 91a; this was specifically highlighted by the case from former Town Councilwoman Deb Paul in which she had to sue to get a document released that the Town maliciously withheld while skirting the legal requirements of 91a. It is without a doubt that this cost burden will be weaponized in a manner just barely skirting the law to withhold as much information that they believe is damaging to the town as possible.
In addition to the unique concerns relevant to the town of Londonderry, I have spoken with citizens in Hudson, Hollis, Chester, Raymond, Derry, and other surrounding municipalities who also feel that this bill will have a chilling effect on citizen access to the workings of governments.
There are already many questions among citizens as to why we should continue to re-elect the same representatives and Senators when we are often dissatisfied with their outcomes on our behalf. Not being on the side of Citizen transparency is an issue that we will no doubt have to address in the public sphere as we get closer to the fall election if you do not turn from this course.
Please remember that you are a representative and a servant of the people and not the manipulative special interests in the town of Londonderry and the state of New Hampshire. Please kill this bill.
